Factual error: When the plane is taking off while the animals are on the runway they duck down hoping it will stop and it becomes airborne shortly before hitting them. In actuality they should have been blown backwards from the jets like ragdolls.
Factual error: After Hardy dies and they're going through his possessions, a football scarf is pulled from his kit bag. The scarf has a Sunderland AFC badge. The film is set in World War II. The badge on the scarf was introduced in the 1970s.
Factual error: When young David and his father show up at Ben Rosen's house, there is a Jewish mezuzah (a handwritten tiny scroll of parchment with a passage from the Bible enclosed in a case) affixed to the doorpost. The position of the mezuzah is incorrect. It should be higher up on the door jamb and the top should be angled towards the house, not the other way round. (00:15:00)
Factual error: In the infamous Highland bus scene, the driver can be seen issuing tickets from a computerised ticketing machine - astonishing really - the film is set in the early 70s.
Factual error: The motor cycle race on two Ducatis: they race from downtown Atlanta to Stone Mountain. They are on a road called Freedom Parkway. It exists primarily to get to and from the Carter Center Library - it doesn't go anywhere beyond that really. In the film they race for miles to Stone Mountain, it's about 45 minutes outside the city, and to get there you have to take three different highways. They arrive on one that doesn't exist.
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: Jamie and Steve catch a bus from Thamesmead to Greenwich ... at the wrong side of the road. (00:59:10)
Factual error: When the cell phones are switched, Melanie's mom asks Jack what his cell is and he says Pennsylvania-something. The old-fashioned system, over a half-century old of having a two-letter denomination for the area or town, such as PA for the area around Penn Station, or LI, for Long Island, is followed by five digits, but Jack gave four digits, so it wouldn't have been an actual phone number.
Suggested correction: Pennsylvania 3317 is the area code. First three numbers are for that area in New York, Then 3317. 10 numbers.
I think it's the New York area code, which for early cell phones in 1996 was most likely 917, then, the area code for all of Pennsylvania in 1996 was 814. I think Jack is saying his number is 814-3317. He wouldn't need to specify the area code since at the time you only included it when dialling out of your own region, or if dialling a mobile number - and the phone Rita's calling would surely have had the same 917 area code as Melanie's, since 917 phones like the star-taks were not yet common.
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: Considering Happy lives on an upper floor, his apartment complex must have the world's fastest elevator. His girlfriend leaves him and is down by the front door in less than 15 seconds.
Factual error: In the wedding scene at the beginning, the new Mrs. Weston is shown wearing a white dress. This was not the convention at that time; white wedding dresses were pioneered by Queen Victoria (1840-1901). The bride would simply have worn her best dress.
Suggested correction: A white dress may very well have been an unmarried lady's best dress at the time, as it was common for young ladies to wear white.
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: A cigarette cannot ignite petroleum fumes as it does not burn hot enough. This is a common mistake found in a lot of movies.