Factual error: The train consists of four locomotives, but close ups beaneath the train show the wheels of freight cars.
Factual error: When Celie is leaving Albert, she is riding in the back of the car with Shug. As the car drives away down the dirt driveway you can see the telephone pole and electricity wires at the end of the driveway. Not unusual now, but in rural Georgia in the 1930's, it would have been impossible.
Factual error: When Rachel and Samuel leave for Philadelphia by train the train overtakes Daniel's cart after quite a while. That's not possible since Daniel was still standing on the platform when the train left the station. (00:08:45)
Factual error: Young David focuses his telescope at the moon. A close up shot then shows a circular view i.e. it is supposed to be the view through the telescope. Both the moon and the clouds in focus. With a telescope the depth of field is short and, with the moon in focus, the clouds would actually be blurred.
Factual error: During the big final battle of the movie the bad guys throw around Molotov cocktails, bottles with a rag stuffed into the top of it filled with gasoline. Problem is that the cocktails explode and shatter glass, when in reality Molotov cocktails don't explode they simply smash. And on top of this the first few cocktails that were thrown at parked cars weren't even on fire, rendering them useless.
Factual error: After the car chase in the film, as the car leaves a mess of vehicles behind it, it is obvious that the directional flow of the "props" traffic was on the left side of the highway, as if the film was shot in England. But it was shot in USA. The direction signs on this Los Angeles highway are also not visible to the traffic. Drivers would have to look back to see what exit they just missed.
Factual error: In the shot of Florence with several bridges and the river shown, cars and motorbikes can be seen going across the lowest bridge in the shot. (00:10:10)
Factual error: One zombie, who's rotted away all his organs, has two eyeballs looking good as new. Even if eyeballs didn't rot, they would fall out with nothing to hold them in. Just like the half of a woman zombie that talks with a soft sultry voice but with rotting or missing vocal cords.
Factual error: There is a scene in which the Catholic high school boys are lined up to go to Confession to a priest. One of the minor characters is a compulsive masturbator, a recurring gag in the film. He is trying to estimate how many times he has wanked since his last Confession, and Kevin Dillon's character takes out a digital calculator to help him figure it out. The film is set in 1965, about 8 years before personal calculators hit the market. (I was precisely the age of the characters in 1965, and we would have sold our souls to the devil for such a device. It was still science fiction!).
Factual error: Swain was leading to Shute 9-13. He got an escape, then a takedown, then a fall. The score should have been 12-13 when he got the fall, but the scoreboard still showed 9-13 after the match when he was celebrating with his team. (01:43:33)
Factual error: During the movie they play two Patsy Cline songs, Crazy and Leaving On Your Mind.Problem is Desert Hearts is set in 1959.Those two songs were released several years later, Crazy in 1961, Leaving On Your Mind in 1963.
Factual error: When Kirby sees Dale at the ER, he says "You were a senior when I started at Georgetown." That's just three years between them and the gang just graduated from Gtown a few months ago. Dale should still be in med school, years away from becoming a doctor.