Factual error: The type of surgery shown made by the machine transversely cuts the rectus abdominis muscles. Besides not being a standard surgical incision in order to "remove a foreign body" as stated, it seriously damages important muscles of the abdominal wall making any immediate active mobilization of the trunk virtually impossible, even under strong analgesia.
Factual error: When Laura Barns is counting down the final time and each number show up as a notification in the upper right hand corner, they should also show up under the Skype chat but instead, Laura's previous message remains.
Factual error: During the plane ride into France, the Paratroopers are holding/carrying their weapons by their sides. In reality, their weapons (M1 Garands, B.A.R.s, etc.) would be carried in special "bags" strapped to their parachute harness. This not only protected their weapons, but also secured them to their person.
Factual error: At the end when Ben Willis and his son have Julie at the graves, Ray shows up with a gun. He fires at Ben but there is no bullet in the chamber. Later after the fight between Ray and Ben's son Julie picks up the six-shot gun and fires 8 shots at Ben.
Factual error: There is no possible method of "fusing" the genetic material of a common housefly (Musca domestica) and a human. The housefly has twelve chromosomes, humans forty six. There is no way to combine the two in order to produce a viable organism. Thirty four of the human chromosomes would have no matching chromosome to "fuse" with, meaning the physical characteristics coded by those genes would not form. The Brundlefly would be missing three quarters of his human body.
Suggested correction: There's no possible way of teleporting physical objects either, but it happens in this movie. This is science fiction. These kinds of "factual errors" are not valid.
The film presents no scientific explanation for "teleportation" but does for "genetic merging." Teleportation is possible in this film's universe, but "genetic merging" is impossible in any universe.
Factual error: When Hooper sees the hole in the hull of Ben Gardner's boat, he uses his knife to pry out the shark tooth. The tooth is located at the bottom of the hole, with its flat root side stuck deep in the wood and its pointy side facing up. It is completely impossible for the shark's tooth to become wedged in the wood this way, while he takes a nice bite out of the wood hull. (00:49:15)
Suggested correction: When Hooper uses the knife to pry to tooth out, it took very little effort, suggesting that the tooth wasn't wedged into that spot, but merely just resting in that spot.
The shark tooth was inserted into the wood by the prop crew with its flat root side down, which would have been impossible to have occurred during the attack on the hull. As to the statement that the tooth was "merely just resting in that spot" then Hooper would not have needed to use the blade to remove it from the wood, plus the fact that since it was underwater it would have floated away during the hours after the attack. But it did not float away, so it must have been at the very least snugly fit into the wood hull. Still impossible.
Factual error: In the cemetery, the skeleton of Gregory Peck's son is far too big to be that of a newborn, which it is supposed to be.
Factual error: Rios records a message for her daughter on her mobile phone. The phone is a Nokia N81. The film is set two days after the first one, in 2005. But the N81 wasn't released until 2007. (01:02:00)
Factual error: The aircraft used to fly to Shangri-La is a Bristol Beaufighter, a single seat long range fighter bomber. It was not a transport aircraft and could not carry passengers. Some variants of the Beaufighter were two seaters but none at all could be used as small airliners as they do here. It is not possible to simply reconfigure the aircraft as shown here - the centre of gravity, balance and trim would all be thrown out. The resulting jury-built aircraft would be uncontrollable in flight.
Factual error: When the crew shoots Kane's body out into space, the door opens up and "explosive decompression" causes Kane's body to fly out into space. At the beginning, the body slowly rotates. Then as it moves further away, the body begins flipping much faster. The reason something would increase speed in rotation like that is due to aerodynamics. An object traveling through space would simply keep the same rotational velocity it begins with since there is no air or other influences (gravity, etc.). The explosive decompression may cause it to increase rotation speed, but by the time it begins to flip, any air would have dissipated into space and not work as a column of air/wind to force the body into a flip.
Factual error: At the end when they are loading Dewey into the ambulance on the stretcher, it is standard procedure to put the patient neck brace when they receive any type of unknown injuries (stab wounds) to their back as Dewey did - it was notably absent.
Factual error: Zippo lighters are sold dry, no fluid when new.
Factual error: When Janet Leigh is shown lying dead on the floor of the shower, there is a close-up of her open eye. The pupil is contracted to a pinpoint (obviously due to the bright lighting) where it should have been dilated. After the film was released, Hitchcock heard from several ophthalmologists who pointed this out and suggested he use belladonna eye drops in the eyes of "dead" people in future films, as the chemical prevents the pupils from contracting. (00:48:30)
Factual error: The gold bars that the crew finds must be some new type of lightweight gold. There's no way that Julianna could stuff a gold bar in her back pocket and then pull it out and toss it on the table and Greer simply tosses it back and forth like it was plastic. A gold bar weighs around 27 pounds, you definitely wouldn't be tossing it around. (00:42:05 - 00:47:50)
Factual error: In the basement scene where the blind man is shooting at the home invaders with the M9 Beretta, the weapon should lock with the chamber open once the last round is fired. Instead the slide goes forwards, allowing the blind man to continue pulling the trigger.
Factual error: Budapest didn't exist in 1489. The cities of Buda and Pest weren't combined until 1873.
Factual error: Water can't put out chemical fires.
Suggested correction: Nonsense. Not all can be put out with water, some can.
If you did research on fires you will see that putting water on chemical fires makes it spread. Gasoline and oil float to the surface of the water and continue to burn.
Factual error: When Christina mixes a drink for one of Mommie's "guests" she bends down behind the bar to put a bottle back. Sitting on top of the bar is a Trigger Sprayer bottle of "Fantastick" - a spray that did not come out until the late 60's.
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: Grain engulfment is not depicted in a scientific manner. It is not possible for engulfment to happen without a valve being opened at the base - which has not been shown in the movie when the boy falls in the grain storage. It is very unlikely that two engulfments will happen so close by in the same storage - if so, they will converge quickly. But, the movie shows both victims help each other one by one. They succeed in 5-10 seconds. Engulfment become entrapment in less than 20 seconds and require more than thrice the body weight to pull some one out (unlike one kid being able to pull other one out while both are on the grain). Finally, they both sit on the door and avoid entrapment.
Suggested correction: It's possible for grain to look sturdy but not be underneath so the engulfment could have possible. But you're right about them not being able to pull each other out.
Well observed. It's a factual error.
I jumped into grain hundreds of times. It is not possible without the grain moving underneath.