Factual error: Even though this film is set in 1965, Burlington Northern locomotives can be seen. The railroad was formed in 1970. Also, an EMD GP40-2 can be seen at the beginning of the film, but the first ones were built in 1972.
Factual error: At the end of the movie WOPR tries to crack the launch-code using brute force. So far so good. When WOPR finds out one digit of the 10 digit code, the first digit locks and the search goes on with the remaining 9 digits. Then he finds the second one, it locks too and so on. Problem is, brute force doesn't work that way. It would be too easy (26 letters and 10 numbers = only 36 possibilities for one digit). Brute-Force works only "all or nothing", you can't sneak your way to the whole code one by one.
Factual error: Chuck Yeager's sidekick, Jack Ridley, appears in many key events which occurred after 1957, including the climactic 1963 test flight of the NF-104 plane that Yeager ejects from and is picked up by Ridley. Jack Ridley actually died in 1957, when the aircraft he was co-piloting crashed into a mountain in Japan.
Factual error: Jack lives in suburban Detroit, yet there are palm trees along the streets.
Factual error: When we first see Fatima Blush, she is waterskiing. She is doing several stunts, which are only possible with one ski, the most notable being skiing backwards with one foot in the air. However, when she releases the tow rope and skis up the ramp into James Bond's arms, she is on two skis. (00:45:55)
Factual error: Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson both live in River Oaks (very ritzy neighborhood in Houston) and are traveling to Brennans restaurant in downtown Houston maybe 5-10 miles away - but they go by way of Galveston which is about 45 miles south of Houston - which needless to say is way way out of the way... (00:50:40)
Factual error: When Stefen leads the Ampipe team onto the field to play Walnut Heights, they run out onto the Point Stadium field. The locker room they come from is at the Johnstown Vocational and Technical school, which is in Richland Township. The Point Stadium is in downtown Johnstown.
Factual error: When Christine is about to crush Moochie you see the car is a few inches wider than the entrance to the loading dock. Even a small box truck that you can rent is 7'3" wide so that opening would have to be wider than that for the truck to back in. A 1958 Plymouth Fury is only 6'6" wide. Christine would have had plenty of room to just drive in and crush Moochie. (01:45:45)
Suggested correction: Just to the side there is a sign saying fork lift loading area. A fork lift is much narrower than a truck or a car.
Not disagreeing that a forklift couldn't go down there but @ 1:05:28 you see DANGER spray painted on the right in yellow on the bricks. Below that you see a yellow sign with black letters that say FORKLIFT AREA. Does not say "loading area." Also notice the black rubber bumper that goes across the entire length of the loading dock. That is there to cushion the trailer or box truck when it touches the loading dock. Then the yellow black yellow bumper that goes around the inside of the area is there to protect the building when the driver is backing up with either a trailer or a box truck.
Factual error: Cochrane chases Murphy in a Hughes 500 which has a top speed of 147 mph and easily keeps up with him, demonstrating that Blue Thunder's top speed is less than 150 mph. The F-16s sent after Blue Thunder have a stall speed of 175 mph. They would have to slow down to the point of falling out of the sky to have a shot at Murphy. Its utterly impractical and far more likely that the military would have sent AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters after him.
Suggested correction: Not necessarily. The F16 (and other fast movers) can and do engage slow moving helos all the time. They just engage them by missile from a long distance, where speeds are irrelevant.
I'm no expert, but I wouldn't think the US Military keeps helicopter crews on Alert Status like they do for fighters. This film was during the Cold War, so maybe, but it wouldn't make sense to keep an attack helicopter crew (and ground crew) on Alert like they would for fighter jets. Even after 9/11, I wouldn't think a (armed) helicopter crew would be beneficial to keep.
Factual error: Karen points out to Thelma that she should have given a nasal swab (to detect internal contamination) after being 'cooked', yet on both occasions when Karen is being scrubbed after being contaminated she has blisters all over her face - something which should be avoided when performing decontamination as this can allow contamination to enter the body.
Factual error: When asked by the Princeton interviewer what he plans to major in, Joel replies "business." Princeton does not offer an undergraduate degree in business.
Factual error: During the huge thunderstorm which causes the fire you can see that it's actually a bright, sunny day with only a mild overcast. Several times you can see the sky in the shots and though sometimes lightning bolts are visible there are only a few light clouds on an otherwise blue sky.
Factual error: In the shot of the start of the race at Agua Caliente - some of the horses in the line up are wearing ring head bridles (an Australian stock horse type bridle) - it would be unlikely that these American horses would be racing in such bridles.
Factual error: Alex is racing his bicycle across a bridge over the Detroit River on the way to the stadium. The bridge is the one leading from the Detroit mainland to Belle Isle, an island park, where there is no residential area.
Factual error: Star shuriken, despite common misconception, are not inherently deadly weapons. They were mostly used for distraction, since their lack of a single weighted point makes their attack rather inefficient (although the weapon could be coated with poison). Although it is possible to hit an eye, it is very difficult to hit such a small target or scoring a sufficiently deep wound to penetrate to the brain with a star shuriken.
Factual error: SAC's airborne command post is shown in several scenes. Problem is, while there is such an aircraft, it is not a KC-135 Stratotanker, which is what is shown.
Factual error: In the final gun battle at the end of the film, Harry shoots the last bad guy so he falls off a high spot on the roller coaster and through the roof, into the carousel building. Yet as the credits roll, there is an aerial shot and you can see the carousel building at the left of the screen, with no hole in the roof. Also, the carousel building and the roller coaster are about 200 yards apart.
Factual error: When the coroners are taking Betty Johnson's corpse on a stretcher, her head is uncovered. They cover the heads of corpses. The head is only uncovered if the patient is alive. (00:12:35)
Factual error: When the milk tanker detaches from the truck hauling all of the side lights remain lit. The lights are powered from the truck through cables that would definitely disconnect in this scenario. (00:08:10 - 00:09:00)
Factual error: I don't know of any court system in the U.S. that will allow a person, teenager or not, to get into shootouts, steal a car, and maliciously run over/kill someone while fleeing a crime, and all they get is time in a juvenile detention center because they're underage. Whether you're a teen or not, if you commit crimes like that, you get tried as an adult, no exceptions, which means prison.