Goofs for
Thirteen Days (2000) More at IMDbPro »

• Factual errors: A stock shot of a missile launch is labeled "Atlas Missile Launch," but it is really a Titan ICBM.
  
  
• Continuity: The shaving cream on O'Donnell's face when in the bathroom.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: A protester in front of the White House carries a sign decorated with "peace" symbols, which were introduced as "nuclear disarmament" symbols in 1958.
  
  

• Factual errors: One sequence of a United States Air Force Strategic Air Command B-52 Stratofortress shows it to be armed with four Douglas AGM-48A Skybolt air-launched ballistic missiles. This weapons system was in development in 1962, and would be recommended for cancellation by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on 21 November 1962. President Kennedy concurred, and the project was canceled in December 1962, having never entered operational service.
  
  
• Factual errors: When JFK left Chicago, supposedly with a cold, he wore a hat to make the story more believable to the press. JFK almost never wore a hat, so it would be noticed by the White House press corps if he actually wore one. In the movie, JFK does not wear a hat when he leaves the hotel in Chicago.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the movie, Kruschev's acceptance of peace contains the line "you and I should not now pull on the ends of the rope in which you have tied the knot of war, because the harder you and I pull, the tighter the knot will become..." The quote goes on at some length and can be seen in the message coming in over the teletype. The trouble with this is that the quote appeared in Kruschev's first letter, dated October 26, 1962, in which he proposed the terms of peace. It did not appear in his October 27, 1962 acceptance of the American conciliation terms.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Two shots show the CH-46 tandem rotor helicopter in use. This helicopter did not enter service until 1964.
  
  
• Factual errors: Although the name of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley is properly spelled in a prop banner during the film, he is referred to as Mayor "Daly" in the closing credits.
  
  
• Factual errors: In one of the scenes showing the deck of a Soviet cargo ship, Latin (non-Cyrillic) lettering can be seen on the ship.
  
  
• Anachronisms: As we see people watching the President's address to the nation, the board game "The Inventors" is on a shelf underneath a television. This game was not published until 1974.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Two of the close-up shots of TV images clearly show the vertical phosphor stripes of a Trinitron tube. Trinitron was not introduced by Sony until 1968. Prior to that, all color tubes used phosphor dots in a triad configuration.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During JFK's TV speech, one of the TV sets being watched is a portable "Quasar." The Quasar brand didn't appear until the late '60's as the first solid state "works in a drawer" console color TV. The portable didn't appear until several years after that.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When RFK leaves the White House to go to his meeting with the Soviet diplomat at his Justice Department office, he and O'Donnell are shown driving down Pennsylvania Ave NW and turning by the Treasury Department. While this affords a nice shot of the US Capitol in the background, it is exactly backwards - one goes past Treasury and then up Pennsylvania to Justice.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Modern resin patio chairs are seen upturned on the deck of an airport control tower.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: Kennedy's lips don't match the words he says during part of his address to the nation, when the TV is shown as a mirror reflection on the glass.
  
  
• Continuity: The trees surrounding the White House change from being fully green, to autumn colors then back to fully green.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Northrop F-5s are shown on the flight line. The F-5 entered operational service with the Air Force in October of 1963, a full year after the missile crisis.
  
  
• Anachronisms: JFK is shown arriving in Connecticut on October 17, 1962, in the blue-and-white 707 Air Force One jet. Kennedy did not fly on this plane until November, 1962 - in October, he was still using another Air Force 707 with a different color scheme.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Shots of Soviet/Cuban troops building missile bases contain one Kenworth Truck from the 1970s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Though set in 1962, a US Naval Air Base has a post-1978 International S-Series fuel tanker.
  
  
• Continuity: After Kennedy leaks the Lippman column to the press, and the representative from Russia is on the television expressing his concern, Kennedy struggles with his tie, he leaves it untied and both tips of his tie are at his waist level, a moment after one tip is at his chest level, and after that both tips are at his waist level again.
  
  
• Continuity: On the first day, O'Donnell walks in to meet Greenwood to discuss the day's schedule. When they meet, Costner's suit is blue. Later that morning he is wearing a gray suit. The tie is different as well.
  
  
• Factual errors: "The U2 shown taking photos has its engine running. U2s turned off their engines and glided over enemy territory so that heat-seeking SAMs could not target them." The main concern of most U-2 pilots was that their contrail (from the engine exhaust) would show when they came over enemy territory. Like a big arrow, the exhaust contrail would allow ground units to track them visually.
  
  
• Factual errors: Members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff can be seen wearing Vietnam Service ribbons. These ribbons were not authorized until 1965.
  
  
• Boom mic visible: Throughout the film, specially during scenes taking place in the Oval Office and other indoor takes, microphone booms are repeatedly seen.
  
  
• Factual errors: In once scene a fleet of US Navy Ships is shown for the blockade of Cuba,, one of the ships the USS Sylvania FS-2 was not commissioned until July 11, 1964, which is long after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During one point in the movie, the O’Donnell's (a good Catholic family) are finishing up a big breakfast on Sunday. The mother then says "Everyone ready for church?" In 1962, you were required to fast from midnight before receiving communion. No Catholic family would be having breakfast before mass.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During a scene after American Navy planes have flown over Cuba and landed, an Oshkosh R-11 Fuel truck is seen briefly refueling the aircraft. The Oshkosh R-11 wasn't introduced until 1989 and even then it was developed for use in the U.S. Air Force.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When the two fighters take off for their low altitude surveillance flight, presumably from Florida, tall mountains are visible in the background. There are no mountains of this type in Florida.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Commander Ecker goes to the Pentagon to meet with Gen. LeMay he is still wearing his flying suit, although by requirement he should have worn his service dress to the meeting.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In several shots of the Soviet cargo ships approaching the American naval quarantine, the freighters are clearly flying the flag of Lebanon, not that of the Soviet Union.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The flying suits worn by Commander Ecker's Navy photo-recon aircrews are completely devoid of name tags, rank, aviator wings, and unit patches. In 1962, the suits would have had all of these items attached. "Sanitized" flying suits did not appear until later in the 1960s.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): After his aerial photo mission, Commander Ecker is called back to the White House, where he is still wearing his pistol and shoulder holster. In a real situation of this type, he would have left his weapon behind.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Neither General Maxwell Taylor (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) nor most of the other Army staff officers are wearing shoulder sleeve insignia on their uniforms. All should have had their current unit patch on the left shoulder, with the option of also wearing the patch of their former combat unit on the right shoulder.
  
  

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