Continuity mistake: Gene Hackman and John Shea are both doused with water when they come out of the restroom. In the next shot, their hair is completely dry.
Visible crew/equipment: When Rev. Scott swims up the first stairwell, after pushing aside the dead crew member, as his head comes up the shaft, you can see, very quickly, the flippers of a crewmember swimming out of the shot behind him. (01:22:55)
Audio problem: Just before midnight when the band is playing "Morning After" the camera pans out for a wide shot of the dance floor - the dancers are dancing MUCH too fast for such a slow song - and you do still hear the song.
Continuity mistake: Just as Susan jumps down from the overturned table, you see a shot of her feet, and she is not wearing shoes. Then when she lands in the curtain, she has her shoes on.
Factual error: Throughout the end there is fire everywhere. All of that fire would consume any oxygen that was in the rooms and fill the rooms with heavy black smoke. They are walking and climbing everywhere without the effects that the smoke and lack of oxygen would have caused.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where they start going through the pipe and end up in the funnel thing Gene Hackman takes off the pipe cover and leans it against the wall. After everybody gets into the funnel it shows the water lapping at the pipe. In the background you see the cover is leaning against the pipe, not the wall.
Revealing mistake: When the ship is upside-down and they're trying to get Susan down from the table, you can see that the table really isn't attached to the ceiling. You can see the center pool split into legs that are supposed to be connected to the floor, but when Susan moves around and shakes the table, the legs shake and you can see space between them and the floor. Even if the other legs outside of the shot were connected, the table would be leaning under Susan's weight.
Factual error: In the scene where the ship encounters the tidal wave, the ship is located in the Mediterranean Sea and is struck by a tsunami generated by a sub-sea earthquake 130 miles off the coast of Crete. The Mediterranean is a relatively calm body of water compared to the Atlantic. Beyond that, a tsunami wave from even a major earthquake will pass almost unnoticed to ships at sea; tsunamis only rise up and become dangerous in shallow water on coastlines.
Visible crew/equipment: When Susan jumps from the inverted table to the curtain held taut by the men below, you can see the shadow of the microphone on the curtain and defined near the top. (00:38:00)
Continuity mistake: In the dining room, after the ship has turned over, Scott tells Mrs. Rogo she has to take off her gown because she can't climb in it. Mr. Rogo says "she's got nothin' on under it." To which she answers, "Panties, what else do I need?" She changes into her husband's shirt. However, when they are climbing through the ventilation shaft, just before she gets onto the ladder, she's wearing a bra.
Suggested correction: Clearly she was referring to what was covering her bottom half, as the shirt would cover the top half.
Not quite sure about the accuracy in that response... if responding to the bottom half only, Rev. Scott would not have jumped at the shirt idea so quickly. When being told "just panties" it told the Reverend that she most likely was topless and also why Mr. Rogo got angry about taking the gown off in general. If a bra was on her, Mr. Rogo most likely wouldn't have blown up like that.
Continuity mistake: When Gene Hackman shakes the metal doors that lead to the shaft, in a close-up he unlatches the small latch holding the doors together. After a cut showing some water filling up the passageway, it cuts back to the shaft where the metal doors are shaking, but the hook is now latched again. (01:04:15)
Revealing mistake: When Manny gets to the engine room and spots Belle lying dead on the floor, you can see her breathing as her chest slightly moves. (01:33:35)
Continuity mistake: Just before Shelley Winters tries to persuade the others she should be first to swim the underwater corridor to the engine room because she used to be an underwater swimming champion, watch closely what she is doing with her hands in each shot before she speaks. In one shot she is fondling the medallion hanging on a chain around her neck; in cutaway shots you can see the medallion is hanging free and her hands are nowhere near it.
Continuity mistake: When Manny leaves Belle behind to join the others in the propeller shaft, a crew member is lying 'dead' behind him. As Manny passes him, you can see the crew member move his arm, possibly to get it away from the fire below him.
Plot hole: Shortly after the ship flips over, the steward, Acres, is asked why lights are on. He explains they are emergency lights that will last three hours. The lights are left on throughout the movie, but when they get out it is bright daylight. Considering the ship flipped at midnight, there is nowhere on any ocean where it gets light at 3:00 in the morning.
Visible crew/equipment: During the dining room scene when everyone is eating. Look for the shot where Shelly Winters reaches over to Manny's plate, in the background you can see a boom mike.
Continuity mistake: When Gene Hackman is about to swim through the passage to the Engine Room, Red Buttons hands him a lit flashlight. The camera changes to Gene under the water, and he is turning on the light again.
Other mistake: When the survivors are in the funnel, there seems to be an explosion that comes from under them. Since the deck they were on was flooding, all the decks below would have been flooded. Whatever explosion that would've occurred in the funnel would have come from above, where whatever machinery was left would've caused it.
Other mistake: The stuntman who plays the telegraph operator, who drowns when the wave strikes, is also seen among the survivors in the dining room.
Other mistake: The dining room was filling up way too fast from the amount of water pouring in from the breach on the wall.
