Character mistake: After getting his silver star, Hopper is spoken to by a special warfare commander who has the Navy and Marine Corps medal. But the colors are reversed. The blue should be on your left, and the red should be on your right as you stand face to face in front of the wearer. The stars on some of his ribbons are also upside down. (01:53:45)
Factual error: The USS Missouri is a 68-year-old museum ship. Only a few museum ships are still able to sail under their own power. The USS Missouri, however, is not one of them, and could never have left port. There is no fuel on board, corrosion has done serious damage to the rotor blades and controls, and if one was to try and refire the boilers, they would surely explode. Also, there is no ammunition on board, plus all controls have been stripped, and all tubes and barrels blocked to prevent dirt from damaging them. Therefore, it cannot ever fire a shot again. Though it was renovated in 2010, it was mostly to prevent it from rusting away and sinking.
Continuity mistake: At the scene when Hopper is playing soccer he receives a kick to his face, however the blood on his face changes between shots.
Factual error: In the scene where the alien is in the engine room, it shows the alien scan an exposed gas turbine engine. The gas turbine engines on a US Navy ship are not exposed, they're encased inside a module (big steel box) so in the event of a fire they can be easily contained with HALON.
Continuity mistake: In the scene on the mountain where the Hawaii police ask Mick and Sam to leave the mountain. Mick and Sam ask why and they are told during the conversation that the aliens have blocked all cell phones, radio and internet but in the next scene with the police they use a radio to communicate with each other.
Suggested correction: Even if jammed, a radio signal could still potentially reach a few dozen yards to another vehicle, even if it couldn't go a mile or more. Power drops proportionally to the square of distance, so the power at 50 feet away is ten thousand times higher than at 5000 feet away (roughly a mile), and a million times higher than at 10 miles.
Factual error: Each turret on an Iowa-class battleship required a crew of 94 to load and fire two salvos a minute. The makeshift crew, including former Missouri sailors (mostly septuagenarians) were equaling that rate of fire with a half dozen men.
Factual error: Loading the projectiles and powder in the 16 inch rifles is done using a ram. The projectiles seem to just glide in on their own.
Factual error: There is a shot depicting the crew physically carrying a large shell from the rear turret of the Missouri to one of the forward turrets. That shell is supposed to be a 16" High Explosive shell which is also the lightest shell fired by the main battery. Those shells were roughly 5 feet in length and weighed 1,900 pounds and yet we see one being shoulder-carried by 6 men. They are also not utilizing the equipment designed for the purpose of moving these shells.
Factual error: When Hopper is running from the convenience store you can see Rite Aid in the background. You also see Honolulu police cars in the same scene. There isn't a Rite Aid in Honolulu.
Suggested correction: Not sure about this one. Honolulu is on Oahu, so I'm not sure what the police cars correction is, and there are Rite Aid stores on Oahu, and in Honolulu.
Where is (or at least was in 2012) the Rite Aid in Honolulu?
Rite Aid stores are in 18 states, and Hawaii is NOT one of them. I even went to the Rite Aid website and used the "store locator." When I wrote "Honolulu", the result was "no stores within 50 miles." (This would be currently, so the question below about 2012 remains unanswered).
Factual error: When the USS John Paul Johns sinks and the lead characters are climbing onto the flight deck, the twin helicopter hangar can be seen behind. The ship is a early Flight 1 Arleigh Burke class DDG and lacks the hangars that were only introduced with Flight IIA. (01:35:15)
Factual error: When Hopper orders to drop the port anchor during the final battle, the chain changes between being stretched and taut from scene to scene.
Visible crew/equipment: Sam and Mick are watching the John Paul Jones sink. A reflector screen is seen on Mick's binoculars. (01:36:15)
Continuity mistake: The missiles fired at the aliens during the boardgame inspired scene, are shown to be a Standard Missile (SM-2) when leaving the launcher, then a Tomahawk cruise missile when flying towards the aliens.
Factual error: Towards the end of the movie, an Australian F/A-18E Superhornet is shown destroying the aliens, complete with Australian pilot. Firstly, the Ensign displayed on his helmet is incorrect. Australia doesn't operate any of those aircraft, only 2 seat F/A-18F and older F/A-18A Classic Hornets.
Suggested correction: A close examination of the F/A-18s in this sequence shows the correct configuration for 'legacy' F/A-18s, including the distinctive straight engine intakes that is the most obvious difference between the F/A-18A to D models and the later F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Therefore the aircraft do correctly resemble RAAF F/A-18A's. A better question is where they have come from considering that RAAF F/A-18s are not carrier capable or qualified.
Factual error: At the very start of the movie, when they zoom in a planet that is "too cold" the temperature of the planet is shown as -314 C. The maximum negative temperature is 273.15 C, which would be absolute zero. Also when zoomed in, the further right in the screen, the colder it gets, a maximum of -415 C can be seen. (00:01:44)
Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the movie, when the USS Missouri gets hit by the mother alien ship, the scenes show all of its turrets, or at the very least 6 out of the total 9 turrets getting blown up in to pieces and some of them being snapped, but a few scenes later she is firing back at the alien ship through all 9 of her turrets.
Continuity mistake: When the old guys are getting the battleship ready, there are two on the walk way turning the crank to withdraw the path. When the angle changes to show the walkway moving, the two guys vanish.
Continuity mistake: When Sam and Mick are on the mountain, they meet Dr. Zapata who emerges from behind a bush with a twig in his hair above his forehead. In the next cut the twig has moved to the top of his head, and in the next it is gone.
Other mistake: When they load the last shell to hit the island Hopper orders it to be taken from turret 3 to turret 2, but turret 3 is later seen firing.
Continuity mistake: When the USS Sampson gets blown up by the aliens, the front of the ship explodes first, then the rear, but in the next sequence the rear explodes first, then the front.
