Blooper

When Howard and Faith are at the nightclub, they share a chocolate sundae. The scene begins with a continuity issue involving Faith's spoon. As the sundae itself melts and re-freezes, the cherry jumps from the top to the side and back to the top with fresher fudge.

At the premiere screening of Gli angeli dell'inferno (1930), in the first wide shot after the film ends, Dietrich is seen to be one of the first to applaud, but on the close up of him, he is shown as being hesitant and watching others to see if they start applauding.

When Hughes is lying in hospital, his pillow changes positions between shots.

The overhead shot of the H-1 just before Hughes takes it off for its test flight show the airplane with its short wings (used for setting pure speed records), whereas the in-flight shots portray the airplane with its long wings (used for cross-country races and setting cross-country records). In fact, the long wings did not exist in 1935 and were only designed (and fitted) in 1937 as a result of the 1935 crash.

In the restaurant scene with the indoor snowfall, snowflakes on Hughes' shoulders appear and disappear between shots.

In the film, the Hercules is not only airborne, but flying over boats and above the newsreel cameras filming it. In fact, the Hercules was airborne for about 20 seconds, and was never more than 70 feet above the water.

The hearings were chaired by Michigan Senator Homer Ferguson, not Senator Owen Brewster. Brewster did testify at the hearings, and was questioned by Howard Hughes himself.

At one point in the film, Hughes and Hepburn address each other as "City Mouse" and "Country Mouse" - a detail lifted from telegrams exchanged between the two that were auctioned off after Katharine Hepburn's death in 2003, in which they address each other by those names. In the movie, Howard calls Kate "country mouse", and she calls him "city mouse." This is incorrect: Howard Hughes was the country mouse (living in suburban Los Angeles) while Kate was the city mouse (a regular in New York).

The film implies that Howard Hughes entirely re-shot Gli angeli dell'inferno (1930) for sound. In fact, he re-shot the dialogue sequences only, tweaked the plot, and replaced Greta Nissen with Jean Harlow.

In the film, the witnesses inside the Hercules are seated and separated from Howard Hughes as he was at the controls. Newsreel footage showed that people were actually standing in the cockpit, with James McNamara steps away from Hughes.

Gli angeli dell'inferno (1930) is set during World War I when parachutes were unavailable to pilots. But parachutes were available in 1930 and the Hell's Angels crew made use of them out of common sense.

It is not certain that Howard Hughes had any of his germ phobias prior to either the crash of the XF-11 or the congressional hearings. However, according to Faith Domergue's autobiography, Hughes began to display the bizarre behavior that would typify his later years as early as 1942.

Various people and events in Howard Hughes' life, and events in the lives of the real-life characters he interacts with have been altered or omitted to fit the dramatic narrative.

While Howard's germophobic behaviour may seem inconsistent, it is not uncommon for it to manifest itself that way. On the contrary, as indicated by the film, certain events could make it worse, while good times with plenty of distraction could ease the symptoms.

No Goof is identified; this is simply a statement of a person's behavior and a postulated perception of the viewers' thoughts.

When Faith Domergue crashes into the car Howard is driving Ava Gardner in, there isn't a lot of visible damage.

However, cars were intentionally made to crumble to absorb crash forces only much later, while before that, cars were sturdier, which, along with the absence of internal safety measures (e.g., padded dash boards, seat belts, airbags) led to more injuries to their occupants. This is why modern cars exhibit much more damage on impact than old cars did.

When Hughes is staring at his hands in the projection room he raises them to be illuminated by the light of the projector in a close-up, but in the subsequent long shot, although his hands are still in the light, there are no shadows of the hands on the screen.

When Howard arrives at the Hepburns', and the dog greets him, there is a visible laser pointer on the dog's head, indicating that the dog followed the laser to Howard's body rather than actually greeting him.

In a shot with the Hercules aircraft in the background, a painter is seen applying paint to the nose-area of the aircraft with a paint roller. The roller passes past the section that he is supposed to be painting.

When we see Sir Ian Holm sitting in the Hercules his head barely comes over the back of the seat. In reverse shots the head and shoulders of Professor Fitz are clearly visible - obviously a stand-in.

When Faith Domergue crashes her car into Howard Hughes and Ava Gardner's car, even after two crashes there is no significant damage seen on either car.

The scene in which Howard Hughes locks himself in the projection room and cuts off most contact from the outside world for an extended period of time is somewhat misleading. Though Hughes battled germ phobia all of his life (the fear of germs was instilled in him early on by his mother) Hughes did not become a recluse until much later in his life. The scene that is portrayed in the movie is very similar to a documented incident where Hughes did spend almost a year in a private movie theater however it wasn't until he was near 50 years old.

In 1928, Hughes orders 10 "chocolate chip cookies," not invented until 1933.

There are references to both Ava Gardner and Linda Darnell well before either became a movie actress.

Whilst Hepburn and Hughes are dining in the Coconut Grove in 1935, she states "Haven't you heard? I'm being labeled box office poison..." Katharine Hepburn and a list of other stars including Mae West and Joan Crawford were not listed as box office poison until 1938 by a board of film distributors.

In the early scene when Hughes takes Hepburn on a flight over LA, the first aerial shots briefly show some very modern buildings and part of a freeway.

The singer at the Cocoanut Grove is at the microphone until we cut to a wide shot, and he's now stepped away from the microphone and swinging his arm, yet we still hear him singing.

Louis Mayer's mouth movements doesn't match his vocals near the end of his talk with Hughes.

During lunch with the Hepburns, when Katharine mentions the plane Hughes is building, Luddy, a glass up to his lips, says "Oh, really?", but his lips don't move.

Hughes inspects a rudder while talking to Dietrich, but neither he or Dietrich are in the shot when we cut to a frontal view of the plane, even though we still hear Hughes talk.

Lighting screens are reflected in Katharine Hepburn's glasses while she's in the car heading to the set.

Light screens are seen reflected in Robert Gross's eyeglasses.

During the crash of the XF-11 aircraft over Los Angeles, Hughes radios that he will put down on the Wilshire Country Club. Hughes actually lived in a Spanish Villa at Wilshire Country Club (near the 8th hole), the crash of the XF-11 was into Beverly Hills at the Los Angeles Country Club.

How did Faith Domergue know exactly where Hughes and Ava Gardner were going, and when they would arrive?

On the door when Hughes is in hospital after his plane crash.

When first in the Cocoanut Grove, Hughes orders a "milk with the cap still on". When Howard receives the milk there is no cap on it.

After reaching 352mph in the H1 Hughes describes himself as 'fastest man on the planet'. In fact the Supermarine s.6 had already established a faster speed than that in 1929 and the record at the time of the H1 was set by Francesco Agello at 440mph. It is inconceivable that Hughes, with his interest in aviation, would be unaware of this. Hughes' record was a land plane (rather than sea plane) record.

Howard Hughes replies to Mrs. Hepburn's statement "we don't care about money" with "that's because you've always had it", an insinuation that he has made his own way whereas they were of "old money" (a "point" Hughes makes again when he says: "some of us choose to work for a living" as he leaves the table). Some have asserted that the real situation was nearer opposite: the real Hughes was born into millions whereas the Hepburns, while well-off, had to work for what they had. HOWEVER, Hughes was not literally born into wealth, and his comment could have been a reference to his father, who was an oft-failed entrepreneur before making a fortune with drill bits in the early 1910s, years after Howard Jr. was born. Meanwhile, Katharine Hepburn's mother was born into the Houghton family (a prominent New England and New York family famous for its involvement with Corning Glass Works) and married Thomas Hepburn, who came from a respected, well-to-do southern family and became a wealthy doctor after studying at Johns Hopkins. From such a perspective, Howard's assertion and insinuation in the film is accurate.

Hughes has cellophane wrapped on the yoke of the plane he flies Katharine in, yet the stick of the H-1, the yoke of the XF-11, the yokes he has to choose from for the Hercules, the yoke and the throttles of the Hercules, and his car's steering wheel on have nothing wrapped on them.

Johnny Meyer tells Hughes that all the color cameras in Hollywood are being used by Cecil B. DeMille, who is making a movie for Paramount. The film referenced, Il re dei re (1927), was actually made for Pathé-DeMille, not Paramount.