Factual error: At the road block scene, the state trooper is wearing brown boots with his uniform. There's not a state trooper in Texas that wears brown boots in uniform. Black trooper boots are part of the Texas State Trooper uniform.
Factual error: The main plot is that a teacher answering a student's question about Jesus in a historical context starts a legal firestorm. This is utterly preposterous. Teachers (and students for that matter) are 100% allowed to discuss religion in a historical context. They just can't do things like force other people to take part in religious activities (like prayer) or "endorse" a single religion above all others since public schools need to remain neutral. There'd be literally no case against her.
Factual error: The police are circling the theatre to find out where Johnny's escaped father is. During this, you can see that Mike is getting pulled upwards towards the copters like a piece of metal getting attracted to a magnet. Helicopters create downdrafts - Mike should've been blown away from the stage rather than being pulled up.
Factual error: Saroo is in Melbourne in 2008 (as indicated by the text at the beginning of the scene). As Saroo and Lucy walk down the street on opposite sides, a red Nissan Qashqai is seen driving past. That car didn't come out until 2013.
Factual error: A few scenes in the movie show Roman cavalrymen using stirrups, which were not used by the Romans until several centuries later.
Factual error: When Jake Gyllenhaal confronts one of the suspects in the shed and wakes up (several hours later) after being knocked out cold, he moves the dead guy's arm. Normally, bodies stiffen up after being dead for several hours, but when Tony (Jake) moves the other guy's arm, it is not stiff at all.
Factual error: There were no SS in North Africa, as shown iat the beginning of the film. There was a small SD office in Tunis. If there had been, SS would not have paraded around in Black, or normal field grey for that matter, they would have worn most likely a tropical uniform.
Factual error: He goes to the shop at night (after 2am) to purchase alcohol when the fire happens. There is nowhere in any of the surrounding areas you can purchase alcohol at that time. Even if he drove to Boston and back (which would take 2 hours not the 30 minutes stated) I still doubt he could purchase alcohol at that time. It's not legal in Massachusetts.
Factual error: The main character is being wooed by Lockheed - an aircraft company, whose representative then gives him gifts for his kids - one of which is a desk model of an aircraft, however it is of an aircraft produced by one of Lockheed's competitors - Grumman, which would be akin to a GM rep giving a toy Ford Mustang as a gift. Both companies continue to remain competitors as Lockheed-Martin and Northrop-Grumman since the government vetoed a proposed merger back in 1998, and at no time have the two companies collaborated on a major project.
Factual error: Jackie is handling medication vials and taking a pill. Some of the vials have childproof "palm and twist" caps, but they were not invented until 1967. (00:48:00 - 00:49:00)
Factual error: The movie puts a caption in the prologue "January 2013." Later the protagonist puts the hammer he received by the mysterious delivery right on top of a newspaper, a copy of "Mid-Day" with a retouched opening article (related to the movie murder of course) but headline news with a Sunil Gavaskar quote that dates it as a December 2015 edition. (00:03:20 - 00:10:10)
Factual error: For the third movie in a row -at least they are consistent - Maggie introduces herself as Detective of the SFPD, but detectives are not referred as such, but as Inspectors.
Factual error: The open credit sequence takes place at the Atlanta Airport (Hartsfield Jackson), signs are throughout the Delta terminals, Boston Airport announcements are dubbed in until we see John Cusack come off the airplane.
Factual error: When Steve Carell is telling his nephew Jesse Eisenberg that he is leaving his wife, the view from his 1930s era Hollywood Hills home shows the modern skyscraper-filled LA downtown skyline.
Factual error: The 5th Amendment to the Constitution simply states that "No person... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." There is no actual or implied provision that means once you have answered a question, you can't plead the 5th on any subsequent questions, as the movie depicts.
Factual error: When Joe and his girlfriend, who is also Albert White's mistress, walk through the hotel room kitchen, that whole kitchen, is not a 30's era kitchen. It even has a convection oven and a blast chiller, pan racks, etc. that are more from this time.
Factual error: In the Templehoff Airport flyover scene there are Soviet era Antonov An-12 propeller driven aircraft on the tarmac. These were first used by the Soviets in 1953.
Factual error: When the characters are drowning on stakes in the ocean there is a modern yacht in the background.
Factual error: Viggo is "playing" the bagpipes on the wrong side. They should be under his left arm, not his right. He is also not blowing hard enough to make the required sound. They sound good, though.
Factual error: There would be no room for a thumb drive inside of a real Rubik's Cube due to the way they are constructed. When dismantled, the individual moving parts are quite small. It would certainly be possible to construct a facsimile of a Rubik's Cube that would have enough room, but it wouldn't be a fully functional puzzle the way it was in the film.