Factual error: When you first see Sam he is supposed to be in America, but when you see out of the window as he is leaving, you can see the Gherkin building in London. He is actually in the Lloyd's Building, but to add to the illusion of being in America, he is picked up by a Yellow Cab.
Factual error: Benjamin leaves his family at some point after his daughter's first birthday (1970), and definitely before her second birthday. But a 1973-1977 El Camino is parked in front of their house as he rides away on his motorcycle. (02:24:15)
Factual error: The first day of school is said to be on September 3, 2005. However, Sept. 3, 2005 was actually a Saturday.
Factual error: When we see the impression from the radiator cap that shot into Ian's forehead, it says 'HOT'. Since the word 'HOT' was written correctly on the radiator cap, the word on his forehead should be backwards and read 'TOH', not 'HOT'.
Factual error: When Meryl Streep is walking outside and talking to Mrs. Miller about the potential abuses of her son, you can see a basketball court in the background and on the court is a 3-point line. The movie is supposed to take place in 1964 and the 3 point line wasn't introduced until 1979/1980. (01:10:20)
Factual error: The doctor parks his car under the house before the storm hits. Since the house is on the beach and the wind and water hit the house, there is no way his car would start and be so clean after such a storm.
Factual error: Alex Rover travels from San Francisco in a large plane to Borneo, then a small plane to Rarotonga, then a small boat to Tuvalu, then a helicopter to the Buccaneer cruise ship (located close enough to Nim's Island at 20S-162W for her to row there). My globe shows these places to generally be too far from one another given the particular mode of transport. Borneo and Tuvalu are too far out of the way to fit with this story.
Factual error: In the film, Sgt. Jack Lupino is depicted as a United States Marine Corp Sargent. However, when Max is watching an interview with Lupino it shows him wearing either a Gunnery Sargent or Master Sargent chevrons. Not only that, but the chevrons happen to be upside down. No US Marine would ever make a mistake like that.
Factual error: When Chuck is stapling fliers to the telephone poles, the tree behind Vanessa has changed colors for Fall, but still has a lot of orange leaves. The scene takes place after Christmas. In Pittsburgh, PA, the leaves are long gone by December.
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: In order to detach wagons from the train you have to do more than simply taking off an unsecured lid in the ground and ripping out some cables.
Factual error: The Moon is pushed into a "more elliptical" orbit. When the orbit it shown, it is more eccentric than the Moon's real orbit. However, it is centered directly on the Earth. This violates Kepler's first law of motion, which states that a natural satellite has the primary body at one focus of an elliptical orbit. In other words, the Moon should come much closer to the Earth at one end of the ellipse, and recede very far from it at the other end, rather than receding to the same distance in both directions.
Factual error: The dying colonel opens the bomb bay doors, and drops the "little man" atomic weapon on the island, destroying the flying reptiles. In fact, the bomb and the fusing assemblies were transported to Tinian by separate methods. No one in his right mind would have loaded a FUSED atomic bomb into a B-29 to transport it to Tinian.
Factual error: A woman is shown receiving electroshock treatment ("ECT") in a hospital scene which took place in 1928. Although chemicals were used to induce seizures in psychiatric treatments at the time, the use of electricity for the purpose was not discovered until 1937 and not used in the United States until 1940.
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: The scene that takes place at the Ford release of their 1971 models has two Mustangs driving to the event. The one in front is obviously a 1973.
Factual error: There are Velcro straps holding the pads on the blocking sled, and there is an end zone goal post with one base. Both of these items did not exist until the late 60s.
Factual error: When the soldiers return to HQs, the American flag, hung vertically over the entrance, has the blue field with stars on the right. The flag, when hung vertically, is supposed to have the blue field on the left..
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: All the soldiers that have rolled up sleeves have them rolled up Marine style (with the inside of the sleeve showing) despite being US Army.