Character mistake: In the original Transformers, the final battle takes place in a fictional city known as Mission City, which according to Lennox is 22 miles away from the Hoover Dam, putting it close to Las Vegas. However, when Sam is in his dorm room, it's stated that the battle was in LA.
Continuity mistake: When the Decepticons dive into the ocean to retrieve Megatron they are immediately spotted by a Navy submarine. The crew is reporting "five contacts" at this point. At the ocean ground they resurrect Megatron by killing one of their own mates and using its parts. After that they head back with Megatron to the surface. The crew is now observing "six hostiles" even though they left the killed Decepticon behind. (00:39:00 - 00:41:00)
Factual error: In the opening of the Shanghai scene, there's a helicopter in the scene of the transformers fight. The helicopter has words on it meaning "police" in Chinese. But Shanghai use "Gong An," not the "Jing Tsa" seen here. Both of them mean police, but different words are used in China than in other Asia countries.
Factual error: The aerial attack from the F-16 and the B-1B causes explosions on the ground. However, real explosions of a JDAM are much greater than what is depicted in the movie.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie, the first shot of Sam and Optimus shows them standing on the deck of CVN 71 (pan in), yet after their conversation they are standing on the deck of CVN 74.
Revealing mistake: During the battle in Egypt, while Sam is down, there is a slow-motion shot from above with a UH-1 Iroquois (Huey) helicopter flying under the camera. The helicopter is bright white with high-visibility red and yellow stripes, and you can see "White Sands Missile Range" painted on both sides of the body of the chopper in the view from above. It appears to be a UH-1H SAR (Search And Rescue) chopper from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico: the colors and markings match.
Continuity mistake: At NEST headquarters, when Galloway shows up and speaks via camera with General Morshower, he is seen on the monitor buttoning up his suit jacket, but in person his jacket remains unbuttoned. (00:22:25)
Other mistake: In the deli's basement, Wheelie shows places on a map of America where Seekers are hiding. Agent Simmons states that the closest is in Washington D.C., but the closest marked on the map is in the middle of New Jersey, near Philadelphia.
Visible crew/equipment: During one of the circling shots in which Sam says goodbye to Mikaela before going to college, it is possible to see the shadow of a cameraman on Sam's red shirt.
Continuity mistake: When Optimus jumps in the factory, during the overhead shot, Megatron also starts a flip. But Optimus nearly hits the ground at the end of that shot, while Megatron is only half-way through. Yet in the following shot, they both land at the same time.
Continuity mistake: When Megatron stabs Optimus through his back, Optimus' elbow is scratched, but clean. When Megatron lifts him, there are big chunks of grass on his elbow. (01:02:20)
Revealing mistake: The shot which shows Optimus Prime getting back up after he is being revived by Sam is used twice, only the second time it has been flipped.
Continuity mistake: When Lennox is trying to revive Sam, there is a close-up of the sock starting to slip out of Sam's grasp, but it's still in his hand. Then when the medics are using the paddles on Sam, clearly there is nothing in his bandaged hand. The problem is that there is another close-up of Sam's hand, after Mikaela professes her love, and the sock is still there in Sam's hand before it dramatically falls (it's the same close-up angle as the previous shot). (02:13:40)
Continuity mistake: At NEST headquarters in Diego Garcia, when Optimus points his finger at Galloway and says, "We've witnessed your human capacity for war," both of Lennox's arms are up and crossed in front of him, then they're down and clasped behind him, and then back to crossed in front of him, between shots. (00:22:40)
Continuity mistake: In the secret room below the deli's meat locker, when Mikaela asks Wheelie for help, Wheelie looks at the first photos of the "language of the Primes", and the positions of the photos change in the following overhead shot though nobody has touched them. (01:19:35)
Continuity mistake: When they're all in the secret room below the deli's meat locker, Simmons places the photos of the symbols in China, Egypt and Greece, and their positions change in the consecutive shots. (01:17:40)
Continuity mistake: In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Seymour Simmons (John Turturro) calls in coordinates of the Daggers Tip from a pay phone. He says the coordinates are 29.5 North by 34.88 East. Later, when a young soldier shows General Morshower a note containing the coordinates from Major Lennox, the paper says 29.5 North by 35.88 East. A difference of one degree of latitude would translate into about a 69 mile error.
Factual error: Scene of the submarine USS Topeka (SSN-754) shows an older version of the 688 class submarine. The Topeka does not have the planes shown above the surface, instead it has bow planes that would have been under the waterline.
Factual error: The Autobots/N.E.S.T. base is said to be on Diego Garcia, a real military base in the Indian Ocean. The island in the movie is not D.G. The movie version appears to have hills and sparse vegetation, the real island's a tropical climate, and the highest point is about 22ft above sea level.
Continuity mistake: When Megatron sarcastically asks Sam, "You remember me, don't you?" Sam stops on the landing between the two flights of stairs and puts his hands up, but in the next shot Sam, whose hands are still in mid-air, is standing much farther down on the second flight of stairs. (00:56:10)
Chosen answer: He knows from stories passed down to him from older generations of bots, not much unlike stories about the past passed down to us from our ancestors. His line about no one telling him anything is just a way to avoid being put back in the box or being tortured by Mikayla.
dablues7