Factual error: On Tom Hanks' doomed flight, there is no smoke curtain or solid bulkhead in place. This is a heavy, opaque curtain or solid wall that separates the the topside cargo area from the seating area, designed to keep smoke from a fire away from the crew. On DC10/MD11 aircraft, this is generally a solid bulkhead, and on Airbuses a curtain. This plane should have been grounded until one was installed.

Revealing: As Tom Hanks escapes from the sinking aircraft, it shows him still underwater, looking back and the plane breaking apart. It shows an AKE-shaped container (which fits the contour of the bottom of the aircraft) which has no markings at all, it appears to be just a computer generated solid with no color.

Factual error: The orientation of the plane is all wrong. Hanks goes into the bathroom, which is located aft of a crew door, and against the front of the cargo area. The bathroom on all the wide body aircraft (Airbuses, DC-10, MD-11) is located between the cockpit and the jumpseat area.

Factual error: The aircraft interior is of a DC-10. (The emergency exits are the plug-type DC-10 doors) The digital cockpit is of an Airbus not an old analog DC-10.

Continuity: In the scene where Chuck is floating in the water on the raft you can see that the raft is yellow. When he gets on land and puts the raft up by the trees it is orange. Through out the whole movie you can see that the raft changes from yellow to orange.

Factual error: As the plane hits the water, Hanks is pushed back into the cargo area. He travels through an empty passageway between rows of containers. Though this load configuration is possible, it is not used because it makes no sense. Furthermore, he finally stops against a container that reads AEE7480FX. This creates a couple more problems, as AEEs are not only no longer in use, but they were belly containers, with an angled side on the bottom that fits the contour of the bottom of the aircraft. There could not have been one of these on the topside of the aircraft.

Continuity: When Chuck first goes over and sees the cave, it changes the camera angle and the sunlight is significantly dimmer and more orange, indicating a sunset.

Factual error: The container that breaks the net is made up to be an AMJ container, with the 45 degree angle on the upper corner to fit the contour of the plane. However, as the camera zooms back out to show Tom Hanks, you can see that the side of the container towards the center of the plane is entirely clear, with packages visible. If it was a real AMJ, this side should have a white or purple curtain covering almost the entire side. That can is a prop.

Continuity: When the plane crashes and Hanks swims to the surface, in the shot from under him, he is barefoot, but when he reaches the shore, he takes off his socks and shoes.

Continuity: When Chuck is looking through the wallet of the dead pilot, you can see the corner of a dollar bill, then the shot breaks away, when he takes the photo out, the dollar's disappeared.

Factual error: He is on a flight going to the Far East. All the packages have domestic airbills. If they were on international airbills it would not be necessary for him to open the package to see what was inside, a description of the contents would be clearly visible on the airbill.

Plot hole: It is clear when Tom Hanks is on top of the island, and when he sees the dead body, and also when he walks around the island, that the fringing reef does not extend all the way round the island. There is therefore no need to launch the raft into the breaking waves, it would be much easier to launch the raft at a place on the island where there are no breakers to contend with. (You can also see this in an aerial shot of the island on page 84 of the book "Nomads of the Wind").

Continuity: During the scene where he is first at the cave, look in the sky. First, there aren't any clouds then there are in the next scene. If you keep watching, the clouds vary from the different camera angles.

Continuity: A FedEx car is shown clamped next to the Spassky Gate on the Red Square. Cars are not allowed to be parked there at all as a security measure - they'd be towed away, not clamped.

Continuity: After the plane crash, when Tom Hanks is in the raft, he falls asleep and awakes only when the raft hits a rock on the island and a section of the raft deflates. How did the raft get over all those gigantic waves on the reef without capsizing? (Especially with the high waves that would occur after a storm.) Did Tom sleep right through it all?

Continuity: On the island, immediately after the title indicating "4 Years Later" Tom spears a fish. The spear hits the fish hard and swiftly, and as the camera pulls away the spear is very close to vertical. For the spear to hit that hard and vertical it had to be thrown close to the fish and almost straight down. But as the camera continues to pull further away, you see Tom standing too far away to have thrown the spear in that way.

Continuity: Right before he sees the light on the ship, Chuck goes to take a leak. If you look close, you can clearly see that it is computer-imposed, considering it stops and starts at the same length.

Continuity: When Tom Hanks first drifts onto the island and is asleep his head is facing out to sea. In the next scene when he gets out of the raft his head is in line with the rest of the beach.

Continuity: When Tom Hanks is on the plane he sets down the pocket watch in the lower right corner of the groove in the seat, after an instant angle change it is closer to the upper left corner of the groove, with no time for it to move.

Continuity: Chuck's plane supposedly went down in 1995. During the early parts of the film, you see several Fed Ex aircraft with only two engines (one on each wing) which are Airbuses. Fed Ex had only a handful of these class of aircraft around 1995 making it impossible to see so many of them on the ground in Memphis, or in the Soviet Union for that fact at that time.