Factual error: The film is set in 1997. There is a scene where Amelie knocks on a house door and in the background is a new model VW Beetle. These weren't available until early 1998. You can also see several scenes with various new models of Fiat Punto and VW Golf which weren't available until 1999. (00:19:00)
Factual error: Jonathan is lying in the middle of the skating rink when the second cashmere glove falls upon him. Looking around, he notices Sarah at the edge of the rink. Despite Sarah being a female and the fact that it is snowing, even Nolan Ryan would have a difficult time throwing something as light as cashmere that distance. (01:22:05)
Factual error: The evil man request 100,000 pieces of gold for ransom. Each gold piece looks to be about 10 ounces, and 100,000 of those would make the entire thing weigh about 31 tons, but 2 guys are carrying it around in a little chest throughout the movie.
Factual error: When Reese Witherspoon's character is sitting at the desk reading, there is a cheerleading trophy and the cheerleader on it is wearing a mini skirt, - they didn't have mini skirts on the cheerleading outfits then. (01:08:20)
Factual error: If you take the train from Paris to Cannes you won't pass the Eiffel tower.
Factual error: In the movie, when the baby is born and Big Momma delivers it, the baby comes out without any blood and there's no umbilical cord. (00:34:20)
Factual error: In the scene where we first meet Rosie, it opens with a shot of the house and then goes inside, passing by some pictures of Rosie and her husband. One of them, a picture of their wedding, says "Frank and Rosie - Wedding 1948", but then when Rosie is talking about how her husband will know how much she still loves him after all those years, Robbie says that he hopes that he and Linda will be as happy as Rosie and her husband on their 50th anniversary. If they got married in 1948, they would be closer to their 40th wedding anniversary. Since the movie is supposed to take place in 1985, this would actually be their 37th wedding anniversary. (00:12:10)
Factual error: In the scene where Taylor is trying to prove to Gabriella that Troy is a dumb jock who doesn't care about her, Troy is in the locker room with his friends. Troy's friends are recording Troy on a camera attached to a PC, and the image is seen on Taylor's PC. The message on Taylor's PC says an incorrectly spelled 'Recieving WiFi Signal' instead of 'Receiving'. (01:00:55)
Factual error: When they are at the Cadillac dealership, taking delivery on a car in 1956, the American flag in the background is incorrect. It should have been a 48 star flag, not a 50 star flag.
Factual error: In the scene when Clooney and Damon are rappelling down the shaft on steel cables, the come up short of the floor. They pull knives and swipe the cables. No knife would be able to cut a steel cable with one swipe.
Suggested correction: The cable is actually small enough gauge to be severed by a sharp knife when under the amount of tension created by the (static) suspended loads, i.e. Linus and Danny, although if so, it probably should have broken when their dynamic descent was halted so abruptly.
Cables would be left swinging, therefore setting off the alarm sensors.
They were retracted after they were cut. There's enough time for that to happen.
Factual error: During the drag racing part of the film, they show an orange Plymouth lining up to race a red 57 Chevy. When the back of the Plymouth comes into view you can see a Direct Connection license plate with a Mopar logo on it. Chrysler's Direct connection line didn't exist in 1964, and the red white and blue Mopar logo wasn't around until 1972.
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: 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: Opening the blank envelope, Marta finds the fragment of the toxicology report. It is signed "Office of the chief medical examiner, Norfolk County, Massachusetts." But then it writes also the address of said office, which is in Marlborough. Marlborough is also the city when Marta resides, and where the lawyers' letters we see come from. But Marlborough is also a city in the Middlesex county, not Norfolk. (01:28:25)
Factual error: Legitimate religious institutions are not subject to property taxes.
Factual error: The opening scene shows Donna graduating from New College in 1979. That is not possible, women were only first admitted in 1979.
Factual error: In the beginning of the movie when the main character is watching ESPN. The footage of the Dallas game, where the referee (Cuba Gooding) messes up the coin toss, you clearly see the sky right over the crowd in the stadium. The ESPN people say it was in Dallas. In Dallas, the Cowboys play in a dome. The hole of the dome is in the center of the roof and the sky would not have been shot so easily. Also the dome has artificial grass. The footage showed natural grass. (00:05:35)
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: In the scene where the camera shows Times Square, visible on the right of the screen in the front of the shot is a poster for the Broadway show "The Lion King". The Lion King just celebrated 10 years on Broadway and was not playing in 1994.
Factual error: In the title sequence, Poppy rides her bike down Kingsway, along the Strand, and south over Blackfriars Bridge. The next shot of her shows a street with an EC1 postcode (north of the river) and the following shot an SE1 postcode (south of the river again).