Factual error: After the Missouri knocks the shield down, the admiral orders all aircraft launched, but the flight deck is shown in sailing transport mode, not flight readiness. Would have taken an hour or more to clear the deck and launch.
Factual error: The German fighters depicted in the film are Messerchmitt Bf 109 G-6s, and every single one of them is using the Rüstsatz VI gun pod, that is, 2 extra 20mm Mg 151 cannons. The Luftwaffe only equipped their Bf 109s with the gun pods when they were going to intercept bombers. In this movie, even on the fighter vs fighter missions, they have these gun pods, which is inaccurate, because the gun pods dramatically reduced the turning performance of the Bf 109s.
Factual error: The type of surgery shown made by the machine transversely cuts the rectus abdominis muscles. Besides not being a standard surgical incision in order to "remove a foreign body" as stated, it seriously damages important muscles of the abdominal wall making any immediate active mobilization of the trunk virtually impossible, even under strong analgesia.
Factual error: When Henry uses someone's mobile to call home, which would be overseas, he only presses about 4 numbers, when he should have had to press about 10.
Factual error: In the movie, when the elevator ("the fall") reaches the middle of the planet, everything turns weightless. In reality, everything should have turned weightless as soon as the elevator was dropped, given they're in freefall.
Factual error: The flag of Spain shown at Cape Canaveral is not the official one used in 1969 but the one adopted in 1981. (01:19:50)
Factual error: In the scene in Stuttgart, we see a "reserved parking" sign written as "Reservierten Parken". First of all, this is grammatically wrong - if used at all, it should be "Reserviertes Parken". But you wouldn't find a sign in Germany saying that. They say "Reservierter Parkplatz".
Factual error: During Bond's fight with Patrice in the Shanghai high-rise, Patrice's sniper rifle fires several times, presumably by accident. However, moments earlier, when Patrice assassinates his target in the neighboring building, the rifle is shown to be bolt-action. A bolt-action rifle can't be fired more than once without manually re-cocking the gun in order to fire the next round. (00:45:50 - 00:47:20)
Factual error: As the guys zipline down the electric cables, they continue past every pylon without a problem. Cables are connected to pylons, so the connections to the zipline couldn't move past pylons freely. (00:08:10)
Factual error: When the bridges are blown up, some of the bridges are suspension bridges, but the bridge only fails at the point of the explosion. The main horizontal supports are severed, but large portions of the bridge remain magically aloft. The nature of suspension bridges means the remaining vertical cables and road deck would fail as well, resulting in the loss of the bridge between the two main pillar supports.
Factual error: Semi-automatic guns don't just click empty, like they do in a lot of movies. The slide would lock back until you manually cock the gun. Yet in the corridor of light scene, this is exactly what happens: Alice's gun just clicks when it's empty.
Factual error: When the agent searches for Abu Ahmed in Peshawar, Pakistan, in one scene he gets out of his car, and a shop named Bhatia sons appear in the background, a company based in Delhi, India. In the next scene he is walking down a market, where a sign board of Jaggi sweets, (existing in Punjab, India) is seen, with words written in Hindi (only to be found in India).
Factual error: In the movie the graphics shown include geographical positions, with the latitude and longitude. Every one is wrong except the one in Somalia.
Factual error: Detective Sebastian fires a total of 7 rounds at the Antigen van in the parking garage - three at the driver, two at the front-left tire, one right before the van nearly runs him over and then one after it passes him - without reloading, yet the Taurus Judge revolver he is using is designed to only hold 5 rounds in its cylinder. Later, after Sebastian has reloaded the revolver, he fires 8 rounds at Dr. Lane, again without reloading.
Factual error: Bryan tells Kim to go to the US Embassy if he doesn't return in 5 minutes, and enters "US Embassy" into the GPS. Later there is a chase scene that ends at a building with "United States Embassy" on the signage. This is impossible unless they drove about 6 hours to Ankara, the capital city. Istanbul has only a US Consulate (albeit a very impressive one).
Factual error: There is a scene in midtown Manhattan toward the middle of the film outside a NYC subway station, which according to the sign on the subway entrance is at 6th Avenue and 39th Street. There is no such subway station on those streets.
Factual error: When Reacher sees Sandy's body being loaded into the coroner's van, he's able to see her face. In reality, a dead body is zipped into a leak proof body bag for transport. And that body is put in the bag and zipped up WHERE THEY DIED, not in the van or somewhere else. Specifically, this was a murder scene and any evidence and DNA would have been secured on the body by the body bag.
Factual error: Before Harland arrests Will, he gets out of the cop car with a block of cash. Later in the movie you learn he burned it. There was a burn barrel next to the car with a low fire in it as he gets out of the car. It cuts to the cops yelling at him with a mega phone and then back to Will walking away from the barrel. Now the fire is roaring high up. It grew much too fast and high for such a short time. Money is not that flammable. (00:19:40)
Factual error: The rifle Aaron Cross is shooting is a bolt action rifle, but it's shot semi-automatically. (00:33:46)
Factual error: When Ranger takes Stephanie to buy a gun, the one she gets is a 5-shooter, but in the scene where she is firing it at the gun range by herself she shoots it 12 times without reloading. Later, in the scene where she shoots Jimmy Alpha, she fires it 7 times without reloading.
Suggested correction: It's a non issue, it was a massive international naval exercise, Good chance of more than one carrier participating. In fact, every picture of an actual rimpac exercise has multiple carriers visible. Just because 1 carrier isn't in flight readiness mode doesn't mean that others aren't. Might explain why he ordered every plane in the air but there's what? Only 3 that actually save Mighty Mo.
True there may been more carriers but you are being attacked and invaded no flag officer would leave his deck cluttered they would be at battle stations for sure.
Blooddog35