Factual error: When Cattleya escapes through the sewer drain and winds up in front of the U.S. Embassy, she uncovers the manhole all by herself. Impossible for such a young child to do.
Factual error: Opening scene shows NYC 1962 as a 1964 Chevy Impala rolls by.
Factual error: Most of the parachutes are PX type. These came out in the 1960s. They only used X type during the war - only a few of those are seen in the film. (00:07:00)
Factual error: When Patton orders his driver to drive to the Carthaginian battlefield he addresses him as "sergeant". He is, however, wearing corporal's chevrons. A famous stickler for discipline and ceremonial, Patton is not likely to have made a mistake like this.
Factual error: If Owen Wilson is under a dead body, how could any thermal radiation leak through the cold dead body covering him so the satellite (plus the Admiral and aides) could see him the whole time? (00:54:10)
Factual error: When Mark types email addresses in to tell people about facemash, he writes to several people @harvard.edu. At the time the movie takes place, undergraduate email addresses were all of the form username@fas.harvard.edu. Furthermore, the network brought down by facemash would have been referred to as the FAS network. (FAS stands for Faculty of Arts and Sciences; the eponymous network covered all buildings within the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.).
Factual error: The German fighters depicted in the film are Messerchmitt Bf 109 G-6s, and every single one of them is using the Rüstsatz VI gun pod, that is, 2 extra 20mm Mg 151 cannons. The Luftwaffe only equipped their Bf 109s with the gun pods when they were going to intercept bombers. In this movie, even on the fighter vs fighter missions, they have these gun pods, which is inaccurate, because the gun pods dramatically reduced the turning performance of the Bf 109s.
Factual error: The movie is set around 1995. But the SWAT team in the movie is wearing gear from the 2000s. (MICH-2000 helmet, modular tactical vest, M4 variant with picatinny rails and scope). Plus, in a scene when the guys are shopping for a taser (gun shop scene), some of the rifles on display are from 2000s era. AR-15 variants with variant stock, foregrip and picatinny rail. Those style of weapon system were unheard of in early 90s. Even Special Forces just adopted it by the late 90s.
Factual error: Lauda is an Austrian. Yet when his name appears on scoreboards with his country abbreviation, it shows AUS, which is for Australia. AUT is for Austria.
Factual error: In the scene where the Navy Seals are riding in the cars, the VA state vehicle inspection can be read from behind. It read "6 13" for June 2013. This would have been correct for the period the film was made, but not for the time of the incident.
Factual error: The Map of Europe used for plotting their route displays the Netherlands incorrectly, showing its two major central polders (low-lying reclaimed landmasses surrounded by dikes) which weren't drained and finally completed until 1968.
Factual error: When Caleb is entering the estate in the helicopter, the pilot mentions they had been flying over the estate for the past two hours, indicating that it was two hours to Nathan's house plus any time elapsed after that conversation. Calculate another two hours minimum back to the airport. The Eurocopter EC 130 pictured in the film has a maximum range of about four hours max. The helicopter quite possibly could've crashed before reaching the airport to refuel. (00:02:01)
Suggested correction: They refuelled, it just wasn't shown.
Factual error: On the plane, while being escorted by FBI agents, Frank Jr sees New York's LaGuardia Airport and says, "There it is, LaGuardia Airport, runway 44." A runway numbered 44 is impossible. No runway can be numbered over 36 because there are 360 degrees in a circle. (01:58:25)
Factual error: In the poster shot and in the film, the wave from the Atlantic carrying the carrier JFK into a collision with the White House comes crashing in from the west because the south portico of the White House is seen. The Atlantic Ocean is east of Washington, so the wave should come from the other direction. And even a wave coming from the east could not have made the JFK (CV-67) crash into the White House because the carrier was retired in 2005 and is berthed in Philadelphia, which is northeast of Washington DC. (01:30:10 - 01:30:40)
Factual error: The type of book that Eli is protecting would actually be just a fragment. The complete Bible, in braille, occupies as many as 18 volumes.
Factual error: In the office motel of the Dallas Buyer's Club, a calendar behind Ron Woodroof's desk shows a newer model of a Lamborghini Aventador (2011-current) but the story takes place in 1985.
Factual error: The opening shot (of the New York Stock Exchange's trading floor) has the subtitle "1985," which might lead one to expect that at least the action in the first few scenes takes place in the year 1985. However, when Charlie Sheen is talking to his Nimrod broker buddy the Nimrod jokes that the day the Challenger exploded, Gekko was on the phone "selling NASA stock short." The Challenger exploded in January, 1986, not 1985. [An explanation for this: Wall Street, as conceived and filmed, was supposed to be set in 1987. However, near the end of 1986, The Ivan Boesky insider-trading scandal hit, many rules were changed, and acknowledging those events would have undone much of the plotting of the movie. So the movie was shifted back in time to 1985 (before the scandals, and also before the Challenger disaster), thus creating this major goof].
Factual error: The plastic explosive used on the cockpit door was C-4. When shot (as shown), C-4 does not explode; it requires the use of a detonator.
Suggested correction: You can see him applying a detonator prior to him shooting it.
If he applied a blasting cap (detonator) he should have used it then. Just putting a detonator into C-4 doesn't all the sudden make it vulnerable to being shot, he would have to actually hit the blasting cap's wire, which is about 5mm thick and relatively short (and it would have to be one that's sensitive to gunfire). Not a very probable shot, even less so when he doesn't even look when he shoots.
Factual error: Shortly after the crash, when Chuck is in the raft, one of the engines continues to run even though it is half submerged in water. The engine would not have exploded like it did, rather, it would have just stopped running as soon as it became disconnected from its fuel source and flooded with water.
Suggested correction: The aircraft seems like a Airbus A300 or 310 but it is really a MD-11 or DC-10 because you can clearly see that the front body with wing with engine attached sink leaving the tail section. So the tail has a fuel tank and the third engine. The engine normally compresses air then burns it by feeding in fuel and igniting it. But can't compress air because the turbines are in the water. The fuel would in this case would "flood" the engine then the igniter ignites it and explodes.
Fumes explode, raw fuel burns. Igniter will not ignite raw fuel nor would there be anyway to propagate the explosion that took place.
Even if the engine was flooded, and full of water, and the air couldn't, it still wouldn't explode. MD-11 engines run on a fuel that cannot be ignited.
Wrong, the tail section has fuel LINES not a fuel tank.
Factual error: A copy of Miles Davis' album "Tutu" is sitting on a counter. Odd since the recording wasn't made until 1986.