Factual error: The idea of two spacecraft blasting off together so close to each other at the same time is a joke. One would put the other at great risk. Not only is there massive fire and heat, but the vibrations from the noise of the exhaust do great damage to the surroundings. And there is great inconsistency about just how close the two spacecraft really are. The first still shot taken in the dark has them at different towers about 150 yards apart. But, then all the men take an elevator up ONE tower and are split apart into the two groups at the top of the tower. Furthermore, the launch takes place at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39: the fixed and rotating service structures built for the Space Shuttle are visible. The pads at LC 39 are 8,700 feet apart (just over 1.5 miles). (01:00:00)
Factual error: At the end when Ben Willis and his son have Julie at the graves, Ray shows up with a gun. He fires at Ben but there is no bullet in the chamber. Later after the fight between Ray and Ben's son Julie picks up the six-shot gun and fires 8 shots at Ben.
Factual error: When Gregor shoots the guy in the car after nearly killing the little girl, blood sprays over the window, but there's no bullet hole. If the bullet exited his head, hence spraying blood, it should have gone through the window too. (00:55:00)
Factual error: The Apaches in the film are depicted with dual machine guns on each side of the cockpit, mounted directly on the windows. In real life, Apaches cannot mount such cannons, and instead use an M230 Chaingun in a turret underneath the helicopter, which the film Apaches have, but for some reason do not use. (00:49:25)
Suggested correction: Yes, we can all see they are supposed to be Apaches but not once are they mentioned by name. The US Army obviously didn't allow for real Apaches to be used. This isn't a mistake as there would have been no official licence to use the real deal.
Factual error: While the tidal wave is enveloping Manhattan, there is a scene where Washington Square Park is destroyed. A large arch is hit by the wave before reaching the rest of the park. The problem is the arch is on the UPTOWN side of the park, not the DOWNTOWN side which according to the movie was the direction the wave was coming from.
Factual error: Dallas, Texas is not surrounded by desert mountains. This is a dumb tourist mistake; when that shot of downtown Dallas appeared on the screen audiences there groaned in unison. (00:07:30)
Factual error: When requesting images from the satellite, the position (latitude and longitude) is always given in degrees and minutes (but NOT seconds), and a few moments later they get a picture centered on the person they are looking for. Now a minute equals a nautical mile (or 1.85 kilometers), so with a position given in degrees and minutes you'd get a region bigger than 3 square kilometers.... which makes it impossible to find a person that fast (especially in a crowded town).
Factual error: In the beginning, when pi is listed, it reads: "3.141592652631245..." when pi is actually "3.141592653589793...". (00:00:31)
Factual error: Riggs is shown using a laser-sight on his handgun throughout the entire movie. However, almost every single time he turns it on, the entire "beam" of the laser is visible, which doesn't happen in real life unless there is smoke/vapor/debris in the air. Obviously done for the sake of the audience seeing where the laser is pointed, but still a mistake.
Factual error: Adam Beck says "Kill the lights, unit one." They just don't shut off a main breaker but they cut the main wires. Then shortly afterwards the lights are back on again. It would have taken an electrician hours to replace the cut wires to the power. (01:44:25)
Factual error: When Christian Slater and Minnie Driver are trying to get out of the water before it reaches the transformer, there is a real big problem with this scene. If there really was a flood and it was rising that high, the city should have shut off the electricity to the entire city, to prevent any electric hazards that may happen in that situation.
Factual error: When the Jupiter 2 blasts off, it does so in the most fuel inefficient way possible - flat surface first. The air resistance would be fifty times less if they'd angled it side on. Plus, when the aerodynamic cover blasts away, the Jupiter 2 itself is revealed - and it is more aerodynamic than the cover. Rocket science must have taken a few steps backward lately... .
Factual error: In the scene where Hobbes is talking to Reese in his cell, Reese talks to him in a foreign language. It's stated on at least two occasions that Reese is speaking Dutch. He isn't - he's speaking German.
Suggested correction: It's Dutch. "Wie de bal kaatst." Just what Reese said. "What goes around..."
Factual error: The locations mentioned in the film are all over the world, including South Africa and Rotterdam. During the car chase through South Africa, it is very clear that all the locations in this car chase are in Rotterdam. For example, at one point the car drives down stairs through a shopping-mall, this is a well-known landmark in Rotterdam. As a matter of fact it is about 1 kilometer from the bridge used in the finale of the movie.
Factual error: When Swayze starts the truck, he turns a key and it starts. The key only switches on the electronics. Peterbuilts have a push button starter switch.
Factual error: During the Mars-flight, the way the spacecraft uses the rocket thrusters is unrealistic. For example when they are nearing Mars, they should be using the rockets against their movement, to slow down the speed. But in the movie they are using the rockets towards Mars.
Factual error: During the plane crash scene, the vertical stabilizer snags a hydro line, which rips it off. There is no way that the tail of a commercial jet would be so fragile. It is far more likely that the lines would snap.
Factual error: Near the end of the movie, Jamie Lee is speeding down a road in the coroner's van she has stolen and Michael is attacking her from the back of the van. She slams on the brakes, and he flies into the front windshield, which shatters into many pieces. Windshields are made of laminated glass, which contains a sheet of plastic, sandwiched between to sheets of glass. It does not shatter when struck.
Factual error: When the hitmen shoot out the windshield of the yellow Firebird, it shatters into pieces and falls apart. All DOT windshields have a plastic coating on both sides of the glass so that it remains one big sheet, regardless of the many pieces the glass in-between shatters into. No US windshield in the last 40 years is tempered - they are all coated. Side and back glass are tempered. As for objects poking holes and other "possibilities", watch the film before suggesting things that do not occur in this specific crash.
Factual error: After we are shown an aerial shot of New Orleans, then we see the scene where Lawson Russell pulls up in a New Orleans cab outside of a skyscraper. The only problem is, the skyscraper is the Library Tower, which is situated in downtown Los Angeles. (00:38:00)