Factual error: Big Ben is heard to strike in 1804, fifty years before it was built.
Continuity mistake: When the priest is waving the handkerchief, the fabric changes from covered in blood to spotless.
Continuity mistake: When the Prime Minister is preparing to make his golf swing, his shawl is alternately bunched up and then spread out smoothly.
Continuity mistake: As Michael leaves after being fired and Chuck returns to the office, the clocks in the newsroom read drastically different times in each shot, even going backward through time at one point.
Factual error: In the ambush-on-the-prison scene, one of the Boers is equipped with a Lee-Enfield CLLE Charger-Loading Rifle. Although the Boers used many captured Lee-Enfield and Lee-Metford rifles, the CLLE's weren't even developed until the Boer War had ended.
Factual error: In a scene in a bar the music playing is Blur's Song 2, which wasn't released until 1998 and a Kula Shaker song which wasn't released until 1996, by which time Nick Leeson was firmly in prison.
Continuity mistake: In a head-on shot, where Adolf Eichmann is the main character in the shot, he is shown lighting a cigarette, fully, and lowering his lighter. In the very next shot, he is shown from a side angle as a background character and again has the lighter to his cigarette, and lowers it, although it had already been lit in the previous shot.
Continuity mistake: When Hemeda is getting dressed in the presence of Nour El Sherif, he changes from being in his underwear to fully dressed in a complicated costume in a few seconds.
Factual error: The construction of Hadrian's Wall as shown at the end of the film is not historically accurate. A wooden wall was constructed first with a deep ditch on either side. One of the ditches should be visible as the characters approach the wall but it is not. The stone wall shown being constructed was not added until later and then it was constructed in sections. It did not become a continuous stone wall until some years later. In addition, the stone wall shown is not wide enough. Hadrian's Wall is around 2 meters wide at the top and even today you can comfortably walk on top of it.
Factual error: In a scene that is twenty-eight minutes into the movie, one of the characters is seen running up to check out a new Cadillac that had been given to him by the owner of Chess Records. A 'super' appears at the bottom of the screen which reads "1952" in order to set the chronological time. Only problem is, the Cadillac is a 1956 model. Any old car buff, particularly one like myself who writes a weekly column for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, would know in a heartbeat that this car was four years ahead of the year indicated on the screen. Bruce Kunz, a.k.a. "The FIN MAN"tm www.thefinman.com. (00:28:20 - 00:29:15)
Factual error: Prince Albert was not really wounded in the assassination attempt depicted near the end of the film. Eyewitness accounts differed as to whether he pushed Victoria down to protect her or simply dived for cover himself, but neither of the two bullets fired struck either of them.
Continuity mistake: Watch for the varying hairstyle of Mrs Brady in the scene in which Rachel comes to complain to her that her husband is a fake.
Continuity mistake: Just before Secretariat's first race, the main characters are discussing tactics in the parade ring. In the background is a jockey in pink and gold colours standing by his horse. When the shot changes angles he is mounted and being led out onto the race track. This means that he would have only taken one second to mount and travel a distance of about 10 meters. A couple of shots later he suddenly appears again, but this time he is being led into the saddling-up area, even though the jockey is already on board.
Revealing mistake: When Corporal Bin's group of men eventually arrive at Dunkirk, they speak to a soldier adding sandbags to a Vicker's gun position. Here (and later on in the film when it is shown firing) it has a blank-firing adaptor prominently fitted to the front. Additionally the belt of ammunition shown going through it is filled with blanks - no bullets project outside the other side to that of the actual cartridge cases.
Continuity mistake: When Shane first gets into Studio 54, he is told to take his shirt off. He pulls it over the top of his head. Then he walks in holding it and even though he never unbuttons it, it is somehow unbuttoned when he puts it on again.
Factual error: During the scene where Captian Less finds out his father was sent to Auschwitz by Eichmann, one of the maps on the wall displays a map of Europe. The map, however, is incorrect, and is a modern day map as opposed to how a map would have looked in 1961. At the time, the Czech Republic and Slovakia didn't exist as separate entities, Germany was not unified, Yugoslavia was yet to dissolve and Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Moldova would not have appeared as separate states. (00:43:45 - 00:45:35)
Factual error: When Einstein is crossing a bridge on his way to the university, two German flags (black-red-gold) are flanking the bridge. The scene is set in 1914, so it should instead be the 'German Reichsflagge' which is black-white-red. Only after WW I, in August 1919, was the black-red-golden flag officially used to represent Germany. (00:38:50)
Factual error: The system devised to get the height right was, in the film, said to have been thought of by the 617 Sqn crews following a visit to the theater. In reality it was devised by the 'boffins' at Farnborough.
Suggested correction: See many previously posted 'mistakes' of this type and the standard correction: this is not a documentary and never pretended to be. It is a war drama and many facts were changed to fit the action.
Those correction are often made in fallacy. Dramas based on historical accounts have liberty to change small or inconsequential things, like adding a person that may have never existed, or change a relationship for dramatic purposes. Despite not being a documentary, unless it's a fantasy film, changes in historical facts are mistakes (for example, a drama can't have the Eiffel Tower in London just because it's not a documentary).
Suggested correction: This was the version given in Brickhill's book. The real story wasn't published till many years after the film was made.
Continuity mistake: Byron walks towards the maid and surrounds her waist with his arm. From the angle behind, he is repeating all previous movements.
Visible crew/equipment: In the second episode as Geli takes out her bike, with a Hitler painting. You can than see a modern yellow jacket worn by the director an film crew standing in shot. All on the left of the car, before the camera pans into Geli for a close up. (00:13:50)