Character mistake: When Jimmy explains to the kids of the town where the aliens took their parents, he mentions the origin of the aliens being somewhere in the Orion Star System, 3 million light years away. The Orion system is way closer than that. It is actually less than 1400 light years away from Earth. 3 million light years away would place them further than the Andromeda Galaxy.
Suggested correction: This shouldn't be a character mistake. A genius like Jimmy would know something like this. It's basic astronomy.
That's exactly why it's a character mistake. A character mistake is when a character does or says something that they shouldn't based on who/what they are suppose to be, or something a character wrongly states as fact when they should know better.
Character mistake: All the characters wearing gas masks are wearing them with the straps over the hoods. I was army trained, and you always wear the mask next to the skin for best seal, with the hood over the top.
Character mistake: Sybok tells Kirk that no one believed the world was round until Columbus proved it. Someone who studied at the Vulcan Academy should know that the Greek philosophers had proved the world was round and calculated its circumference centuries earlier. Columbus never set out to prove the world was round, just to find a shortcut to India.
Character mistake: When Bruce is looking at Chase's various clippings of Batman on her desk while she's tending to the tea kettle, there is a paper that says "Diagnosis Form #39," and just above it, the word "schizophrenic" is incorrectly spelled as either "schizofrenic" or "schizoprenic" (a metal clip is partially covering the last six letters of the word, so it's hard to determine whether it's an "f" or a lone "p" where the "ph" should be). (01:03:11 - 01:03:32)
Character mistake: More than once the crew of the submarine salute the Captain while uncovered in the hallways of the sub. Sailors never salute without their cover on.
Character mistake: Jeff mentions Mathias could have septicemia which he says is "a bacterial infection usually in the bone" However as a medical student he should know that septicemia means blood infection and has nothing to do with the bone.
Character mistake: Jonesy says he read about Amber going to West Point. She was a Marine, and not in the Army, which is what West Point is for.
Character mistake: The Master of Psychology Degree from Tulane University has a spelling mistake. School of Political Sciences is spelt 'Scineces'. (00:54:05)
Character mistake: Dave's wife refers to McCall as his "Army buddy" - but the pictures in McCall's house on the shore show him to be a Marine. Not a generalisation a Marine would make.
Character mistake: Near the end of the movie, when Newt and Minho and Frypan and others are all being checked by WCKD's scanners to identify the subjects. Minho is called subject A4 when he is really subject A7, subject A4 is Chuck. Newt is also called subject A6 when he really is subject A5, Subject A6 is ALBY.
Character mistake: The actor who played FBI agent Ross is Lennie James, who is an English actor. When they are searching for the girl in the parking garage of her building, he orders the SWAT team and other agents to search everywhere, under the cars and to "check the boots." He says this twice. Boot is the British term for trunk. He should be telling them to check the trunks of the cars, not the boots.
Character mistake: When the main characters are watching the news on TV, the headline reads "Terrorist seize Whitehouse". It should be "Terrorists".
Character mistake: When Charlie is making the come back against the guy in the bar, he only needed twenty but he actually gives 25. When Charlie asks how many so far a guy yells out 14, but he's actually at 19 at that point.
Character mistake: Lt. Caffey (Tom Cruise) wants the two marines to plead guilty and take a deal because he doesn't want the to "spend the rest of their lives in Leavenworth (prison)." The United States Disciplinary Barracks is indeed located in Leavenworth, Kansas. And the US Army and US Air Force send convicted felons there to do their time. However, Marines and members of the United States Navy are sent to Portsmouth Naval Prison in New Hampshire. It is run by the Marines.
Suggested correction: It's perfectly within character that Caffey wouldn't know this. He's been in the navy a short time, never tried a case in a courtroom, and is generally uninterested in military protocol.
Character mistake: In a conference with Crockett and Bowie, Travis states that Fannin in Goliad is preparing to relieve the Alamo and will be ready to "march south by the end of the week." Goliad is 90 miles south of San Antonio. To relieve the Alamo, Fannin would need to march north.
Character mistake: In the part after the premonition when everyone runs out of the speedway, Cynthia Daniels yells "Andy" to her husband, when her husband's name is Carter.
Suggested correction: Cynthia isn't the one saying it. Nadia, Andy's girlfriend, is calling after Andy as she follows him out. If you listen closely she actually calls after him more than once, beginning before Carter even starts to follow them out.
Character mistake: The doctor diagnosing Will's illness tells Evelyn and Max that it's caused by "an isotope called polonium." Polonium is a chemical element, not an isotope. The word "isotope" refers to a form of an element (such as carbon-12 or carbon-14) not the element itself. It does not mean "radioactive substance", because many isotopes are stable. A doctor would know this. (00:17:00)
Character mistake: On two occasions throughout the film, Kraven's accent changes - once when he is talking to Lucian near the beginning of the movie and near the end of the movie when he is telling Selene that Viktor killed her family.
Character mistake: Early in the story Dr. Gibbs rationalises the story to come by using two cars traveling the road at greatly different speeds to illustrate "Einstein's theory of relativity". He basically says that the slower moving car seems to stand still as seen from the much faster car's point of view. But in real Einsteinian relativity, just the opposite happens. When two reference frames are traveling with respect to each other, each sees the other's time advancing more quickly.
Character mistake: When the Marines are navigating through the Paris Island obstacle course, Hartman is shouting "It should take you no less than 10 seconds to negotiate this obstacle!" In other words, the LONGER it takes someone to get across, the better? (00:13:27)