San Andreas

Factual error: The sunset is in the wrong direction. The sunset is aligned with the Golden Gate bridge which is in a north-south direction. The sun should be setting to the left on the screen, in the pacific ocean. One can also tell that the shadows of the tents at the emergency camp are too short for a sunset. (01:54:25)

Factual error: In the film, the San Andreas fault produces the largest, most sensational earthquake in earth history that levels both Los Angeles and San Francisco, also creating a massive tsunami that also floods the latter. In reality, and according to many earthquake experts, the biggest quake that this fault could produce is an 8.3 and, being a land and not ocean fault, cannot cause a tsunami. Or as consultant to the film Tom Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center stated, "I gave (the filmmakers) free advice, some of which they took... But much of which they didn't - magnitude nines are too big for San Andreas, and it can't produce a big tsunami."

Factual error: We repeatedly see Ray Gaines and his daughter, Blake, swimming and thrashing about in crystal-clear floodwater following the tsunami. But floodwater from a tsunami is invariably inky black with thick, churning silt, sediment and debris. The same crystal-clear tsunami floodwater mistake appears in the movie "2012"

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: In the garage of the supposedly earthquake-proof building the walls are all cinder block. This would never be done in real life - the walls would be poured pre-stressed concrete with rebar inside. The same problem in the restaurant that the ex-wife is in - the walls there were also cinder block on the top floor.

Factual error: Near the end, Emma Gaines drives a small fiberglass boat at high speed straight through the plate-glass window of a downtown skyscraper. Plate glass is incredibly dense, much more dense than the fiberglass hull of a boat. On high-speed impact, the plate glass might indeed shatter, but the fiberglass hull of the boat would be utterly demolished.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: This movie makes the same mistake dozens of others have when it comes to tsunamis. When the water is coming into the bay, Dwayne Johnson says 'we need to get over the crest'. Tsunamis don't have crests nor do they act like they are shown here. The water just 'fills' up like in a bathtub.

sexxypeety

Factual error: While driving the stolen truck, the San Andreas fault has cut off the road, with the opposite (west) side of the fault (the Pacific plate) shifting left (southward). In reality, the San Andreas is a right-lateral fault, and the westward Pacific plate shifts northward relative to the North American plate.

Other mistake: As Ray and Emma are drifting around San Francisco in the speedboat, they come across a Navy ship that just got carried in with the tsunami and is now leaning 20 stories high against a building with water dripping from it. If the tsunami were that high, with the wave having now receded back down to ground level, why are there still fires burning down low? The wave would have snuffed them out. (01:30:40)

More mistakes in San Andreas

Lawrence Hayes: OK... Who wants a "A" in independent class study? I'm starting a new class: "How to save lives by Hacking Media Outlets".

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Trivia: At a red carpet event to promote the film, Dwayne Johnson set a world record of 105 selfies in three minutes, averaging out to one picture every 1.7 seconds.

Cubs Fan

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Question: The end of the movie shows the older brother giving the necklace back to her, but it never shows when she lost it. Am I missing something?

Answer: You haven't missed anything. After the successful CPR, Blake is still wearing the two heart necklaces, but a considerable amount of time passes between then and when Ben gives them back to her, so we can presume that the necklaces had fallen off at some point in between. Since Blake had taken it upon herself to wear her sister's necklace with her own, the two chains could have been clasped together (which I've done myself), as if one.

Super Grover

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