Factual error: A headline from the Pantagraph (an Illinois newspaper) dated 19 December 2001, is shown in big letters to read, "Latest Florida recount shows Gore won election." In fact, no edition of the Pentagraph has ever featured an article that claimed this. The only time those words appeared in that newspaper was in small print over a letter to the editor dated 5 December 2001.
Other mistake: When the USA soccer world cup team is practicing in New York, on some field in Long Island, in several shots you can see the steeple for Union Avenue Christian Church, which is actually located in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Continuity mistake: Early in the movie when Thomas falls overboard, John Smith ties a rope around his waist (00:02:56) and jumps in after him. Thomas is very far away from the ship (00:03:12). But when the men pull John and Thomas up, John is holding on to the rope with one hand and the end is left dangling (00:03:36). One of the men who pulled them up then coils the rope with a mere two coils (00:03:48), not nearly long enough to have reached Thomas while he was overboard. In the same scene, when we are viewing the men pulling John and Thomas up from above (00:03:38) there is no extra rope at their feet as there should have been for such a long rope.
Factual error: Just after the start of the Korean War, McArthur places a map of Korea on the hood of a jeep to explain to a subordinate general his plans to invade Inchon. The map shows the boundary of North and South Korea not along the 38th parallel, which was the border at the time (1950), but along today's DMZ - not established until the Korean armistice was signed in 1953.
Factual error: The film strongly implies that John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, keeps his head (literally) by converting to Catholicism. In fact, he was executed well before Lady Jane Grey was.
Continuity mistake: In the last scene of the movie Eleanor leaves by boat to go back to her castle prison. When we see Henry waving good-bye he is standing right next to a post when we see him from the back, but this post is nowhere when he is shown from the water. (02:08:10)
Factual error: Two passengers play a piano/vaudeville routine in the lounge for the officers and passengers. During its initial season (1936) Hindenburg had a lightweight aluminum baby grand piano on board. However, passenger accommodations were expanded over the winter of 1936/37 and the piano was removed. There was no piano aboard Hindenburg on her fatal flight in May 1937.
Factual error: In the opening shot of the movie while our characters are driving down the street in 1951, there is a post-2000, white Toyota Tercel. It's the 2nd car on the left. The car is removed from the next scene. (00:00:50)
Factual error: When Lt. Lee shoots down the second Messerschmidt in Italy, you can see it is a twin engine plane.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where we see the room from a wider shot there is no rifle leaning against the barrel. We then get a closer shot of a man talking and there is now a rifle leaning against the barrel.
Factual error: Hugh Jackman says the car he is working on is a '72 classic. It is actually a 1979 Pontiac Firebird.
Factual error: The main plot of 'The War Lord' is based on a total fallacy. Chrysagon, a nobleman in eleventh century Normandy, falls in love with Bronwyn. She is betrothed to Marc, a villager on Chrysagon's estate. When Bronwyn and Marc marry Chrysagon claims 'Droit Du Seigneur', a law that a lord is allowed to sleep with a lesser man's wife on their wedding night. It is often asserted, even by some medieval historians, that 'Droit Du Seigneur' was legally enforced in the middle ages, but no reference to the practice has ever been found in any surviving medieval law code, legal text book, or historical source. It is first mentioned in the sixteenth century, and then as a discontinued practice from a barbarous past (like human sacrifice or cannibalism) but the earliest accounts of the custom do not provide any verifiable sources, suggesting that it originated in over-active minds of writers of popular romances.
Revealing mistake: After Jesus saves the woman from being stoned to death, members of the crowd drop their stones, but the stones bounce back up when they hit the ground.
Factual error: A scene near the beginning of the movie when Forest Whitaker and Oprah are both speaking on different phones. The phone that Forest is using has a modular plug. The scene takes place during the Kennedy administration (early 60's). The modular phone plug was not patented and put into use until 1975.
Factual error: On a number of occasions uniformed Wermacht officers and men are shown saluting Albert Speer. Speer was a civilian and (obviously) not in uniform. Military men do not salute civilians.
Factual error: In a picture from the UN headquarters in New York in the year 2003 you see two German flags. The German Democrativ Republic hasn't existed since 1990. (01:16:04)
Factual error: When Mark Felt and the FBI Director are in a car on the way to the Watergate hearings in 1972 or 1973, from the car window, you see the WW2 memorial, which was built in 2004.
Factual error: The kid is wearing a Texas Rangers baseball cap. The Rangers didn't come to Texas until 1972.
Factual error: Approximately three quarters of the way in to the film, there is a close up of a German soldier handing an officer a file of documents. The helmet that the soldier is wearing is a post war 1960s version. This can be determined by the lack of an air vent and rivet on the side of the helmet.
Continuity mistake: In the final shot, just as the credits are rolling, the British warships are sailing away with the sun setting behind them. In an earlier scene the radio commentator says that the sun is setting and a shot of the sun touching the surface of the sea is shown.