Continuity mistake: In the opening scene, the two girls open the door to their parents' room. Karin's pillow is in the shadow. Sunlight suddenly appears on it just as the two girls are about to jump onto the bed a few seconds later. (00:03:25)
Continuity mistake: When the movie starts with the family lying on the bed, Brad Pitt's arms keep changing positions between frames. (00:03:30)
Continuity mistake: As Gerry is handing his daughters a plate of pancakes, he says "You mean a stuffed animal puppy? 'Cause that we can do." As he says this, the camera angle changes and suddenly one of the girl's hands can be seen up in the air together almost in a praying position. The camera cuts again and her hands are back down. (00:03:55)
Continuity mistake: Gerry is standing by his stove where he is cooking pancakes, looking to his right at the TV. Above the TV is a cabinet with a purple sticker on it. As his daughters and wife get up to leave the room, he is suddenly standing next to this cabinet. Then, only a split second later, as he says "Hey! Plates in the sink!" he is suddenly back in front of his stove, which is a few feet away. He moves to these spots instantaneously. (00:04:55)
Continuity mistake: In the car, before the first zombie attack seen in the film, the family's two daughters are in the back seat as they are playing a family game. The youngest one, Connie, leans over to whisper in Rachel's ear, and it is a profile shot of her face and arm, her neck and some of her chest visible. It cuts to a different angle as she is sitting up, and suddenly she has what appears to be a large stuffed bunny or mouse in her arms, with its ears covering a lot of her face that was not visible in the previous shot. (00:05:10)
Continuity mistake: While playing games in the car, at one point a white van can be seen out Karin's window. The shot cuts to the daughters in the back as Gerry asks if it "is kept in a pen all its life and harvested for meat?" then back to the wife, and suddenly the van has vanished and you can see a couple people out the widow. The shot change was not long enough for either vehicle to move enough. (00:05:30)
Continuity mistake: Just before the motorcycle cop smacks their car's mirror off, Gerry says to Karin "You're not British anymore baby." As he does, she raises her coffee cup to her face in the frontal shot. It then cuts to an angle to show him, and suddenly her arm is down, where she raises her coffee cup to her face again. (00:06:05)
Continuity mistake: After the motorcycle cop knocks off his car's mirror, Gerry gets out to pick it up but doesn't shut his door fully, leaving it about half open. When the guy in the red car gets out and asks if he is all right, the door is suddenly not open as wide. Then it is back to how wide it was in the next shot. (00:06:30)
Continuity mistake: The family car's side view mirror gets knocked off by the police motorcycle and falls in the space between Brad Pitt's car and the one in front of it. When Pitt bends to pick it up, it has moved further up the road, next to the back tyre of the car in front. (00:06:35)
Continuity mistake: Just before the garbage truck mows down the policeman and continues through traffic, we see behind the cop a street full of stopped cars, and a building less than 100 yards away (the street starts at a T-intersection). There is no truck, and no way for it to have gotten onto the street at the speed it's going. (00:07:05)
Revealing mistake: When the family's car is about to be hit by the ambulance as they try to escape downtown, Gerry is driving and his wife is up, leaning over the passenger seat talking to their daughter. The camera angle changes to a view from behind, and as the ambulance is about to hit, we can see there is nobody in the car and the ambulance driver is wearing a safety helmet. This is viewable in just a few frames. (00:08:00)
Other mistake: When the family's car is being hit by the ambulance, we see Gerry's head bouncing around by the impact in a close-up. Camera angle is from inside (approximately from the centre armrest). We see out his window, and there is nothing there. The camera angle changes to an exterior shot, and its clear that the position of the ambulance hitting the car should have made the ambulance visible from the interior camera. (00:08:05)
Continuity mistake: The first guy that Gerry watches turn into a zombie, and figures out the transformation takes about 12 seconds, he sees go to his car first. The guy opens his door and his right arm is down towards the center of the door. The angle changes and suddenly his right arm is up towards the top of the door. (00:09:05)
Continuity mistake: When Gerry and his family are escaping the first wave of the zombies they encounter, they steal an RV and make a run for it. While trying to shake a zombie off the vehicle, Gerry smacks into a taxi, bending the bumper and busting out the headlights on the RV's left side. A little bit later in the film as they are traveling down a highway, they pull to the side of the road to try and find Rachel's spare inhaler, and the front of the RV is shown. The bumper is still bent, but the headlights are now fixed again. (00:10:25)
Revealing mistake: During the first major panic scene downtown, as the family get into the RV, one of the shots shows a man in a blue hoodie being 'changed' by the virus. He writhes on the ground in front of a taxi - the lettering on the door of the taxi is backwards, showing it's a reversed shot. (00:10:45)
Continuity mistake: After the Mexican family lets Gerry and his family into their apartment, they sit down on the couch. As Gerry leans over and kisses Rachel's head, Karin's hand is over Connie's left shoulder. The angle changes and suddenly Karin's hand vanishes. (00:17:30)
Other mistake: As Gerry enters the aircraft carrier command centre, we see screens with "world projections" of remaining uninfected populations by continent. They are counting down (illustrating the quick spread of the disease). However, the countdown speed of all of them, is approximately 3% each second - which means humankind would have no more than 20 seconds at this rate. The countdown speed should realistically be about 100,000 times slower than that (about 3% each day), which would still be the fastest pandemic spread the world has ever seen. (00:30:15)
Continuity mistake: As Gerry enters the ship's command centre the first time, when he starts walking across the floor, we see a bearded man in the background, at the stairs against the wall, talking to someone. The camera angle changes, and he is now sorting through papers perhaps 60-70 feet from where he was just standing. (00:30:30)
Continuity mistake: When Brad Pitt and his wife say goodbye, her right arm is extended, but a frame later it's bent and holding Pitt's hand. (00:32:25)
Continuity mistake: There are two different transport planes shown when flying to Korea and again to Israel. The first shot taking off from the aircraft carrier is an Antonov AN-12, but then other shots show a C130 Hercules. Some of the inside cockpit and cargo area shots are sometimes a C130 cockpit (can tell by the types of windows and cargo seats) but others times a different plane. (00:32:35 - 00:49:20)
Answer: The likely answer is that they ran to the airport. Their journey to the airport was simply cut to save time and keep the movie going.
Casual Person