Factual error: Near the end of the film Knox is flying a Huey helicopter and the Angels hitch a ride by shooting it with a spear gun and dangling on the line behind it. Suddenly adding about 200kgs to a Huey in flight like that is going to cause all sorts of problems with the trim and airspeed of the aircraft - the pilot would know immediately that something was wrong. (01:23:20)
Factual error: Gary Sinise looks at a computer screen with a short section (about two full twists) of DNA on it and proclaims that "This DNA looks human." He could have been looking at DNA from any single-celled organism and it would have looked just as human as what he was looking at. All mammals have 90+ percent of their DNA in common, he would have to have sequenced the entire DNA strand (something like 3 billion pairs of nucleotides) to identify it as human, something that would be totally beyond the capacity of anything but a well-equipped genetics lab, something they show no sign of having.
Factual error: When a group of soldiers goes to Maximus' villa to burn it and kill his family, his son points them, saying in Italian "Mamma! I soldati!" ("Mom, the soldiers!") and then "Papà!" ("Daddy!"). This is because the young actor (Giorgio Cantarini) is Italian and they didn't translate, for some reason. As a result, he's speaking Italian in a movie in English, where people are supposed to speak Latin, in a province where Italian was never ever spoken. (00:43:07)
Factual error: In "Pikachu and Pichu," when Pikachu and the Pichu brothers come to the big play structure thing, there are a bunch of Pokemon around, including a red-and-white, ball-shaped Pokemon called Voltorb. The dubbers for the English version made a very noticeable error here: instead of Voltorb saying "Voltorb," (almost all Pokemon say parts of their names when they speak) it says "Electrode," which is the name of a similar-looking, but different Pokemon. The two are both red and white, but the difference is that Voltorb has eyes on the red part of its body, while Electrode has eyes on the white part of its body.
Factual error: Shortly after the crash, when Chuck is in the raft, one of the engines continues to run even though it is half submerged in water. The engine would not have exploded like it did, rather, it would have just stopped running as soon as it became disconnected from its fuel source and flooded with water.
Suggested correction: The aircraft seems like a Airbus A300 or 310 but it is really a MD-11 or DC-10 because you can clearly see that the front body with wing with engine attached sink leaving the tail section. So the tail has a fuel tank and the third engine. The engine normally compresses air then burns it by feeding in fuel and igniting it. But can't compress air because the turbines are in the water. The fuel would in this case would "flood" the engine then the igniter ignites it and explodes.
Fumes explode, raw fuel burns. Igniter will not ignite raw fuel nor would there be anyway to propagate the explosion that took place.
Even if the engine was flooded, and full of water, and the air couldn't, it still wouldn't explode. MD-11 engines run on a fuel that cannot be ignited.
Wrong, the tail section has fuel LINES not a fuel tank.
Factual error: The evil man request 100,000 pieces of gold for ransom. Each gold piece looks to be about 10 ounces, and 100,000 of those would make the entire thing weigh about 31 tons, but 2 guys are carrying it around in a little chest throughout the movie.
Factual error: In the scene at the race track where they show the virus infecting and destroying cells in the blood stream, they clearly show that it is red blood cells being infected. Viruses, in order to replicate, require the cell's DNA replication machinery. However, mature red blood cells in the circulation no longer possess this machinery since they no longer have a nucleus or DNA. It would therefore be impossible for this virus to replicate.
Factual error: The helicopter markings and paint schemes are exclusive ONLY to POTUS (President of the United States). Senator Kelly, even thought he's trying to get a Presidential bid, wouldn't be allowed to fly around in aircraft marked like that. (00:30:10)
Factual error: Nitroglycerin does not react with sunlight, nor does it boil in sunlight.
Factual error: When Buck first sees the videotape left behind by Pastor Billings, Bruce Barnes tells him about a prophecy contained in "Daniel Nine, Chapter 27." As a pastor, Barnes should have known that the Bible is divided into chapters and verses. He should have said "Daniel 9:27," "Daniel Chapter 9, Verse 27," or "Daniel Nine, verse 27." The point is, "27" is the VERSE, not the CHAPTER. (01:15:05)
Suggested correction: You have to keep in mind that Bruce was one of the only people in the church to be left behind. He admits himself that he wasn't where he should have been spiritually. So it makes sense that he wouldn't quote scripture properly at this point, he was practically a brand new Christian that was thrust into leadership, learning with his new congregation.
Factual error: When Richard goes to the mainland with Sal, he calls back home to say that he is OK. International phone calls cannot be made from the blue public phones of the type he uses. Only public phones from CAT (Communication Authority of Thailand) can be used for this purpose. Richard was calling from a TOT (Telephone Organization of Thailand) phone.
Factual error: When the "Little Wharvey Gals" are singing they show a shot of the crowd in which there is a man smoking a filtered cigarette. Cigarettes were not filtered until the late '40's.
Factual error: A couple of times during the film, someone exclaims in horror that if this-or-that system fails, they will have to land the shuttle dead-stick (unpowered; no chance to veer off and try again). Actually, all shuttle landings are dead-stick; they are computer guided but nevertheless are unpowered, one-shot deals.
Factual error: In the movie, there is a whole pack of jaguars. Jaguars are actually solitary animals.
Factual error: The movie was set in 1991, but there is a newspaper with a Kia advertisement. Kia's first U.S. cars arrived in 1994.
Factual error: In the beginning of the movie, the killer calls Cotton on his cell phone. When the killer hangs up on him, you hear a dial tone. When someone cuts you off on a cell phone, you don't get a dial tone. (00:02:40)
Factual error: When the group is travelling through the canyon near the end of the film, they are burning liquor to light the way, yet there is a lot more light than would be given off from this small flame. And none of it is flickering as would happen with a naked flame.
Factual error: Whenever the group get their passports, they seem to get it on the actual day they apply for it - much much faster than normal.
Factual error: The envelope sent to Austin, Texas has the ZIP code 50321. This is a zip code for Des Moines, Iowa. All Austin ZIP codes start in 78.
Factual error: In the scene when Zhen is writing down the characters of Shu Lian's name, she writes the modern form of the "Lian". That form wasn't introduced into the language until after World War II, and this movie is set well before the fall of Imperial China.
Suggested correction: Knox wasn't a trained pilot. Either he had no clue to what was going on, or he thought something may have been wrong, but didn't know what to do about it.
Taking off and landing a helicopter are by far the most intense and difficult part of a pilot's training. Seriously, 99% of learning to fly is learning how to land and take off. If the pilot is skilled enough to take off in a Huey he is easily skilled enough to notice a massive additional drag on his helicopter due to the additional weight of the angels and the air resistance put up by such a bulky protrusion on his aircraft. If he isn't skilled enough to notice that, he isn't skilled enough to take off in the first place.