Other mistake: At the end, when Steven and David's ship is released from the clamp in the mothership and are leaving, Steven never puts on his seat belt. Surely from all the twists and turns, not to mention the little nuclear explosion, he would have been tossed around just a little. (02:10:30)
Revealing mistake: In the scene where Jasmine, her son and her dog are trying to escape by jumping out of a cab and running, she turns and looks toward the explosion. You can see that she is carrying a very big, very stuffed mannequin. (00:51:30)
Continuity mistake: During one of the big building explosions we see a police officer on a horse. He turns on the horse, and then the camera cuts to the next shot and we see him turning on his horse again. (00:23:45)
Continuity mistake: When Steven Hiller goes out to get the paper, the paper has a string around it to keep it closed, yet he opens it up as if it was only folded. (00:25:15)
Continuity mistake: In the scene close to the beginning of the film when Steven Hiller is talking to his friend in the locker room, the ring accidentally falls out the locker, and they both look behind them, yet in the following shot they are facing forwards. (00:36:05)
Continuity mistake: When Dr. Okun and David are inside of the alien ship, and Dr. Okun shows him the scrolling green lines on the console he says that they don't know what they are. David says it's the same thing as their countdown signal and they always move together. Yet when Steven is flying their ship through the mothership, the lines go horizontal, spread apart, and even turn blue in some parts. (01:21:00)
Continuity mistake: When the President is evacuating the White House close to the beginning, in the first shot you can see him and his daughter just in the doorframe, in the following shot they are about 5 feet away from the door. (00:45:15)
Continuity mistake: When Connie starts to give her speech at the White House press conference, the shots of her on TV show General Grey standing right next to her, but when they show the conference in the press room, he is a couple of steps behind her. (00:19:40)
Continuity mistake: When they all board Air Force One, David and his dad are led to a rear section of the plane. The corridor they walk down is on the left of the plane and when they emerge it's on the right, as though they used the same section for both shots. (00:50:20)
Continuity mistake: Close to the beginning of the film when we see the Casse kids leaving the trailer park, and Russell Casse rushes up and says, "You read my mind," the shot of the motorhome we can see a map or something, and in the following shot it's vanished. (00:33:55)
Continuity mistake: When David and Dr. Okun are inside the alien aircraft having a look around, it cuts to a front view of them, and if you look to the right two other scientists walk in. The scientist with the mustache and beard stops and looks, and the other walks a bit further and peaks over, then in the following shot you can see this action again. (Special Edition.) (01:18:20)
Continuity mistake: When Captain Hiller begins his attack with the rest of his crew from El Toro, when we see the room where the General and the President are, a man says "Missiles have been fired", it shows on their screen a countdown of "metres to target". It does a countdown of 5000 to 4000 twice, and 4000 to 3000 twice. Also, when we next see the countdown before the missiles hit the shield, the last number is 49m, then the following shot of this number it says 107m. (00:57:50)
Continuity mistake: In the middle of the film when the President is in Area 51 looking at the alien aircraft, there is a shot from the back and you can see that the General is not standing really close to the doctor, in the following shot from the front he is standing side by side with the doctor. (01:14:10)
Audio problem: The same female scream can be heard three times during the first attack by the aliens. It is first heard in the scene when Jeff Goldblum is riding his bike to his father's house. The second time it is heard right as Jeff gets to his father's door. The third time is in Los Angeles when the people are running away. It's a very distinct scream.
Other mistake: When we see the Russian picture of the map where the UFOs are going in their country, the Cyrillic for Petrograd is incorrect as there is a Western lower case "r" in the city's name. The small "r" is close in appearance to the Cyrillic "g" which has a straight line (east to west)at the top of the letter instead of the curved line that we associate with our lower case "r".
Continuity mistake: The alien saucer that arrives over Los Angeles is said to be approaching off the California coastline, yet it is specifically shown approaching from Imperial Valley, which is to the east/southeast of Los Angeles.
Suggested correction: Not true, Constance says, "One is heading for Los Angeles, the other two are on our eastern seaboard heading toward New York, and Washington D.C." No direction of travel is given.
General Grey reported to the President the destroyer (hidden in a fire cloud) was being tracked "off the California Coastline."
Continuity mistake: When David and Julius are playing chess at the park in Brooklyn, Julius is smoking a cigar which varies in length between shots, when he holds it and also when it is in the ashtray. (00:08:00)
Continuity mistake: At the MCAS El Toro ruins, when Steven's chopper is heard overhead, the First Lady sits up and leans on her right arm with her left arm over the blanket. In Jasmine's close-up, the First Lady is lying down fully covered by the blanket, but when it cuts back to the First Lady her position is back as the first shot.
Audio problem: After David's rant about burning the rainforests, etc, when he's on the ground Julius takes the bottle out of David's hand and we hear the sound of the bottle hitting the floor. But Julius still has the bottle in his hand, then puts it down two shots later - with no sound obviously. (01:35:30)
Continuity mistake: When Steven is dragging the alien in his parachute, the sweat stain on his tank top changes shape and gets smaller, by the time he speaks with Russell a few moments later.
