Factual error: When Brendan Fraser & his son are running to reach the pyramid before the sun hits it, the sunrise line approaches the pyramid along the ground, but the sun would naturally have hit the pyramid at the top first and worked its way down to the ground. [Some people insist on trying to correct this - think of it this way. If the sun's illuminating the ground from way up in the sky, what's keeping something higher up than the ground in darkness?] (01:34:40)
Suggested correction: Despite the additional comments this posting is wrong. The terminator line - the distinct boundary between sunlit day and dark night - moves horizontally across the surface of the earth, from east to west. It is perfectly feasible for the land behind Rick (i.e. to the east) to be in bright sunlight while the pyramid - to the west - is still in darkness. What is not feasible is anyone outrunning the terminator line, which moves at around 1500 kmh in the latitudes they are in.
Try it for yourself - get a round object, such as a basketball, a map tack and a flashlight. As you shine the flashlight on the ball you will see the equivalent of the day/night terminator line. Now stick the map tack into the ball and slowly rotate the ball with the light still shining on it. As it moves, the terminator moves and the map tack will become illuminated before the surface of the ball at the base of the tack. The light will move down from the top of the tack. The only way it would work as shown in the movie is if everything is exactly flat - with no differences in altitude above the ground. Obviously that is not the case. (Of course, if you don't want to poke holes in your basketball, you can use any combination of something round and something to stick to it.)
The original post is correct. Because of its sheer height, the top of the pyramid would receive direct sunlight first, just as a mountaintop receives sunlight before it appears on level ground.
It is perfectly possible for a mountain to be in complete darkness and the low lying land nearby to be brightly sunlit if the mountain is to the west and has not yet been reached by the terminator line. I repeat, the terminator line moves horizontally (in all practical terms) across the surface of the earth and as a result anything west of the line will be in darkness regardless of its height and will stay that way until the line reaches it.
Look, you're talking about mountains miles away beyond the terminator (so far away that they would be beyond the range of sight anyway). We are talking about a pyramid, easily the tallest thing in the immediate vicinity, in the near background, only a mile away at most. Under the physical conditions and locations present in this film, the pyramid should be illuminated top-down. Period.
Factual error: The hat that Brad Pitt wears in the 1985 scenes is a Padres hat with navy, orange and white as the colours. In 1985, the Padres' colors were brown and yellow. The color change didn't come until late 80's or early 90's.
Factual error: At the "Prototype Exhibition" party, Jimmy and Joe hop in two cars for a run through the Chicago streets. But, CART cars do not have built-in starters, they need external ones.
Factual error: In the scene where Admiral Kimmel is inspecting the crew of the battleship an aide comes up with a message to send some ships to the Atlantic. Admiral Kimmel starts complaining about the orders. No Admiral would ever do this especially in front of enlisted men. In fact he was placed in charge of the Pacific fleet when his predecessor complained about moving the fleet from San Diego to Pearl Harbor.
Factual error: There is no way a 2001 phone's tiny speaker could be heard a hundred meters away in the belly of a dinosaur or later buried in a mound of dino dung.
Factual error: When the map of the German advance is shown, Switzerland is shown to be taken over. Switzerland was never invaded by the Germans. (00:05:10)
Suggested correction: It doesn't show German advances. It shows the German influence over Europe, symbolizing it covers all of Europe and then expanded towards the East. Italy was never conquered by the Germans either yet it was part of the axis and is shown being covered by black. Switzerland, though neutral, was fully surrounded by the Axis and their influence played heavily upon the country. Its a very crude simulation.
Suggested correction: It does not show the German advancement in true historical order, but more like a red shadow that expands across Europe in a steady pace. And just as the camera starts zooming in on Stalingrad, you can see a small sliver of red starting to spread on the south-eastern coast of Norway.
Factual error: If Owen Wilson is under a dead body, how could any thermal radiation leak through the cold dead body covering him so the satellite (plus the Admiral and aides) could see him the whole time? (00:54:10)
Factual error: Worms are not created in AutoCAD. Ever. Period. Does not happen, cannot happen. Building design work and the like is done in AutoCAD. Viruses and worms are coded out by hand or created with a generator by slackers that don't know the code and then compiled into executables.
Factual error: Just after TK gets the gun for Yulaw, who is pretending to be Gabe, she sees the real Gabe out the window. It cuts to him crouching behind a fence, with his dog in front of him. The dog has its back to the camera, and is facing Gabe while sitting down. Here, they dubbed over a sound of a dog growling to make it more suspenseful. But that part is entirely wrong. One, it is Gabe's own dog, who in a previous scene was happy to see Gabe and wagging his tail. He would not be growling at his master in such a manner at this point. The dog is also sitting down in a relaxed posture. If the dog was actually growling at him in such a threatening manor, it would not be sitting down, but standing and head lowered. (00:56:00)
Factual error: During the first race a square plate on the floor falls off Brian's Eclipse. The Mitsubishi Eclipse is a unibody car; the frame and body are built as one solid piece, and it does not have floor pans. While some racers might put a steel plate in the interior as a finishing piece, it would be cosmetic only and not part of the vehicle's structure.
Factual error: When Jackie and Chris are at the Casino. Chris goes to play craps and throws $100,000 down for chips. The croupier give Chris two stacks of 20 $500 chips, which equates to only $20,000. (01:01:35)
Suggested correction: He wasn't really focusing on how much money he threw. Carter was creating a distraction for Lee so the Security would not see him sneak in to find the plates.
Factual error: In the first 15 minutes of the movie, a Delta Force operative is seen wearing a pair of Oakley X-Metal Juliets. The events portrayed in the movie took place in 1993. Oakley didn't make the Juliets until 1999. (00:05:02)
Factual error: When Gregorio and Ingrid are being chased by a helicopter during their wedding, the helicopter goes between two stone posts and the helicopter's blades break the post tops off. The problem is that both of the tops fall forward, which is wrong - one should fall forward, the other one should fall backwards. (00:05:50)
Factual error: When there's a fight on the cabriolet between Jackie and one of the two bandits - when the car smashes into the fuel truck, the fighting bandit somehow flies backwards where according to the laws of inertia he should have flown forwards.
Factual error: In 17th century France a peasant would not be using metric measurements. Just before the final battle, D'Artangnan states the castle is 2 kilometers away. Metric was developed by French scientists AFTER the revolution.
Factual error: Although you'd have to actually live in Boise to catch the myriad of differences from the movie town, the most glaring is that the movie Boise appears to be a lush rainforest, like Vancouver or Seattle. The real Boise is strictly desert, and you won't find those green interstate medians anywhere near here.
Factual error: The "Russian Blue" isn't a Russian Blue at all. Russian Blues have pointed faces and green eyes. The flat faced, orange eyed kitten is a British Shorthair AKA British Blue. (00:39:35)
Factual error: When McElroy and Fitz arrive at Anfield their car is driving through the Shankley Gates, but when they park their car, they are parking it near the Executive boxes entrance which is actually part of the Centenary Stand which is the opposite side of the stadium where they first drove to. Also at the end of the film McElroy walks off from one of the bars in the Kop Stand to his car which you can now see outside the doors. The Kop Stand is on another side of the stadium and there is no direct access from the Centenary Stand to the Kop. (01:14:20)
Factual error: Paris control refuses to allow the Concorde to land at Paris, and orders the flight to return to the US. It is highly unlikely that the Concorde can carry enough fuel to make two trips across the Atlantic without refueling. Very few aircraft have the fuel capacity to go to the destination and return. It usually costs too much to carry excess fuel on a flight.
Factual error: The captain's rank insignia ("train tracks") sewn onto the right collar tip of the battle dress uniform of Gandolfini's aide is sewn on incorrectly. The train tracks should be angled on a diagonal where the upper part is oriented toward the neck and lower part toward the tip of the collar. The aide's rank is angled on a diagonal in the opposite direction. This is not a minor mistake - any vet would notice this at a glance.