Factual error: At the beginning of the film, in Concepción, Chile; the accent spoken is from Central American people, not Chilean.
Factual error: The phone at the Peacocks house is too modern for the time - the cord going into the handset had a clip in cord versus being attached directly to the piece.
Factual error: The route that Hanssen discusses with O'Neil on their way back to the FBI headquarters, from the DIA, is not geographically correct and would not get them from point A to point B.
Factual error: In the final scene, when Jack Sparrow is looking at the map to find the Fountain of Youth. The map lists Ponce de Leon's travel date of 1523. The actual date of the Fountain of Youth founding was 1513.
Factual error: When Richard asks Art his opinion of his book, a copy of "Haymarket Scrapbook" is on a shelf. This book was first published in 1986, yet Richard's book will be published in 1981. (01:03:00)
Factual error: After the little girl is taken they play audio of the mother on the phone with 911, the operator says they can't do anything for 24 hours. Police do not wait 24 hours to look for a missing person, especially a child.
Factual error: Trudie and her family are released from jail because David, being the victim of kidnapping, decided not to press charges. That's not how things work. It's not up to the victim to decide whether or not to press charges. It's up to the prosecutor to decide or not to press charges.
Factual error: Cranes are shown crossing the Himalayas, then a reference is made that the snow melts giving life to the rivers in Asia, but the footage shown is of the Angel Falls in the Amazon Jungle in Venezuela where there is no snow. (00:50:40)
Factual error: The license plates on Dan's car are very inaccurate fakes. The colors especially are way off. Certainly, the makers may use a fake sequence of characters the same way "555" phone numbers are, but the styling of the plate should look right. Real NJ plates are a pale yellow along the top 1/4 that fades to a very pale tan by halfway down. Dan's plate is a bright yellow (nearly orange) at the top and the rest is white. The numerals are also the wrong typeface. The mistake is made more obvious by the fact that real New Jersey plates are seen in the early portion of the film on other cars.
Factual error: In the scene when Milly is on the phone with her mom and sisters while at the architect's house, she hangs up on the party call and her mom hears a dial tone before lowering the phone which anyone with a cell phone knows won't happen. (00:41:40)
Factual error: When they take the General out of the water, they rebuild it from the ground up. They are somehow able to do this in maybe a couple of days which would be impossible seeing as how it was in the water. They would need to sandblast the rust, reprime the bare metal, and repaint it which would take more than 2 days alone, plus there were only Bo, Luke, Daisy and Cooter working on it.
Factual error: Although set in the 1960's, a modern UPS truck is seen just before the rooftop concert scene.
Factual error: Contrary to popular belief, a person won't freeze immediately in outer space, as depicted in the movie. Space may be cold, but it's also a great insulator and the biggest problem for astronauts is dissipating the heat generated in their bodies.
Factual error: When Chuck discovers the dry rot, he tells the Persons that he played 36 seconds for the Lakers in the 1986 NBA Finals. The Lakers weren't in the 1986 Finals.
Factual error: In the beginning when Anwar is in Cape Town, South Africa, according to the shadows cast by the men in Anwar's party, it's about 1 pm. He makes a call to Isabella in Chicago, United States when he apologizes for not calling her earlier. Cape Town is 8 hours ahead of Chicago, it would have been pitch dark in Chicago at that time but Isabella is outside in the midday sun playing soccer with Jeremy.
Factual error: During the police chase, the helicopter calls in a car approaching at speed behind the police cars, but he calls it a "late model Trans Am." The Trans Am is an early model at best, as it is a 79 to 81 second generation (of 4) Trans Am. A late model Trans Am would be more accurately described as one of the fourth generation models built until 2002, and look nothing like a 79 to 81, even from the air. It might be considered a character mistake, except that police are generally knowledgable about the make and style of cars from various years. If the pilot or passenger of the helicopter were able to identify it as a Trans Am, they should be able to identify it as an older model, not a late model.
Factual error: When Fogle shoots the cop's pistol at the burning police car, the safety on the Smith and Wesson pistol is activated. He fires the weapon until it is empty and continues to dry fire (click) the pistol anyway. On the Smith and Wesson, the side levers are in Safe mode when pushed down. When the last round is fired, the slide locks back and the gun wouldn't be able to dry fire.
Factual error: Loch Ness is an inland lake with very limited access into the open sea, or at least much less than portrayed in the film.
Factual error: At the beginning of the movie, we find out that Holly and Gerri were married when she was 19. She then turns 30, so at least 11 years have passed since the day that they met. However, when Holly sees Gerri in the pub on the day that they meet, he sings "The Galway Girl". This song was not written by Steve Earl until 2000, and they must have met sometime around the year 1996.
Factual error: When Tom shocks Angela with a stun gun, she gets knocked out. That's impossible. Stun guns don't knock you out. Stun guns don't cause unconsciousness.