Continuity mistake: Ray leaves Ogilvy's house to search for Rachel and soon runs into the pickup truck, just before the tripod's tentacle lifts it. The massive red roots growing all over the pickup are very different in the next shot, as it's lifted in the air. (01:36:20)
Continuity mistake: Right after the Hudson-Athens ferry boat captain guns the engines you can see there are no ropes between the boat and the pier. In the next shot there are as the pilings are ripped off into the water. (01:01:55)
Continuity mistake: When we see the Hudson-Athens ferry boat captain from outside of his bridge, the video screens in each window above his head are positioned well below the tops of each window. In the next shot they're higher and we barely see them. (01:02:35)
Continuity mistake: When the asphalt in front of the church starts to crack and move and Ray gets on the sidewalk, his legs are positioned in different ways in two different shots. (00:22:36)
Suggested correction: With the way Ray moves his feet (hopping/dancing quickly from one foot to the other), I don't see a discrepancy.
If you look closely in the first shot he keeps one foot on the asphalt and the other one on the sidewalk, in the other shot he has both of them on the sidewalk, so the discrepancy is very evident.
Continuity mistake: When in their home basement, when the lightning starts they take shelter in the utility room and the door is a cross and bible style door that opens out. When Ray shuts the door against the fire he pushes it closed instead of pulling it, and it is a plain flat door. If there were two separate doors the fire wouldn't be burning through the still intact cross and bible door that Ray opens properly in daylight.
Continuity mistake: When they arrive at the ferry port a man throws something at the windshield which hits the top, and the screen around it shatters. In the following shot the car hits a pole and the damage has moved to the middle, and it's now a perfect hole.
Continuity mistake: When the movie ends, Rachel runs to hug her mother and a strong wind blows large amounts of leaves a meter up. A frame later, from a different angle, the wind is milder and the leaves barely move.
Continuity mistake: When Ray puts his feet on the sidewalk when the intersection moves, there is a blue car in front of him that is on the side of the moving intersection. Three shots later, when we are shown the moving intersection, the blue car disappears. (00:22:40 - 00:23:55)
Continuity mistake: When the tripod is taken down, the lights are flickered out on it. But in a couple of scenes later, the lights are working again on the tripod, right before the alien crawls out of the hatch.
Continuity mistake: This movie has to take place over at least 4 to 7 days for them to walk from New York to Boston. When they arrive in Boston, he has absolutely no facial hair growth.
Continuity mistake: When Rachel is watching the floating corpses in the river, the shots alternate back and forth between a wide angle where she is standing still and wind is not blowing, to a close-up where she is sobbing, moving her shoulders up and down rhythmically and her hair is moving rapidly.
Continuity mistake: When the movie ends and Ray meets his family, the street keeps swapping from sunny to shadowy back and forth.
Continuity mistake: When Ray looks at the tripod, he stands beside a car that's plain and labeled Maxium. But when Ray runs away, that car is now covered with droplets of water. (00:26:05)
Continuity mistake: After the tripod appears from the hole in the ground, it bellows and pulls out its rays. In the next shot in the window's reflection, the tripod is seen pulling it out again. (00:26:00)
Continuity mistake: When the intersection moves, a van is parked five feet away. When the intersection is destroyed forming a hole, the van is parked closer to the hole, allowing it to be thrown in. (00:23:10)
Continuity mistake: Ray runs out of the house looking for Rachel and moves away some weeds blocking the door. When the angle changes the door is spotless.
