Goofs for
The Astronaut Farmer (2006) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: After Charles pulls the kids out of school and Audie is questioning him outside the barn, her name tag keeps changing between being covered by her sweater, partially covered, and not covered at all.
  
  
• Errors in geography: During some shots of the kitchen area a phone book can be seen sitting on the table. The movie takes place in Texas but the phone book is a 2005 New Mexico phone book.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Carnival rides use electric motors connected to huge generators to turn them. When the Farmers have the carnival ride on their property we see a large overhead view of the carnival ride but there is no generator or electrical cord anywhere. The cord is obviously buried and the generator is behind the camera.
  
  

• Anachronisms: A photo shows Thornton's character wearing a pressure suit and standing by an X-15 rocket plane, implying he flew it while in the Air Force. The X-15s final flight was in October, 1968... meaning the character would be well over 60 years old.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the first, failed launch attempt causes the rocket to tear across the terrain horizontally, the rocket shoots right through a billboard, leaving a hole only about three feet across, much smaller than the diameter of the rocket.
  
  
• Factual errors: The doctor examining Farmer's eye is looking through an otoscope - an instrument for examining the ear canal. He should be using an ophthalmoscope to look into the eyes.
  
  
• Factual errors: The orbital views of Africa and Baja California are not accurate for a craft in a low orbit, and would require a much higher altitude.
  
  
• Factual errors: The capsule is shown firing all three retro rockets at once. The actual retros are fired in a sequence five seconds apart.
  
  
• Factual errors: The craft's landing was much slower and softer than an actual Mercury landing. A Mercury landing on dry land would most likely have damaged the capsule and severely injured the astronaut.
  
  
• Factual errors: For his first launch, Farmer fuels the rocket with kerosene and hydrazine. Either one can be used as a rocket fuel, but both are worthless without an oxidizer. Even combined, he never would have gotten an ignition, let alone a failed launch.
  
  
• Factual errors: The type of Atlas rocket show in the film was designed without a rigid internal skeleton. It was held up by pressurized fuel tanks. If the capsule were loaded atop as shown without the rocket being fueled and pressurized, it would have collapsed under its own weight.
  
  
• Factual errors: A spacesuit requires external connections to a) supply air for breathing and cooling and b) remove carbon dioxide and excess heat. Thornton's character is shown wearing a spacesuit in many situations that would have resulted in both overheating (when he wasn't wearing the helmet), and suffocation (while wearing the helmet closed), since he had no portable air conditioning unit or other umbilicals connected.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When the rocket launches, incredibly, the wooden barn remains unburned. In a scene during the second launch, exhaust smoke can be seen coming out the bottom of the barn walls, so it's safe to assume Farmer has designed his barn to overcome the explosive nature of the launch.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: During the closing credits, an additional scene is shown where the character of Charlie Farmer appears on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. When Jay greets Mr. Farmer before Charlie sits down, Jay can be overheard saying what sounds like "How are you, Bob?", if fact, he said "How are you, pal?" This is also indicated by the subtitles.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the first launch, the rocket goes horizontal to the ground for many miles before "landing". However, laws of physics would dictate the rocket to crash immediately, because the rocket engine only provides thrust but no lift to overcome gravity.
  
  
• Plot holes: He loses his wedding ring in the first capsule. He finds it floating weightlessly in space in the second capsule.
  
  
• Factual errors: Farmer is able to communicate with his ground controller, Sheppard, throughout the flight, except when his radio system is not operational due to a malfunction. In fact, radio transmissions are only possible if the antenna of the transmitter has a "line of sight" to the receiver. Farmer could not speak with his ground controller when he was on the other side of the Earth. NASA uses a series of antennas located around the world to receive and relay radio signals to Houston, the home of NASA Mission Comtrol at the Johnson Space Center.
  
  

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