Aquaman Movie (2018) Interesting Facts, Mistakes

Updated on November 28, 2023

Aquaman Movie Story Summary

Arthur Curry, the human-born heir to the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, goes on a quest to prevent a war between the worlds of ocean and land.

Aquaman Movie Stars

Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe

Aquaman Movie Storyline

Born upon the shores of the surface world, Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) discovers that he is only half human, with the other half of his blood being of Atlanteean descent, thus making him the rightful heir to the throne of the undersea kingdom of Atlantis. However, Arthur learns that Atlantis is being ruled by his malicious half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson), who seeks to unite the seven underwater kingdoms and wage war upon the surface. With aid from Nuidis Vulko (Willem Dafoe) and the gorgeous Mera (Amber Heard), Arthur must discover the full potential of his true destiny and become Aquaman in order to save Atlantis and the surface from Orm's evil plot.

Aquaman Movie Interesting Facts

Jason Momoa specifically requested Temuera Morrison, one of Momoa's acting idols, for the role of Arthur's father Tom Curry.
Numerous underwater waterfalls are seen in this movie. This is an actual phenomenon. The ocean is made up of two different layers of water: warm, light water, and cold, dense water. The difference in densities means the layers are separate and causes the heavier cold water to fall, forming a waterfall.
Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) and his father Tom Curry (Temuera Morrison) are portrayed as being of Polynesian nationality, with Momoa being Hawaiian and Morrison being Maori. Momoa has said that he was proud of making Aquaman a Polynesian, as Polynesians have a strong aquatic heritage.
During the duel between Arthur (Jason Momoa) and Orm (Patrick Wilson), an octopus plays a drum solo. According to Writer and Director James Wan, this octopus is Topo, Aquaman's octopus sidekick from the 1950s and 1960s, who was able to play musical instruments.
Wan was initially unsure about putting Topo in this movie, but was inspired to do so after watching Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), saying, "If that film could have a guy playing a flaming guitar, I'm going to have an octopus drummer in mine."
Nicole Kidman immediately accepted the role of Atlanna when Writer and Director James Wan said that she could wear "Mother-of-Pearl and be a Mermaid Warrior."
Jason Momoa admitted to playing pranks on all of his fellow cast members during filming except for Nicole Kidman.
James Wan revealed he had a choice of choosing to direct between The Flash (2022) and this movie, but chose this movie because Aquaman is the underdog.
Writer and Director James Wan confirmed that Atlanteans would not talk inside protective speech bubbles as portrayed by Executive Producer Zack Snyder in Justice League (2017). When asked about it, he said, "People are overthinking it. They're just gonna talk!"
When Arthur (Jason Momoa) and Mera (Amber Heard) find their sea craft, the Annabelle doll from James Wan's "Conjuring" film franchise can be seen on the floor.
James Wan wanted Atlanteans to wear capes, but Costume Designer Kym Barrett pointed out that capes drag underwater. They settled on capes being worn only by members of Atlantean royalty.
When Atlanna throws her trident at the television, it's showing Stingray (1964), Gerry Anderson's British children's television puppet underwater adventure series that featured an antagonist of the Fishmen, who similarly ruled an underwater domain in conflict with the surface world.
James Wan cited the sea monster movie Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) as an influence on the portrayal of the Trench monsters for this movie.
According to Amber Heard, the underwater scenes required cast members to be hosed down and then being filmed on a cold soundstage.
None of the underwater scenes were actually filmed underwater. Instead, methods of rigging the actors and actresses into harnesses, along with extensive CG work (sometimes including their hair), were applied to make them appear floating and submerged.
Nicole Kidman was Writer and Director James Wan's top choice for the role of Atlanna. They were previously set to work together on a remake of At the End of the Spectra (2006), but the movie was scrapped. Kidman has been a long-time supporter of Wan's career and has publicly raved about his movies Insidious (2010) and The Conjuring (2013), calling him "The New Master of Horror". She was also eager to join, as filming took place in her home country of Australia.
Nicole Kidman attended her first Comic-Con in 2018 especially to promote this movie.
James Wan believed that what makes Aquaman unique is his Atlantean heritage, saying, "We're used to superhero movies where the threat is from another dimension or aliens from another universe coming here and trying to destroy our Earth. But we haven't seen one where the main threat is from a massive, massive civilization that is right under our noses, in the ocean. The idea that there could be a massive civilization living right underneath (us) that we don't know about is kind of scary and exciting."
In the movie, tridents are used only by those of royal blood from Atlantis: King Atlan, Atlanna, Orm, Arthur, Nereus, King Ricou, and the Brine King. The trident is the traditional weapon of the Greek sea god Poseidon.
James Wan drew influence from horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, whose novels involved man-eating fish people and tentacle creatures deep under the ocean. Furthermore, Tom Curry (Temuera Morrison) has a Lovecraft novel, "The Dunwich Horror", in his house and when David Kane (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) appears in his Black Manta suit, he quotes a line from Lovecraft's novel "The Call of Ctulhu".
King Ricou was named after Ricou Browning, a noted diver and underwater stuntman best known for portraying the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
This movie was based on Geoff Johns' 2011 "Aquaman" comic.
Nicole Kidman (Queen Atlanna) had previously declined the role of Queen Hippolyta in Wonder Woman (2017).
Mera has only one name in the comics, but here she is given the full name of Y'Mera Xebella Challa. The two names pay homage to Altantean locations in the comics, the kingdom of Xebel and the city of Challa-Bel-Nalla.
In the 2019 "Aquaman" comics, Arthur got a tattoo from the water god that resembles Jason Momoa's own markings.
Arthur Curry's story shares a few elements with his namesake, King Arthur Pendragon: both have to find and wield legendary weapons (Atlan's Trident and Excalibur), have to defeat their evil siblings (Orm and Morgana le Fay) to save their kingdoms, and have wise mentors serving as their advisors (Vulko and Merlin).
In the comics, Aquaman has actually encountered the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian legend, who healed his crippled body with a hand made out of magical water and which also provided water-related powers.
King Atlan's trident has Atlantean writing engraved on it. According to James Wan, it reads "Paul and Mort", referring to Aquaman creators Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger.
Writer and Director James Wan cited Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Romancing the Stone (1984) as influences on this movie.
Jason Momoa was surprised to be cast as Aquaman because the character in the comics is a blond-haired Caucasian, who looks a lot like his co-star Patrick Wilson. Executive Producer Zack Snyder wanted to break the barrier of not having any mixed-race heroes, and knew that Momoa was the only choice to play Aquaman.
Before its initial release in the United States, this movie surpassed every solo Marvel Cinematic Universe movie in the Chinese box-office - only seven days after its release.
Dolph Lundgren found filming uncomfortable because his gear as King Nereus (wig, beard, helmet, three levels of armor) made him feel claustrophobic and additionally he had to ride harnesses for the underwater scenes, which cut into his groin. Despite this, Lundgren enjoyed filming and would have appeared in the film for free, finding it a novel experience.
David Kane's first Manta helmet was based on the Golden Age Black Manta helmet, which was a conventional helmet with a breathing apparatus connected.
Amber Heard declared in an interview on Good Morning America (1975) that she would read books between takes and that Jason Momoa would purposely rip out their pages so she would pay attention to him. Eventually, her reading material was kept in a special book bag made of "greenscreen" fabric, which allowed her to keep her books close even when filming visual effects shots.
Thomas Curry keeps a pet dog, a golden retriever. In the comics, Aquaman and Mera adopted a golden retriever whom they dubbed "Aquadog".
In this movie, Aquaman is dark-haired and Orm is blond, while in the DC comics, it's the other way around.
Some Atlantean soldiers are seen riding giant seahorses. In Greek mythology, the sea god Poseidon drives a chariot pulled by seahorses (known in Greek mythology as the hippocampi).
Arthur rides a giant seahorse briefly in the final battle. This came from the opening credits of Aquaman (1967).
Aquaman's suit was supposed to be a surprise in 2016. Instead, Executive Producer Zack Snyder released the photo of Jason Momoa wearing the Aquaman suit in February 2015. Snyder called Momoa a few minutes before its release to the world.
When Tom (Temuera Morrison) sees Atlanna eating a goldfish from his fish tank, he says, "I was going to cook you some eggs", a line from Morrison's movie Once Were Warriors (1994).
Arthur Curry quotes writer Jules Verne at the beginning of this movie. Near the end of this movie, Curry and Mera travel to the supposed center of the Earth, discovering it as a world of dinosaurs and mountains. This was very much described as the center of the Earth by Verne's novel "Journey to the Center of the Earth".
Arthur and Orm are elder and younger brothers, but Patrick Wilson is five years older than Jason Momoa, while Nicole Kidman, who plays their mother, is seven years older than Wilson.
Arthur was originally to confront his ancestor Atlan for his trident, and Atlan would be a zombie, in an homage to his role in the DC comics as the Dead King. This was rejected and replaced with the Karathen sea monster.
This movie marked the fifth collaboration between Writer and Director James Wan and Patrick Wilson, after Insidious (2010), The Conjuring (2013), Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013), and The Conjuring 2 (2016).
The Atlantean device in the Sahara bears the symbols of the Zodiac and the accompanying astronomical constellations.
The Fishermen were based on the kingdom of Tritonis, an underwater kingdom of merpeople, and draws elements from Aquaman (1967) (a race of merpeople who use whale-shaped craft).
Patrick Wilson describes Ocean Master Orm as an ecological terrorist: "He has a very clear gripe with the surface world, which has been polluting his oceans for centuries."
The Fishermen tribe were created through a combination of make-up (for the top half, the upper torso) and computer graphics imagery (for the bottom half, the tails).
This is the first DC Extended Universe movie shot entirely with digital cameras. Nearly all previous installments were shot solely on 35mm (and partially 70mm IMAX film for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)).
This movie's working title was "Ahab", the name of the anti-heroic sea Captain in Herman Melville's "Moby Dick".
King Nereus and Mera appeared as father and daughter in this movie, while they were unrelated and betrothed to marry in the New 52 comics.
Jason Momoa grew up with the world of superheroes and has always been fascinated by Aquaman because he loves the underwater world and all of the mysteries that can be found there.
David Kane (Black Manta) has a manta-shaped submarine. This was taken from the comics.
This was James Wan's third non-horror movie and his first superhero movie.
The submarine set was constructed on a platform over a water tank. To create the flooding, the set was lowered into the water tank.
Dolph Lundgren is the first actor to appear in the Arrowverse and the DC Extended Universe.
Peter Safran and James Wan made a concept video of Aquaman and Mera fighting the Trench and showed it to Warner Brothers. The studio was impressed with the video and Safran feels it got this movie made.
Additionally, DNEG worked on digitally de-aging Willem Dafoe for the scene where his character Nudris Vulko trains the young Arthur Curry.
Principal photography began in Australia on May 2, 2017. Most of this movie was shot at Village Roadshow Studios in Gold Coast, Queensland, with production also held in Canada, Italy, and Morocco, and wrapped on October 21, 2017.
Michael Beach (Black Manta's father Jesse Kane) voiced Devil Ray (another name for Black Manta) in Justice League Unlimited (2004).
The closing credits were influenced by Game of Thrones (2011)'s titles (a model of various kingdoms) and Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable (2017) (a video exhibiting modern jewelry and artifacts, made as if they were from a sunken Greek ship).
According to Writer and Director James Wan, the scene where Arthur and Mera emerge from the ocean in slow-motion to Pitbull's song "Ocean to Ocean" is a tribute to Wan's previous movie, Furious 7 (2015).
Inside the Submarine just before spearing Manta's father with a pipe, Aquaman says 'Ono Takai' which is Maori for 'You deserve this'.
With the release of this movie, The DC Extended Universe crossed four billion dollars at the worldwide box-office, making it the first franchise to cross the milestone with fewer movies - six movies as of 2018.
Most of the actors and actresses in this movie appeared as another character from DC and/or Marvel movies. Patrick Wilson appeared as Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl II in Watchmen (2009), Willem Dafoe played Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in Spider-Man (2002), Nicole Kidman as Dr. Chase Meridian in Batman Forever (1995), Djimon Hounsou (voice of King Ricou) as Korath from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Papa Midnight from Constantine (2005), as well as the wizard in Shazam! (2019), Temuera Morrison (Tom Curry) as Abin Sur from Green Lantern (2011), Randall Park (Dr. Shin) as Jimmy Woo from Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Dolph Lundgren as Konstantin Kovar from Arrow (2012) and Frank Castle from The Punisher (1989), John Rhys-Davies as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin from The Incredible Hulk television movies, and Graham McTavish as Loki from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010).
Leonardo DiCaprio was going to produce this movie via his production company.
Industrial Light & Magic was the lead visual effects vendor, and worked on creating Atlantis and all of its CG animals, the Karathen, and the final battle of this movie. Jeff White served as the Visual Effects Supervisor. For the underwater sequences, the actors and actresses were shot dry-for-wet on special tuning-fork rigs designed by the effects team, and later the bodies of the actors and actresses were replaced with digital doubles in post-production. For creating Atlantis, the team relied on the designs provided by the Art Department. Industrial Light & Magic's environment team created over two hundred buildings, including the signature jellyfish buildings, and laid over seven thousand buildings in districts covering almost six hundred square miles for the action to travel through. The underwater ships were modelled off organic creatures and designed to move that way. For the entrance to Atlantis sequence, the team built over one hundred fifty thousand ships to fill the traffic lanes leading into Atlantis. All of the animals, including the Karathen, were built by Industrial Light & Magic and animated using keyframe animation. Approximately seven hundred shots in this movie required high detail hair simulations. Industrial Light & Magic had to significantly improve their hair simulation software due to the unique aspects of hair flowing underwater. Normally, hair simulations use guide strands to define or influence the movement of groups of hair strands. This did not provide a satisfying look for underwater simulation, so ultimately, Industrial Light & Magic simulated strands individually, which resulted in heavy computations. Additionally, James Wan wanted to be able to direct the hair when the physically accurate simulation resulted in undesirable results. Industrial Light & Magic delivered six hundred seventy shots for this movie.
Jason Momoa publicly expressed interest in Zack Snyder directing.
Black Manta is given the name David Kane in the film, while in the comics his name is David Hyde.
Method Studios handled the Sicily fight sequence between Arthur, Mera, and Black Manta; Arthur's encounter with the Karathen in the Well of the Souls, and his acquisition of Atlan's Trident. For the Sicily fight sequence, the team built the main square of the Italian village and terracotta tiled roof set pieces that were backed with bluescreen. A completely CG village was also created based on scans and documentation of the real village. For the Well of the Souls sequence, Jason Momoa was filmed dry-for-wet and captured on-set in rigs that simulated underwater movements, but they ultimately felt restrictive, so artists replaced the majority of his performance with a digital body double and added the CG environment, and Karathen and Arthur's free-flowing locks. A specially designed seven hundred frame per second shot was used in the scene where the camera travels through Arthur's eyes.
First DC Extended Universe movie to cross one billion dollars at the worldwide box-office, and the first DC comics movie to cross one billion dollars since The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
In the past, Peter Jackson was approached to direct this movie twice. But turned it down because he stated that he is not interested in superhero movies.
Michael Kenneth Williams and Michael Jai White expressed interest in playing Black Manta.
Djimon Hounsou appeared in the DC Extended Universe as the voice of King Ricou in this movie, as the wizard in Shazam! (2019), and also in Constantine (2005) as Midnite. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Djimon was Korath in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Captain Marvel (2019). He also voiced T'Challa in the animated version of Black Panther.
Captain Murk (Ludi Lin) gets his hand cut off in the battle at Sicily. In the comics, Murk was depicted as a one-armed soldier.
There are 2,300 VFX shots in this movie completed by Industrial Light & Magic, Rodeo FX, Scanline VFX, DNEG, Moving Picture Company, Method Studios, Digital Domain, and Weta Digital.
The filmmakers tried out various concepts for the closing credits: shapes formed from water (Mera's power), or from sealife bioluminescence, and an ancient nautical map. They eventually settled for a sequence set underwater, which drew from all of the concepts.
Patrick Wilson gained twenty pounds of muscle (190 lbs to 210) in order to be credible as Jason Momoa's brother/rival.
Jason Momoa and Michael Beach appeared on Stargate: Atlantis (2004).
Mera eating a rose makes sense when you consider that for people who live under the sea, the diet is bound to be raw meat or plants, since you can't cook underwater. This was seen earlier with Atlanna. She ate raw fish out of the bowl, and when Tom brings her a warm drink, she has to follow his motions and blow on her own drink to cool it down enough.
This is the second DC movie in which Nicole Kidman appeared. The first being Batman Forever (1995).
In Tom Curry's house, on the table is a H.P. Lovecraft novel, "The Dunwich Horror". Dunwich was a large town in the county of Suffolk, England, which was lost to the sea in 1278 during a great storm.
Producer Peter Safran's wife Natalia plays Queen Rina.
When Arthur wakes up on the boat that Mera "borrowed", he is lying on his back, with his hair in a tight bun and beard wet, (and appearing closely trimmed), bringing shades of Jason Momoa's Game of Thrones (2011) character Khal Drogo, even sporting a wound in the same place as Drogo.
This is John Rhys-Davies' fifth comic book role after The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989), Batman: The Animated Series: The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy (1992), Fantastic Four: The Animated Series (1994), and Justice League (2001).
The zoom shot of Arthur peering from behind the prongs of Atlan's trident is a homage to the cover of the Aquaman comic "Aquaman Underworld."
A specially designed 700fps shot was used to film this scene.
Atlantis' origin in this movie is of getting submerged underwater due to a cataclysm from an experiment, which caused its inhabitants to develop underwater breathing and culture. This is based on the underwater town of Sub Diego, where Arthur briefly ruled. The town was originally a part of the California shore city of San Diego, until a failed experiment caused it to sink and force its residents to convert to underwater life.
The Atlantis underwater bridge that marks its entrance is based on the Californian landmark, the Golden Gate Bridge, which is an homage to Sub Diego.
Costume Designer Kym Barrett based the Atlantean wardrobes on wetsuits.
This is Patrick Wilson's second role in a DC Extended Universe movie. He portrayed the President of the United States in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).
Rupert Gregson-Williams wrote the score for Wonder Woman (2017), the fourth movie in the DC Extended Universe.
Writer and Director James Wan thought of Arthur being imprisoned in a dungeon with shark guards, and Arthur would enable an escape by killing one in a violent and gory manner, from which the bloodshed would send the other sharks into a feeding frenzy that'd distract them. He ditched the idea as being too violent.
Principal photography wrapped on October 20, 2017.
After appearing as Jimmy Woo in Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Randall Park appeared in this movie as Dr. Stephan Shin. Though this movie took its inspiration from New 52 Comics run, Dr. Shin's character had been changed for this movie.
A shot of King Atlan, where he raises his trident and summons giant fish, pays homage to a scene from the New 52 Justice League comics, where Aquaman proved his worth by summoning giant fish to attack parademons.
This is the third comic book movie for Temuera Morrison (after Green Lantern (2011) and Barb Wire (1996)), Dolph Lundgren (after The Punisher (1989) and Arrow (2012)), and Willem Dafoe (after Spider-Man (2002) and Death Note (2017)).
This is the sixth movie in the DC Extended Universe.
This is Graham McTavish's sixth comic book role, after Loki (Marvel animated features), Sebastian Shaw (Wolverine and the X-Men (2008)), Savanti Romero (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)), Fergus McDuck (DuckTales (2017)), and the Saint of Killers (Preacher (2016)).
The only DCEU film to date without any reference to Batman.
Amber Heard won the role because of her accomplished non professional boxing career.
Graham McTavish and John Rhys-Davies appeared in Middle-Earth movies. McTavish played Dwalin in The Hobbit trilogy and John Rhys-Davies played Gimli and provided the voice of Treebeard in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Jeff Nichols and Noam Murro were considered to direct.
Patrick Wilson (King Orm) is the fourth actor from Watchmen (2009) to appear in the DC Extended Universe, after Carla Gugino (Kelor in Man of Steel (2013)), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Thomas Wayne in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)), and Billy Crudup (Henry Allen in Justice League (2017)). Before being adapted to film, "Watchmen" was also a comic book series published by DC Comics.
Nicole Kidman's second DC comic book movie. The first being Batman Forever (1995).
This is the first DC Comics superhero film for which Industrial Light & Magic provided visual effects.
Jason Momoa appeared on Baywatch (1989), and his co-star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II appeared in Baywatch (2017).
James Wan originally wanted Aquaman's octopus pet Topo to have a major role in the film, but as the story developed Topo's role was reduced, until finally Wan decided to just give him a brief cameo.
Kurt Johnstad and David Leslie Johnson worked on the script before being replaced by Will Beal.
Patrick Wilson and Michael Beach appeared in Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013), also written and directed by James Wan.
Willem Dafoe and Temuera Morrison appeared in Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997).
Thomas Curry's home was a combination of practical and digital VFX: the house and the base of the lighthouse tower were built as sets, while the additional sets (dock, home interiors, the lantern room) were built on soundstages, and the full lighthouse was rendered in computer-generated imagery.
The name "Aquaman" is spoken only half a dozen times in the movie.
At 143 minutes, this film is tied with Man of Steel (2013) for being the second longest of the DCEU films.
Joseph Bishara, Wan's frequent collaborator, composed a piece called "Trench Engaged" for the trench sequence.
Donnie Yen was offered the role of Vulko, but had to turn it down due to schedule conflicts with other films.
John Rhys-Davies had previously appeared in SpongeBob SquarePants (1999), which featured Mermaid Man, a hero who was based on Aquaman. Rhys-Davies had voiced Man Ray, an enemy of Mermaid Man who was based on Black Manta.
On the boat, Mera is playing the "Everything I Need" song on her flute.
Arthur Curry is portrayed by five actors of various ages (two of them three-year-old twins), while young Atlanna, Thomas Curry and Vulko were portrayed by their respective actors with de-aged VFX.
Leigh Whannell: As the cargo pilot. Whannell is James Wan's frequent collaborator.
A long-time rebuttal to Aquaman's perceived lameness is that he could command Cthulhu if the two were in the same setting. This movie includes a Kaiju with tentacles dwelling in a lost underwater city, who ends up helping Arthur in great part because he's the only one that managed to converse with it.
Arthur and Mera fake their deaths by hiding inside a whale's mouth, which Arthur says he got from Pinocchio (1940).
This is the second superhero movie to feature a Pinocchio homage, after Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).
This movie opens and closes with homages to the mermaid romance movie Splash (1984): a man meets and falls in love with a woman from an underwater kingdom (Tom and Atlanna, Allen and Madison), while an eccentric scientist searches for proof of the kingdom and could potentially bring harm to the couple (Dr. Stephen Shin, Dr. Walter Kornbluth).
This movie primarily draws inspiration from the Geoff Johns Aquaman comics, most notably the "Throne of Atlantis" storyline: King Orm declares war on the surface world and Arthur must stand against him, with the key to stopping the war being a powerful royal trident.
However, there are certain differences between the comic and the film:
in the comics the war was a worldwide event that brought in the Justice League, while in the film Aquaman only has Mera as his ally.
the comics revealed that Vulko manipulated Orm to enable the war to happen, to discredit Orm and enable Arthur to take the throne. In the film Orm starts the war by himself, with Vulko only manipulating events to aid Arthur and Mera as much as possible.
The Hidden Sea hosts an underground world where prehistoric life thrives. This world was based on Skartaris (a region of Atlantis, home to the DC hero the Warlord) and Pacifica (an island where Atlanna lived during exile in the New 52 DC Comics).
The Karathen is based on the Karaqan, an ancient guardian monster who appeared in the "New 52" Aquaman comics. She also incorporates traits of Topo, presented in the "New 52" as a octopus-crab monster who befriends and supports Aquaman.
The male members of the Atlantean royal family display Aquaman designs from the character's history:
Arthur Curry is bare-chested and bearded, which was Aquaman's look in the 1990s.
His half-brother King Orm is clean-shaven and blonde, which is Aquaman's classic look.
Their ancestor King Atlan's attire is Aquaman's green and gold costume, with a crown and green cloak. This was Aquaman's royal suit in the Alex Ross graphic novel "Kingdom Come". Arthur gets this suit, but in its classic design without the crown and cloak, near the end of this movie.
Orm's full name is Orm Marius. The name has various meanings which hints at Orm's doings in this movie:
"Orm" means "snake" in Swedish and "worm" in Danish and Norwegian. A fitting name for an antagonist who is not beyond carrying out deceptions.
"Marius" derives from the Latin words "maris" ("male") and "mare" ("sea") and the Roman god of war Mars. A fitting name for a warmonger from Atlantis.

Aquaman Movie Mistakes

Orm claims Aquaman has never even been to Atlantis. In Justice League, which is set before this film, Aquaman does briefly visit Atlantis, where he wound up fighting Steppenwolf.
The trident of Atlan was said to have been "forged" with steel from Poseidon, but we see it being "cast" not forged.
Everyone addresses King Orm as "Your Highness".
When the Atlantean Soldiers come for Atlanna, when Arthur is three, she hands Arthur to his father. Arthur's hair goes from being short and curly to long and nearly straight then back to short and curly in the span of less than 10 seconds.
Black Manta is paid for his services and the soldier drop the satchel with gold through the projection in front of him. Next shot the gold is behind him while he never stepped forward.
When Mera and Arthur are listening to the King's message, Mera has her hair straightened, and during the conversation it suddenly appears curled.
Around the 23 minute mark when Tom & Arthur are drinking beer at the bar, their second beers arrive as the story about the submarine comes on the TV. Arthur is rotating his glass to better access the handle in the wide shot of them both but when the shot changes to the TV with Arthur on the right of frame, he already has the glass in his hand. Next shot, he's back to still turning the glass around.
After leaving Sicily on the boat, Mera is dressed in 'surface' clothes, but when the Trench attack, she once again is wearing her green body suit. She wasn't wearing it on the plane, or in Sicily, unless it was peeled off her torso and tucked into her jeans, which seems out of character for a Princess of Atlantis.
When Atlanna holds Arthur before returning to the ocean, she switches between having her right or left arm on his back between shots.
The propeller of the submarine is shown as generating a massive amount of bubbles, or cavitation. Submarine propellers are specifically designed to avoid this as much as possible because it creates sound that can easily be detected by hydrophones.
When Aquaman raises the submarine to the surface, it should sink immediately due to submarines' diving/ surfacing technologies, and the ballast tanks not having been emptied at depth.
In the very first scene, as the storm batters the coast, lighthouse keeper Tom Curry is securing a window shutter so it stays open. If anything, he should've been making sure all the shutters were shut to protect the windows from the forces of the storm.
Aquaman enters the submarine by hitting a hatch cover so hard it falls down the hole. Since the hatch is a smaller diameter than its cover, this would only be possible by deforming the metal, but both hatch & cover remain relatively undamaged.
When the Russian submarine is hijacked the pirate craft moors itself near the bow, presumably over or very close to the forward escape hatch. The majority of the submarine crew block themselves into the torpedo room, which is directly under the forward escape hatch. The pirates would have needed to go through the torpedo room to reach the command center.
When Orm and Nereus meet we see a stationary line of seahorses facing a stationary line of sharks. Sharks can only breath by moving to keep water flowing through their gills, so sitting still as shown would result in their suffocating. (Then again, this *is* a movie about entire tribes of humans who can breath and hold conversations in deep ocean water without an apparatus.)
As Arthur and Mera are sailing away from Sicily, much of their dialogue shows them at the stern of the boat, with the boat's wake and the setting sun behind them. The final shot of the sequence, from behind the boat, shows it sailing forward towards the setting sun. The sun (or the boat) has changed location by 180 degrees.
During the flight over the desert, Aquaman and Mera appear in a DHC-4 or Caribou. In the real aircraft, the cockpit is above the cargo floor level; the pilot wouldn't be able to see his passengers the way it is shown in the movie. Also, the cockpit is much smaller than depicted in the movie.
It's all very well to have Atlantean armies riding on the backs of giant seahorses, but even so these unusually shaped fish would not neigh like horses do.
The flares Arthur and Mera use do not work underwater.
When Arthur and Mera are fleeing Atlantis Arthur yells "Bogies on our 6" meaning hostiles behind them. The term for a confirmed hostile aircraft is "Bandit", "Bogey" is the term for an unknown aircraft, one that is shooting at you is definitely hostile. However, given that Arthur has no military experience, he would most likely only know lingo from TV/Movies which often use this mistake in their dialogue.
When Aquaman raises the sub it can be seen that it was rising faster than the air bubbles it was creating, therefore it couldn't safely adjust to the change in atmospheric pressure. When he ripped opened the hatch, he would have instantly decompressed the sub giving everyone on board the bends, if not kill them outright.
The hijacked Russian submarine appears to be an Akula class. This class has 8 torpedo tubes but fires at least 9. Reloading torpedoes takes several minutes.
During the submarine fight scene, Jesse fires a 40mm grenade at Aquaman. The barrel of the launcher is rifled, imparting spin to the grenade for stability and arming. The action is in slow motion and the grenade is obviously not spinning. These grenades have a kill radius of 16 ft (5 m) and a casualty radius of 427 ft (130 m) which puts both Jesse and Manta in harm's way.
When Arthur and Mera enter the Kingdom of the Deserts, they do so via a secret passage from the desert, which is seen to consist of sand dunes stretching across the horizon as far as the eyes can see. The Kingdom itself, though, while set below the desert ground, is lit at several places by light coming from above, such as from cave-ins. Either the light from above wouldn't be possible due to the sand covering the whole cave system, or the cave-ins would have provided several entry points to the underground Kingdom that would have been hard to miss.
When Arthur is on the boat, recovering from his wounds, and has donned his shirt, there is a hanger mark on the right shoulder that "pokes up". The costumer should have pressed it out before the actor put it on. It disappears as the camera angle changes from front to back.
It's never explained how Mera got the unconscious Arthur onto the boat.
Apparently in Atlantean lingo, any long-handled weapon with multiple prongs is called a "trident," regardless of whether it has the "proper" number of three tines, or five as Atlanna's does.
The ancient peoples are described as not knowing the world is round, but in fact, even in ancient Greek culture, such was the knowledge and philosophical assumption on aesthetic grounds, since a sphere is the most perfect shape. This was reinforced by empirical evidence from lunar eclipses, and changes in the night sky when travelling south - then Eratosthenes used angles of shadows cast at noon to correctly calculate a circumference of about 25,000 miles.
If Arthur is impervious to "land made" metals, how did he get the scar above his left eye or, for that matter, get tattooed? During his youth Arthur was being trained by Vulko and Vulko was possibly the one who provided the Atlantean metal to give Arthur his first tattoo. While the scar is the actor Jason Momoa's actual scar from previous incident, Arthur could've received the scar from another Atlantean metal during his training.
When Queen Atlanna has her first view of the surface world, she acts like the cliche "ignorant savage," stabbing a television as if it's a foul demon. But she's from a world which is advanced beyond anything the modern world has yet produced. A 1980's-level television should be as primitive and unremarkable to her as Thomas A. Edison's original phonograph is to modern humans, but she may be suffering from judgmental impairment from her injuries, and thus not in her right mind.
The movie shows the characters meeting in a shipwreck which has the regular, "fish tank" look: greenish wood covered in barnacles, complete hulls and masts and ragged sails. While it looks good, wooden ships do not preserve well underwater. Any wrecks of sailing ships would be a bit more than rotten timber strewn in the sea floor, unless the wreck is recent, and thus still in the early stages of decay. The wreck could be a modern reproduction of an early-period sailing ship.
In the 1985 segment of the movie, when discussing names for the baby, Tom suggests "Arthur" after hearing about the current hurricane Arthur on the radio. In 1985 the "A" named hurricane was Ana, in 1986 it was Andrew. Arthur wasn't used as a storm name until 2014. But that is in our universe. In the DC Extended Universe, where history is not quite the same as ours, apparently the hurricane was named Arthur.
Mera has the ability to control water, so when attacked in the town, why not control the water in the suits to rip them apart?
Black Manta's plasma weapon could blow up a rock formation and melt steel but Arthur's clothes are intact after taking a direct hit from it.
In the trench Mera creates a pocket. At depth there is no air to fill the pocket so she and Arthur should have been in a vacuum.
It's never explained how Arthur and Mera find human clothes, and find and pay for a pilot to fly them to the Sahara.
When Orm is explaining his plan to Arthur in the lava ring, there's a fly crawling down his neck that then swoops up to the corner of his mouth.
At the climax of one of the fights between Arthur and Orm, the crowd celebrates looking down while both fighters are above them.
After their initial meeting, Tom Curry hands Queen Atlanna a hot steaming mug of tea. Tom's mug is empty, and the steam seen is CGI.
The tsunami scene happens at night when Tom should be manning the lighthouse, not out and about with Arthur.
The Sahara Desert has been a desert for 2-7 million years. Rome was founded in 753 BC. There is no way a message from "before the Sahara was a desert" could refer to a statue of Romulus erected in Sicily, which itself was not under Roman control until 241 BC.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs
When Arthur meets his long lost mother, she says to him you're a hero. She has been alone at the core of the Earth since Arthur was a child. How would she know anything about his heroic exploits?
Black Manta has two cannon balls connected to a chain wrapped around his neck ("courtesy" of Arthur) as he goes over the cliff (getting bounced off its jagged edges along the way) before hitting the water. If the fall didn't kill him, the weight around his neck would have, yet he is found floating on a wood plank, his only injury being his mask is split open.

Aquaman Movie (2018) Interesting Facts, Mistakes

Useful External Links

Aquaman Movie on Wikipedia

Aquaman Movie on IMDB