Character mistake: When airport control makes the call to "change the boards" to delayed, Auckland (New Zealand) is spelled Aukland.
Character mistake: Arthur (who knew him) says that Cary Grant was from Surrey and Iris (who is from Surrey) agrees with him. Cary Grant was actually from Bristol.
Character mistake: When Kevin is shooting the toys off the laundry chute with Buzz's BB gun, he's looking through the scope with his closed eye.
Character mistake: When Mr Maddens is talking to the critic at the Mayor's reception, he calls him Alan. The character is actually called Patrick Burns, Alan is the actor's name.
Character mistake: Towards the end of the movie when Tim Allen is on the roof and the fire squad is called. One of the firemen carrying the ladder accidentally hits a man in the head with it.
Character mistake: When Rocky makes his speech after his fight with Drago, he says that it's better that one person fights another instead of a million fighting a million (a US USSR war). The Russian translator misinterprets his speech and says that this is better than a million dollars. You don't have to understand Russian (although I do) to hear the translator says million dollars to confirm this blunder of a mistake. (01:22:25)
Character mistake: When Wallace and Davis start performing together, they show the newspaper "Variety" with five different headlines. Three of those papers have the same story, "Old Trooper Dies."
Character mistake: Clark has too many lights on his house causing the city to go dark. There is a scene where the power plant needs to boost their output. There is a close-up of a guy flipping the switch. Look at the way they spelled auxiliary - auxilliary. (00:37:54)
Character mistake: When Jamie is first speaking to Aurelia, he says "molto bueno", which the housekeeper woman tells him is Spanish. 'Molto' is actually Italian. (00:38:30)
Character mistake: At the beginning Sally follows Jack at the end of the Halloween celebration where he sings "Jack's Lament." She then goes off to gather more deadly nightshade. Look at Sally when she sits down. It is in front of a stone labeled "witch hazel" and "deadly nightshade" is seen next to it on the right. Yet, Sally pulls two pieces of witch hazel out of the ground, before a quick cut back to the lab where we see her putting it in a jar marked "nightshade".
Character mistake: An unloaded automatic pistol is much lighter and balanced differently than a loaded one. When McClane hands "Bill Clay" (Gruber) the empty pistol, a terrorist of Gruber's credentials should pick up on the odd balance (I notice that difference, and I very rarely even pick up a gun).
Suggested correction: This presumes that a person can notice the difference between a fully-loaded pistol versus a pistol that is empty, which makes sense. However, it would be much more difficult for a person to tell that a gun is completely empty versus one that only has one or two bullets loaded. Since Gruber has no way of knowing his ruse didn't work, he doesn't believe McClane would have given him a completely empty gun. He obviously believes there is at the very least one bullet in the gun. He's not planning on getting into a shootout with McClane, he is just planning to threaten him and he certainly doesn't need a fully loaded gun to do that.
Suggested correction: It's easy to tell the different between the weight of a loaded vs. unloaded pistol, but given Hans had never held the pistol before, he had no way to compare the weight. Unless he regularly handled that particular model of pistol (unlikely, given his pistol is a completely different make and model) he would have no point of reference.
Character mistake: When they deliver Xmas presents to Denmark it's already too late - Denmark has the presents on the 24th, early in the evening.
Character mistake: In the scene where Kris's knowledge is being tested, he incorrectly gives the vice president of President John Quincy Adams. Kris states John Quincy Adams' vice president was Daniel D. Thompkins. That's wrong. John Quincy Adams' vice president was John C. Calhoun. Daniel D. Thompkins was the vice president under President James Monroe.
Character mistake: When preparing for the parade, Shellhammer tells Dorey that her Santa is wearing a topcoat and a fedora. Kringle is actually wearing a Homburg, noticeable by the lack of a pinch at the front.
Character mistake: Right after the firefighters have removed Flick's tongue from the flagpole, notice the police officer on the left (Flick's right). He is wearing his sidearm on his right but his Sam Browne cross strap is attached to his belt on his left. The whole point of the cross strap is to support the weight of the sidearm, so the officer is wearing it backwards.
Suggested correction: With exception of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Sam Browne belt shoulder strap is typically worn over the right shoulder and attached to the belt on the left side.
This is correct for military uniforms - once again, the Sam Browne is used to support the weight of a weapon (in the military, this would be an officer's sword, always worn on the left side). However, for police uniforms, the shoulder strap is worn over whichever is the non-dominant shoulder (usually the left). Once again, this is to support the weight of the duty weapon. If you look at agencies such as the Kansas Highway Patrol, New Mexico State Police, and various police honor guards throughout the U.S., you will see that the strap is worn primarily over the left shoulder, since most people are right-handed and therefore would wear a duty weapon on their right side.
Character mistake: During the Nativity play, Pastor Phil says, "Are we ready to see the result of the Immaculate Conception?" The term 'Immaculate Conception' refers to the conception of the Virgin Mary (conceived without Original Sin), not to the conception of Jesus. Furthermore, the Immaculate Conception is a dogma of the Catholic Church, and not something which a Protestant pastor like Phil would believe in.
Suggested correction: The immaculate conception refers to Mary conceiving Jesus. It was Immaculate because she was a virgin carrying God's child. The Virgin birth (Jesus birth) is in the New Testament and every Christian (Protestant and Catholic) believe the story of the Virgin Mary and birth of Jesus.
The Immaculate Conception is indeed the belief that Mary was born without Original Sin (and thus was immaculate, meaning spotless or clean), although some religions teach Mary was born in sin and made immaculate through the Holy Spirit. The birth of Jesus is known as the Virgin Birth (one could even use the phrase "virgin conception.") Immaculate Conception has nothing to do with being born of a virgin.
Character mistake: After Ricky has just killed his girlfriend with the car antenna, he's challenged by a police officer. Officers would never walk right up to someone who have just committed a murder. Police would always order the suspect into a position that presents the least amount of threat and minimal chance of resistance. Grabbing the officer's gun would never had been an option.
Character mistake: Lucy asks the hot dog man for the usual: mustard and Coke. She gets the hot dog but no Coke.
Character mistake: In every scene George is with Mary, she never once wears glasses. However, when he meets her coming from the library after he was never born, she is wearing glasses. George is shown how he has influenced all the people in Bedford Falls over his lifetime, but having Mary's eyesight degrade to the point of needing glasses isn't one of them.
Character mistake: Andy speaks of Billy changing in the two months after he was hired when he was hired in the spring months ago.