Factual error: When Cattleya escapes through the sewer drain and winds up in front of the U.S. Embassy, she uncovers the manhole all by herself. Impossible for such a young child to do.
Factual error: When Bishop and McKenna are discussing how to kill the preacher, Bishop states that epinephrine and adrenalin are a lethal combination; they are actually two different names for the same thing.
Factual error: Erik arrives in Argentina at a place called Villa Gesell, shown to be a town in middle of mountains. Villa Gesell is a beach town on the Atlantic Ocean coast, with no mountains.
Factual error: In one of the first major scenes where Matt Franklin and Tori Frederking are being introduced at the rental store - there is a shot where you can see the entrance of the store, and there is an electronic article surveillance detector on either side of the entrance to the store. This technology for use in a video rental store (for VHS tapes) did not exist in the 1980s.
Factual error: When the bus slams into Brian's car at the start, Brian's car doesn't move an inch. Given the speed and weight of the bus, Brian's car should have been shunted a good distance. (00:01:45)
Factual error: Passiflora Incarnata doesn't cause the symptoms described in the film. There was one remote incident where some of the symptoms (nausea) occurred but it can only happen if ingested which did not happen in this movie.
Factual error: Major Stewart addresses the Indian NCO as "Sergeant Major" and he is so described in the credits. There was no such rank in the British Indian Army. Indian cavalry sergeants were known as Daffadars. More senior Indian cavalry officers held VCO ranks (Jemadar, Risaldar and Risaldar Major) which had no British equivalent. Given the importance of rank and protocol, it is highly unlikely that a British commissioned officer would be unaware of this.
Factual error: When Beane takes his daughter to look at guitars, she plays and sings Lenka's "The Show", a single which wasn't released until 2009, despite the movie taking place in 2002-2003. (00:42:45 - 00:44:10)
Factual error: At the very beginning Adam is jogging in the Stanley Park in Vancouver, then moments later he is in the middle of Seattle. (00:00:45 - 00:02:00)
Factual error: Just before it shows Ailbileen using her newly built outside bathroom, there is a overview shot of Elizabeth's house. The house has architectural (3 dimensional) shingles installed but according to Nachi.org, these shingles were not introduced to market until the 1970's.
Factual error: Behmen and Felson land on the '"Coast of Styria", which was in Austria, a landlocked country.
Factual error: At the end of the film the apes/monkeys are seen jumping clean through the EXTERIOR windows of a downtown high-rise. I know apes/monkeys are a bit stronger than humans, but this is still is highly unlikely and would not happen so easily. The exterior windows (those from floor to ceiling, or those that replace traditional exterior walls) would be triple plated, like that of a bank partition (think of 3 car windshields glued together) One would have to repeatedly bang on it with a sledgehammer before it would even crack, let along jump clean through. However, jumping through the INTERIOR windows and doors are completely realistic since those would only be double plated.
Factual error: Near the end of the movie, when they go to steal the boat, there is a Puerto Rican flag in the front of the boat. This flag has the royal blue triangle, instead of the light blue that would have been in the 1960's such as all the other big flags used on poles.
Factual error: The Lincoln license plate reads NTGUILTY which is 8 characters. The maximum allowed on a California license plate is 7 characters.
Factual error: In the scene where Nathan and Lily's location is tracked online when chatting, it's evening in the USA and already dark sometime before dinner - yet the tracker calls his boss in London, England and it's daylight. Time-wise this is not possible.
Factual error: The movie takes place in Stamford Connecticut (per locations and is shown on cop cars). Eva buys a bottle of wine in a supermarket, but in CT only beer can be purchased in a supermarket. (00:25:15)
Factual error: In the scene where Jack Black is kneeling over Shirley MacLaine's body in the garage, you can see the outline of his smart phone in his pocket.
Factual error: During the pre-credits sequence, when the Driver is attempting to escape the police, the sound of the engine accelerates with the rhythm of a manual transmission while the model on the screen has an automatic transmission.
Factual error: The movie's final scene spectacularly shows planet Melancholia colliding with the Earth, causing the destruction of the planet and everybody dying. The problem is that, in reality, tidal forces from Melancholia would have at a minimum caused extreme natural disasters when the planet made its first pass of Earth. When it turned around to come back (another mistake in itself considering powerful gravity forces would have been needed to cause the planet to do a 180 to hit the Earth), entering Melancholia's Roche limit would have destroyed all life on Earth before actual impact and may have torn the Earth itself apart before the actual collision.
Factual error: The wolves in this movie must be some sort of mutant super wolf. North American Grey wolves are not lion sized killing machines. They are typically smaller, by weight, than an average German Shepherd.