Deliberate mistake: In the fight scene with the chariots Maximus takes one of the horses from a chariot and jumps on it. The horse already has a saddle complete with stirrups despite the fact it was pulling a chariot and not carrying a rider. (01:23:30)
Deliberate mistake: "Fury" director David Ayer acknowledges that he committed a deliberate error by having the German Tiger tank blast the last Sherman in the column, tank doctrine being that the lead vehicle in a column gets blasted, then the last to stall the column, leaving the vehicles in between the dead vehicles easy pickings. Ayer said if the doctrine was followed in the film, Brad Pitt's tank would have been destroyed first and thus the film would end, roll credits. (01:15:00)
Deliberate mistake: In the film, American aircraft carriers carry no fighter planes. It was a weird choice...pilots who were naval fighter pilots were edited out of the story, and Wade McClusky, who in reality was previously a fighter pilot but moved into dive bombers had his story changed for the film to have him previously had been a torpedo plane pilot instead.
Deliberate mistake: In one of the dogfight scenes a Japanese Zero crashes into a tower. It's a quick shot, but you can still see that what crashes is an American P-40 with Japanese markings.
Deliberate mistake: During the Trojan attack on the Greeks at the beach, before Hector and "Achilles" have at it, there are two separate close-ups of Hector's sword slicing across a man's face, who promptly spins around and spews blood. This particular man is enjoyed twice in two takes of the same shot, just before and after Odysseus' close-ups. Then as if that's not enough, a few shots later this spewing man is actually seen a third time, but this time from another angle. (01:42:30)
Deliberate mistake: During the scene of the Spartans moving out, they sing "I Will Survive." Sonio is clearly singing the song alone, because his lips are singing the song before the music or anyone else is singing.
Deliberate mistake: Throughout the entire movie, every time Charlie Sheen is not wearing his helmet, especially when he's out in the field in this tropical climate, his hair is always meticulously combed back, blow-dried and puffy. As a veteran, I know from personal experience that when you take your helmet off, especially in a climate like that, the reality is your hair will be messy, sweaty, pressed flat and most unattractive.
Deliberate mistake: This is a mistake which is a function of the limitation of the special effects at the time and what the censors would allow in the cinema but the wounds suffered by the Zulus do no justice to the horrific injuries that the Martini Henry rifle would have caused. The Martini Henry fired a big .45 inch soft nosed bullet that usually shattered on impact. It would have caused massive gaping wounds rather than the little red dots and trickles of blood shown on the Zulus and left many of them limbless as the bullets tore off arms and legs.
Deliberate mistake: When Arthur follows Guinevere to the meeting with Merlin, her and the trees' shadows point at the viewer. Only Arthur has two shadows, one points to the left. The source of the moonlight is below the next ridge, and it's bright like a floodlight. Later, when Arthur is talking to Merlin, his face is always illuminated, even after a 180°-turn. (00:59:00)
Deliberate mistake: In the funeral scene of Wallace's father and brother, the little girl picks a flower for young Wallace. Look closely when she picks the flower- its already been cut. [This was to make it easier for the little girl to pick it so not to hurt herself on the thorns.]. (00:11:20)
Deliberate mistake: When Denzel Washington is in the bathroom, he discovers the camera monitoring him from the air vent, by seeing the light on the front of the camera. Any spy with common sense would not install a hidden camera with a light on it.
Deliberate mistake: The majority of the Japanese planes were actually done-over North American AT-6 Texans and their Navy counterpart, the SNJ.
Deliberate mistake: When Alexander is giving his pre-battle speech at Gaugamela, some of the shots are 'flipped', which has the odd effect of suddenly making all of the phalanx pikemen left-handed.
Deliberate mistake: As the Soviet tank starts rolling, the tank commander obviously uses a hidden step to mount the tank. Soviet T-55/T-62 type tanks did not have steps for mounting by the wheels and axles; to mount a rolling tank using the moving wheels or spinning axles would result in the mounter being immediately crushed and killed.
Deliberate mistake: When the two Confederate and Union soldiers meet across the river and trade coffee/tobacco, you can see the other side of the bank behind them. It looks at least 50 feet away, yet before they were able to talk to each other without shouting. Also, the Union soldier raises the pipe to his mouth in his right hand, which switches to his left in the next shot. There is also a mist present at the beginning and end of the meeting, but not in the middle. (00:37:55)
Deliberate mistake: During the cavalry charges, swords are held at shoulder height as they would for charging enemy cavalry, not knee height for charging infantry. This was a deliberate decision in order to have the blades more visible.
Deliberate mistake: When "Henry Faber" discovers the phony airfield, several helicopters with Army markings are among the aircraft visible. Although the Army did use helicopters experimentally during WWII, those used bore no resemblance to those shown in the film.
Deliberate mistake: Although the first account of what happened in Zhao isn't completely true, the arrows penetrating the calligraphy school are sometimes flying at angles that make their trajectory impossible, such as arrows flying perpendicular to the ground or even flying upward.
Deliberate mistake: In order to get to Julius Caesar and evade her nasty brother Ptolemy's assassins, Cleopatra concealed herself in a rug that she has a slave carry to Caesar. Look at the furled rug the slave carries on his shoulder. Then watch Cleopatra fall out as the slave tosses the rug to the floor and unfurls it. The slave would have needed wall-to-wall carpeting to hide her.
Deliberate mistake: In the scene inside General Kohler's command center when Kohler is giving Colonel Hessler a tour of the war room he points out to Hessler a clock on the wall whose increments represent 1 hour and that the attack has to be over within so many hours. Later in the movie, just when the attack starts, this dormant clock's hand immediately springs forward and ticks through 2 increments, thus representing 2 hours passing in 2 seconds.