Deep Impact

Factual error: When Sarah's family is fleeing Richmond, the highway sign says "Interstate 66." That highway is about a hundred miles north of Richmond; it starts in Washington DC. Another highway sign says "Virginia Beach 12 miles", which is the wrong way when fleeing Richmond westward.

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Suggested correction: The sign says "Virginia Beaches," not Virginia Beach, so it could be anywhere in Virginia that has beaches.

Living in Virginia, there is no sign that says "Virginia Beaches 12 miles." "Virginia Beach" is a large city at the SE corner of Virginia and is more than 10 miles across. Any sign referencing the actual beach says "oceanfront x miles." Virginia Beach also has the tallest building in Virginia, the Westin hotel in downtown.

Plot hole: The government would have no chance of hiding the existence of the comet for a year. Most comets are discovered when they are very faint, literally thousands of times fainter than Wolf-Beiderman when Leo found it. Long before the events in the film take place, probably even before the government itself would be notified, the comet would have been discovered, an orbit calculated, and people panicked. The whole premise of the first half of the movie is thus based on flawed logic.

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Suggested correction: Only 3-4% of the visible universe has been discovered. Meaning this comet could have been discovered much later.

Other mistake: How can it be named Wolf-Beiderman? Wolf never sent the email, and even if it did go, once the network was restored, he never called it Wolf-B before writing it on the floppy label. The president says both were killed in the crash. So, they invent an astronomer working at the observatory and no one notices? Remember, the floppy was destroyed in the fire. Wolf never called anyone; he was killed while trying to make a call. Maybe the pics were also burned. Mr. Perry never followed up?

PeterNZ

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: We didn't see him send the email, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. We know he sent it because it's stated that's what happened.

Factual error: When Sarah's family is fleeing Richmond, the highway sign says "Interstate 66." That highway is about a hundred miles north of Richmond; it starts in Washington DC. Another highway sign says "Virginia Beach 12 miles", which is the wrong way when fleeing Richmond westward.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The sign says "Virginia Beaches," not Virginia Beach, so it could be anywhere in Virginia that has beaches.

Living in Virginia, there is no sign that says "Virginia Beaches 12 miles." "Virginia Beach" is a large city at the SE corner of Virginia and is more than 10 miles across. Any sign referencing the actual beach says "oceanfront x miles." Virginia Beach also has the tallest building in Virginia, the Westin hotel in downtown.

More mistakes in Deep Impact

President Beck: We always thought the deadline for public knowledge was the publication of next year's budget since we've spent more money than we can account for. That won't happen for two weeks. I don't suppose I could prevail upon you to wait two weeks in the name of national security?
Jenny Lerner: Two weeks? There's no such thing as two weeks in the news business.

More quotes from Deep Impact

Trivia: When everyone gets out of their cars in the traffic jam and watches the comet pass overhead, they were really looking at a crew helicopter passing over. In post production, the helicopter was covered up with the comet.

More trivia for Deep Impact

Question: All of the residents of Eastern United States were informed by the president when the smaller of the two meteors were to strike in the Atlantic Ocean, yet, even with ample time to evacuate away from the area of impact, why did it appear the residents all chose to leave on the final day? (Clogged highways and chaos).

Answer: There is no logical reason. It can be argued that people are just stubborn and/or reluctant to leave their homes under any circumstance. However, this is a movie, and showing the last-minute chaos of people attempting to evacuate heightens the tension and the drama.

raywest

Answer: When the president announces the strikes, he says it will occur in 12 hours so they didn't have days to evacuate 100 million people, only hours.

The president tells people to leave with around 10 hours left before impact.

Ssiscool

Answer: They were trying to send missiles, which failed. The president spoke and that's when people started to leave.

More questions & answers from Deep Impact

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