Factual error: When the bodies wash up on Miami beach, they do a live remote report from the beach. However, the TV station truck that they are riding in is a regular truck that is not equipped with the satellite dish and extension pole necessary to send a live feed back to the station. They had nothing more than a shoulder camera with a wire running from it.
Factual error: The geography throughout the film is all wrong. The setting is in Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. The driving times between there and Williamsport are extremely under-estimated. Most egregious is the river structure. The body is found in the river near Sunbury. Not possible from a site in Western PA. Basically all relationships between actual towns/cities mentioned are totally wrong.
Factual error: When Kara is sitting up on the bed after Einon throws her down, you can see she is wearing a bra. They didn't have bras in Medieval England.
Factual error: In the beginning the guy shooting pool gives a CD to Richard Gere, he says that the song they were listening to is the fourth song when in fact it's the first song on the album.
Factual error: Jamie and Steve catch a bus from Thamesmead to Greenwich ... at the wrong side of the road. (00:59:10)
Factual error: Jerry Falwell and Charles Keating never knew each other personally in real life.
Factual error: On the final hole, the shot that Roy "has" to make is hit perfectly the first time. For some unknown reason, it spins backward off the green. This is patently impossible with a 3-wood. The club just doesn't allow it, and any golfer on the face of the earth knows it. This scene should have been shot with a long iron, a 2 or 3 iron, which is still very hard to hit, but at least possible (for a pro) to put enough spin to back it up.
Factual error: At the start of the movie Amy and her mother Alaine are in a car accident near Auckland, New Zealand. The ambulance is a US or Canadian ambulance, as New Zealand ambulances do not have the word paramedic on the side.
Factual error: When Smith shoots the first man with his twin .45s, the man flies back about 30-40 feet. In reality, he might fall back a foot or two, but he certainly wouldn't be propelled anywhere by simple bullets.
Factual error: In the bank robbery scene the signs in the teller windows say FIDC. The correct abbreviation is FDIC.
Factual error: A cigarette cannot ignite petroleum fumes as it does not burn hot enough. This is a common mistake found in a lot of movies.
Factual error: When the band are playing "March of the Cobblers" at Saddleworth, Andy (tenor horn) and Harry (euphonium) are heard playing the main tune of the march. In real life however, these two instruments do not play the tune, they have separate parts for the accompaniment.
Factual error: After the fight in "Joe's", Michael, Frank, Huey, and Dorothy were arrested on multiple charges and confined in the same jail cell plus the dog was also allowed to stay with them. The police officer shut off the lights and left the arrestees alone overnight in the cell; a jail would have officers/staff present at all times. (00:50:19)
Factual error: In one scene, the guys are playing what they say is NHL 94 on the Sega Genesis. One person comments that fighting was removed and you could make player's heads' bleed. This is inaccurate, because fighting and bleeding were both removed in NHL 94. Secondly, the bleeding and fighting were in the game they were playing: NHLPA Hockey '93.
Factual error: Carousel was not playing on Broadway in 1996, when the movie is set. We see an outside shot of the Carousel marquee on Broadway with the mayor inside watching a full scale production. A U.S. National tour with a scaled-down production began in February 1996 in Houston and closed in May 1997 in Providence, Rhode Island.
Factual error: When the policemen enter the hotel room to arrest Begbie, who is trashing the place, they are wearing Scottish-style flat check-band police caps. But this scene is set in London, and in the early 1980s (when the film and book are set) the Metropolitan police all wore the famous 'bobby' tall black helmets.
Factual error: When Gotti is outside kicking over trash cans while the surveillance photos are being taken, a series of 1990s vans are seen driving down the street, though the scene takes place in the 1970s.