Other mistake: When Stephen Hawking's life is played backwards and then rewinds at the end of the film, the sequence of his sudden illness at the concert and subsequent operation at the hospital are the wrong way round. It should show him having the operation, then winding back to his collapse at the concert, but the two events are in the wrong reverse order.
The Theory of Everything (2014)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: James Marsh
Starring: Emily Watson, Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox
Stephen goes to the lecture with Elaine, the two having fallen in love. At the same time, Jane and Jonathan reunite. While at his lecture in America, Stephen sees a student in the front of the room drop a pen from her desk. He imagines himself getting up to return it, almost crying at the reminder of how his disease has affected him. However, he presses on, and gives an inspiring speech about human endeavour. Soon after, Jane receives a letter from Stephen inviting her to meet the Queen with him. Jane and Stephen reunite as they meet her, the two happily talking in the courtyard. Stephen and Jane look out to see their children playing, Stephen joyfully saying "look what we made" in a reference to Jane's old wish to stick by him.
In a final scene, the film rewinds to the moment Stephen and Jane first met, mirroring Stephen's wish to reverse time to see what happened at the beginning of the universe. The closing text states that Jane and Jonathan later married, and that Jane and Stephen remain close friends to this day.
More mistakes in The Theory of Everything
Stephen Hawking: There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there's life, there is hope.
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Chosen answer: Throughout his existence, prognoses of the life expectancy for Dr. Stephen Hawking have been repeatedly offered and then surpassed. He continues to amaze with not only his brilliance, but his resilience. In this case it sounds like a callback to the initial estimate, which was demonstrably inaccurate.
Michael Albert