Continuity mistake: After Dr. Forrester has whacked the tri-lens off of the martian, he picks it up and puts it on the table, and it rocks forward and falls on its front. In the next shot the tri-lens is sitting up perfectly again. (00:49:30)
Continuity mistake: After the attempt to bomb out the martians and there is white powder completely smothering the air, as one of the soldiers turns around to talk to the others, more white powder instantly appears on his face. (01:04:20)
Revealing mistake: The tri-lens is now facing the movie camera and not facing down towards the table top when Barry attacks the Martian. (00:52:25)
Continuity mistake: One of the reporters refers to a Martian attack on Rangoon, India. Rangoon (now Yangon) is in Burma (now Myanmar), and while Myanmar had been governed as part of India under the British Raj, it achieved independence in 1948.
Continuity mistake: The tri-lens of the Martian camera becomes detached from its casing after Gene Barry pounds it to death. When he picks it up and puts it on a table, it rocks forward and comes to rest, facing down, on the table: the tri-lens is now firmly attached to its casing. (00:51:30)
Visible crew/equipment: When Dr. Forrester whacks the tri-lens martian in the farm house, as it falls down you can see the wire attatched to it. (00:49:20)
Continuity mistake: When the Martian saucer crashes in the farmhouse while Dr. Forrester and Sylvia are eating, a long shot shows the Martian saucer crashing into the side of the house. Then it cuts to an inside shot with the wall (with a window) being smashed from outside in. Then it cuts to an outside shot again showing the meteor having collapsed the side of the house that was caving in, in the inside shot, however the meteor has crushed almost half the house - far more than what was happening in the inside shot. (00:44:30)
Revealing mistake: When the military starts firing, not only do you see the wires holding the saucers, but the "electromagnetic shields" can be seen as glass or plastic domes, as the studio lighting is reflecting in them.
Factual error: The Marines that arrive at the landing site are said to be from El Toro, but El Toro was a Marine Corps Air Station; it would not have had the infantry, artillery, and armored units that arrive at the site.
Revealing mistake: As the command post is engulfed by fire, one (stuntman) soldier comes crashing through and over a table. As he does, the gloves he wore to protect his hands during the fire scene are visible. Nobody else was wearing gloves. (00:38:00)
Revealing mistake: As Forrester is easing up to check the Martian arm, a second Martian flyer crashes. As it does, you can tell that it is a re-use of the first one crashing, but flipped so that it's hitting left side first rather than right side first.
Other mistake: In the War Room, the Martians' movements are demonstrated on a chalkboard, but push pins easily go into it a moment later as if it were cardboard or sheet rock.
Other mistake: In the farmhouse, when Sylvia looks out and sees movement, she claims it was too dark to see. However, the Martian was lit up enough to be seen from a distance, and details on it were seen.
Continuity mistake: When the Martian probe is being demonstrated in the lab, as it first comes on, it's slightly tilted. As the camera is in wide shot, the probe is straight up.
Character mistake: On several occasions, scientist (Clayton Forrester) refers to the impacting objects as "meteors". Any scientist knows (or should), that when a meteor impacts the the ground, it becomes a "meteorite".
Character mistake: During the first big battle between the Martians & the U.S. Army, the Martians use their heat ray to vaporise people and equipment. Dr. Forrester, a physicist, then quickly speculates, "It neutralises mesons somehow. They're the atomic glue holding matter together. Cut across their magnetic lines of force and any object will simply cease to exist." During the '50s mesons were theorised to hold atomic nuclei together strongly. But if the Martian rays worked as the Dr. guessed, then objects wouldn't just vaporise. They'd explode with the ferocity of nuclear weapons.
Continuity mistake: A hatch opens-up to the martian saucer showing a very weak, limp martian arm moving slowly and lying against the door. Next scene shows a wide angle view of the people and the arm but the arm is now touching the belly of the craft. Another scene change has a close-up of the arm again resting on the hatch. (01:22:45 - 01:23:45)
Continuity mistake: When Dr. Forrester is presenting the tri-lens in the lab, the red light at the bottom of the tri-lens is in a different position in the closeup and the cloth surrounding it is arranged differently too. (00:56:30)
Continuity mistake: When Dr. Forrester whacks off the aliens' spy camera, it looks like it's virtually destroyed when he bends down to pick it up. Later in the lab when they power it up, it's in pristine condition.
Continuity mistake: When Sylvia is cooking the eggs in the farmhouse, she moves the kettle onto the centre of the stove as she serves up the eggs on the plates. In the next shot as Dr. Forrester picks up the kettle, it is back in the corner of the stove. (00:42:20)
