Continuity mistake: When Arnold comes home after work, he always parks next to Kay's car in the driveway. As he does on the night Kay tells him they are going to the therapist's office. He is undecided about the trip and doesn't act to join her until after she leaves. Yet, when the taxi arrives to pick up Kay, there are no cars in the driveway.
Factual error: When Alma and Whit drive along the coast, the road has recessed center line reflectors. These hadn't been invented yet in 1959 when the movie takes place.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Joaquin Phoenix's character is walking between a heavily wood-paneled wall and a window and banging on them: The first time he bangs on the paneling, one of the panels appears to split and swivel up showing white underneath. The camera briefly changes angles. When the camera returns to Joaquin Phoenix, the split panel is fixed.
Continuity mistake: Eden's hand and arm positions change between shots during the final scene in the movie, when she is kissing Adam.
Continuity mistake: In the very beginning, the truck that hits the vehicle does so from straight behind. However, when they pan out, someone the truck is perpendicular to the crashed car. The snow tracks don't show the car that was hit swerving, and there aren't any tracks to show that the truck reversed either.
Factual error: In one scene Drew Barrymore stands in from of a political world map, showing the political borders as of today. You can see the successor countries of the Soviet Union in that map. But the plot plays back in 1988, with the Soviet Union still alive.
Other mistake: When Christine is shot near the end of the film, there's no blood on her dress or the Phantom's hands.
Factual error: The Life One spacecraft is hit by a micrometeoroid. Sparks are to fly, among other effects. The sparks are bifurcated, meaning they were produced by using a grinder, not by a micrometeoroid collision.
Continuity mistake: Alexandre Lagarde puts his fork into the plate of the attractive client, much to the scorn of her husband. The morsel in close-up and the one she actually puts in her mouth are different. (00:06:10)
Factual error: The movie changes between a basketball season and a playoff basketball game then to a baseball game being played in what looks like early summer...back to a team getting ready for the basketball playoffs. The two seasons don't overlap.
Character mistake: It's said in the movie a vice presidential candidate never gave a concession speech. Geraldine Ferraro did this in 1984.
Continuity mistake: The German and British airmen are looking at the Northern lights. From the rear the men are apart, but the front shots of them show them much closer to each other.
Continuity mistake: Throughout the film, John Travolta's hair changes back and forth and back and forth from being really really really short to just really short.
Revealing mistake: In the opening scene, Johnny and Hickey sit in the front seat of a car. Views out the side windows blur, there is a gray background behind Johnny instead of the rear window, and when Hickey holds the cross toward the windshield, the "outside" is all grayish-white. At one point, there is light on Johnny's right forehead, cutting diagonally downward (too linear to be the sun), and another time, there is light behind Hickey on his headrest. (00:00:31 - 00:03:30)
Continuity mistake: The position of Beth's truck facing her motel room (106 or 706?) changes during the time she is talking to Holly. Sometimes the truck is closer to the room next to hers (105 or 705) and to where Beth is standing. Also, the truck's front tires are different distances from the curb. (00:48:25)
Continuity mistake: Tom walks into Anthony's memory. Anthony is sitting by the pool next to a table with two glasses of beer, which are 1/3rd empty. A few minutes later the memory is replayed, but this time both beer glasses are mostly full. (00:49:50 - 00:58:35)
Continuity mistake: The objects on the desk at Lax's interview with Herman change several times. Sometimes, the tripod is closer to the center of the desk, about a foot away from the file folder, but other times it is closer to where Lax is sitting and one leg is almost touching the folder. The angle of the file folder and distance to the edge of the desk also varies. The Styrofoam cup switches from one side of the desk to the other. (00:17:07 - 00:18:20)
Continuity mistake: In the parking garage scene, when Lindsay initially parks the sign states "Reserved For Walter Deeds." When being towed his name on the sign disappears. (00:06:30 - 00:10:45)
Continuity mistake: During the scene where Daniella and Clay are enjoying a glass of wine together and she is revealing how much she knows about him, Daniella's left hand/arm positions change continually throughout the shots, from on the chair arm to playing with her hair/alongside her face.
Factual error: Close up, very detailed footage of a Cobra citizens band radio is used for the scenes where dispatch radio traffic is coming over the police radio. Police dispatch does not, nor has it ever, used the Citizen's Band radio service. (00:11:25)