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: 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 kids are getting hit from behind by the truck, cut to a side shot of them in the car, the boy's body moves forward, while the girl's body is more properly propelled in a backward motion relative to the car. This happens several times.
Factual error: Rowan has been frozen since at least 2010 because that's when the Cryo machine was made. The android says she has been out for 4.55 centuries. With it being 2455 it would be 4.45 centuries. Pretty simple mathematical mistake for a robot. (00:16:20)
Factual error: When The Jackal attacks Kathy, it holds her up against the glass with one hand. It then begins to swipe her with both hands, but she still stays up against the glass. (00:48:55)
Factual error: Towards the end of the movie, Mary sends a hand-written note to Inspector Abberline. The 'r' in her name is written in a North American style, where she is European.
Factual error: Ruthie gets impaled on a jagged shard of glass from a modern shower door, but shower doors are made of safety glass (since 1977) - when they break they don't leave sharp knife-like shards, only tiny pieces.
Factual error: When Grace goes into the children's bedroom to wake them up to introduce them to the new nanny and maid, she takes the only lamp they had with her into the bedroom but light is still reflecting off the nanny and maid as if a lamp was still there. (00:08:20)
Factual error: When Mike first starts listening to the session tapes, the camera does a slow pan down the label on the box. Quite clearly, we can see that the patient's diagnosis is listed as "D.I.D.", along with a few names. Since the hospital closed in the mid 80's, it is not possible for her to have that diagnosis. Before the early 1990's, D.I.D. (Dissociative Identity Disorder) was known as M.P.D. (Multiple Personality Disorder). In later scenes it is correctly listed in the woman's files as Multiple Personality.
Factual error: When they get to western Nebraska, there are several scenes showing a mountain range in the background. There are no mountains anywhere in Nebraska.
Factual error: Burt claims his watch updates its time "by connecting directly to the cesium clock in Colorado via ultrasonic frequency." Later the graboids home in on him by the ultrasonic sound emitted by his watch. Firstly, radio controlled watches update their time by receiving signals, but they don't emit any signals - the battery would be way too weak for two-way communication. Secondly, they work on radio waves, not sonic waves. Thirdly, if a hypothetical time transmitter did work on ultrasonics, the smallest distance between Colorado and Nevada is some 435 km (around 270 mi). An ultrasonic signal strong enough to reach that far would probably be deadly within a sizable range around the transmitter. (00:08:20)
Factual error: The shot of the plane in the Melbourne airport before it took off, and the one in Los Angeles after it lands are of the same place.