Factual error: The whole basis of the trial and conviction of Cameron Poe is a crock. The judge can not arbitrarily mete out a sentence that is harsher based on the ability of someone to defend him/herself. In justifying the harsher sentence because of Poe's military skills, the judge effectively says that Poe is more guilty than an average person due to his honorable and decorated service in uniform to his country. In my entire time in law school, I never read one out of the literally hundreds of cases I was assigned in which a judge issued a harsher sentence because of someone's innate or learned abilities to defend themselves. But since this was a movie court room proceeding, the fact that Poe had a witness to the fight (his wife), the fact that he was injured in the fight, and the fact that his uniform was torn and otherwise ruined as a result of the fight are never examined. A D.A. wouldn't have taken this to a grand jury on a bet, because they would have never returned an indictment or "true bill."
Factual error: The Russians stopped using steam locomotives in the 1970's. So bringing one out of retirement in 1997 to haul nuclear warheads would mean that your highly secret nuclear train would be well known among rail enthusiasts for weeks before.
Factual error: During the first battle with an Anaconda, the 55-gallon fuel drums lashed to the deck of the riverboat are swept over the side, where they sink to the bottom of the river. This plot device drives the rest of the movie, since the boat must make a dangerous detour through "Anaconda country." There is just one small problem with this: Fuel drums full of diesel fuel or gasoline float on water. The fuel in them makes them buoyant. It would have been a simple matter for someone to get a rope or a boathook and retrieve the fuel drums before they floated away.
Factual error: The plastic explosive used on the cockpit door was C-4. When shot (as shown), C-4 does not explode; it requires the use of a detonator.
Suggested correction: You can see him applying a detonator prior to him shooting it.
If he applied a blasting cap (detonator) he should have used it then. Just putting a detonator into C-4 doesn't all the sudden make it vulnerable to being shot, he would have to actually hit the blasting cap's wire, which is about 5mm thick and relatively short (and it would have to be one that's sensitive to gunfire). Not a very probable shot, even less so when he doesn't even look when he shoots.
Factual error: Just before Declan and the Jackal start shooting at each other in the subway tunnel, one of the trains starts coming from the opposite direction and begins passing Declan. This train continues to pass him at full speed for a full 35-40 seconds while they shoot it out. Subway trains are not nearly long enough for that. Also, during this time another train comes from behind him and he has to get between them and hold onto the light for a few seconds while they pass. But the second train then passes first while the first one passes fully about 2 seconds after the second one came... and it got there first, by about 15-20 seconds. Subway lines are about the same length as each other as well. But the first one was way longer and way wrong. (01:49:30 - 01:50:05)
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: As Bond is preparing for the HALO skydive, he is warned that he has to freefall for 5 miles, and without oxygen, he will be asphyxiated. However, he jumps from a non-pressurized aircraft. Surely, when the back hatch opened, the other people standing around would either also start to suffocate or be sucked out.
Factual error: In one scene they attempt to divert the ship by manually activating the ship's bowthruster. A thruster is a propeller in a transverse direction. This allows the ship to turn more efficiently when docking. However the thruster loses any efficiency above approximately 5 knots. In the film they use it at 17 knots. Secondly, a thruster is powered by an electric motor of at least 500 kW, yet they manage to turn it by hand. That handle does not exist in real life, and no one would be able to turn it anyway.
Factual error: Charles and Robert manage to outrun a charging Alaskan brown bear over a course of several hundred meters, leading it into a trap. This is absurd. The absolute maximum running speed of a human being is about 27 kilometers an hour, and that is for an appropriately dressed, fit athlete over a very short course on flat ground. They are in a rock strewn stream and are wearing heavy winter clothes. A fit, healthy, active male Alaskan brown bear like the one chasing them could hit 45 kmh in that environment without popping a sweat and could keep that up for a kilometer or more. When enraged or charging prey - as this one was - they have been clocked at 56kmh. This is nothing to do with an adrenaline rush - that will not enable Charles or Robert to exceed their body's maximum running speed by 200%.
Factual error: In the shot where the lady passenger boards the Upper Deck to take her seat, she boards through an aft-facing straight staircase, located at the rear of the cabin. On the 747-200, which they were flying, the majority were equipped with circular staircases, and a few equipped with the aft-facing straight staircases, but in both cases, they were located in the front of the cabin, no exceptions.
Factual error: David Egan's obituary says he died on 'Wednesday July 5th 1997'. In 1997, July 5th was a Saturday. (00:45:30)
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: Towards the middle of the film,Pacino and Depp are walking downtown, there is alot of traffic and some of the cars are "post 1978" model . One in particular caught my eye, which was a mid-80's Ford Taurus (even the model of the car didn't exist in 1978).
Factual error: Near the beginning, when the Russian Delta-class sub is locking US cities as potential targets for nuclear missiles, Boston is one of the cities that appears in Russian on the computer screen. However, the way it is written is wrong (it starts with B, the Cyrillic character for V not B, so it appears as Voston).
Factual error: Why is there a stellar observatory in the middle of a very large city, most of the stars would be drowned out by the city lights to the point of the observatory being useless. Also, the dome is very high up on top of a "building". Such buildings need to flex a little bit in the wind to keep them from breaking, this would make it impossible for the telescope to focus on anything for a timed exposure of film to make those neat pictures of galaxies and such. (00:35:20)
Factual error: The volcanic lava in this movie moves incredibly fast in the subway line. This is not only inaccurate, but also ridiculous and unnecessary. Volcanic lava can possibly move faster when in a concealed area that insulates it, but insulated lava cannot move that fast.
Factual error: The movie theater ticker says it's Monday, April 12th, 1997 - but the 12th was on a Saturday. (00:00:20)
Factual error: In the scene where Lt. Exley arrives at the Night Owl after the murder, the patrol officer is wearing a Safariland velcro-fastened handcuff case on his left hip. That style of rounded cuff case was not introduced until the early to mid 70s.
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.