Factual error: When Tommy Lee Jones is looking at his wife on the computer, he had typed in Truro (in Cape Cod, Mass.), but when he zoomed in, it was on the lower cape; Truro is located on the upper cape near the tip. (00:58:40)
Factual error: At the end of the film, The Voice tells his radio audience the Challenger was estimated to have hit the bulldozers at 185 MPH. The top speed of the Challenger, with a 426 Hemi, was 145 MPH. A trained police officer (and there were many of them there), even estimating speed without a radar gun, would be able to estimate the speed much closer than that. It's part of their training to be able to make estimates that will hold up in court, and 185 MPH is noticeably different than 145 MPH.
Factual error: There is a chase through the Archives-Navy Memorial station on the Washington, D.C. Metro, but the station looks nothing like the real one and the trains don't look like the trains on the DC Metro.
Factual error: A meteorite strikes a dam, flooding downtown Kansas City. There are no dams on the Missouri River within hundreds of miles of that location. Also, the apparent position of the dam would require the river to be flowing backwards. And downtown Kansas City sits atop a bluff, the flood would have gone elsewhere and not hit there.
Factual error: When Quinn and Yaz jump out of the little sportplane, they use his little ball-parachute thingy. When it opens they just fall out. No foam, no stuffings. Nothing. Technically, they would have been smashed like bugs into the ground.
Factual error: During the remote control car chase the bad guys' minivan drives directly over it at one point. From the view of the toy car, you can see a driveshaft running down the centre of the undercarriage, which would be impossible on a front-wheel-drive vehicle like the Nissan Quest they're driving, which use half axles to drive the front wheels.
Factual error: Secretary of State John Hay is depicted issuing the order to "initiate hostilities" against Spain. Unfortunately, at the time we actually went to war with Spain, John Hay was not the Secretary of State. That position was held by William. R. Day. Hay did not become SofS until September of 1898, after most hostilities had ended.
Factual error: Simon recovers awfully quick from the effects of hypothermia. In the hidden room, he is shaking like a leaf and can barely speak. Even when the old woman shouts where they are, he still looks a bit out of it. However, once they escape into the underground tunnels, he appears to be in perfect health and shows no signs of discomfort for the rest of the film.
Factual error: When J.T.T. encounters the moose, the boys say it's a female with her young. Female moose don't have antlers.
Factual error: In the scene where Priest fires at Spawn from the balcony, a magazine can be seen sticking out of the bottom of Spawn's P90. This reveals it is a fake P90 shell on an Ingram Model 10. The P90 has a clear magazine that sits on the top of the weapon.
Factual error: In one shot, the camera is on the platform at Tottenham Court Road station, and a sparkling new train rushes in. Wrong type of train - the one used is from the semiautomatic Victoria Line stock. I suppose London Transport must have been too ashamed of their Central and Northern line trains to have allowed them to be filmed.
Factual error: In reality, the normal air pressure of a room (about 14.7 psi) would be nowhere near enough to force the newborn's body out through such a tiny hole.
Factual error: In the scene where Deliverance is showing Mark her dad's hot rod, most of what she says about it is wrong. A rebuilt special edition 428 Hemi? Fuel injection for a 727? If it is a Hemi, it's a four-twenty-SIX and a 727 is a Plymouth transmission. You cannot fuel inject one. (00:43:43)
Suggested correction: She says "enough fuel injection for a 747"
Factual error: Martha Cable is shown describing to a customer the process for converting a cap-and-ball Army Colt revolver to accept cartridges. While it is entirely possible that a gunsmith in Texas might perform such actions, the burning question is, "Why?" The only cartridges available were for a .32 caliber Smith & Wesson, or those for a .44 Henry repeating rifle, and such cartridges were virtually impossible to obtain in the South during the Civil War.
Factual error: When the police lieutenant is stabbed to death by the jewellery thief, the case would then fall under homicide, not hostage negotiation. So, the detective nor Murphy would have no authorisation whatsoever to work a homicide case, which is not their unit. Total fiction.
Factual error: The U.S. military would never get involved in any civilian criminal apprehension in the USA - that's what federal and local authorities are for.
Factual error: In early scenes, Lieutenant Commander Ramirez is wearing insignia for Lieutenant, not Lieutenant Commander. Later scenes have him wearing the correct insignia.
Factual error: George's "dog", Shep, is an Asian elephant. However, the jungle scenes take place in Africa.
Factual error: Tom lays down on the couch and turns on the (off-camera) TV, only for his wife to immediately tell him they're out of milk. The audio from the TV is someone talking about a NY Rangers hockey game, as they mention (Jeff) Beukeboom and (Mike) Richter. The film is set in 1992, but the TV says Beukeboom has just scored his 7th goal of the season. The problem is Beukeboom only scored 7 goals once: in 1994 (two years after the movie takes place). And the TV says the goal was unassisted; but the lone time Beukeboom scored his 7th goal of a season, it was assisted by Mark Messier and Mike Gartner. (00:32:20)