The Movie Mistakes blog

Factual error: The shuttle's original mission was to service Hubble, yet when the shuttle is wrecked, Kowalsky moves with Stone to the ISS, which just happens to be "a short hike away." Hubble orbits at an altitude of 350 miles/560km, while the ISS does so at an altitude of about 250 miles/410km. Furthermore, even if they had been able to see the ISS from Hubble's orbit, they would have only seen it speed ahead, as their orbital velocities are very different: 7.66km per second for the ISS and 7.5km per second for Hubble.

Continuity mistake: In the car chase, the blue van is hit and the left side headlight dislodges and is dangling down for most of the chase. But in one far shot where the van is taking a turn, it is suddenly switched to the right headlight that's dangling.

Factual error: Chow is carrying around $21 million in gold bullion. A bar weighs 400 ounces. Gold prices at that time were around $1,200 per ounce, and he's got two bags, therefore he's supposedly carrying 8,750 ounces, or about 550lb, on each arm.

Continuity mistake: When Tony is in his garage injecting his arm, his chest piece is glowing brightly through his shirt, however, the very next shot when he is wiping his arm with the alcohol pad, his chest piece is suddenly turned off.

Visible crew/equipment: The agents arrive at the Four Horsemen's apartment to arrest them. In the shot where Dylan exits the car, the reflection of the boom mic is visible in the other car's window.

Continuity mistake: When Admiral Marcus' ship appears in front of the Enterprise after coming out of warp, a set of panels begins to close over the main deflector dish. In the next shot, when looking out of the Enterprise's viewscreen, the deflector dish is fully visible again.

New this month Factual error: The bombing altitude for Nagasaki was 30 000 feet (~10 km), but in the opening scene the planes bombing Nagasaki are a lot lower than that. The bomb also detonated at 1,500 feet, not at ground level as shown.

Continuity mistake: During the runway scene, Shaw's vehicle is seen fitted with HID type headlights (bluish tinge). Yet during the sweeping wide angle shots and when Shaw drives into the cargo plane, the lights are a standard yellow.

Revealing mistake: When the family's car is about to be hit by the ambulance as they try to escape downtown, Gerry is driving and his wife is up, leaning over the passenger seat talking to their daughter. The camera angle changes to a view from behind, and as the ambulance is about to hit, we can see there is nobody in the car and the ambulance driver is wearing a safety helmet. This is viewable in just a few frames.

Factual error: In a scene where the nightclub singer with the tropical fruit headwear is on stage, she is singing into a classic RCA 77D microphone which is correct for the period, but in a mistake often made in movies that are set in this era, the microphone is wrongly positioned. It is leaning toward the singer when in fact this type of mic is spoken to from the side, not the end. To work correctly it was always pointed away from the singer or placed in a vertical position for side pickup.