Revealing: Just after the helicopters crash during the chase with the crop duster keep a close eye and one of the helos is still in the shots flying.

Visible crew/equipment: When Brubaker hides out in the Petrol station, the two helicopter pilots approach the window. A reflection of a member of the crew wearing glasses can be seen reflecting in the window where the pilots stand.

Revealing: When the three Astronauts crash the Lear jet in the desert, on the outside shots of them walking in their separate directions, there are no marks behind the jet to show that it skidded across the surface where it stopped.

Revealing: During the crop-duster chase with the helicopters, the interior of the filming helo is visible on the left side of the frame for a brief moment. Very noticeable.

Plot hole: After the astronauts escape in the plane and has to make a crash landing, James Brolin's character says that he will head west, OJ Simpson's character should head north, and Sam Waterson's character to go south. If Brolin is INDEED walking west, then north would be to his right, but Waterson heads that way (instead of south) and Simpson heads the other way (instead of north). A few minutes later when Simpson is killed, the flare goes off on Brolin's left side (south), instead of north. And the same for Waterson.

Factual error: If one person (at NASA) was able to calculate the distance between the returning Mars capsule and Earth based on their radio signals, then everyone with basic radio receiving equipment would be able to. The Russians routinely track American spacecraft and publish details of their trajectory in Pravda, and amateur astronomers throughout the world do so, too. This all comes from triangulation of their radio signals. There is no way that NASA could hide this simple fact from their worldwide audience.

Visible crew/equipment: During the helicopter chase sequence with the cropduster, the shadow of the camera helicopter that is filming the chase can sometimes be seen.

Factual error: The whole conspiracy is doomed from the start! They show a Lunar Module on the set representing Mars; the astronauts were supposed to use this to 'land' on the Martian surface. This is insane. The Lunar Excursion Module cannot operate in an atmosphere; it would burn up on entry. It has no heat shield - the engine nozzle and landing legs would have to poke through it if it had. Exterior protrusions like antennae and steering engines would burn off during descent through the Martian atmosphere. While Mars' atmosphere is thin, it is still more than sufficient to burn up a Lander designed this way. All three recent Mars Landers, Spirit, Opportunity, and Phoenix, had heat shields and parachutes to facilitate safe re-entry. This is not a radical redesign of the LEM; it simply cannot be the shape it is if it is to work in an atmosphere. Any schoolkid would know that, and the world's media would not be fooled for a second.