Factual error: After the train crash, the teen characters discover cube-like items. One of them states it looks like a Rubik's Cube. The movie itself takes place in 1979, but the Rubik's Cube, although invented in 1974, was not licensed to sell in the USA until 1980. It was not even called a "Rubik's cube" until 1980 (prior to this, it was known as a "Magic Cube"). (00:21:55)
Continuity mistake: After the train wreck, one scene shows the car they came in has a steel or wooden beam/bar stuck into the rear wheel area and debris is piled close to the car - yet when they get in it to escape, the car is clear and they easily pull out of the lot. (00:19:25 - 00:24:35)
Continuity mistake: In the camera store, Joel stands in front and to the left of a Kodak film advertising display. After briefly cutting away, the camera returns to find the display now rotating.
Factual error: The film opens during the winter, then 4 months later you see that school is out for the summer which should be June. When Joe is visiting Charles the TV is on and Walter Cronkite is saying "the potential is there for the ultimate risk of a meltdown at the Three Mile Island atomic power plant." The meltdown at Three Mile Island had already happened by this point, being in March of 1979. (00:07:20)
Factual error: At the gas station scene when the Sheriff enters the building, the attendant is listening to a Walkman. The Sony Walkman wasn't released in the the U.S. till the following year (1980) and he wasn't reading Japanese instructions. (00:35:30 - 00:36:00)
Factual error: When Joe is in his room painting one of his monster models you can see in the background a model of the Invisible Man. This model was not released until 2009 by Moebius models. Although the model was created in the classic Aurora models style, this model was not available during 1979. (00:09:15)
Factual error: In the scene where there is a Military convoy rolling through town on screen from right to left there is an M35A3 truck in the convoy and those vehicles were not built until 1993. (00:41:52)
Factual error: When the kids go back to the town to save Alice, they pass by a 7-11. The sign on the store is obviously the new 7-11 logo and sign layout, not from the late '70's.
Plot hole: The alien digs an extensive underground network of tunnels beneath the cemetery without leaving huge piles of dirt above ground. (01:29:05)
Suggested correction: There appears to be a large pile of dirt between the building and road [@ 00:54:31] when Joe went to the cemetery to "visit" his mother. Perhaps there is more behind the building. Or, based on how far the creature could toss large appliances, the "monster" might have flung some of the dirt far away (to the next county?).
Continuity mistake: When the boys are running through war-zone Lillian, they are shown running quite spaced. A shot later they're running in a clump. (01:26:30)
Factual error: The morning after the film's pivotal train wreck, Joe and Charlie are watching coverage of the story on local TV. The typeface on the screen is the now-ubiquitous Microsoft computer font "Arial", most recognizable by its distinctive 'R'. However Arial was not invented until 1982 and not in broad use until after 1990. The movie is set in 1979.
Factual error: In the scene where the Air Force Colonel is speaking with the Deputy Sheriff at the train crash site, there are two mistakes with the Deputy's uniform (in Ohio, all 88 Sheriff's Offices use identical uniforms). In the movie, the Deputy's badge is a 6-pointed star. In reality, it is a 5-pointed star. The "Deputy Sheriff" shoulder patches in the movie were adopted in 1997. This movie is set in 1979. (00:34:20)
Factual error: In an early shot of the movie, a sign shows as Town of Lillian, Ohio. In a later shot, it shows another as City of Lillian, Ohio. Also as a side note, Ohio does not recognize any incorporated area as a town, only village or city.
Other mistake: The Super 8 cameras used are both sound models, one Eumig and one Kodak, but when the film and film boxes are shown, they are the normal Super 8 silent cartridges, which are square. Sound movie cartridges are rectangular to accommodate the sound recording mechanism in a Super 8 Sound camera. (00:15:55)
Factual error: None of the people the "monster" hung from the ceiling (the Sheriff, Alice, the woman in rollers reported missing earlier) suffered ANY ill-effects. The Sheriff and Alice were taken around the same time (after dark) and it was nighttime again when Joe went into the building to try to find Alice. The "monster" apparently had just placed Alice and the woman on the ground, so - assuming they were hung right after being abducted - they had been suspended inverted for at least 15 hours. [If Alice got home as late as 6:00 AM (around twilight or before sunrise) and Joe found her right after dusk (around 9:00 PM), at least 15 hours had passed. The woman was reported missing much earlier.] Death could have occurred from being suspended upside-down for that many hours. They may have survived, but there should have been some noticeable adverse effect, such as blurred vision, dizziness, or sore/weak legs. Perhaps "fight or flight" got them moving, but even then, wobbly legs would show. (01:33:58)
Factual error: When the kids are trying to escape from the bus, Joe's trying to break the window with his elbow. It's safety glass, so it won't shatter. All of a sudden, it breaks like it's regular window glass.
Factual error: When the kids broke into the school after being evacuated, the military bus used to transport them back out of town was too new. The front panels and grille on the bus show that it is a Blue Bird All American RE built between 1989 and 1999. The Blue Bird All American RE available in or before 1979 would have been mostly one panel on the front and had no grille. The bus in the movie was modified.it had headlights that resembled a Blue Bird from 1979, but even then the exact front light configuration was not accurate. It is plausible that the US Air Force could have specified a different headlight arrangement, but the front panelling of that bus would not have been seen until 1989 when the All American bus was given a face lift.
Continuity mistake: In the bedroom scene, when the camera looks out of the window at Alice, she's wearing a plain blue t-shirt with a denim jacket. After she's climbed in, it has writing on.
Continuity mistake: In the scene when Alice tells Joe not to let Charles blow up his model train, her hair moves from hanging downwards to tucked behind her ear between shots. (00:57:45)
Factual error: Although taking place in Ohio somewhere between Brookville and Greenville, this area is extremely flat with no hills unlike the town and train wreck area which is quite hilly. This is due to the fact it was actually filmed in West Virginia.
