Character mistake: During the movie's opening credits, Sara is shown auditioning for Juilliard, which is misspelled as "Julliard" on a sign outside the room where the audition is occurring.
Character mistake: In the opening scenes when Brian goes back to the shop, he demands that he needs some nitrous to boost his low top speed. Well I'm sure that most tuners will agree that more horsepower doesn't equal more top speed, it only contributes IF you have a transmission that can handle it and distribute it. (00:09:53)
Character mistake: When Wood is telling Harry the rules of Quidditch he says that if you catch the Snitch the game is over, which is true. But then he also says that which ever seeker catches the snitch, their team wins, but that isn't true. Granted that the 150 extra points probably would give you the winning lead, but as JKR pointed out in the 4th book at the Quidditch World Cup, you can catch the Snitch but lose the match. And you'd think explaining the rules to a first-timer you would want to get it right. (01:05:40)
Suggested correction: The team whose "seeker" catches the "snitch" would win in over 90% of matches. At this point, in the film and the book, while Harry Potter has discovered that Quidditch is popular in the wizarding world, he knows nothing about the rules or how to play. Oliver Wood is giving Harry Potter his very first introduction to Quidditch. So maybe it is acceptable for Oliver Wood to give a general overview of how Quidditch works, rather than outline every nuance and detail of every game ever played.
Character mistake: When Jimmy explains to the kids of the town where the aliens took their parents, he mentions the origin of the aliens being somewhere in the Orion Star System, 3 million light years away. The Orion system is way closer than that. It is actually less than 1400 light years away from Earth. 3 million light years away would place them further than the Andromeda Galaxy.
Suggested correction: This shouldn't be a character mistake. A genius like Jimmy would know something like this. It's basic astronomy.
That's exactly why it's a character mistake. A character mistake is when a character does or says something that they shouldn't based on who/what they are suppose to be, or something a character wrongly states as fact when they should know better.
Character mistake: The first law class scene involves Reese Witherspoon getting kicked out of the room for being unprepared to answer questions regarding Gordon v. Steele, a very basic Civil Procedure case. The scene closes with the professor asking Selma Blair about the result in Gordon v. Steele. She responds that the court held that there was not diversity jurisdiction. The professor replies that Selma is correct. But, this is entirely the wrong answer. The court in that case held that there was diversity jurisdiction. Merely getting a case wrong would seem trivial, but again this is literally the first case any law student studies in Civil Procedure, a first year class. How could a screenwriter get this basic case completely wrong?
Character mistake: In the build-up to the final race, a TV commentator says, "Jimmy Bly starting in the 26th pole position because he didn't qualify today." This makes no sense, as Bly cannot be starting from both 26th place and from pole. (01:36:37)
Character mistake: At the FBI facility, Agent 11's handler buckles the collar on the dog's neck. Later, when Gordon has put the collar on and tries to get it off, he's trying to pry it off. He just buckled it on not two minutes earlier. He's stupid, but not that stupid.
Character mistake: When Rianna introduces Marvin to the animals at the shelter, she says, "We have macaws," and then shows him Cosmo, saying, "My friend Cosmo is a parrot." This does not make sense because "parrot" is a broad group of several bird species, including both Cosmo and the macaws. Cosmo appears to be a type of Conure.
Character mistake: When Col. Winter has Yates brought in to see him, Yates tells the colonel that his father won the "Congressional" Medal of Honor. This is a mistake, and one a lot of people make. The award is correctly and simply called the Medal of Honor, and one doesn't "win" the medal, it's awarded. (01:21:10)
Character mistake: When threatening Evelyn with jail, the Army Signals officer says "Brig" which would be a Navy jail. In the Army the appropriate threat of incarceration would be the stockade.
Character mistake: The acronym USGS (United States Geological Survey) is stated correctly at the beginning of the film, however, upon arriving at the military outpost, Dr Block says "United States Geological Society", not 'Survey'.
Character mistake: Near the end, Iris's doctor attempts to take John's pulse. He has his hand wrapped around John's hand, his fingers nowhere near the top of the wrist, where the artery is; and as he counts the "beats", against his wristwatch, John talks to him and he talks back - when you are counting something, you can not talk at the same time; you lose count every time.
Character mistake: When they find a Suicine, they ask Oak and he says it's a Swecon.
Suggested correction: I watched the film, and Professor Oak pronounces Suicune's name correctly.
Character mistake: Joe Dirt mistakenly refers to his 1967 Plymouth GTX as a Road Runner while talking to Jill at the carnival.
Character mistake: At end when Jake has the 1911 single action automatic covering Alonzo, it is not cocked. Since the 1911 is single action, he can't fire it until he cocks it which he does just before he shoots him in the butt. Makes no sense not to have it cocked the whole time he has it trained on Alonzo.
Character mistake: Cross knows (for some reason) by memory the last words of the Lindbergh kid kidnapper (and killer) and that Soneji/Mercusio referenced in a book he finds in amazingly oblique ways. He calls him "Richard Bruno Hauptmann", while his name was actually Bruno Richard Hauptmann. (00:42:30)
Character mistake: When Mike pulls out the first Scare Report, the word "yield" is spelled wrong.
Character mistake: It sounds like the person who called him on the cell is not a secretary but also Cameron Diaz pretending to be a secretary. The same voice. (00:07:12)
Character mistake: When Ramathorn and Farva pullover the Plymouth Voyager, Ramathorn radios in and says they have a Plymouth Voyager, Vermont plates Alpha, God, Mustard, 1, niner, decade, china. When Farva gets out of the car to call the driver a chicken f**ker, you can see the licence plate, Vermont plate '1 9415'. Ramathorn radioed in the wrong licence plate number.