Factual error: During the scene where Mozart is being carried away in his coffin by horse and cart there is a brief shot where he is being taken down a muddy path and a farmer is seen with his cows. If you look closely to the left side of the screen you can see a large overhead power line. If you look even more closely you can even see the wires coming out of the pylon. The movie is set in the 18th century and obviously it should not be there. (02:50:50)
Factual error: When the world is celebrating the defeat of the visitors, it's daytime all over the planet.
Factual error: While the Leonov has a centrifugal section to simulate gravity, the ship's bridge is not part of it (evidenced by the stationary views outside its portholes). Yet in various scenes, including the one when Floyd rushes in to discuss his plan to return to Earth sooner with Tanya, gravity seems quite evident. Floyd marches across the compartment onto the raised pilot area's floor, then steps down from it, his foot landing audibly. Tanya's open jacket also hangs down normally as she moves about. Yet when Floyd demonstrates his plan using two pens, they float in mid air. (01:26:50)
Factual error: In the area with the lava Willie is put in a cage and lowered over the lava. She keeps dropping down until she is stopped what looks like a few feet above the lava. In reality she would have been incinerated by the heat.
Factual error: In the coffee shop when Roy Hobbs is having coffee, there is a Coca-Cola sign in the window featuring the "fishtail" logo used between roughly 1957 and 1961, not the time period portrayed in the movie.
Factual error: Right after Kyle saws off the barrel of the shotgun in the alley, he pumps a shell into it, then again after his dream of the future in the car, then a 3rd time in the night club before he shoots the terminator. The 2nd and 3rd time he pumps it, shells should eject. They don't. (00:35:22)
Factual error: In the very beginning sequence, as the riders are galloping triumphantly across the mighty windswept plains of yore to capture Conan, you can see power lines in the background in one brief shot at the very left of the screen.
Factual error: According to "The Doomsday Machine", full impulse drive is one-quarter the speed of light. In the first two movies, Enterprise used thrusters as opposed to impulse drive to leave Spacedock, confirming the notion that impulse drive is far too fast to leave such a (comparatively) small structure. Styles, however, orders Excelsior to one-quarter impulse, which is 18,750 km/s. In one second, she will travel half again Earth's diameter. From the time he gives the order to the time we see Excelsior clear spacedock's doors is approximately 40 seconds. Even allowing 30 seconds to go from rest to one quarter impulse, spacedock must be 13-15 times bigger than Earth! That's some serious engineering. (00:23:45)
Suggested correction: I reckon the writers always refer to levels of "impulse power" precisely so they don't have to worry too much about particular speeds (personally I always thought of it as roughly analogous to gears on a vehicle, but your mileage may vary). They use impulse to leave dock in both Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (it's implied to be unusual in both cases, for what it's worth). If all of that contradicts an earlier episode, I think we're looking at more of a retcon situation than a mistake.
Suggested correction: The warp scale has been adjusted several times, so it is impossible to say precisely how fast this fictional technology is, and by extension, how fast impulse is.
Impulse drive speed on starships have been consistent. Although sometimes quarter impulse on a shuttle refers to quarter power and not speed. Even if the speed of quarter impulse is 10 times slower than suggested (and used in the series), spacedock would still be 1.3-1.5 times bigger than Earth, which it wasn't. "It's fictional technology" is usually only a valid correction if the technology isn't explained in-universe. However, when certain parameters regarding fictional technology are established (even if they set wide parameters such as warp speed velocities) violations or contradictions (through bad script writing or whatnot) are valid mistakes.
Factual error: At the very end of the movie, Ray is telling Louis about the Tunguska Blast of 1909, but the famous blast actually occurred in 1908. Given his oft-demonstrated levels of knowledge, he'd know better. (01:37:38)
Factual error: When Glen and Nancy are talking on the bridge, you can see huge palm trees in the background. Though this was filmed in California (hence visible palm trees at the cemetery), the fictional Springwood is supposed to be in Ohio - they show the location of Springwood on a map at the start of 'Freddy's Dead, the Final Nightmare', and there's no other conflicting in-universe location given within the series. So it's established as Ohio, but there are no palm trees in Ohio. Other California "hints" add to the mistake, such as CA license plates, etc. (00:01:00 - 00:43:22)
Factual error: The Russians use a beeping "radio direction finder" to find the partisans by detecting a bug swallowed by the Mayor's son. In closeups the "direction finder" is seen to be an impedance meter (used for measuring AC resistance) - it's labeled "X=(down arrow) x (up arrow)(omega)". X is the standard abbreviation for impedance, omega means "ohms" (the unit of impedance/resistance), so the label says "impedance is lower dial times upper dial, in ohms". There is a piece of spiral twisted wire across the terminals of the impedance meter which would be useless for radio direction finding. (01:19:15)
Factual error: When Tommy is playing Zaxxon on his computer, he is about to go into a barrier and die. Firstly the audio of the ship crashing happens before it hits, secondly, in the next shot the ship has reappeared. (00:14:30)
Factual error: For a movie supposedly set in late December in a Northern state, all of the deciduous trees still have leaves on them. The most obvious place to see this is in the opening scene, when Billy is trying to start his car in front of his house. (00:07:05)
Factual error: When Axel and Taggart are taken under fire by the gunner with the dark glasses (who is shot by Billy), notice that the gunner stands perpendicular (i.e. at a 90° angle) to the stairs where Axel and Taggart take cover. Yet, two of the bullet holes appear in a column at the base of the stairs which would have come from a different trajectory, namely in line with the stairway and thus from Axel and Taggart's flank.
Factual error: When Jenny Hayden and Starman accidentally overshoot their destination and arrive in Las Vegas, Jenny discovers that her wallet is missing. She has no cash, no credit cards, and no identification whatsoever. The only money she has is a single quarter. Starman uses the quarter to hit the jackpot on a 25-cent slot machine, then uses the prize money to play the Horseshoe $500,000 slot machine, which he also wins. They then use the giant jackpot money to purchase a brand new Cadillac and drive it off the lot. Huge problem: In 1984 (and today), you could never collect a giant Las Vegas jackpot without several pieces of personal identification, for tax purposes. Likewise, you could never purchase and drive a brand new Cadillac off the lot without multiple pieces of identification and a financial disclosure statement (if paying cash).
Factual error: Thompson wears moderately high heels in uniform and undercover. Unless she was working strictly in the office, she'd be required to wear tennis shoes or at least flats so she can run.
Factual error: Noodles visits the mausoleum containing the caskets of his friends who were killed in 1933. He finds a key hanging on the wall from a plaque that says Noodles built it in 1967. Earlier, he tells Fat Moe he had not been in town for 35 years, since 1933, so the action was taking place in 1968. The key is to a locker at a bus terminal. Inside the locker is a suitcase full of money, stacks of twenties. The bills have the signature of Secretary of the Treasury William Blumenthal, but he was appointed by President Carter in 1977.
Factual error: In the scene where Derek Smalls is having trouble with the airport security the gate only beeps when he walks 'in'. The gate would beep no matter what way he walked through it. (00:41:00)
Factual error: Right after The Kid's father shoots himself, The Kid is seen in the basement being interviewed by two police officers in uniform and one detective. One of the police officers is asking the questions while the detective is writing in his notepad. Standard procedure is for a "Lead Detective" to be assigned to the case and he conducts all interviews. (01:18:49)
Factual error: When Ariel is playing a tape in her boyfriend's boombox in the parking lot of the diner, when her dad comes over he pushes a button once and the tape ejects. However, on this type of boombox, the stop and eject button are the same button. So in order to eject the tape, he would have had to push the button twice.