Factual error: Carol Danvers' name appears on her dog tags as "Carol Danvers," but US military dog tags list the surname first, then given name. E.g. "Danvers, Carol."
Factual error: In the yard scene when Dewey tries to change the switch, the throttle lever slips from idle to full power. This would not have been possible. Throttle levers are notched, and require significant force to move.
Factual error: After the Missouri knocks the shield down, the admiral orders all aircraft launched, but the flight deck is shown in sailing transport mode, not flight readiness. It would have taken an hour or more to clear the deck and launch.
Factual error: Towards the end of the movie, two characters finally make it to a Louisiana sheriff's office. The sign out front reads, "Vierge County." There are no counties in Louisiana, only parishes.
Factual error: Dutch police cars don't look like they do in the movie, with their blue and white checkerboard pattern. They had blue and orange diagonal stripes on the side. In this movie, they look much closer to what British police cars look like.
Factual error: The United States Air Force does NOT, ever, allow its pilots to box competitively! Ground staff, yes; pilots, no, never. A pilot can be suspended from flying if he/she receives a blow to the head in day-to-day life; boxing is right out. Almost all air forces (the RAF included) impose this rule.
Factual error: No electricity, yet the washer is running.
Factual error: During the gun battle, Gary Cooper runs behind a building that has an air-conditioner or swamp cooler installed in a second-floor window. (01:17:30)
Factual error: In the scene where Admiral Kimmel is inspecting the crew of the battleship an aide comes up with a message to send some ships to the Atlantic. Admiral Kimmel starts complaining about the orders. No Admiral would ever do this especially in front of enlisted men. In fact he was placed in charge of the Pacific fleet when his predecessor complained about moving the fleet from San Diego to Pearl Harbor.
Factual error: Federal institutions have strict rules for inmates or patients based on the reason for their incarceration, including substituting metal utensils with safer plastic ones. Despite being convicted of brutally killing his family, Myers is still trusted with a sharp metal fork - resulting in the nurse's death.
Factual error: Twice in the movie a Jumbo Jet (a Boeing 747) from Pan Am appears. The movie is set in 1969, when that plane had its maiden journey, but it wasn't flown commercially until 1970.
Factual error: When performing CPR on Elena, Robert doesn't tilt her head back. As a former firefighter, he would know one of the first steps of CPR is to tilt the victim's head back to clear the airway. His rhythm is also way off.
Suggested correction: Tilting the head back to clear the airway isn't practised any more, due to exacerbating possible neck/spinal injuries. Instead, one would do a chin lift to clear the airway. But alas, he didn't do that either.
Paramedic here. The head tilt-chin lift is absolutely still practised today and is definitely our go to manoeuvre for CPR. You're thinking of the jaw thrust manoeuvre where we do it when we suspect spinal injury, which Elena did not have.
Former Volunteer First Responder and Ambulance driver part-time but also volunteer here. It actually depends on the SOP of the company in which you serve. Liability purpose has us practising caution in otherwise duty-to-act scenarios. While you are always to remain either Red Cross or American Heart certified in CPR, ALS guidelines and SOPs still govern the practice in which you are performing and can be effected by the decisions of your local Medical Director, but I digress.
Factual error: In the final scene, where Fonda and Holbrook are looking over the carrier at the crowds on the dock, you can see that only the first rows of people are dressed in period clothes. The rest of the crowd are dressed as they would have been in 1976 when the film was made. Also, between them in the background is a yellow Ford Pinto.
Factual error: When Dracula is about to bite the neck of his female assistant you can plainly see him in her vanity mirror and as all good horror fans know, you can't see a vampire in a mirror, especially Dracula.
Factual error: The poem Isolde recites, John Donne's "The Good-Morrow", is a 17th-century work, which is centuries later than the movie's time period.
Factual error: In one scene they are playing on an Xbox 360, but the Xbox 360 did not come out until 2005, and the game being played, Gears of War, wasn't released until 2006. The movie takes place in 2004.
Factual error: Tom Hanks is driving his car over a bridge in downtown Chicago in 1931. In the background is the elevated train structure. An aluminum bodied train passes on the trestel in the background. This aluminum bodied train is of 1980's contruction. In the 1930's the train cars were of wood construction and painted brown. They were still in service in the 1950's.
Factual error: In the first scene where Dr Strange is preparing for surgery he uses improper surgical gowning technique breaking aseptic protocols. Strange puts on a mask after washing his hands, contaminating his clean hands by bringing them in proximity to the non-sterile environment of his face. Surgical masks must be worn before the full washing of hands. Another error is that he inserted his hands all the way through his gown to don gloves. Hands must never leave the sleeves and gloves must be put on with the sleeves still covering.
Factual error: When Sandra Bullock and George Clooney manage to get to the ISS, she gets entangled with some ropes and manages to grab Clooney's safety rope. Clooney's speed should be very close to Bullocks' and the ISS', hence. The parachute ropes should be able to withhold the forces of deceleration (the mass of two people is very small, compared to Soyus or ISS), so no more pulling or having to sacrifice himself... This is due to the fact that there's no drag in space to constantly change Clooney's velocity (revert to Newton's First Law).
Suggested correction: The parachute ropes are of course strong enough to hold the relatively low kinetic energy of the drifting astronauts, but that is not the reason why Clooney detaches. The rope is not attached firmly to Bullocks' leg. There are some loops loosely wrapped around her leg, and while both astronauts are still drifting away from the ISS (seen in a shot a few seconds earlier), those loops slip away from the foot one by one. Before the last loop slips away from the foot, untethering and condemning both astronauts, Clooney detaches himself to lessen the kinetec energy that pulls on the rope by reducing the total mass of the "system of two astronauts", so that there is a better chance that the last loop will remain attached to Bullock.
Once Clooney had stop moving all that would have been need was a slight pull from Bullock to pull him towards her. The momentum was lost when he stopped moving. So no need to cut himself loose.
It all happens in free fall. As soon as the cord withstood inertia resulting from George's body mass pulling on it, George would bounce back towards Sandra. The entire scene was completely unrealistic.
Clooney stopped moving in relation to Bullock. But both were still moving in relation to the ISS (look at the scene again; there is a wide shot that establishes this), with both their masses pulling on the parachute cords, straining the tenuous connection of the cords looped around Bullock's foot. To lessen the strain, Clooney detaches itself from the two-astronaut-system, reducing the mass and kinetic energy pulling on the cords.
Clooney and Bullock - when they were connected to each other - never actually stopped moving in relation to the ISS.
Actually parachute cords can withstand hundreds of pounds of force, making them very difficult to snap.
The danger wasn't the ropes snapping, the danger was that they would slip off her foot, and they would both be lost to space.
Factual error: The story is set in 1976. "Funkytown" is used in the movie and the end titles. The song was not released until 1980.
Suggested correction: It's a non issue, it was a massive international naval exercise, Good chance of more than one carrier participating. In fact, every picture of an actual rimpac exercise has multiple carriers visible. Just because 1 carrier isn't in flight readiness mode doesn't mean that others aren't. Might explain why he ordered every plane in the air but there's what? Only 3 that actually save Mighty Mo.
True there may been more carriers but you are being attacked and invaded no flag officer would leave his deck cluttered they would be at battle stations for sure.
Blooddog35