Factual error: The geography around the VLA in New Mexico is actually relatively flat - in fact one of the reasons why the array complex is there is because the land is flat. The canyon in the film was actually Canyon de Chelly, in Arizona, more than 170 miles (270 km) away. But in the film, when Ellie goes to the canyon, the radio antennas seem to be right there, insinuating that the canyon is part of the VLA's magical desert scenery.
Factual error: When Roland is walking in the pouring rain and talking about killing the T-Rex, he has his gun slung over his shoulder vertically and barrel-upwards. If you were to do this in real-life in a tropical rainstorm for very long, you would run the risk of water entering the barrel and causing problems with the gun. And as a professional hunter Roland would know better. (01:07:50)
Factual error: Rico lives in Buenos Aires, which has no hills within a couple of hundred miles. The city shown in the film has hills.
Factual error: In the hangar scene when Castor and Archer point their guns at each other, if Castor's gun was really empty the slide would be locked back.
Factual error: Why do the astronauts on Mars and the crew on Earth have the conversations as they do on the phone? A message sent from Earth would take about 20 minutes to arrive at Mars and vice-versa.
Factual error: When Tommy Lee Jones is looking at his wife on the computer, he had typed in Truro (in Cape Cod, Mass.), but when he zoomed in, it was on the lower cape; Truro is located on the upper cape near the tip. (00:58:40)
Factual error: A meteorite strikes a dam, flooding downtown Kansas City. There are no dams on the Missouri River within hundreds of miles of that location. Also, the apparent position of the dam would require the river to be flowing backwards. And downtown Kansas City sits atop a bluff, the flood would have gone elsewhere and not hit there.
Factual error: When D.J. is attacked by Dr. Weir, he is grabbed by the throat and is squeezed until his windpipe is broken, shown by the way he was breathing (or struggling to). When Weir seizes him again and throws him against a support beam, he screams in a way impossible for someone who just had his windpipe crushed.
Suggested correction: Dr. Weir doesn't crush DJ's throat at all. The noises he makes are simply choking noises because he is being picked up by his throat, there isn't even anything in the scene to imply his throat is being crushed, which in reality requires considerably more effort than most people believe.
Factual error: When Vincent and Jerome are at the Gattaca building at night, they watch a rocket launch. The exhaust from a such a rocket would have lit the area around them or at least the nearby mountains bright as day.
Factual error: Simon recovers awfully quick from the effects of hypothermia. In the hidden room, he is shaking like a leaf and can barely speak. Even when the old woman shouts where they are, he still looks a bit out of it. However, once they escape into the underground tunnels, he appears to be in perfect health and shows no signs of discomfort for the rest of the film.
Factual error: In one shot, the camera is on the platform at Tottenham Court Road station, and a sparkling new train rushes in. Wrong type of train - the one used is from the semiautomatic Victoria Line stock. I suppose London Transport must have been too ashamed of their Central and Northern line trains to have allowed them to be filmed.
Factual error: In reality, the normal air pressure of a room (about 14.7 psi) would be nowhere near enough to force the newborn's body out through such a tiny hole.
Factual error: In the scene where Deliverance is showing Mark her dad's hot rod, most of what she says about it is wrong. A rebuilt special edition 428 Hemi? Fuel injection for a 727? If it is a Hemi, it's a four-twenty-SIX and a 727 is a Plymouth transmission. You cannot fuel inject one. (00:43:43)
Suggested correction: She says "enough fuel injection for a 747"