Factual error: The mobile phone which Ordell (Samuel L. Jackson) uses in the film is the Motorola StarTac, which was made during 1997. During the movie Michael Keaton says in his tape recorder : "date, July, 1st 1995....", telling us the film's set in 1995.
Factual error: When Wesley Snipes, Diane Lane and Dennis Miller are climbing through the sewer system to get to the White House, Lane looks up and says that they must be under the National Mall because there's Pennsylvania Avenue. That is incorrect. The National Mall is located behind the White House. Pennsylvania Avenue is the street in front. They do not intersect.
Factual error: John Cusack arrives in Grosse Pointe, Michigan and drives through the downtown area while we hear Minnie Driver's voice-over. He not only passes some storefronts at least twice, but one of the storefronts has a large yellow and brown awning reading "Monrovia Beauty Supply," which is located in Monrovia, California.
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: There is a chase through the Archives-Navy Memorial station on the Washington, D.C. Metro, but the station looks nothing like the real one and the trains don't look like the trains on the DC Metro.
Factual error: When Quinn and Yaz jump out of the little sportplane, they use his little ball-parachute thingy. When it opens they just fall out. No foam, no stuffings. Nothing. Technically, they would have been smashed like bugs into the ground.
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: During the scene where Charlie's thug, Lo, is in the street with the homeless man and his "busket", Lo gets angry at him, pulls his Glock out and rakes the slide to chamber a round. However, in the next shots of Lo we see his Glock with the slide still back even though it should have returned to the closed position.
Factual error: Insurance companies are not allowed to file bankruptcy. The government would bail them out.
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 the scene where Priest fires at Spawn from the balcony, a magazine can be seen sticking out of the bottom of Spawn's P90. This reveals it is a fake P90 shell on an Ingram Model 10. The P90 has a clear magazine that sits on the top of the weapon.
Factual error: When the beast itself moves, it bounds, but the sound effects make it sound as though the beast is running.
Factual error: Near the end of the trial, Gere is trying to remember what the murdered girl was saying over the phone and only gets out a few words in Chinese, "Wo Men De" which means "Our". His lawyer fills in the entire rest of the sentence with, "Wo Men De Guan Xi Wan Le," which means "Our relationship is over." How could she know exactly what the girl said on the phone, and how could the judge allow her to put words in Richard Gere's mouth?
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: The sirens on French ambulances have two distinct tones, not a single oscillating one.
Factual error: Tom lays down on the couch and turns on the (off-camera) TV, only for his wife to immediately tell him they're out of milk. The audio from the TV is someone talking about a NY Rangers hockey game, as they mention (Jeff) Beukeboom and (Mike) Richter. The film is set in 1992, but the TV says Beukeboom has just scored his 7th goal of the season. The problem is Beukeboom only scored 7 goals once: in 1994 (two years after the movie takes place). And the TV says the goal was unassisted; but the lone time Beukeboom scored his 7th goal of a season, it was assisted by Mark Messier and Mike Gartner. (00:32:20)
Factual error: I seriously doubt that any police detective would single-handedly go and question any suspects alone. By themselves, at least two or three officers will be present when going to any address of a suspect for questioning, in case of a dangerous encounter.
Factual error: The U.S. military would never get involved in any civilian criminal apprehension in the USA - that's what federal and local authorities are for.
Factual error: In early scenes, Lieutenant Commander Ramirez is wearing insignia for Lieutenant, not Lieutenant Commander. Later scenes have him wearing the correct insignia.