Continuity mistake: When the cow blows by the truck, the truck is driving down an empty dirt road with water on both sides. During the shots of the occupants, the road behind the truck is paved and dry. Also in one of these rear shots a truck (Red Chevrolet Blazer) drives by in the opposite direction. (00:42:25)
Continuity mistake: During the big falling debris scene, Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt are in the red truck. The truck hits a combine auger. The impact damages the windshield, and it is broken, but a second later the windshield is perfect and untouched. (01:34:00)
Continuity mistake: When they're in the town with the drive-in movie, we see Melissa in her motel room crawling up onto the bed towards her pillow. You can see she has shoes on but no socks. We see her twirling her engagement ring around on her finger, then see her use the remote to turn the TV off. She watches the curtains blow for a minute and then she walks out of her motel room. She has on white socks. Then as she runs to grab Billy's hand, she has on black socks.
Suggested correction: They got dirty.
Continuity mistake: During the first tornado Helen Hunt has a big glob of dirt on her face, the shot cuts to the tornado, then back to Helen Hunt and the dirt (no smear marks either) is completely gone.
Continuity mistake: When the telephone pole falls on the truck, you see Dorothy get thrown off the bed and the tailgate gets broken off along with it. A couple of scenes later, the tailgate is back and hanging there like it was untouched, and the pole is no longer there. (00:59:00)
Continuity mistake: When Jo's crew is having their little steak snack at Aunt Meg's, we see Preacher watching TV. There's a good shot of the top of the television set and there are NO walkie-talkies on top. Yet when they hear about another tornado, they all jumped up and grab their walkie-talkies off the top of the TV.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Bill is trying to catch up with Jonas, right after Bill stops the truck, we see a long shot of Jonas's storm chasing crew passing Bill's truck, a side road can be seen on the right side of the road. But when Bill puts the truck in reverse and turns onto the side road it's now on the left side (there never was a side road visible on the left side in the long shot). (00:38:35)
Continuity mistake: When Bill and Jo are chased by the first tornado, a frontward shot shows them about 50 yards away from the wooden structure, while traveling at about 75 MPH according to the speedometer shot earlier. They continue driving for several seconds after this.
Continuity mistake: After Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt chase the first tornado they switch to Bill's new truck. They look at the speedometer once then they look at again about 3 seconds later and the odometer is hundreds of miles different than it was only 3 seconds before. Furthermore, the truck has gained a quarter gas tank in a blink and has the airbag warning light turned on.
Continuity mistake: When Bill and Jo are going through the house, the house is on its side horizontally. When they are crashing through the rooms though, the rooms are vertical. Also, in the same scene, you can clearly see them going up the stairs to the second floor. When they burst out, they are magically back down on the first floor. Right after that, the windshield is all cracked. A second later, it's perfectly fine. (01:34:20)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the movie, the first time we see Jo's and her parents' house, there are several fairly close-up shots showing the porch and yard. These scenes are clearer during the flashes of lightning. There is nothing in the yard, close to the right side of the porch (as we are looking at it) except tall grass and a few small bushes right next to the porch. When the family comes out of the house to go to the cellar, there is a good-sized, red toy tractor sitting in the yard now.
Continuity mistake: When the good group is chasing the tornado, the bad group is following them (watching for skid marks on turns, etc.) anyway, the bad guys see skid marks at a turn about 10ft in front of them. They would have to turn immediately and they would still barely make the turn. The camera goes off the road and shows the driver's "what do I do?" expression for about 3 seconds, then the camera goes back on the road and the turn is the same distance away. In reality they would have passed the turn and been about 20 ft past it by then. (00:31:10)
Continuity mistake: After leaving Aunt Meg's the first time, Jo and Bill are in the red truck. Bill says, "Ok, let's get you wired." When Jo looks over at him you can see that she already has the headphones around her neck. Then they cut to Bill and when he goes to put the headphones on her neck is bare. (00:53:20)
Continuity mistake: When we see the dog Mose in the movie he looks very young (2-3 years old). But in the scene when Bill and Joe's storm chasers crew watches Jonas's van gets picked up by the F5 tornado, the dog Mose has aged 5-6 years (when dogs age the fur around the face turns white).
Continuity mistake: During the first tornado, Beltzer says the twister is about three miles away. You later see Bill turn the truck off the road directly onto that dirt path, not ten yards away. The tornado then arrives and sucks Jo's truck into the air. After the tornado, Melissa is driving along and says, "Oh my God" as the tornado disappears, back to about three miles away.
Continuity mistake: When Jo's truck is lifted by the first tornado they encounter, it is dropped on the road in front of the red dodge driven by Bill's fiancée. When we see the truck drop, the drivers window is closed. As the dodge swerves to avoid hitting the other truck, the window is now opened. And finally, in the last shot where everyone is running to her aide, the window is closed again. (00:34:05)
Continuity mistake: Towards the beginning of the movie when Melissa goes on the chase after they leave Meg's, she is under an umbrella with her hair dry. They cut away go back, she is drenched, cut away go back she is soaked, go back again, she is wet. (01:00:05)
Continuity mistake: In the garage scene, an air hose comes on and Preacher grabs it. When he is hit by a hub cap and lets go of the hose, the air switches off.
Continuity mistake: When we see Melissa at Aunt Meg's house, she is in the same 3-piece white suit she's been wearing since the start of the movie and it is still spotless - even after Bill, dirty, muddy and wet from the first tornado, hugs her.
Continuity mistake: When Jo's truck lands in the road, right after which Jonas' crew drives by, if you look quickly, you can see that the driver side (the truck was upside down) window is gone. Yet, when Jo goes to get her backpack out, she has to kick that window out. (00:35:25)
