Factual error: When Snowflake is being stolen at the beginning, he makes the high-pitched noise that dolphins make even when he is out of the tank; those high peals are made underwater through carrying sound. He wouldn't sound the same out of the water as he did under it.
Factual error: Towards the end of the movie, Mary sends a hand-written note to Inspector Abberline. The 'r' in her name is written in a North American style, where she is European.
Factual error: In Jake's office, Evelyn Mulwray stands by the window and a mid twentieth century modern building is outside it to the right. (00:57:20)
Factual error: The boardwalk is twice as wide as the real Long Beach boardwalk. The ramps on the real Long Beach boardwalk run parallel to the boardwalk. The movie's boardwalk ramps run perpendicular to the boardwalk.
Factual error: When Sally is leaving to rescue Gilly from her boyfriend she asks the Aunts to look after her children. The Aunts then say that they will take the children with them to the solstice celebration. A few days later when the cop is interviewing Sally he gives the date as March 8th. There are two solstices each year, one in December and one in June. Since this film takes place in early March, the Aunts could not have been going to a solstice celebration.
Factual error: Inspector Clouseau's watch may be broken but Hercule's doesn't keep very good time either. They synchonise watches at 7:47. 18 seconds later, Hercule says he has 7:47 and 23 seconds. (01:28:14)
Factual error: After the robots first attack New York City, a series of newspapers is shown. The German one is full of mistakes. It says "Sehr grosse metallic Maschinen stehlen stehlen Reserven." The word 'metallic' would be 'metallisch' in German and they would write robots as 'roboter'. 'Stehlen' (steal) is written twice. (00:15:15)
Factual error: On Day 3, look at The Embrey Star newspaper when it zooms into the headline. Above the headline is the newspaper's web address, hardly appropriate given the paper is from 1980.
Factual error: In the Abu Simbel scene, watch closely when they show a side-view shot of Jackie, accidentally depicting the shores of Lake Nasser in the background. This reservoir was built only in the 1960s and didn't exist at the time the movie is set in (1930s). (In fact, the whole temple had to be cut from the rock and moved to higher ground following the completion of the Aswan Dam, so the "original location" was no more available for the film crew.) (00:51:15)
Factual error: When Bruce and Patricia are in a lift after being chased by the cars in the garage, the lift rapidly descends but the two people in the lift are seen struggling on the floor when they should just about be on the ceiling due to the speed of the lift's descent.
Factual error: In the scene where Meg Ryan and her sister are in the coffee shop, her sister calls to the waitress that they ordered a latte, no foam, very dry - it is impossible to make a dry latte without foam, because dry means "foamy." Not to mention, a very dry latte is technically a cappuccino.
Factual error: In the beginning of the movie, the killer calls Cotton on his cell phone. When the killer hangs up on him, you hear a dial tone. When someone cuts you off on a cell phone, you don't get a dial tone. (00:02:40)
Factual error: When Bourne is traveling to London on the Eurostar from Paris, immediately after the 'flashback' where Marie floats away after being killed, there are two helicopter shots of the Eurostar traveling to London. The second (far away) shot shows the train passing over a motorway. The train is actually traveling towards Paris, and therefore away from London. The motorway is the M20 and the bridge is approximately 3 miles west of junction 9 for Ashford (Kent). The train would have been 10 minutes away from entering the Channel Tunnel. (00:13:45)
Factual error: At one point in the film there is footage on the news of Mystery Inc's embarrassing attempt to stop the ghouls from stealing costumes. In particular, it focuses on Shaggy and Scooby being dragged across the table, etc. But look at the angle it's taken from: no one could have taken that.
Factual error: In the culminating scene where Fletch is held at gun point and escapes by turning on the gas valve in the fireplace and then igniting the vapors into a ball of flame, he actually turns the valve into the off position (valve is perpendicular to the pipe). (01:32:00)
Suggested correction: The valve was in closed position (perpendicular). He opened the valve (turned parallel to pipe).
Factual error: A cordless nailgun takes about 2 seconds to recharge and cannot fire consecutive nails nearly as fast as depicted.
Factual error: We see Hoffman has to use pliers and force to remove Strahm's hand from the grill. However, since the hand is freshly severed, rigor mortis would not have set in, and he should have been able to remove it with ease. (01:09:30)
Factual error: When Meryl Streep is walking outside and talking to Mrs. Miller about the potential abuses of her son, you can see a basketball court in the background and on the court is a 3-point line. The movie is supposed to take place in 1964 and the 3 point line wasn't introduced until 1979/1980. (01:10:20)
Factual error: There is one scene in the movie where Heath Ledger reads a Latin sentence in a book. As he is translating the sentence, he goes over the words one by one with his finger. This would never be possible in a Latin sentence, because words in Latin are never - I repeat: never - in exactly the same order as in English. Words that actually belong together can be placed on opposite ends of a sentence.
Factual error: When Gadji hears Ace imitating a gorilla, he says 'Silverback'. In the next scene he says to Mick 'Female'. A silverback is the dominant male in a gorilla group, named for his coloring. See http://www.wwfus.org/gorillas/species.cfm.