Continuity mistake: When the nurse is in her 4x4 vehicle, she looks in her mirror and sees two fire trucks. In the far away shot the first fire engine overtakes her, then when it cuts back to her it's overtaking her again. It's not just repeated for the sake of effect, the radio announcer giving comments of the events is continuous. (00:34:30)
Continuity mistake: When Amy Barnes and Rachel are in the tunnel trying to find out what happened, Rachel falls in the crack of the tunnel, and Amy is thrown back. When it cuts to a different view, Amy Barnes falls or is thrown backwards, yet in the following shot when her hand slips from Rachel's, she falls back again. Also, when she is thrown back by the force, she is thrown back some distance, yet when the smoke subsides she is only about 1 or 2 feet from the crack in the tunnel. (00:27:35)
Continuity mistake: There is a shot of a 'hippy' style car with lots of slogans and messages written all over it, melting, but in a shot much later on, the same car is still in amongst the lava flow, when it should have melted already. You can tell its the same car from the megaphone on the roof. (00:53:20 - 01:00:40)
Continuity mistake: When Roark, Anne Heche and the other woman are in MacArthur Park, Roark walks away and Anne Heche is quite a few feet away from the other woman, but then she is right next to her without barely even moving. Also, when Anne Heche puts her hand on the woman's neck, in the following shot she is taking her hand away, and in the next shot she is taking her hand away again. (00:22:15)
Continuity mistake: When Dr. Jaye Calder is attending to the injured fireman on the road, Roark comes up and in one particular shot is near the fireman's side. In the following shot he is at the fireman's head, not at his side. (00:36:55)
Continuity mistake: At the Department of Geological Science building, the shot then cuts to a woman saying "I can't". The next is a room full of cameras and a couple of guys standing by the cameras near the doorway, yet in the following shot all the guys have disappeared who were standing by the cameras. (00:06:15)
Continuity mistake: When Anne Heche is going to shake hands with Roark, she is already in front of Stan, but in the following shot she moves in front of him again. (00:19:45)
Continuity mistake: Just before the big earthquake, the subway train shown arriving at the Westlake/MacArthur Park station has the number 518 on the front door, however, the train that gets damaged during the earthquake has the number 526 on it. (00:24:30 - 00:33:10)
Continuity mistake: Near the end, when the big black guy shake hands with the cop, the blonde haired cop standing next to him is looking to his right, yet in the following shot he is looking to his left. (01:12:40)
Continuity mistake: At the end when Emmit tells Roarke, "I could get used to this", he puts the cell phone up to his ear twice. (01:37:30)
Continuity mistake: When Roark is at MacArthur Park talking with the guy from the Department of Water & Power, Roark looks at the hole where they guy came up burnt, and to the right of the hole, there is no red cone, yet in the following shot, a cone suddenly appears. (00:09:45)
Continuity mistake: When the train boss sacrifices himself by throwing the train driver over the lava flow, he only just manages to throw him past the flow. But in the following shots where it shows the other rescuers view of the lava flowing toward them, the position of them and the lava coming toward them mean they should be burnt by now. (00:59:40)
Continuity mistake: When the lava first comes out of the Tar Pits near the beginning, two cars drive past it. In the next shot a bit further away, one of the cars on the left is now a 4x4, which was not in the previous shot. (00:38:40)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning after the earthquake, there are two hanging lamps in the kitchen swinging a lot. A closeup of Mike shows a lamp barely moving. The next shot shows them moving much more. (00:05:00)
Continuity mistake: Near the end, Roark and Amy are standing over the grid in the street, and when Roark says something like, "I'm not letting you go down there it's too dangerous," Amy is looking down at the grid in the road, but in the following shot she is looking directly at Roark. (01:14:40)
Continuity mistake: At the start, when Tommy Lee Jones puts the pan on the table, the distance between the milk and the bowl changes from being right next to each other to further apart. Also, the rug is not in line with the edge of the kitchen table, yet when the dog goes to lick up the egg, it is. (00:03:15)
Continuity mistake: At the end of the film, when Tommy Lee Jones steps out of the rubble with his daughter and the young boy, in one shot Tommy Lee Jones puts his hand around his daughter, in the following shot about 2 seconds later he puts his hand around her again. (01:30:15)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film, Mike pulls off a frying pan of eggs from the stove, if you look at the eggs, there are virtually none in the centre of the pan, but in the next shot when he goes to put the pan down before it drops, the centre of the pan is now full of egg. (00:03:20)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning, when Stan and his other colleagues are standing in front of a TV and laptop outside, in one shot Stan's hands are on the laptop and in the following shot they are by his side. (00:05:45)
Continuity mistake: The building that the doctor visits to meet her husband isn't particularly tall, yet when they both are looking out from the view, their viewpoint is significantly higher than what was shown outside. (00:16:35)
Chosen answer: They were in a rush, trying to get things and get out.
MasterOfAll