Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film, when Dennis Quaid is running from the cabin to help his friend, in the far shot, you can see him run onto the ice, but in the following shot, he is on the stairs. (00:04:30)
Continuity mistake: When the two men at the start of the film are saving Dennis Quaid from falling, you can see Quaid reach for one of the others' hands, then that guy grabs him with both hands, but in the following shot, Quaid is holding the hands of both men. (00:05:25)
Continuity mistake: The older scientist reaches down to grab Jack with his right hand. In a closeup, Jack grabs the right hand and the same scientist catches him with the left hand as well. In the next shot from above, only his left hand is down, but as he pulls Jack up both hands are on him. (00:05:40)
Continuity mistake: Just after Jack comes out of the New Delhi conference, he is talking with Terry Rapson. At the right of the screen at the stand, there is a guy with a red hat/turban and scarf and no other people behind him with turbans. However, in Terry's close-up the man wearing the red turban has vanished and there are a lot more people in the background wearing turbans. (00:08:05)
Continuity mistake: At the Hedland Center, when Dennis wakes up Simon from snoring, in the background Simon lifts himself up from the chair, but in the next shot he is already at the coffee machine. (00:09:20)
Factual error: The football (soccer in the U.S.) match we see relatively early on in the film is said to be between Manchester United and Celtic, in Glasgow. However, the non-MU team isn't wearing Celtic's home strip as they should be if playing in Glasgow (it's actually Boca Juniors from Argentina, in a match played in 2002) and the stadium shown is actually Old Trafford, Man. U's home ground, as shown by the advertising billboards in the background. (00:09:25)
Continuity mistake: Near the start, when it cuts to a street in Japan, a large hailstone hits the policeman's car. When it hits, the wipers just brush it away and keep working, but in the following shot when the policeman looks back at his vehicle, the hailstone is still there and the wipers are no longer working. (00:10:45)
Continuity mistake: When Jack and Lucy are talking about Sam failing class on the phone and Lucy says "I don't have time to talk about this right now", it shows Sam eating and a milk pack with its opening pointing left. When it cuts the opening is pointing right. (00:12:25)
Continuity mistake: When Sam is sitting in the kitchen eating, his mother is talking to Jack on the phone and just after Jack says, "Sam is a straight A student he doesn't fail classes," Sam puts down his glass of milk and leaves his left hand up, but in the following shot it is down by his stomach. (00:12:25)
Continuity mistake: When the man asks Jack "Why for the love of God would you aggravate the Vice President?", he has both his hands up. When it cuts his hands are down. (00:13:20)
Continuity mistake: When on the plane and there's the major turbulence Sam's hair flops over his forehead.Then he looks at the wing and there is no hair on his forehead but in the next shot of him his hair is back messed up. (00:17:55)
Continuity mistake: Just after Terry looks at the boys on the screen with Simon, in the overhead shot of Manhattan traffic, the homeless guy in the middle of the traffic is walking towards a black car with a police car beside it. But in the following closeup he has passed the cop car and is now at the bumper of the black car. (Zoom in is required). (00:19:00)
Continuity mistake: The first time we see the black bear cage, the sign (and the entire shot) is a reversed image. Twenty five minutes later, we see the black bear cage again and the sign is correct. (00:20:35)
Other mistake: In the scene where the first storm appears, you see little windmills spin and trees affected by this wind. However, the hair of the old man walking out of his house (in the same shot) is undisturbed. (00:23:30)
Revealing mistake: When the tornadoes are hitting Los Angeles you hear a woman say,'Is anyone hurt?' The angle is high and you can see the Capitol Records building, the tornado and the helicopter. If you look very closely at the bottom right you see lots of cars on the road driving like mad and one of them drives under a large truck trailer, betraying that they are CG cars. (00:26:35)
Revealing mistake: When a newscaster is mentioning that two airplanes were caught up in the storm and crashed, they show footage of the AVIANCA (Colombian airline) Flight number 52, which crashed in New York on January 25th, 1990. (00:30:00)
Visible crew/equipment: When the janitor is approaching the door you can see a shadow of a man, which isn't the janitor's, in the background holding something that appears to be a microphone. (00:30:05)
Continuity mistake: When the group of teenagers is viewing the destruction in Los Angeles, they are watching FOX 11. However, a few seconds later when one changes the channel to show the air traffic suspension, it is shown that they are watching FOX 5. (00:30:55)
Continuity mistake: When we see the news report on the TV, you can see that people are taking bottles of water from the shelves. Beside the TV you see a person's hand on the right side of the TV and a black tea flask as well. In the next shot the person's hand is much further away from the screen and the tea flask has also been moved to the opposite side of the TV. (00:35:15)
Continuity mistake: When Sam, Laura and the black student enter J.D.'s hotel room, Laura asks, "You live here?" and J.D. looks at Laura then puts his coat down, but in the next shot his back is to her and is putting his coat down again. (00:40:50)
Answer: Possibly because it was the closest building with height to it as they are about to be hit by a gigantic wave of water. There was no snow yet, so I don't believe burning books or snow was on anybody's mind yet. It turned out to be a great idea as snow soon starts to fall and those books were literally a life saver.
Susan D. Santos