Corrected entry: In the scene where the family are watching TV reports of other crop circles appearing around the world, the TV claims it's showing a picture of one in Wakefield, England. It is most unlikely that there would have been any crop circles in Wakefield, as there is very little arable farming near there. Most of the ones that did appear in real life in England were in the South.
Correction: You can see that it wasn't made in a crop, but in a grass field. Crop sign was a general term to describe what was happening since they were appearing mostly in crops.
Correction: It was 100% Wakefield. You could see this crop circle from the M1 going south.
Corrected entry: Early on, we find out that the reverend's wife was killed by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel. But the guy who killed her was still around throughout the movie. Don't you think that at least he would have his licence suspended or something? It seems a little strange to me that there were no repercussions for killing her at all.
Correction: Falling asleep at the wheel is not necessarily a crime. A lot of wise judges would look at the entire circumstances surrounding the event and base his decision based on the suspect's history and prior record. This was clearly just an unfortunate accident.
Corrected entry: The aliens are obviously very intelligent creatures - after all, they mastered space travel, and presumably travel at or near light speed, in order to get to Earth. Considering that exposure to water is deadly, why would such intelligent creatures choose a planet which is three-quarters covered by water?
Correction: The aliens have arrived to harvest humans, rather than take over the planet. We don't know why they want them and they probably do not plan to stay. Humans routinely travel into places hazardous to themselves to gather valuable resources (space, oceans, poisonous mines).
Correction: We are talking about a species that is not an inhabitant of Earth. The aliens are from a completely different world, in which its atmosphere and resources are likely going to be vastly different from that of Earth. The reason as to why they came to a planet that is 70% deadly to them is simple - the aliens are unaware of what water is or the dangers it can bring to them. The aliens' planet is never seen, so it is not too far of a stretch to assume that water is not a substance belonging to their planet, nor is it a substance that is in their knowledge.
The only thing we humans really know about Life (aside from how to kill it) is that Life is dependent on water. We can't even imagine a form of Life that is not water-based. Water is an abundant compound in this universe, both a fuel and a vehicle for Life.
Corrected entry: When Merrill takes the bat from the wall Graham is standing not far from him. When the camera angle changes Graham has disappeared from the set. (01:32:35)
Correction: Graham is not standing far from him, but he's also not standing directly beside him. Graham had just rolled the television into the room, so he stands in front of that, near the edge of the doorway into the living room. The television (and therefore Graham) is simply out of the reverse angle.
Corrected entry: When Morgan puts in the tape to record the news cast, he doesn't press record, or muck about doing anything you'd normally have to do when recording something.
Correction: Morgan does press a button just under the flap to record the bulletin.
Corrected entry: When Graham first sees the crop circles, he tells Morgan and Bo that they were too perfect to have been made by humans, but the rest of the movie he tells everyone it's just geeks with no lives doing it.
Correction: These are two young children who may get scared if Graham says "they are too perfect to be made by humans" the whole movie. Don't you think that he would want to protect them from the possible (and scary to most) truth of the crop circles being made by aliens?
He never said that to Morgan and Bo. He just said that to Caroline.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Graham, Merril, Bo and Morgan are eating the 'everything' dinner, in one shot, Bo's plate has half sauce and meatballs and the other half of the plate is noodles. A couple of shots later, her plate is again seen, but most of the noodles have been pushed back. She was to upset to be eating, so she wouldn't have moved them.
Correction: She wasn't eating it. She was probably just pushing it around on her plate.
Corrected entry: It is revealed that the alien ships have some sort of cloaking device that prevents them from being seen to the naked eye. If they were that worried about being seen why not turn it on before they arrived over all the world's major cities, rather than letting the world film them, surely this would give them the element of surprise in the attack on Earth?
Correction: The aliens were not worried about the element of surprise - the whole movie centers around the crop circles that were made by the aliens, in plain view of the humans. By displaying their advanced technology to humans, they were able to show the humans how superior they were to them, and therefore instill fear into mankind. Therefore, the spaceships were seen over the major cities of the world, where the most humans would be sure to see them, and also film them, that other humans might be afraid.
Corrected entry: The bat that Merrill uses to beat down the alien was his 507 foot homerun bat, but the bat appears in too good of condition to have ever been used in a single game, never mind smack a ball 507 feet.
Correction: The bat Merrill had used may have in fact been new... it is not uncommon for ball players to purchase a new bat, use up the 'juice,' and then find a new one. Merrill most likely purchased a new bat, cranked the homer, and framed it right away (or had the bat cleaned or restored to preserve a mint condition).
Corrected entry: When Graham and Merrill board up the bedroom door there are some shots through the (closed) door. There is light on their faces coming from the left, where is only a wall and no light, as in all shots from behind. (01:11:15)
Correction: It is untrue that there is only a wall in that direction. There is a curio cabinet there. The light could be reflecting off the large pane of glass onto their faces.
Corrected entry: When Merrill and Graham board up the door after they walk through it, Merrill bangs the nail into the board. If you watch his hammer, he misses the nail about six times. (01:10:45)
Corrected entry: Later in the movie we hear from the radio/TV that the aliens have been scared out of other countries as the inhabitants have discovered some "primitive methods" of defense. Of course its very unlikely that those countries wouldn't have mentioned the fact that it was water. Then it would only make sense to forward that information to the REST OF THE WORLD along with any newspieces. Is it that hard to say "oh by the way, you can rid yourself of any pesky aliens by using WATER.".
Correction: It's very common for news shows, especially here in the States, to bait the audience by introducing the most important and/or interesting information, then doing a commercial break: "Coming up next, what you don't know about the deadly chemicals in your own home." This is one such example. It's not extremely important to relay this information because for all intents and purposes the invasion is over - the alien ships have left and only a few wounded stragglers who should be quickly overwhelmed by recovering humans remain. The emergency broadcast about water as a weapon went out while our heroes were in the basement.
Corrected entry: Late in the film you find out that water is to aliens as strong acid is to humans. However, earlier in the film when Mel Gibson goes to investigate the corn fields with the torch, the aliens are running around in the mist filled corn fields. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't mist just water vapor? Seeing how bad a glass of water ate away at the alien's flesh, even the slightest bit of water such as water vapour in the lungs and on the skin should cause serious damage or at least painful irritation, especially with prolonged exposure such as a few minutes. Just imagine a human breathing acid fumes, or walking in a room filled with acid gas.
Correction: It is never stated in the movie that water is what the aliens are "allergic" to. I think perhaps Bo's habit of stating that the water is "contaminated" is a hint. Maybe it's not water, per se, but TAP water that hurts them. There are lots of chemicals in tap water that don't hurt us, but could be toxic to the aliens.
That is incorrect, it is stated that the aliens have a weakness to water and that they avoided areas with large bodies of water because of that fact.
That came off as a parody or assumption. It's even made fun of in the scene where Morgan says, "Sounds made up."
I'm not sure what you mean, but late in the film there is a radio report about the alien invasion and the reporter mentions groups of people congregating near bodies of water because the aliens don't seem to want to attack near bodies of water.
Corrected entry: When the rest of the world finally starts seeing the lights in the sky, there is not any mention for the remainder of the movie of any military presence or actions being taken against the aliens. Given how simple the aliens are to defeat with water and physical violence this doesn't make sense, especially given the technology and weapons we have at our disposal.
Correction: The reason you don't see the military attack the aliens is because they do not yet know that the aliens are hostile. It is only after the aliens land and invade the Hess' home that it is known, by which point the movie is not showing the aliens in any other part of the world.
Corrected entry: When everyone is in the basement, Merrill breaks a light bulb while pulling an ax off a shelf. If you watch frame-by-frame, you will notice it breaks twice.
Correction: The rules of this site are very clear.if it requires slo-mo or freeze-frame it is NOT A MISTAKE.
Corrected entry: Throughout the movie, the remaining Dog Isabelle can be heard barking when the Aliens are near or she detects hostility. However, in the scene where Graham sees the Alien on the Roof the Dog isn't heard - even when Graham and Merril are running round the outside of the house making noise and shouting.
Corrected entry: When the alien is killed in the end, we see his point-of-view as the glass of water tips and spills on his face, and you can blatantly tell that is a prop. Firstly, it doesn't spill as it tips, it only starts to spill after it has completly fallen over, which doesn't happen when a glass tips (try it yourself). And secondly, you can see it continue to pour out water for at least five or six seconds, meaning that more water has spilled than the glass could even carry.
Correction: We cannot see how full the glass is, so cannot say how far it would have to tip before the water poured out. Also, the filming effect showed not necessarily more water than it should, but slower than it should.
Corrected entry: It is hinted that the aliens have been visiting Earth since the 1970s for recognisance purposes. In all that time, did they never notice how much it rains on this planet? Were the aliens flying over the deserts most of the time?
Correction: The info about how long aliens have been visiting Earth comes from the book Morgan and Bo are reading. This book is highly questionable as evidence, seeing how all of the information recited from it smacks of sensationalism, and a lot of it is completely false (like wearing tin foil on your head to avoid brain scans). It is therefore not certain that the reports on earlier visitiations are true. And even granting that they MAY have been true, according to an earlier correction it is possible that it is the contamination in tap water that is toxic to aliens, so observation of rain and clouds would not have revealed this danger to them.
Corrected entry: At one point, the little girl turns up the volume on the television set, where some professor is discussing the crop circles. The television is muted, yet the sound comes on instantly when she presses the button. Furthermore, despite the fact the she has her hand on the volume button for a good few seconds, the sound level on the TV remains the same.
Correction: Not really a mistake as my TV works in exactly the same way. To turn it off mute I need to press the volume button. Also when i hold down my volume button it doesnt always turn the volume up. Sometimes there is a need to repress the button. This happens alot on older tv's or where the remote is not the original.
Corrected entry: I still can't get over how stupid the aliens are in this movie. If they are an advanced race that can travel through space, why are they naked and unarmed in their invasion? You'd think some weapons, armor or tools would help.
Correction: Morgan explains to Mel Gibson from his book that the aliens wouldn't bring weapons of their own because of the fear that man would eventually use nuclear weapons and therefore rendering the planet useless for them to use.
Correction: There's plenty of arable farming all around Wakefield.