Factual error: In at least two scenes, cars from the 1990's can be seen, despite the fact that the film took place two decades earlier. (00:50:00)
Factual error: John Candy is at the top of the Calgary Tower having lunch. In the background you see a building called Bankers Hall which is slightly higher than the Calgary tower, that's fine except this was the 1988 Olympics, that building wasn't completed until late 1990.
Factual error: Princess Isabella was a 13-year-old girl living in France when William Wallace was executed in 1305. She didn't marry Prince Edward until 1308, and the marriage took place in Boulogne, not London.
Factual error: When Loretta and Patsy return from shopping, and Doolittle gets mad about the makeup Loretta is wearing, look closely after they leave Doolittle and you will see a 1965 LeMans among the parked cars. Patsy Cline died in 1963.
Factual error: There's a radio broadcast in 'Men of Honour,' which has Milwaukee playing Brooklyn before Braves actually moved to Wisconsin from Boston in 1953.
Factual error: The von Trapps are shown walking over the border to Switzerland after a short drive out of the centre of town...except Salzburg is about 200km east of Switzerland. If one walked across the border at Salzburg, you'd be entering Germany, which is where (I believe) the people they were trying to get away from lived. Take a look at a map.
Suggested correction: Even though the von Trapps were 200km from the Swiss border, in the last 5 mins, they received a car from the sisters at the convent and the sisters disabled the cars of their pursuers.
Captain Von Trapp was clear, when they were about to hide, that they would drive into the mountains in Salzburg (which the movie did a close up on to show it was those mountains specifically) and walk over them on foot confirming the movie is pretending those are mountains into Switzerland. The director himself admitted this when the real Maria Von Trapp complained of this error. He said "In Hollywood you can make up your own geography."
Factual error: When Eakins returns to the house after he swears an oath to the union. You can see a thermostat on the wall behind him. (01:40:00)
Factual error: Buddy Holly is seen singing 'Cryin', Waitin' Hoping' at the Winter Dance Party. He hadn't actually finished composing this song, never mind recording it as a finished piece of work when he went on his final tour. This song comes from his final recordings 'The Apartment Sessions' which he recorded in New York and was finally released after his death, complete with added backing music and vocals.
Factual error: Alexander's copy of Homer is a codex, or bound book, not invented for another 400 years or much used for 600 years.
Factual error: In the foreground of the Aqaba raid scene, Turks are using a Browning M1919 machine gun, which wasn't yet designed and certainly would not be available to the Turkish Army.
Factual error: When Bob Ford opens the box under the bed, on top is an issue of "The Jesse James Stories" weekly, which was published from 1901-1903 - fully twenty years after the events of this film. (00:36:10)
Factual error: When Nancy goes in a car in London to score drugs there is a political poster stating 'Labour Isn't Working'. This poster was used by the Conservative party in the 1979 general election - Nancy was killed 9 months prior to this election.
Factual error: Warren Beatty refers to the "Hoover Dam" being able to generate the power needed for Las Vegas and his Flamingo casino. The problem is that he supposedly made the comment in 1937. At that time, the "Hoover Dam" was still called "Boulder Dam." It wasn't renamed to honour President Herbert Hoover until about ten years later.
Factual error: In one scene supposedly set in the late '70s (Andy was about to get/just got "Taxi"), Andy is playing Ms. Pac Man. I may be wrong here, but didn't Ms. Pac-Man come out in 1982 or 1983? (00:29:30)
Factual error: When the team is running you can see a new model white Range Rover Sport and a red Honda Civic passing by.
Factual error: When the camera took a shot on a train coming to a station in Czechoslovakia, you can see electric cables above the train tracks. There was no such thing in Czechoslovakia as electrified trains in the 1940's. The electrification started in the 1950's. (00:01:05)
Factual error: George Cornell was killed in March 1966, but before and after the killing you see the Triumph Spitfire Reggie Kray bought for Frances, which carries a 1967 reg plate.
Factual error: USAF is written on the underside of an aircraft's left wing. The U.S. Air Force wasn't created until later. Flight operations were still conducted by the U.S. Army.
Suggested correction: The plane actually has "USAAF" written on the wing: United States Army Air Force.
Factual error: In the final scene where Solomon was reunited with his family, the doors he entered the room through had Edwardian style leadlight glass. The movie was set about 50 years before this style.
Factual error: The way surveying is done is plain stupid. Percy Fawcett sets up a transit in the middle of a thick jungle, Henry Costin stands 10 feet in front of him holding the rod in one hand and a notepad in the other, then Percy looks through the transit and somehow reads the geographic coordinates out of thin air. This scene repeats couple of times during the movie.