Factual error: The song "I Won't Dance" was not written until the early-'30s, at least six years after the time it was shown being used in the film. However, it is still performed in the dining room scene.
Factual error: When Hurricane Eduardo strikes Dade county, the news reports that "it's a definite category 5," and that "the winds have to be gusting at 150 mph." Even if the winds were sustained at 150 mph, it would only be a category 4 storm. If 150 mph is only the speed of the gusts, it's not necessarily even that strong.
Factual error: When Mr. Creedy is firing his revolver at V after his men have been killed, the camera, positioned presumably inside the revolver behind the cylinder, shows two empty chambers out of six total, but Creedy eventually fires 5 shots. During this same sequence one of the empty chambers lines up with the barrel, but Creedy's gun somehow fires. Also, if the camera is behind the cylinder, the chambers would still have loaded cartridges or shell casings in them, they wouldn't be empty. (02:12:00)
Factual error: Holly put a flame up next to a fire sprinkler in an out-of-the-way location, causing the sprinkler to activate. Every fire sprinkler in the building then went off too. This is not possible. Each sprinkler is self-contained and is individually activated by heat. Only sprinklers directly affected by heat will activate.
Factual error: After George and Kathy leave the Doctor's office they drive through town. When they are talking in the car there is a shot where, next to George's face, you can see the sign of the town hall where the scene was filmed, 'Village of Antioch' in Antioch, Illinois. (00:46:00)
Factual error: Bunny Yeager photographed Bettie for the January 1955 issue of Playboy, yet, when Bettie first meets Bunny, there is a 1959 Ford convertible in her driveway.
Factual error: We see a solar eclipse take place, yet we also see numerous shots of the moon in which is at least half-full. Some of these lunar shots must be within a couple of days of the eclipse, though it couldn't take less than 7 days for the phase of the moon to change that much.
Factual error: Justin enters a private mail box facility to mail a large "business reply" envelope which requires no postage. The sender just deposits it into any mailbox free of any cost. The PMB facility charged him $3.20, the old rate for Priority Mail.
Factual error: The movie takes place during a single NFL season. In the beginning of the movie, when Brandon is still in Las Vegas, the paper he is using to pick games shows Seattle playing New Orleans. Later in the movie, still the regular season, Seattle and New Orleans are playing again. They would not play each other twice during the regular season.
Factual error: The Daily Astorian office where Rachel works has the Columbia River in the background, however the real Daily Astorian office is located well off the waterfront. (00:10:15)
Factual error: When Zach and his father give food to Raymond, a train passes in the background: this is the "Renaissance" car model, bought in the nineties by Via Rail, but the scene is set in the late seventies.
Factual error: In the scene where Swofford is playing the bugle a water tower in the background has an Air Combat Command emblem which is used by the Air Force and would not be seen on a marine base.
Suggested correction: That part of the movie was filmed at a Naval Air Facility in my hometown. That movie theater where they were watching Apocalypse Now was also in the same said NAF.
Factual error: When Hatsumomo wakes up late to torture little Chiyo again, her kimono is closed the wrong way.
Factual error: In the scene in which the scientists observe the emergence of the black hole out in the Lechuguilla desert, as it pokes out of the ground unexpectedly near to their base everything in the tent is shown powerfully accelerating roughly horizontally, toward the object as it whizzes skyward. But, given all the data in the movie(mass = 10^9 kg; it reaches max height of about 1,400 meters above the desert floor before coming back down; it emerges not less than 2 meters outside their tent), it ought to impart a gravitational acceleration of not more than 0.0167 m/s^2, which is only less than two thousandths the force provided by Earth. Given that the hole was also traveling away at about 117 m/s, the relative velocity would've been in excess of the hole's escape velocity(only about 0.25 m/s), so there would be no such dramatic effect. (01:04:40)
Factual error: Clyde is in the shop buying batteries for his microphones. The microphones we see later, are Shure studio microphones that do not use batteries. Batteries are very rarely used in studio microphones.
Factual error: The Swedish girl Ulla keeps saying "God dag, min vännen" as a greeting. Problem is, the grammar is incorrect. "God dag, min vän" means "good day, my friend". "God dag, min vännen", as Ulla says, means "good day, my the friend". "Vännen" is the definite article of the Swedish word for "friend".
Factual error: There are a couple of references throughout the movie to Ralph Fiennes' character as an "American diplomat" "of the League of Nations". The United States was not a member of the League, so there were no "American diplomats", as such, working for the League.
Factual error: In one of the scenes where the young terrorist boy is talking with his young buddies, in the background is the unmistakable image of the Burj al-Arab, a huge sail shaped hotel that is located in Dubai (where the movie was actually shot), however this is supposed to be taking place in Iran. This hotel is a well known international landmark and architectural icon.
Factual error: At the end of River's first fight scene, Simon says a phrase that renders River unconscious. The phrase is "Eta kuram na smekh" and means "This is laughter for chickens", or "This is absurd" in Russian according to Joss Whedon. However, the subtitles on the DVD for the phrase are "(SPEAKING CHINESE)", not "(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)" like they should be. In fact, shouldn't the subtitles just say "это курам на смех"? (00:35:45)
Factual error: In an early scene, a character suggests that a man might be awarded an OBE honor if he wins the 1913 US Open. The OBE wasn't established until 1917.