Factual error: When the order is given to activate the US Navy 6th Fleet, the warships are shown with their crews standing on deck in their dress white uniforms, which is only done when pulling in or out for a deployment, or ceremonial port call (fleet week). (01:33:00)
Factual error: Shane is a lieutenant and the Principal is Petty Officer first class. Shane states the Principal is the senior officer. This is wrong as the Petty Officer is a Non Commissioned Officer, while Shane is a commissioned officer. Shane outranks the Principal.
Factual error: A ham radio requires the person to hold down the button while talking. Numerous times in the movie they are talking without pushing the button.
Suggested correction: This is actually subtly addressed in the film. The magic which allows the radio to work across time also allows the two men to speak without pressing the button. There is a moment where Frank wonders what is going on with the radio and presses the button a few times to talk but then notices that he doesn't have to press the button to be heard.
If that was true, then it wouldn't make sense for them to continue to show Frank and John hitting the squawk bar throughout the film.
That is a separate issue. The mistake entry states that you need to hold the button to talk on a ham radio, which is true, but the magic ham radio in the film doesn't require it. If the actors continue to occasionally press the button that could be considered a character mistake but it could also simply be a force of habit by the characters.
Factual error: The Skycrane helicopters have a max takeoff weight of 42,000 lbs. With them weighing in at 19,200 lbs, that leaves 22,800 lbs that they could lift. Even small carracks, the ships, weigh around 180,000 lbs.
Factual error: In the car at the beginning of the movie, Jean uses her telekinetic powers to switch the radio from a station playing "By the time I get to Phoenix" by Glen Campbell to Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London." It's 1975, and Zevon recorded the song only in 1978 (although the song itself had already been written in 1975, other artists played it in live concerts in the Fall of that year). (00:01:30)
Factual error: Chris Kyle did not make Chief after his first deployment. He made Chief during his fourth deployment.
Factual error: When Xander Cage is chasing Xiang on the dirt bikes, he lets his bike get entirely submerged, which would flood the engine.
Factual error: In the final standoff, Smith shoots Hertz by holding cartridges between his fingers in the fire. This is not remotely believable. The casings, weighing much less than the bullets, would have been blasted off while the bullets themselves would have gone nowhere. (01:15:15)
Factual error: Jodie Foster states that as a propulsion engineer, she knows the internal structure of the plane by heart and has worked extensively on it. The problem with that is that propulsion engineers work on the jet engines - which are all on the outside of the plane, on the wings. Sure, a propulsion engineer might have some basic knowledge of the plane's interior design and engineering, but the in-depth knowledge she claims comes from her job simply isn't right - that's the job of avionics engineers.
Factual error: When Koba steals an Armored Security Vehicle class M1117A Guardian, he kills the gunner from the turret and then somehow manages to use the 240B attached to the turret. First, it takes three men/apes to operate the ASV, and second, the ASV cannot be operated from the turret. In that scene, it is assumed that Koba is operating the entire vehicle, something most humans cannot do or do not know how to do. Let alone a 240B, MK19, or .50 Cal M2 Browning. The ASV turned in the direction of the wall, which was the only way that the Apes were able to breach the city walls. This is also kind of an important plot hole blunder too because if it were not for the breach from the ASV, the Apes would not have won. The other blunder from this is that the gunner would not have been exposed from the hatch, since the ASV was using .50Cal and MK19. No need to use the 240B.
Factual error: The Germans in the castle are using Bell 47 helicopters which a) were American, not German, and b) weren't even in operation until 1946.
Factual error: The electric guitar Marty plays at the "Enchantment Under the Sea Dance" is a Gibson ES345. This guitar model debuted between 1957 and 1958 yet he's supposedly playing it in 1955. It would have been more accurate to have him using a Fender Telecaster (1950) or Stratocaster (1954) or a Gibson Les Paul (1952). (01:23:50)
Factual error: How is it that when Sly comes out of the freezing, icy water, his hair and clothes are bone dry? I don't know too much about hypothermia, but I would imagine that his fairly thin sweater isn't wind proof. I'm sure by the time the movie ended, he would be suffering from more symptoms of hypothermia other than chattering teeth.
Factual error: If the Russian cosmonauts need special suits to survive out in space, so should Lacy when she is abducted by Nuclear Man. (00:02:50 - 01:20:20)
Factual error: The scene in which the Beechcraft Baron hits the Boeing 747 in flight plumbs new depths in cinematic absurdity. Assuming both aircraft are at their normal cruising speeds - they appear to be - and the Beechcraft has half a fuel load left, it will hit with the same energy as 7,700 kgs of TNT. The Beechcraft Baron weighed 3,200 kg and the two aircraft would have a closing speed of something like 700 kmh. Even a glancing blow would tear the entire front half of the 747 to bits - there would be virtually nothing of the fuselage left intact all the way back to the wings, and the film shows the two aircraft on course for a head on collision.
Suggested correction: What matters is how much of the small plane's kinetic energy was deposited in the 747's structure. A glancing blow would deliver less energy than a head-on collision, because it lessens the total time interval of the impact. Another important thing is if the small plane shattered or stayed largely in one piece during the collision. If it promptly shredded on impact, then each little fragment carried away its portion of the total energy. Smaller pieces of something as light as that plane would immediately get caught in the powerful airflow and be diverted around the 747.
Absolute rubbish. Airliners do not survive mid air collisions.
Factual error: In the scene at the race track where they show the virus infecting and destroying cells in the blood stream, they clearly show that it is red blood cells being infected. Viruses, in order to replicate, require the cell's DNA replication machinery. However, mature red blood cells in the circulation no longer possess this machinery since they no longer have a nucleus or DNA. It would therefore be impossible for this virus to replicate.
Factual error: When Harry is confronting the bank robber and the robber says he has to know if Harry had any shots left, Harry cocks the hammer which rotates the cylinder. If you watch closely when he pulls the trigger the cylinder rotates again. This can happen only when the trigger is pulled in double action mode (hammer down). (00:14:00)
Factual error: When they're first entering the whaling camp, a penguin startles Miller. That penguin was a black-footed penguin, which is a bird native to much warmer climates. If that little guy had actually been in Antarctica, he would have died within minutes. (00:20:40)
Factual error: Laredo drives the ship out of the starship docking station and scrapes the main hull on the walls. This would not be possible without either scraping the wings first, as they are much wider than the main ship, or turning nearly sideways, which they clearly don't.
Factual error: Shazam catches the bus with his hands, but it lands on his hands and face by the windshield. This puts the entire weight of the bus being supported by just the front windshield held by Shazam's hands, plus the momentum of it falling from the bridge hitting him. No way the glass could support all that and not break. Especially since it already cracked from just a guy falling on it.