Various shots of scenes on the Moon are repeated during the film, but the positions of shadows do not change, which they should - even with the slow rotation of the Moon.
Ben goes to the Russian lander at the end. John, who is in orbit, gets him on the radio. Ben has to push the button for John to hear him. However, when Nate starts banging the door, Ben screams. John answers but shouldn't have heard anything.
At the beginning of the movie it is stated that Apollo 17 landed on the moon on December 7, 1972. This is actually the launch date of that mission. Apollo 17 landed on December 11, 1972.
(at around 26 mins) When the astronauts are commenting on the dropping temperature, they are at the Moon's southern pole, which is about -390 degrees F. They would not have been able to feel temperature fluctuations through their environmental suits.
After the EVAs, while in the Lunar Module, the astronaut's suits are still pristine white, but they would actually have accumulated considerable dark lunar dust, especially on the arms and lower legs of the white suits. On a multiple EVA mission, the suits would have been very dirty.
Lunar astronauts did try to keep the suits clean, but the fine, dark, lunar dust became embedded into the beta cloth material and could not be easily removed.
(at around 8 mins) It would not have been possible for the Apollo spacecraft to land on the moon's south pole. Doing so would have required far more fuel, in order to move the vehicle into a polar orbit. The weight of that additional fuel would have required a rocket larger than the available Saturn 5 rocket.
(at around 30 mins) The U.S. flag shown in front of the rover has 12 stripes instead of 13 - white on the top, red on the bottom.
(at around 1 min) In footage of the pre-flight barbecue at Ben's, one of the guests is shown twisting the cap off a beer bottle. Twist-off caps were not available in the mid-70s.
CORRECTION: Actually, twist tops were first used by a major American brewing company, Schlitz, in 1975. It is possible that it was used by other brewers earlier than that. www.upthirst.com/when-did-beer-bottles-get-twist-tops/
CORRECTION: Actually, twist tops were first used by a major American brewing company, Schlitz, in 1975. It is possible that it was used by other brewers earlier than that. www.upthirst.com/when-did-beer-bottles-get-twist-tops/
The film claims we've never gone back to the moon, failing to explain how the found footage used to make the movie was retrieved. - The footage is presumably a raw copy of the transmissions between the Lunar Module and NASA. It is plausible that ground control would keep closer tabs on this special mission than the regular Apollo-missions.
(at around 11 mins) The film does not state that the far side of the Moon never receives sunlight. The astronauts are not on the far side of the Moon. The comment about areas that never receive sunlight was about areas at the bottom of deep craters where the ground is always in the shadow of the crater wall. This does occur in many areas near the Moon's polar regions, which is where this movie takes place.
Some sound is heard in the moon scenes, despite taking place in a vacuum. For example, a sinister clicking when the space monsters are near, and a heavy thud when the rover is flipped. This could be a mixture of sounds conducted through the ground, nondiagetic audio added for the audience's benefit, and actual goofs. Which is which shall be left for the viewer to decide, and the longstanding debate on sound in space movies will not be continued here.
There is no radio lag between earth and the lander or the orbiter.
When moving around on the moon, the astronauts do not appear to be affected by the lighter gravity. They walk normally, even shuffling their feet at times, except in the stock footage from actual astronauts. Even the footprints from the cosmonauts are evenly spaced, as if they had been walking in earth's gravity.
(at around 2 mins) At the beginning of the movie it is stated that in order to conceal the additional manned mission to the Moon, the DoD justifies the launch of the extra Saturn V rocket with the need of putting a very heavy payload in Earth's orbit. However, the launch footage of Apollo 18 shows liftoff of a complete Saturn V with escape tower. As the latter have been so far used only in crewed launches, this would have been revealing (at least in part) of the manned nature of the mission.
When the two astronauts are driving the Rover, trying to find back the Russian capsule, the skyline of a city can be seen in the background for a few seconds, revealing that the scene was shot on Earth, rather than the Moon.
Work on the Soviet Lunar L3 program was cancelled late in 1974. The LK ('Lunniy korabl' - lunar craft) was not revealed to the west until much later. Thus, the Apollo 18 crew would have had no knowledge of this vehicle (i.e. referring to it as the "LK").
Preparing for space flight is such a complex task, that a secret moon mission would be impossible, especially in the United States.
Even if the astronauts didn't tell their families and friends, HUNDREDS of people would be directly involved in such a mission and they all would at some point see the astronauts before or during the launches.
Although, it wouldn't have been possible for Apollo to land on the moon's south pole because of limited fuel, they only show one launch. They could have launched another one with the lunar lander and this one has the fuel.