Factual error: When Brendan Fraser & his son are running to reach the pyramid before the sun hits it, the sunrise line approaches the pyramid along the ground, but the sun would naturally have hit the pyramid at the top first and worked its way down to the ground. [Some people insist on trying to correct this - think of it this way. If the sun's illuminating the ground from way up in the sky, what's keeping something higher up than the ground in darkness?] (01:34:40)
Suggested correction: Despite the additional comments this posting is wrong. The terminator line - the distinct boundary between sunlit day and dark night - moves horizontally across the surface of the earth, from east to west. It is perfectly feasible for the land behind Rick (i.e. to the east) to be in bright sunlight while the pyramid - to the west - is still in darkness. What is not feasible is anyone outrunning the terminator line, which moves at around 1500 kmh in the latitudes they are in.
Try it for yourself - get a round object, such as a basketball, a map tack and a flashlight. As you shine the flashlight on the ball you will see the equivalent of the day/night terminator line. Now stick the map tack into the ball and slowly rotate the ball with the light still shining on it. As it moves, the terminator moves and the map tack will become illuminated before the surface of the ball at the base of the tack. The light will move down from the top of the tack. The only way it would work as shown in the movie is if everything is exactly flat - with no differences in altitude above the ground. Obviously that is not the case. (Of course, if you don't want to poke holes in your basketball, you can use any combination of something round and something to stick to it.)
The original post is correct. Because of its sheer height, the top of the pyramid would receive direct sunlight first, just as a mountaintop receives sunlight before it appears on level ground.
It is perfectly possible for a mountain to be in complete darkness and the low lying land nearby to be brightly sunlit if the mountain is to the west and has not yet been reached by the terminator line. I repeat, the terminator line moves horizontally (in all practical terms) across the surface of the earth and as a result anything west of the line will be in darkness regardless of its height and will stay that way until the line reaches it.
Look, you're talking about mountains miles away beyond the terminator (so far away that they would be beyond the range of sight anyway). We are talking about a pyramid, easily the tallest thing in the immediate vicinity, in the near background, only a mile away at most. Under the physical conditions and locations present in this film, the pyramid should be illuminated top-down. Period.
Factual error: The hat that Brad Pitt wears in the 1985 scenes is a Padres hat with navy, orange and white as the colours. In 1985, the Padres' colors were brown and yellow. The color change didn't come until late 80's or early 90's.
Factual error: There is no way a 2001 phone's tiny speaker could be heard a hundred meters away in the belly of a dinosaur or later buried in a mound of dino dung.
Factual error: When the map of the German advance is shown, Switzerland is shown to be taken over. Switzerland was never invaded by the Germans. (00:05:10)
Suggested correction: It doesn't show German advances. It shows the German influence over Europe, symbolizing it covers all of Europe and then expanded towards the East. Italy was never conquered by the Germans either yet it was part of the axis and is shown being covered by black. Switzerland, though neutral, was fully surrounded by the Axis and their influence played heavily upon the country. Its a very crude simulation.
Suggested correction: It does not show the German advancement in true historical order, but more like a red shadow that expands across Europe in a steady pace. And just as the camera starts zooming in on Stalingrad, you can see a small sliver of red starting to spread on the south-eastern coast of Norway.
Factual error: As the kidnapper is watching TV, we hear a news anchor describing the kidnapped child. She is described as 12 years old, 3 ft. 5 in. tall, and 52 pounds. This is the size of a child half this age. A 12 year old of this size would be freakishly small, which this character is not. And as we see her throughout the movie, she is easily approaching 5 feet tall and in the 70 - 80 pound range. (00:13:30)
Factual error: When Hannibal calls Clarice and gives her 3 seconds to change the battery on the phone, it is possible to change the battery in 3 seconds but you would have to turn the phone back on and let it initialize which would make the whole process take longer than 3 seconds. (01:33:17)
Suggested correction: Please provide evidence, including the make, model, and duration of the initialization process of the phone, to substantiate this statement. It's not known from the information available that it isn't possible to hot swap the battery, meaning it's quite possible in 3 seconds.
Tell you what, why don't you give us all the make and model of phone which can be turned off, have its battery replaced, and then boot back up again, in 3 seconds. It's not remotely possible on any phone, old or new. Anyone who was using cellphones in the era this phone was made knows it, or indeed now for that matter.
Factual error: If Owen Wilson is under a dead body, how could any thermal radiation leak through the cold dead body covering him so the satellite (plus the Admiral and aides) could see him the whole time? (00:54:10)
Factual error: Worms are not created in AutoCAD. Ever. Period. Does not happen, cannot happen. Building design work and the like is done in AutoCAD. Viruses and worms are coded out by hand or created with a generator by slackers that don't know the code and then compiled into executables.
Factual error: When the kids are getting hit from behind by the truck, cut to a side shot of them in the car, the boy's body moves forward, while the girl's body is more properly propelled in a backward motion relative to the car. This happens several times.
Factual error: J-Lo plays a Chicago cop, but in the very first scene you can see the CN Tower in the background, obviously shot in Toronto. The tower is seen again in the background later in the movie.
Factual error: During the custody hearing, the Maryland flag in the courtroom is upside down. The rule for a Maryland flag is "black and gold, top of the pole," this flag has the red symbol at the top.
Factual error: The movie is supposed to take place over the course of a single summer. In one section of the film, Bobby is reading a story about VP Nixon's recent Presidential nomination, which took place in 1960. Later, he is reading a story of Maury Wills base stealing record, which occurred in 1962. (00:25:00)
Factual error: The picture of the brakeline leaking is actually a fuel filter. The car would run out of gas. It would not have brake problems.
Factual error: Just after TK gets the gun for Yulaw, who is pretending to be Gabe, she sees the real Gabe out the window. It cuts to him crouching behind a fence, with his dog in front of him. The dog has its back to the camera, and is facing Gabe while sitting down. Here, they dubbed over a sound of a dog growling to make it more suspenseful. But that part is entirely wrong. One, it is Gabe's own dog, who in a previous scene was happy to see Gabe and wagging his tail. He would not be growling at his master in such a manner at this point. The dog is also sitting down in a relaxed posture. If the dog was actually growling at him in such a threatening manor, it would not be sitting down, but standing and head lowered. (00:56:00)
Factual error: During the first race a square plate on the floor falls off Brian's Eclipse. The Mitsubishi Eclipse is a unibody car; the frame and body are built as one solid piece, and it does not have floor pans. While some racers might put a steel plate in the interior as a finishing piece, it would be cosmetic only and not part of the vehicle's structure.
Factual error: When Jackie and Chris are at the Casino. Chris goes to play craps and throws $100,000 down for chips. The croupier give Chris two stacks of 20 $500 chips, which equates to only $20,000. (01:01:35)
Suggested correction: He wasn't really focusing on how much money he threw. Carter was creating a distraction for Lee so the Security would not see him sneak in to find the plates.
Factual error: The customs warehouse guards are carrying guns. Canadian custom guards do not carry guns at any time.
Factual error: When there's a fight on the cabriolet between Jackie and one of the two bandits - when the car smashes into the fuel truck, the fighting bandit somehow flies backwards where according to the laws of inertia he should have flown forwards.
Factual error: In the scene when Clooney and Damon are rappelling down the shaft on steel cables, the come up short of the floor. They pull knives and swipe the cables. No knife would be able to cut a steel cable with one swipe.
Suggested correction: The cable is actually small enough gauge to be severed by a sharp knife when under the amount of tension created by the (static) suspended loads, i.e. Linus and Danny, although if so, it probably should have broken when their dynamic descent was halted so abruptly.
Cables would be left swinging, therefore setting off the alarm sensors.
They were retracted after they were cut. There's enough time for that to happen.
Factual error: Although you'd have to actually live in Boise to catch the myriad of differences from the movie town, the most glaring is that the movie Boise appears to be a lush rainforest, like Vancouver or Seattle. The real Boise is strictly desert, and you won't find those green interstate medians anywhere near here.