Factual error: The portrayal of the firing MLRS before Denzel's unit moves off is ludicrously inadequate. The rockets launched from the MLRS resemble a space shuttle lift-off, but in the movie it was more like a sparkler thrown into the air.
Factual error: There is no possible way to cause a power line to drop from its support pylons and hit a person on target. These wires are fastened extremely securely, designed to withstand extremely high tension through all kinds of weather, and they are not equipped with some sort of explosive charges to release them.
Factual error: The movie is supposed to take place over the course of a single summer. In one section of the film, Bobby is reading a story about VP Nixon's recent Presidential nomination, which took place in 1960. Later, he is reading a story of Maury Wills base stealing record, which occurred in 1962. (00:25:00)
Factual error: Abby has trees surrounding her house yet there aren't any in Nome Alaska.
Factual error: Louis Simo gives his son an Etch-A-Sketch while taking him to school, and later when Louis stops by to see his son at his ex-wife's house, his son is playing with the Etch-A-Sketch in his bedroom. Both incidents take place in the summer of 1959. George Reeves died June 16, 1959, hence the investigation. The first Etch-A-Sketch toys were produced on July 12, 1960 and Ohio Art launched the toy in the United States in time for the 1960 holiday season.
Factual error: In the scene straight after the opening credits we are taken to Baker Street where construction work is being done. This work is identified by a sign with a logo as being for the underground line. The logo type face was developed by a Mr. Edward Johnston for London Underground from 1913 but the distinctive typeface used in the film was not in place until 1919. This is obviously long after the 1891 setting of the film.
Factual error: The first thing on screen after the opening credits is the year the film is set in, 1953. How then, do Kim Novak and Tony Curtis make their arrival in a Cadillac convertible, which is quite obviously of 1959 vintage? (00:19:44)
Factual error: When the infected Palmer starts his transformation into the Thing, he has a series of fits and the creature 'falls', or leaps upward onto the ceiling. Watch closely...you can see a piece of paneling also 'fall' upward, when it should have fallen down. (01:23:20)
Factual error: The "whaling boat" is too small to function as such. It isn't large enough to hold a fin, let alone disassemble a humpback whale.
Factual error: The husband was killed in an explosion. There would be no body for a casket, much less a head full of hair.
Factual error: Dallas, Texas is not surrounded by desert mountains. This is a dumb tourist mistake; when that shot of downtown Dallas appeared on the screen audiences there groaned in unison. (00:07:30)
Factual error: In the scene where Noah analyses the tape, he says that the 'timecode' seems to be invalid and says that every tape has a track where you can see what device was used to record it, etc. The video technology explanation originates from the original, Ringu, with the plot of The Ring changed to make it more applicable to average Americans. But a VHS tape does not have a special track for timecode. It is possible to lay a timecode onto the tape in either an analogue form via a special audio channel, or as digital information on lines 16 and 18 of the vertical interval. But this 'timecode' is only used for professional video editing. A standard VCR, like the one they were playing the tape on, does not use this, and therefore makes Noah's explanation a minute of utter nonsense.
Factual error: A plastic bucket is seen. Plastic buckets were invented in the 60s. (00:50:05)
Suggested correction: There's no plastic bucket seen. If you're referring to the bucket cops are using at the crime, there's a shot of the bucket on its side and you can tell there's a metal bottom.
Factual error: In the scene where Olivia's body is being removed from her home. Olivia was covered in blood, yet the sheet covering her has blood only in her chest area. The sheet would have had way more blood on it. Also, I'm an EMT, sheets are not used on victims that are dead. A body bag that zips closed and is made of rip proof plastic is used to transport deceased victims (especially if they are as bloody as Olivia was supposed to be). White sheets on a corpse are only seen in the morgue. (00:40:00)
Factual error: In the first frontal shot of Percival's Porsche following Lorraine, virtually every car parked at the side of the road is from after 1989, one of them not even being on sale until 2007. (00:16:10)
Factual error: It is not possible to have a conjoined twin of the opposite sex. They are similar to identical twins, which are always of the same sex, in that they are formed from a single zygote. In the case of conjoined twins, the zygote fails to divide normally.
Suggested correction: There are always exceptions to the rules and, although VERY rare, it IS possible for conjoined twins to be - rather, end up being - different sexes. There are about 10 documented cases. In one case, is my understanding the conjoined twins started out as males but a genetic mutation (or something) occurred and one male lost his Y chromosome, thereby developing into a female with no ovaries. (The now-female twin would have so-called Turner Syndrome.) I don't have any sources to quote off-hand.
The male would have lost his Y chromosome after the zygote "split", but he was a monozygotic male.
Factual error: The priest says that St. John saw the number 666 in his vision, but it was actually 999 inverted. St. John wouldn't read modern Arabic numerals like we do, it would be Roman numerals. The number 666 would actually be DCLXVI. (01:05:40)
Factual error: In the scene where there is a train passing, the cars are marked "Burlington Northern." There was NO Burlington Northern until 1970, 7 years AFTER the shooting.
Factual error: At the beginning of the movie, the main characters are supposedly in Amsterdam, but everyone is speaking German, it's not just the main characters doing this.
Factual error: David Egan's obituary says he died on 'Wednesday July 5th 1997'. In 1997, July 5th was a Saturday. (00:45:30)