Factual error: When Frank knocks out the Umpire and begins to change into his clothes, the umpire is wearing white underwear. All umpires wear black in case the seat of their pants rip so the game can continue.
Factual error: The picture of Eddie and Teddy on the road with dad, supposedly taken in 1906, shows a Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey circus poster. In 1906, the Ringling Brothers circus and the Barnum & Bailey circus were two separate circuses playing in different parts of the country. They did not combine the two shows until 1919. (00:27:00)
Factual error: The cops try to get in the building by cutting some metal part of the door, it might be the lock. All they have to do is break the glass. SWAT teams aren't going to worry about a bit of property damage with hostages' lives on the line.
Factual error: In the opening game of the movie the announcers at the ball park are referring to the visiting team as the Peninsula White Sox. The team shown on the field is the Hagerstown Suns. (00:07:00)
Factual error: At one point in the movie the sun is behind the helicopter and we can see that the places for the missiles are empty. However, he's shooting right after that.
Factual error: In a flashback to his youth, one of the bullies is wearing a Bartles and James T-shirt, which is a product that didn't exist in the early 70's.
Factual error: During Gavin Grey's first NFL game in 1957, the helmets depicted for both the Washington Redskins and Pittsburgh Steelers are historically inaccurate. The Redskins did not employ the burgundy helmets with the feather-stripe running along the center until 1958, and the Steelers didn't use black helmets with the Steelmark logo until 1963. In 1957, the Redskins used solid gold helmets while the Steelers used yellow helmets with a black stripe along the center and black numerals on either side.
Factual error: Although the film is set in 1962, it uses the song "You Don't Own Me" which wasn't released until 1963 (and didn't become a big hit until 1964).
Factual error: The F-16 in the movie is wearing a desert camouflage, this is the standard camouflage of the Israel's air force F-16 while the USAF F-16 have two tonalities of grey.
Factual error: When Billy The Kid is taking a bath and dictating a letter to Doc, intended for the governor, he says he is in the Mexican village of Juarez. This town was actually named "Paso del Norte" at the time, it wasn't until 10 years after the events depicted in the film that it was renamed "Ciudad Juarez."
Factual error: In the movie Dian touches hands with the silverback Digit. In reality Digit was a young male and not a silverback. The gorilla she touched hands with was not Digit but one called Peanuts.
Factual error: Buster Franklin's bass player is playing a MusicMan StingRay bass, even though they didn't appear on the market until 1976. The guitar isn't from the fifties either, but I can't make out what it is. (02:12:30 - 02:14:50)
Factual error: At the end, when Cyndi Lauper touches the glowing pyramid, goes into a trance, and starts translating the inscription, Jeff Goldblum pulls her off and she doesn't finish it. One of the bad guys says that what Cyndi already said will be enough to help him decode the rest and that it's just a matter of "cartography" now. He should have said "cryptography" (skill of decoding secret writings) and not "cartography" (which has to do with making maps).
Factual error: When Bruce and Patricia are in a lift after being chased by the cars in the garage, the lift rapidly descends but the two people in the lift are seen struggling on the floor when they should just about be on the ceiling due to the speed of the lift's descent.
Factual error: When Charlie is driving over a bridge into Cincinnati he is driving on the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge connecting Covington, KY to Cincinnati. It shows the bridge as a one way heading north. It is actually a two way bridge.
Factual error: When Jack is trying to buy the bus tickets, the bus company employee tells him that his credit card was cancelled. Credit card companies do not divulge that type of information, they simply indicate whether the requested charge is accepted or denied.
Factual error: The pizza parlor's big break comes when the Fireside Gourmet features them on his TV show. Leaving aside the unbelievability of a gourmet restaurant critic visiting a pizza parlor, he appears as himself on his TV shows. Food critics always dine anonymously so that the restaurant can't give them any special treatment. (Movies love to mess this up.) In addition, when they watch his review, he's barely spat out the name of the restaurant when the phone already starts ringing. Barely enough time to dial the phone, let alone look the restaurant up in Information as most would have needed to do for this little-known place.
Factual error: Ivan Danko's police uniform is a combination of at least six different uniforms. His hat is a Moscow Commander's Special and he also wears a Parade Band Musician axelbant.
Factual error: The sequence showing the moon is incorrect as it shows the Moon as it looks from the northern hemisphere. It should be inverted.
Factual error: The movie takes place during the year 1919. Yet before one of the World Series games the stadium announcer requests that everyone stand up to sing "the national anthem". The US did not have a national anthem until the 1930's when Frankin D. Rosevelt signed into law the Star Spangled Banner as the nation anthem.
Suggested correction: According to Ken Burn's "Baseball", Burns and Ward verify that "The Star Spangled Banner" was sung at a baseball game in 1918 to support the efforts of American Troops in WWI- in which players like Ty Cobb, George Sistler, and Christy Mathewson all fought.
The mistake is saying the announcer called it the national anthem, not that they sung "The Star Spangled Banner."