Factual error: When the audience are watching the pilot, Davy says "It's Russell!" But in the actual pilot, it's Micky who says it.
Factual error: In the awards scene, it's awards for 1971. Just prior to that scene "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress" by The Hollies was playing. That record wasn't released until Feb. 1, 1972.
Factual error: Sam has really bad running form for a supposed former track star. She over-pumps her arms, and looks like she's trying too hard. Even seasoned runners with injuries don't run like that.
Factual error: In the bowling alley scene, Jack's friend tells him that Kate is well-liked in all of Union County, but in the movie, Jack and Kate live in Teaneck, which is in Bergen County.
Factual error: In the 2nd scene of the movie she is standing on the street, and in the background at the top left there is a billboard with an ad for www.quepasa.com. The movie was set in the early 90's. But the web wasn't even around then (well... not like we know it now). That web site came out in 1998. (00:02:51)
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: When Meg Ryan goes to visit her mother in Big Bear Lake, the mountain is on her left hand side. If you drive from Los Angelos to Big Bear the mountain is on your right hand side, therefore she was driving down the mountain instead of going up it.
Factual error: One of the scenes shows the buildup of American readiness as tensions mount. A B-52 bomber appears carrying four white menacing-looking missiles under her wings. Such missiles can easily be identified as the Hound Dog type, which was under test in the mid-60s but never became operational. America would never deploy those missiles either for real or for training, because the project was scrapped before even being accepted into the Air Force.
Factual error: Female college basketball players are wearing uniform numbers 9 and 17. Not possible, since the NCAA prohibits players from wearing numbers ending in digits higher than 5.
Factual error: During the "Vietnam Scene" at the beginning you see a very long take of an AK47 muzzle appearing slowly from a bush.The problem is, it has the slopping muzzle brake of the AKM, not the plain muzzle of an AK47. The AKM was not in service in 1968, and was never supplied to North Vietnam anyway.
Factual error: In the scene where Shaft has chased the guy running from the drug bust and caught him in the hall with an empty gun you can plainly see the slide is locked back on the bad guy's pistol (indicating an empty magazine). When Shaft steps out to arrest him (before the bad guy jumps out of the window into the other building) you can clearly hear the 2 clicks of a firearm hammer falling on an empty chamber. With the slide locked back, the hammer is locked back also...it would never make any clicks.
Factual error: The sight of Andrea's body after she died of a heroin overdose should have been much more graphic. She wasn't foaming at the mouth, there were no needle tracks on her arm, and the cut she made on her leg a few days prior to her death is no longer there.
Factual error: When David Morse speaks on the mobile phone in the helicopter and just before kidnapping, he speaks to the wrong side of the phone. In the Nokia Communicator, the speaker and microphone are on the same side as the battery, not on the display side!
Factual error: In the film we can see the jacket that Marilyn Monroe was wearing the day she married Joe DiMaggio, only the colour is wrong. We are shown a dark black jacket, though it actually was a brown one. (00:18:25)
Factual error: The Ohio Supreme Court does not meet in the State House, as portrayed in the movie. (00:07:40)
Factual error: The actress Sasha Barrese is credited at the beginning of the movie as "Sasha Berrese".
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.
Factual error: Nonna knew the Australia (ie, Josie's real grandfather) in 1945 - the photograph is dated. Josie's mother was born from this union, and had Josie when she was 17. During the film, Josie herself is seventeen. About thirty-five years would have passed, then, making the present about 1980 or so. But it's quite clear (from the fashions, technology, streetscapes, dialogue, references, music, cars, etc, etc) that it's around 2000 or so, twenty years too late.
Factual error: At the Mexican brothel, in the scene where the ambulance comes to pick up Juliette Lewis, there is a sign that has "Calexico" written on it. But Calexico is a small town on the American side of the U.S/Mexico borders.
Factual error: When Bateman is in his apartment with his secretary, he points a large tool at the back of her head, unbeknownst to her. That is an air powered nailgun for installing plywood. The only way that one could be used is with an airhose and a compressor. The fitting for the airhose that sticks out of the bottom has been removed because it usually would point straight down and stick out about 2 inches. (01:02:45)