Factual error: When it says that in 2 nights the moon will hide (New Moon) but the image that shows the moon is in waxing crescent phase, when it must be in waning crescent. (01:09:30)
Factual error: Throughout the entire scene in the police car chase, the slushy on the windscreen seems to have a host of problems. For starters the slushy is covered completely over the windscreen. Franco was hit and the slushy landed on the windscreen. Unless it was poured evenly down, it would spread out from where it hit. It could cover a good area of the screen, just not the entire screen. The next problem is the density of it. Certainly it could cover much of the screen but it's primarily ice and liquid. The substance would slide down the windshield and dry up. The fact they are driving so fast, swerving around etc., would mean the substance wouldn't likely stay stuck to the windows. Even if it had a good deal of time to stick, it would be near impossible. Finally the windshield in many shots appears to be in blotches like a painting. Again, the substance is not paint, it was spilt on and was only one substance. The substance might be more concentrated where it hit, but it would be less concentrated in other locations.
Factual error: When we see the car John C Reilly is driving in, coming from Quebec, we see a license plate on the front of the car. Quebec does not have license plates on the front of its cars.
Factual error: At the resolution of the movie when Filkins is sent back to Hong Kong, in the shot there is a banner written in Hiragana (one of the Japanese alphabets), not Chinese.
Factual error: When Moto Moto and Gloria were digging for water, they threw all the jewels and gold into a pile. The gold in the basket would weigh more than 1200 pounds. Also, real gold comes fused to other rock and rarely in pure form.
Factual error: After Tigress tells the backstory of Tai Lung the scene transitions from her being a cub to an adult. Young Tigress' stripes don't match the pattern of Adult Tigress. Tiger stripes don't change with age.
Factual error: The basketball rims used in the movie are of the modern basketball era with "breakaway" rims. Such a rim was not used until after 1979, when Darryl Dawkins broke his first backboard in a game against the Kansas City Kings in November 1979.
Factual error: When Marley runs on the field during the Marlins' Bark at the Park night, the stadium scoreboard can be seen briefly behind him and John. "WAS" (Washington) is listed as one of the teams playing a game that night, despite the fact that Washington did not have a team before 2004 and the film takes place in the early 90s.
Factual error: Breast pumps need a tight seal in order to work and would NOT stick to Kate's sweater as seen.
Factual error: After punching an opposing hockey player, Deacon is sent to the penalty box. Goalies are never sent to the box; they are assessed penalty minutes, and their time is served by a teammate.
Factual error: When Kendall is about to implode the school, the demolition practices are completely unfeasible. The school would be completely gutted, with all glass, copper, and plumbing removed (the building simply looks cleaned out a bit); additionally, significant structural damage would be intentionally introduced to weaken the internal support (every wall is largely cored); further, the school building and/or surrounding buildings would be sealed in tarps to minimize damage spread; finally, the crowd of protesters and onlookers would be at least a quarter-mile away. Even given this is a bit of a fairy-tale story, the demolition techniques are completely incorrect on several levels.
Factual error: In scenes apparently in Japan, all the cars drive on the right side of the road. In actuality, the Japanese drive on the left side of the road.
Factual error: In the scene when ADD is first leaving to go on tour, they drive past the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the bus driver announces, "On your left..." The shot of the museum as they drive by is the front. The road going by this way dead ends; there would be no way for them to get on the highway or a surface road. (Look on Google Maps. They are on East 9th Street going northwest.)
Factual error: The layout of the Cox's house doesn't make sense. The house is an end-terrace - stairs on the right side (from the front). The stairs rise to the back, and perform a 180 degree turn. The first door on the left is the Cox's bedroom. The wall opposite to the bedroom door would be a solid wall - the partition wall to the neighbouring terrace. Instead it has a well lit window.
Factual error: In the scene where., we see George Bush's speech writers in the final stage of writing the speech, we see a shot of a man working on a computer. The operating system seen on the computer screen is Mac OSX 10.4 Tiger which was released in 2005. The year this scene happened in as noted at the beginning of the scene is 2003.
Factual error: In the Monday morning shots of New York in the beginning of the film, there is a shot of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline behind it. If this were actually morning, the sun would be behind the camera (East), but it appears to be behind the buildings (West) making this an evening shot. The Circle Line tour boat also goes by, which would not be in service at sunrise.
Factual error: The rocket that little Tran fired at the helicopter towards the climax travels much too slowly. Peck would not have had time to react to it if it moved at a proper speed, much less throw a heavy mechanical device through the air to intercept.
Factual error: When Troy calls to Gabriela from the rooftop, the clock on the school's facade reads about 7:46, but the sun is almost directly overhead. There's no way it's quarter to eight in the morning.
Factual error: When Nick leaves from his home in New Jersey to play a gig with his band in New York City, an exterior shot shows his car traveling on the multi-lane ramp that serves the Lincoln Tunnel. On this ramp, vehicles must be heading into the tunnel toward NYC, or exiting the tunnel from NYC. Nick's car is shown arriving from NYC into New Jersey- the wrong direction.
Factual error: Harry is supposed to have loaded his gun with expanding bullets before shooting Ray. Then the bullets are supposed to have gone through Ray, causing minimal damage, before blowing Jimmy the dwarf's head off. In reality, the bullets would have expanded upon impact with Ray, tearing up his torso and certainly killing him after the number of shots that he took. If any bullet fragments were to escape and hit Jimmy, they would not have caused the kind of damage depicted.