At the Holmes' party, Dwight asks Moira about Julian, saying, "I take it that he's English and that he's here on some kind of scientific job." Later on, during the sub's cruise, Julian tells Peter he'd been in San Francisco "once on the way down", presumably from England. All this makes it appear that Julian has not been in Australia long and had not intended to stay before the war broke out. However, he appears to be friends of long-standing with many people (such as the party guests), not to mention his having had a love affair with Moira that ended a substantial time earlier.
Peter's appointment with Admiral Bridie is for 11:00, yet when he enters Bridie's office, the clock on the wall reads 10:04. In addition to this error, throughout Peter's meeting with the Admiral, followed by the Admiral's subsequent exchange with Osgood, the time on the clock never changes from 10:04, though several minutes have elapsed.
Therefore, it's apparent this is not a Goof, but is a case of the clock being either broken or unplugged.
Therefore, it's apparent this is not a Goof, but is a case of the clock being either broken or unplugged.
The calendar on the Holmes's wall shows January 1964. Later, Peter asks Admiral Bridie how long they have until the radiation arrives in Melbourne, and the Admiral replies "about five months", which would mean sometime in June. Yet later, when Julian tells Moira he's going to enter the auto race, he says it'll be held on "the 6th of August", by which time they would have all been dead for two months.
(at around 1h 15 mins) The submarine shown cruising under the Golden Gate Bridge is not the same vessel used in the rest of the film; the sail is different and its hull shorter.
Near the end, when Moira is watching the Sawfish leaving Port Phillip Bay, the speed of the boat in the tight shots from the top of the sail doesn't correlate with the speed of the boat in the wide shot, seen from Moira's perspective from shore.
Before the submarine's deployment on its proposed 13,000 mile round trip, Dwight is asked if he has enough power on-board his nuclear sub. A nuclear sub's range is only limited by the amount of food it can carry and the endurance of the crew. The time between refueling a nuclear sub is measured in years if not decades. Plus, the sub could easily cover the 13,000 miles in three weeks or less.
In the initial scenes, Cmdr. Dwight Lionel Towers gives the order: "Open Main Induction." The sub is supposed to be atomic powered. Such subs do not have induction valves because it is the air intake for a conventional engine. Reactors do not require an air intake.
When Dwight puts Moira to bed after she has drunk too much, he pauses at the bedroom door and then switches out light by flipping the switch down as in the US instead of up as in Australia.
When the submarine is in San Diego, it is broad daylight. Someone says that the time in Melbourne is 15:00 (3 pm). Depending on the time of year and allowing for daylight saving, San Diego time is either five or seven hours later (on the previous day), it should already be dark in San Diego.
When the Sawfish departs on its final voyage, the safety handlines and stanchions are still in place. They would have been removed as part of the rig-for-sea procedure, if for no other reason than they could break loose and foul the stern planes, rudder or props.
When the man in the radiation walks on the dock to go find the source of the telegraph signal a seagull flies by.
Lt Sunderstrom enters the oil refinery and walks past a sign warning away trespassers. Although the setting is supposed to be San Diego, the warning sign uses the British/Australian spelling of the word "AUTHORISED" rather than the American spelling "AUTHORIZED", which gives away that an Australian refinery stood in for an American one.
At the farm in Harkaway, when Dwight returns to Moira, Julian arrives in the Monza. Being August in Victoria, the sun is too steep; this must have been filmed on a summer day.
The periscope views of San Francisco show several sea gulls flying overhead when presumably all life is gone, and inadvertently shows a police squad car blocking a side road with its flashers on, undoubtedly to keep side street traffic off the main street in the shot. In a following closeup periscope view, only the top of the car can be seen, the flashers out of view behind the rise in the intervening hill.
In the last shot of Dwight, upon the bridge of his submarine just before he disappears below, it is clear the sub is not moving under power but is, instead, just drifting in the bay; no wake is visible, and the vessel is making no forward movement.
(at around 2h 5 mins) A fly briefly lands on Peter's shoulder while he and Mary are kissing in their last scene.
When the crew of the submarine ask Julian Osborn the reason for the nuclear war, the time on the clock on the wall never changes despite at least two minutes of screen time .
(at around 1h 8 mins) The camera's shadow is visible during the forward travelling.
The 'Australian Grand Prix' race is supposedly held on Phillip Island in Westernport Bay, Victoria. Being a small island, the beach is visible from many parts of the track, but it is not in the film. Also, the surrounding area of Westernport Bay is not mountainous as depicted, only slightly hilly. The real track was Riverside, the now-closed track east of Los Angeles. The site is now a housing development and shopping center.
At the beginning of the film, a radio announcer is heard reporting that no life survives anywhere but Australia. Later Admiral Bridie suggests that it might be possible for life to continue in Antarctica, indicating that that continent also is not yet affected by radiation. In any event, the basic premise - that Australia would still harbor life while every other site on the globe has been destroyed or rendered lifeless, including New Zealand, which is farther south and much less of a target than Australia would be - is physically a virtual impossibility. (By contrast, in the novel the entire Southern Hemisphere is untouched by the atomic war itself, though the radioactivity gradually drifts southward.)
All gasoline (petrol) supplies have disappeared except for official use. As such, Moira should not have gas to run her car near the end, nor should the race drivers have fuel. (In the novel it is stated that coal is being distilled for fuel, though there is a limited supply.)
The timeline in the film concerning the shortage of oil is contradictory. The Melbourne street scene near the beginning shows an apparently long-abandoned car, with everyone else riding horses or horse-drawn vehicles, bicycles, or the electric tram - a scene that only makes sense had the oil shortage been of long-standing, since most people could not obtain horses so quickly. But according to the radio report heard a short time earlier, the atomic war had just ended, so there still should be much normal traffic on the roads before oil and gasoline supplies disappeared. On the other hand, as Peter enters the Naval building Admiral Bridie is telling Osgood that he has just seen the report stating that all oil comes from the Northern Hemisphere. It makes no sense that Bridie would only then be reading such a report if oil had by then become so unavailable that all automobile traffic had ceased already.
When the Sawfish is in San Francisco, the periscope camera focuses on the Ferry Building, showing 'Port of San Francisco' and clock. The clock reads approximately 8:10. It must be morning because the sun is shining on the ferry building and clock, which both face east. However Capt. Dwight Towers says that it will be dark in an hour. That cannot be true if it is 8 am.
When Hosgood announces Holmes to the Admiral, she calls him Lieutenant Holmes, using the American pronunciation instead of the Australian "Leftenant". Curiously though, navies of the British tradition actually pronounce the rank "L'tenant", but this subtlety is usually overlooked in Hollywood for the more exotic "Leftenant" which is actually the army pronunciation.
Despite having a nuclear physicist aboard, the man going ashore at San Diego does not have his gloves or the cuffs of his anti-radiation suit sealed with tape. He also goes ashore and finds the transmitter key in the large refinery in under three-quarters of an hour, without carrying any portable radio direction finding equipment (unless that loop on his head is supposed to be it). Plus, the radio direction finder would only point to the transmitting antenna, not the telegraphy key itself.
As the crew member finds the Coke bottle, when he appears at the window shown from inside the room he is going to enter, there is a fly on the window.
When Moira picks up Dwight at the railroad station, she refers to her horse as a "mare". Despite that, Dwight calls the horse "boy" as he backs it up.