Corrected entry: Max picks up a radio station playing Beach Boys. At the speed the craft was moving, they would have gone out of range of the transmitter within a few seconds of tuning in.
Corrected entry: When Max takes David underwater to escape Nasa's radar, David is apparently thrown backward into the pilot's chair at the moment Max hits the water. In reality, Max should have been slowed by contact with the water causing David to be thrown forward. (00:57:35)
Corrected entry: When David stops at the gas station to call his family, he puts several coins into the pay phone. Yet when his brother answers, an operator asks if he will accept charges for a collect call.
Correction: At the GAS station he puts one coin in the phone then dials 0 to speak to the operator to make the reverse charge call.
Corrected entry: In most of the scenes with the ship's door, it blends in with the rest of the hull when it is closed. But when the ship descends at the Freeman's new house near the end of the movie, the closed door's outline is plainly visible.
Correction: That's because the door is open. Look closely, and you will see that the door has been opened as it is landing.
Corrected entry: When David asks Max to take them where "they can't find us" Max diverts into the sea; upon impact David launches back into his seat. When you hit something you normally head towards the impact.
Correction: David wasn't 'launching' back into his seat due to the collision. He was recoiling in fright as they were heading straight into the sea.
Corrected entry: In the scene where the boy is eating a candy bar in the shuttle, one minute there are bites in the chocolate bar, in the next it's intact.
Correction: He never actually takes a bite out of the candy bar.
Corrected entry: When Farraday questions David about how the alien craft is powered, a computer screen in the background begins scrolling down the alien text before Farraday has finished his question.
Correction: This "mistake" has already been addressed in the "corrected entry" section. The computer is super intelligent and has already anticipated the question.
Corrected entry: When Farraday questions David about how the craft is powered, the computer in the background spills the alien text before Farraday has finished his question.
Correction: Not necessarily a mistake - the ship is extremely intelligent (it can control David's mind), it might have anticipated what Farraday was going to ask.
Corrected entry: David tells the police in the car that the date is in 1979, but near the end he wants to be taken back to 1978.
Correction: He never says "1979." He says "1978."
Correction: For FM stations, the signal, which is line of sight, extends virtually forever (it is a light wave after all). It's the receivers that are limited in picking up the transmitted signal. But Max has advanced technology, and is in a higher position, to pick up the continuing signal. AM signals behave differently and aren't line of sight, but Max would still have the technology and positioning to pick up these transmitted signals above normal receivers.
Bishop73