Factual error: At the end of River's first fight scene, Simon says a phrase that renders River unconscious. The phrase is "Eta kuram na smekh" and means "This is laughter for chickens", or "This is absurd" in Russian according to Joss Whedon. However, the subtitles on the DVD for the phrase are "(SPEAKING CHINESE)", not "(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)" like they should be. In fact, shouldn't the subtitles just say "это курам на смех"? (00:35:45)
Factual error: Owen's phone is a Nokia 3300 which is one the phones which are designed to be wider rather than taller (like an N-Gage). Throughout the film when Owen speaks on the phone he holds it the wrong way around. He holds it to his right ear with the rounded edge of the phone pointing upwards to the top of his head. Holding it this way would mean he'd have the microphone to his ear and be speaking into the speaker. I noticed this because I have the same phone, obviously the actor was not sure which end was which and guessed, getting it wrong. I noticed this during the scene where he phones the girl that got stood up at her dance.
Factual error: When Bobby turns his truck to beat up Jack you can see the license plate on the back of the truck, It is an Indiana plate, but the one used for passenger cars only. Indiana truck plates are plain white with blue numbers.
Factual error: A helicopter flying over the bank can be seen to have a Canadian registration number (beginning with C). A Seattle news or police helicopter would actually have an American registration number (beginning with N). (00:17:05)
Factual error: In the scene where Caroline finds the conjure record, it is written in ink on the sleeve that it is from "New Iberia Parish". Such a parish does not exist in Louisiana. There is a town called New Iberia, but the parish for that town is Iberia Parish.
Factual error: During the bike chase towards the end, as Cloud and Loz/Yazoo crash through the security gate, you can see that the lettering is misspelled: "Authorized Parsonnel Only." It should read "Authorized Personnel Only."
Factual error: Police do not wait 24 hours to start looking for a possible missing person.
Factual error: In the web chat you can see the term 500 mbps on her streaming. That's far higher than any realistic speed for that time and place, and way above what's needed for web chat anyway. (00:22:50)
Factual error: After falling into the pit of needles, somehow all of the needles in Amanda's skin stay intact and do not break, despite her fall and her rapid digging through them. Very, very unlikely at best. (00:50:50)
Factual error: Gordon Brown is played by an actor who is 6ft 3in, while Tony Blair is played by an actor significantly shorter at 5ft 9in. Tony Blair is in real life fractionally taller than Gordon, at 6ft and 5ft 11in respectively.
Factual error: The DC shore based radio operator mistakenly tells the last known coordinates of SS Poseidon as 28° East longitude and 80° from Greenwich. That is nonsense because both mean longitude. Even though it can be assumed that what she really mean is Latitude: 28 degrees South and Longitude: 80° East from Greenwich, that is still not enough to specify the ship's position as the margin of error is about 400km. (01:25:20)
Factual error: There is no way that the Jack's cigarettes and cigars could have survived being washed up on shore.
Factual error: The trip goes back 65 million years. This is the late Cretaceous period. The Allosaurus was a Jurassic period dinosaur, which became extinct before the beginning of the Cretaceous period. Granted, the Allosaurus was probably the most powerful predator of its time, the events in this movie take place long after the time of the Allosaurus.