Factual error: When Reese Witherspoon's character is sitting at the desk reading, there is a cheerleading trophy and the cheerleader on it is wearing a mini skirt, - they didn't have mini skirts on the cheerleading outfits then. (01:08:20)
Factual error: In the scene where we first meet Rosie, it opens with a shot of the house and then goes inside, passing by some pictures of Rosie and her husband. One of them, a picture of their wedding, says "Frank and Rosie - Wedding 1948", but then when Rosie is talking about how her husband will know how much she still loves him after all those years, Robbie says that he hopes that he and Linda will be as happy as Rosie and her husband on their 50th anniversary. If they got married in 1948, they would be closer to their 40th wedding anniversary. Since the movie is supposed to take place in 1985, this would actually be their 37th wedding anniversary. (00:12:10)
Factual error: During the scene towards the end of the film where Alejandro is chasing Captain Love in the shack with the furnace at the mine, we see a pressure gauge just before the furnace explodes. The unit of measurement on the pressure gauge is shown as kg/cm2. Metric measures were not used in Mexico until eleven years after the film was set, and as California was a part of Mexico at the time, metric measurements would not have been used there.
Factual error: If you have ever actually seen London then you can see that the route Hallie takes to get to the house would take you all around London.
Factual error: Dr. Dolittle is driving through San Francisco with a cup of Dunkin' Donuts coffee - there are no Dunkin' Donuts in San Francisco.
Factual error: The size of the shadow of an object depends upon its distance from the light source, not the surface it falls upon. Lifting the cutout of the bird a few inches closer to the sun as they do would make absolutely no difference to the size of its shadow, yet it quadruples in size.
Factual error: The chiropractor that Ben Stiller's character visits says "Tender fascial tissue left of L7" as he is treating his back. However there are only 5 Lumbar Vertebra in our back, L7 doesn't exist.
Factual error: Even though Pops is in such bad shape that he needs a heart transplant, he isn't hooked up to any monitors or equipment while in the hospital.
Factual error: The locations mentioned in the film are all over the world, including South Africa and Rotterdam. During the car chase through South Africa, it is very clear that all the locations in this car chase are in Rotterdam. For example, at one point the car drives down stairs through a shopping-mall, this is a well-known landmark in Rotterdam. As a matter of fact it is about 1 kilometer from the bridge used in the finale of the movie.
Factual error: Leonardo da Vinci's painting, the Mona Lisa, was originally painted on wood, impossible for it to have been unrolled after taking it out of the canister. Also, if it hadn't been painted on wood, it would have been painted on canvas, which doesn't stay partially rolled after you take it out of a tube of some kind. It would not have been painted on paper. (00:23:55)
Factual error: About 20 minutes in when they are at some ball/dance thing, Shakespeare's talking with a musician holding a lute. You can see fret markers on the fretboard of his lute, but these were not used on instruments until the late 1800's, early 1900's, definitely not in Shakespeare's time. (00:27:20)
Factual error: In the scene when the opposing team's players interrupt the party on the bayou and the knife is pulled, the patches on the sheriff's uniform say County Sheriff. Louisiana has parishes not counties.
Factual error: When Sally is leaving to rescue Gilly from her boyfriend she asks the Aunts to look after her children. The Aunts then say that they will take the children with them to the solstice celebration. A few days later when the cop is interviewing Sally he gives the date as March 8th. There are two solstices each year, one in December and one in June. Since this film takes place in early March, the Aunts could not have been going to a solstice celebration.
Factual error: The movie is set in 1971, but during the start of the motorcycle race several of the bikes are obviously early 90's Honda CR's and Suzuki RM's. You can tell this from the disc brakes on the front wheels of the bikes and the 90's style plastic fenders and bike colors. Bikes in the 70's generally had metal fenders and definitely no front disc brakes.
Factual error: This film takes place in the early 90's. When Walter and the Dude are talking about the toe in the cafe, you can see late model cars driving by on the street, such as a late model Ford Explorer and a Cadilac. This is also evident when the Dude gets kicked out of the cab and a mid '90s Nissan Maxima drives by.
Factual error: When the hitmen shoot out the windshield of the yellow Firebird, it shatters into pieces and falls apart. All DOT windshields have a plastic coating on both sides of the glass so that it remains one big sheet, regardless of the many pieces the glass in-between shatters into. No US windshield in the last 40 years is tempered - they are all coated. Side and back glass are tempered. As for objects poking holes and other "possibilities", watch the film before suggesting things that do not occur in this specific crash.
Factual error: When Cable calls his mother in Phoenix from his desk in Chicago, he only dials seven digits, as if making a local call.
Factual error: At the beginning of the movie, Pecker is at the Washington Monument in Baltimore when he boards the 27 bus to Hampden. The 27 bus does go to Hampden, but the closest it ever comes to the monument is Howard Street, three blocks to the west.
Factual error: For a nurse, Reed Buccholz seems to have very little knowledge of medicine.
Factual error: When Carter is meeting with Clive in a diner car park, as Clive is escaping in a car with a trunk full of C4, Carter starts shooting at the car. It eventually blows up leaving Clive badly injured. The explosion is caused by Carter's bullets reacting with the C4. However, C4 is inert and if a bullet hit it, it wouldn't create an explosion. You could also argue that this explosion was caused by Carter shooting Clive's gas tank, but this is another myth created by Hollywood to please audiences.