Factual error: In beginning scene with the shark, it growls when it sees Lara. C'mon, how many sharks actually growl? (00:14:15)
Factual error: After Stephen Maturin comes back with a small portion of findings from the Galapagos Islands, he presents a stick insect to Captain Aubrey, but stick insects (Phasmids) don't exist in the Galapagos Islands. (01:41:20)
Factual error: In the scene where the Learjet takes off the jet starts to roll. Then there is the shooting with the SWAT team, towards the end of the shooting the pilot pushes the power levers forward to accelerate. Regarding the short take off run they had on the bridge, the pilot would have stayed on the brakes until the engines were at full thrust, then released the brakes, started rolling and wouldn't touch the power levers until after liftoff or in emergency.
Factual error: After the cops respond to the domestic disturbance (son hitting mom), we see the male officer get in the back with the boy to show him the crime scene photos and he shuts the door after getting in. Police cars are designed so that the back doors must be opened from outside, however, he exited the car with no help. (00:21:00)
Suggested correction: Police cars just use the child safety lock on the side of door that prevents the back door being opened from inside. It's simple to turn them off so the doors can be opened from the inside.
Factual error: Catus Decianus actually managed to escape from the massacre at Camulodunum and fled to Gaul.
Factual error: Cody mentions the coordinates of the Cascade Mountains as: Long: 44 degrees 5' 2" Lat: -104 degrees 24' 8". There is no such thing as -104° latitude. The maximum in the northern hemisphere is +90° (the North Pole) and the maximum in the Southern Hemisphere is -90° (South Pole).
Factual error: Gollum's body wouldn't sink into the lava if he fell in it as shown in the movie. Rather his body would burst into flames, and turn to ash. Falling in lava isn't like falling into a lake. Lava is more than three times denser than water, which prevents a human shaped body from sinking in.
Suggested correction: This movie is set in an entirely fictional universe, which is not supposed to fully reflect realism.
This is true, but nowhere in the trilogy is it suggested that this universe doesn't follow the basic laws of physics. For example, throughout the films, fire behaves like fire, water behaves like water, etc.
The mere existence of dragons, who would not be able to fly due to their size, the ability of people to resurrect from death, Frodo and Bilbo disappearing when they put on the ring, etc., would seem to discount that.
That's apples and oranges. You pick as examples extraordinary magical beasts and spells to infer that, therefore, any rule of physics can be casually disregarded during any interaction "because magic exists." The fictional world has to follow basic common sense rules so that it can violate them deliberately in a meaningful way using magic and the likes.
Also People CAN'T Walk on Snow Like Legolas Does.
Gollum was holding the ring when he fell into the lava until he disappeared. The ring enhances the natural powers of its bearer (like all rings of power) and gives them longer life. It's possible it manages to prevent the bearer's death for as long as possible, within the limits of its own power to do so. Possibly, this was also in an attempt to save itself from the lava. Also, Gollum could have been sinking because he was holding the ring too, as the ring was being pulled under, taking Gollum with it.
Factual error: Lots of liberties are taken with the geography of downtown Portland. For example, at one point Bonham is standing on a fountain looking around and, from his point of view, you see two MAX trains on a slope going past a parking lot. Those two points are about a mile apart and there is definitely not line of sight between them because most of downtown Portland is in the way. (01:07:40)
Factual error: In the final fight scene, you hear members of the SEAL team yelling "Grenade!" before chucking a grenade. They are supposed to yell "Frag out!" as yelling out "grenade!" is a warning of incoming enemy grenades.
Factual error: There is one scene in the movie where Heath Ledger reads a Latin sentence in a book. As he is translating the sentence, he goes over the words one by one with his finger. This would never be possible in a Latin sentence, because words in Latin are never - I repeat: never - in exactly the same order as in English. Words that actually belong together can be placed on opposite ends of a sentence.
Factual error: At the beginning of the movie, Robert E. Lee addresses Francis P. Blair as 'General' once. Blair however was never a general and in fact never held any military rank.
Factual error: When Antonio Banderas gets shot with the dart in the forehead there are two reasons why that wouldn't work - 1) There isn't any muscle tissue and the skin is too thin for the dart to stick most likely. 2) The tranquilizer would never take effect that quick unless it was injected into a muscle where the blood supply is greater. (00:53:55)
Factual error: The monkeys that are threatening The Rock when he is hanging in the trees are baboons which are native to Africa, not to the Americas. In a magazine interview about the movie The Rock mentions "howler monkeys" (which are from South America)
Factual error: If they used Liquid Nitrogen to freeze the safe door and crack it open, they would certainly not have opened the door by pulling on it with bare hands/flimsy leather gloves, without leaving half of the skin on their hands behind. (00:09:30 - 00:10:40)
Factual error: Unless Marion has a ridiculously large front room, the guns should have come down as he was blasting the zombie with the shotgun.
Factual error: When Hank and Charlie first arrive at the warehouse that is being robbed, they shine their spotlight on the opened door. They are shining it through a gate with bars. But in the shots showing the light on the door, there are now shadows cast by the gate. (00:02:25)
Factual error: The storm that causes the plane to crash has supposedly also created a tsunami, which is headed for the island that the main characters are on. They claim to have "four or five" hours until it arrives. First of all, tsunamis aren't caused by storms. Additionally, when the "tsunami" is shown out at sea, it appears as a giant wave that overturns a cruise ship. In reality, tsunamis don't crest like that until they get close to land. Out at sea, a tsunami can pass right under a ship and the passengers would never know it.
Factual error: In the opening scene, the German soldiers are searching the Americans. They remove a package of Lucky Strike cigarettes from one of the Americans. This package has the red circle against the green background. Green ink was stopped in 1942 because it uses chromium for green pigment which was necessary for war production of steel. Slogan "Lucky Strike Greens Has Gone to War" was a big advertisement in 1942 with introduction of white background on package.
Factual error: When Michael Douglas and the girl have just taken off in the plane, someone shoots at them with a machine gun. But the person is behind the aircraft, not at the side and so it would be impossible for the bullets to crack the side window.
Factual error: In the scene where Brian, Rome and the other guys are racing to the impound lot, Brian whips his Evo around and starts driving backwards. He would be going pretty slow in reverse so the other guys should have past him do to the fact that they where doing over 100 mph beforehand according to the FBI's GPS. (00:30:55)