Factual error: Twice in the film it is made clear that the Pym particle works by reducing the space between atoms in order to shrink an object, and by increasing it to enlarge them. This means that the object will weigh the same, whether shrunk or enlarged - it cannot be otherwise. A 90kg man the size of an ant would punch a hole through any surface upon which he stood (and couldn't ride ants), Doctor Pym has been walking about with a 60 tonne tank in his pocket, Darren Cross lifts a full grown sheep between finger and thumb, and the supersized Thomas The Tank Engine would be far too light to crush the police car (in fact it would float harmlessly away as it would probably weigh less than the air it displaced).
Factual error: Towards the end of the film, Solomon is trapped in a small Plexiglas box and fires his gun into the bulletproof sides numerous times, but the bullets don't ricochet or get embedded in the glass.
Factual error: The 15 bus in London does not go over Westminster Bridge.
Factual error: In the film, the San Andreas fault produces the largest, most sensational earthquake in earth history that levels both Los Angeles and San Francisco, also creating a massive tsunami that also floods the latter. In reality, and according to many earthquake experts, the biggest quake that this fault could produce is an 8.3 and, being a land and not ocean fault, cannot cause a tsunami. Or as consultant to the film Tom Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center stated, "I gave (the filmmakers) free advice, some of which they took... But much of which they didn't - magnitude nines are too big for San Andreas, and it can't produce a big tsunami."
Factual error: After Watney patches the blow out of one of the HAB's airlocks with plastic sheeting, tie down straps, and duct tape, he pressurizes the HAB and the plastic sheeting pushes out like an inflated balloon. Assuming the plastic and duct tape would hold this is correct, however the plastic would be much more taut given the pressure difference inside and outside.
Suggested correction: The plastic would certainly be flexing in and out because of the pressure of the wind gusts during the storm. We saw earlier that the gusts of the storms were strong enough to blow a suited explorer off their feet and push them across the surface. Let's say that the HAB is pressurized as much as it can be without blowing out of the plastic, tape, and bungees sealing the airlock. A storm gust would still be able to push the flexible plastic in momentarily, and it would pop back out after the gust passed.
The movie took liberties with the physics of Mars. The gusts on Mars wouldn't be able to blow over a person or a spaceship, let alone push them across the surface, but they needed it for the plot. But using the same physics they then have wedded themselves to, it could then be strong enough to cause the plastic to flap, even though in real life it wouldn't. This is more of a deliberate mistake than a factual error since the writers certainly knew what they did didn't match reality.
Except they didn't 'wed' themselves to their fictional physics. Towards the end of the film NASA tells Watney that a flimsy plastic covering on his ascent vehicle will not be dislodged on acceleration to Martian escape velocity because the atmosphere is too thin to cause any problems. That's cheating in anyone's books.
Factual error: When the house explodes, there is a massive explosion and fireball that creates a pressure wave strong enough to send Brian flying into the van. However, not a single window breaks on the houses just feet from the explosion. (00:15:40)
Factual error: At the beginning, the film is set in 1995 only for a brief few minutes. Then, it goes on to say "15 years later." This brings us to 2010. In 2010, the latest iPhone was the 4. However, throughout this film, nearly every iPhone shown (quite a few) appears to be an iPhone 5s. This is obvious by the rectangular body with fingerprint sensor. In addition, in some places the latest iPads are used, the iPad Air 2 and the iPad mini 3 - These were released in 2013 and beyond. Finally, although I am not 100% sure, towards the end of the film as the woman steps in to the car for the final time on the hill next to the boat, it appears she is wearing a gold Apple Watch or other smart-watch which was released later than 2010.
Factual error: The main character from the video game "Paperboy" is among the alien invaders in the final battle; since that game was first released in 1984, he shouldn't be there, because the probe the aliens received featuring video game footage was launched into space in 1982.
Factual error: The very first shot of the movie takes place in Chandler, Arizona. However, the mountains seen in the distance, over the hills, are the Sandia Mountains which are in New Mexico, near Albuquerque. (00:01:00)
Factual error: During the opening narration Kyle Reese states that Skynet attacks humanity on August 12, 1997. In the shot of missiles decimating San Francisco, multiple 2005-present Toyota Priuses, Dodge Chargers and other late model cars are seen.
Suggested correction: That 1997 was from another timeline before the events in Terminator 2 altered history. It's possible those models may have existed earlier in that timeline than in our world.
This is assuming too much about the alternate timelines. There would have to be more concrete evidence that such things would be altered in said timelines. Also, considering that timeline is supposed to be what took place from Terminator 1 in its own separate timeline, we would go still by our own following the events of it leading up.
Factual error: Towards the end of the film, where St. John is trying to escape with Kim in his private jet, they are apparently attempting to take off from Santa Monica airport. When the camera shows the aircraft beginning its take off roll, the runway markings show that they are using runway 05L to take off from, however, the two runways available at Santa Monica airport are 03 and 21. (01:33:00)
Factual error: During the 4x4 chase across the island, the Land Rover used is a modern variant, not in production in 1963.
Factual error: The battery of the electronic goggles used by Gray should be dead after 20 years. (01:09:30)
Factual error: After the Scarlet Witch forces Banner to become Hulk, he goes berserk in Johannesburg, South Africa. A few minutes earlier they were near the ocean at a ship scrap yard. Johannesburg is many kilometres away from any ocean.
Factual error: Cam finishes tightening the alternator on his Pontiac, jumps in and starts the car. He pulls the automatic gear selector into drive, and the engine stalls. Without returning the selector back to "Park" or "Neutral" he attempts to start it. The motor grinds and grinds, however, when the vehicle is in gear, the starter is disabled.
Factual error: Herman Melville interviews whaling survivor Thomas Nickerson in Feb. 1850. Nickerson tells him "I heard a man from Pennsylvania drilled a hole in the ground recently and found oil." Oil was discovered in Titusville PA in 1859.
Factual error: Nux fills the bottom of his car with petrol then lights a flare but nothing happens - the fuel should have ignited from the fumes being given off, it wouldn't need to come in contact with the liquid directly. The driver is sitting in a confined space with windows and doors shut when he lights the flare and we see the petrol sloshing about the floor of the car about an inch deep and fumes rise upwards to where the flare is.
Factual error: When he is in the restaurant and looking at the security feed, he does a who command when it should be "whois". Also the IP is incorrect - the 3rd octet is 265, despite the maximum possible value being 255.
Factual error: In the opening sequence, the camera pans down on a planet and moon that are three-quarters lit in sunlight (with the sun being far off-camera to the left). A battlecruiser then crosses the images as a silhouette, eclipsing the planet and moon in total blackness. Impossible. The battlecruiser should have been lit three-quarters in sunlight, same as the planet and the moon. Stranger yet, as the stormtrooper shuttles are deployed and cross over the battlecruiser silhouette, the shuttles are illuminated. (00:01:55)
Factual error: Near the end, Jackie Chan's vastly-outnumbered forces resort to throwing stones to somehow utterly destroy a phalanx of Roman legionnaires in close-quarter combat. This scene flies in the face of what we know about Roman military superiority in the time of Tiberius. The Roman Army was the best-trained, best-organized, best-equipped military force of the Ancient World, specializing in tireless close-quarter combat and impenetrable defense. To suggest that Jackie Chan's frantic and disorganized group of fighters (throwing stones by hand) might overcome Roman legionnaires is like suggesting that cave men might overcome the modern U.S. Marine Corps.