Visible crew/equipment: When they are trapped in the garage and the tornado is whipping through, if you look real close when the debris is falling on them you can see (very quickly) a crew member throwing trash in the background.
Visible crew/equipment: As Jo and Bill take off from Meg's, the boom mike is briefly reflected in the glass.
Visible crew/equipment: When Melissa is meeting the chase crew, she answers her phone. As she does, the film crew and equipment is reflected in her shades.
Revealing mistake: They wouldn't be able to walk or run nearly so easily when near a tornado. In ametuer video footage of real tornados, the people could only move quite slowly, and were walking on an angle of 30 degrees from upright.
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)
Visible crew/equipment: When Jo shuts her door after setting up Dorothy III during the final monster tornado scene, the heads of three crew members are reflected in the silver window frame.
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).
Visible crew/equipment: There's a shot late in the movie at Helen Hunt's Aunt's house - the camera shows all of her home made "wind chimes" blowing in the wind. As the camera pans in and shows a little man sawing or axing something, you see a human hand appear near the bottom of the screen as the camera leaves the scene.
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.
Factual error: Paxton and Hunt drive their truck toward the twister in a corn field, they jump out of the truck and then start running for it. Have you ever run in a corn field? You can't run in a corn field that has stalks that high, they would cut you to shreds. They would have been bleeding on the faces and hands and arms if they were wearing short sleeve shirts. If you enter a corn field, you must move with the rows - you cannot cross rows because the stalks are just like small trees and they are maybe six inches apart. (01:39:10)
Visible crew/equipment: When the twister is heading for the drive-in movie theater, as Bill is running towards the garage, you can easily see the shadow of the Steadicam operator and a grip guy on the ground about 2 feet away from Bill's shadow.
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)
Factual error: When Jo and Bill drive through the house pictures are still on the wall, a chair is still upright and the towels are still hanging perfectly on the rack in the bathroom. Pretty cool considering the house had just been tumbling through a field.
Factual error: In the last scenes when Bill and Jo are in the shed with the water pipes, the shed is torn apart by wind as well as flying debris at hundreds of miles per hour. I have watched the scene numerous times and there is not so much as a scratch on their faces. Even if they lived, they would have been battered and bloody from debris. Regardless if tornadoes do weird things, the debris ripped the shed apart, which is stronger than a human body.
Visible crew/equipment: When Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt are driving up to Aunt Meg's house after the tornado has hit, you see a shot of the ruined home as they drive up. If you look carefully, you can see wires hanging coming out from the top of the house to keep it from collapsing until the filmmakers were ready.
Factual error: After the 3rd twister knocks down Dorothy, spilling the micro balls on the pavement, Jo yells at Bill to stop the truck so she can gather them up, Bill grabs at her to stop, calling her obsessed over something that happened when she was a child. The camera then zooms in on the truck CB radio airing their conversation live. Which would be impossible considering that type of old school handheld receiver requires a human finger depressed over the button to talk.
Other mistake: When Paxton and Hunt are in the shed at the end attaching themselves to the water pipe with the straps, there is an above shot looking down at them. If you look outside the window you can see corn husks barely moving on the ground despite there being an F-5 right outside.
Visible crew/equipment: When the red Dodge truck stops spinning after the "sisters" tornado has gone, as the camera moves up the truck to focus on the occupants, you can see part of the camera rigging reflected on the truck wing/fender.
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.
Chosen answer: Jo finally signs the divorce papers after she sees how upset Bill's fiance is getting after all the near misses with the tornados. She also sees that Bill does care for his new fiance and she finally decides not to stand in the way of his new relationship, even though it did not work out in the end.
Mark English