Factual error: After Joe spends sometime underwater in the bus, he goes into the village and pulls a picture of his wife out of his pocket to show the village people. After getting that wet, a picture will not be intact, and it would pretty much be stuck together.
Factual error: When Alicia goes to the hospital for the first time, the sun is setting directly in front of the window of Erika's room. But then in the morning the sun is rising in front of the same window that it had been setting.
Factual error: When Tom Green says he is going to beat the bejesus out of the guy on the phone and slams the phone down several times you can hear a bell ring inside the phone; that type of phone doesn't use a bell when it rings.
Factual error: After the VW van hits the tree stump, steam is coming from the front of the vehicle. Those vehicles have the engine in the rear. (00:05:53)
Factual error: There is no way that Col.McNamara could allocate which hut men went into. The Germans controlled this. Also there is no way he could just turn up at the Camp Kommandant's office unannounced and talk to him.
Factual error: When Johnny Hallyday goes into the bakery to buy bread, the price in the subtitle is translated as 3 francs, rather than 3 euros. At the old exchange rate, 3 francs were the equivalent of about 50 US cents -- not nearly enough for a baguette.
Factual error: In the scene where the British soldiers form square, there is a drummer boy. The British army stopped using drummer boys after the battle of Isandhlwana in 1879.
Factual error: One of the members of the orchestra is reading off sheet music held together by sticky tape, which is an anachronism.
Factual error: Throughout the film the two men wear modern rubber soled Army boots, not leather soled as they would have been at the time - particularly noticeable when they are trying to sleep in the woods, and also when they cut the telephone wires.
Factual error: In the first scene, Iraq invades Kuwait City and the Kuwaitis flee from the theater into a sunny backdrop. The problem is that the invasion actually took place at 1:00AM Gulf time. I don't think there are many movie theaters open at 1:00 in the morning, and I don't think it's sunny then either.
Factual error: At the end of the movie, when Burke faces Sheldon, he tells him "one of the secrets about owning a gun: You have to cock it." But since Sheldon's weapon was a double-action revolver he doesn't have to cock it. He could just pull the trigger.
Factual error: Max and his family listen to a radio broadcast announcing the terms of the Versailles Treaty in Germany in 1919. Radio broadcasting first began in the United States in 1920 and began in Germany in 1923. Also, the radio they are listening to is a "cathedral" type that was not manufactured until the 1930s.
Factual error: When Tate is playing Scrabble with his Grandparents, his grandfather tries to use "SIPI" as a word. Tate challenges that word. He looks it up in the dictionary to find out if it is not a word. He then says, "I see sip and sepia, but no sipi." To find sipi, he would have to look after sip, not before sip. Sepia comes before sip. He should have said, depending on which dictionary, "I see sip and sir, but no sipi."
Factual error: When Brad does the jump shot to make the 8-ball, we can see the cue ball as it leaves the rail, and there is no way that it could result in the position on the nine ball, in the next frame.
Factual error: When the Robinsons' vessel is caught in the storm, the ship has a full suit of sails set, none of them even reefed. No captain would hazard the masts of his ship in this manner. He would have all sails furled, with just enough of a storm sail set to keep the ship on course.
Factual error: In the bathroom scene at the motel where Lucy is in the shower and Mimi is using the toilet, Mimi flushes the toilet and Lucy yells "Ahh, freakin' cold," however, if someone flushes a toilet whilst another person is in the shower then this would result in the cold water being removed from the shower, so Lucy really should have yelled "freakin' hot," unless the toilet water was hot water. (00:23:35)
Factual error: The Point & Shoot Camera Sy uses throughout the movie (Minolta Freedom Zoom 150) has a lit in-viewfinder readout. The real camera does not have any fancy readout, just a thin circle to help center and frame your image.
Factual error: Josh Hartnett's roommate is reading the paper, which shows results from a big football game. But this movie is set during Lent, months away from football season. (The filmmakers admit this error during the DVD commentary.).
Factual error: As a college student this has always bothered me. It is impossible for a first year student to apply to a school as prestigious as Columbia University in the MIDDLE of the summer and not only receive admission, but a FULL-RIDE scholarship. A quick check on Columbia's website revealed that the deadline for ALL students was May 15 and most of the scholarships given out come from outside agencies, not the school itself. Even though Ana's teacher said he has a friend up there, there is still no way such strings can be pulled in that short amount of time.
Factual error: DJ Iz mentions how Detroit never tears down any of its abandoned buildings and just builds casinos. No casinos were built in Detroit until 1997-98, and the film is supposed to be set in 1995.