Factual error: After the train crash, the teen characters discover cube-like items. One of them states it looks like a Rubik's Cube. The movie itself takes place in 1979, but the Rubik's Cube, although invented in 1974, was not licensed to sell in the USA until 1980. It was not even called a "Rubik's cube" until 1980 (prior to this, it was known as a "Magic Cube"). (00:21:55)
Factual error: Winter in Antarctica would not have a night and day as portrayed, with the amount of light changing so much during the course of 24 hours.
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: When the action moves to England after the failed award ceremony, the British Union Flag hanging from the wall is upside down. The broad white band should be at the top left (nearest the top of the flag pole).
Factual error: When Nate dies by the alien moon rocks, his helmet visor "explodes." The visor in the film shatters like glass, but the real visors on actual spacesuits are made of polycarbonate, a plastic that does not shatter but deforms.
Factual error: When a global map is shown, the location of Toronto is incorrect. What is labelled as Toronto is actually the location of Montreal. (01:08:05)
Factual error: When the Autobots return to the moon in the present day to retrieve Sentinel Prime, they pass by the Apollo 11 lunar module (LEM). The LEM consists of an upper part (ascent stage) that houses the astronauts, and a lower part (decent stage) that holds the braking rocket used to land on the moon. When leaving the moon, the ascent stage blasts off, leaving just the decent stage on the moon. In the film, the entire LEM is shown sitting on the moon, which is impossible since the astronauts came back to earth.
Factual error: Upon hearing that the bombs will drop in 3 hours time on Santa Monica, one marine sets the countdown timer on his watch for 3 hours and starts it. The watch is a Casio G-shock GW-9000 Mudman. This particular watch only has a 1-hour countdown timer. (00:24:15)
Factual error: Several uniform items on USAF Captain Colleen Goodwin are incorrect. She is missing several ribbons and then ones she does have are out of order. A USAF Capt would have a Basic Military Training ribbon and (probably) at least one Good Conduct ribbon and one Longevity ribbon. It is also unlikely that she has enough time in service to be wearing the Kuwait Liberation Medal ribbons. The ribbons she is wearing are out of order. The correct order is from top left: Air Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal (JSAM), Organizational Excellence Award, Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia), Kuwait Liberation Medal (Emerate of Kuwait). (In the movie, Capt Goodwin is wearing from top left: Org Excellence, Air Medal, JSAM, KLM-SA, KLM-Kuwait). The blue name tag is not worn on the USAF service coat. It should be nickel plated with a matte finish.
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: 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: During the end where the girl gets her phone back she has a text. However inside a submarine with the hatch shut there is no way for a mobile signal to get through.
Factual error: When Jason Bateman first meets the rookies at the roadblock, some Saguaro cacti can be seen in the background. Saguaro are not indigenous to Nevada.
Factual error: When they are in paradise the law enforcement is all wrong from the uniforms to the cars. In the State of Ohio, every county Sheriff Department looks the same (black and gold cars, black uniform shirt, grey pants, stetson style hat), they are all regulated by the Buckeye State Sheriff's Association. In the movie the "local sheriff" wears a brown uniform and drives a car with white doors. This is not accurate. The front and back of the car is accurate with the gold stripes, and the license plates on the cars are also accurate, but those are the only parts of the cars/uniforms true to the state of Ohio.
Factual error: Spoiler alert - When Henry's body is recovered under the 4th Street Bridge in Los Angeles, the 6th street bridge and the 7th street bridge (the one that he fell off) are each visible in the background. Meanwhile the water is visible moving towards the 7th street bridge which indicates that his corpse floated against the current. (00:22:20)