Continuity mistake: During the scene where Jenny is on the dock trying to interview Secretary Rittenhouse, the sun changes position a few times during the scene. When Jenny is talking to the little girl, the sun is behind Jenny appearing to be the middle of the afternoon. When Jenny walks to look over at the cargo, the sun is now ahead of her to the west, getting closer to sunset. When Rittenhouse appears on the boat, the sun is back to the previous position, for a second until the camera pans back to Jenny with the sun out west again. Rittenhouse ushers off his daughter & she walks off as Jenny tries to talk to him, all the while the sun is now behind Jenny to the mid afternoon setting. When Rittenhouse walks off, the camera pans around and now the sun is in the west again near sunset and remains this way until the end of the scene. (00:12:30)
Other mistake: How can it be named Wolf-Beiderman? Wolf never sent the email, and even if it did go, once the network was restored, he never called it Wolf-B before writing it on the floppy label. The president says both were killed in the crash. So, they invent an astronomer working at the observatory and no one notices? Remember, the floppy was destroyed in the fire. Wolf never called anyone; he was killed while trying to make a call. Maybe the pics were also burned. Mr. Perry never followed up?
Factual error: A wave 1000' high would have obliterated the containments and wiped out the spent fuel pools of every nuclear plant on the east coast. Even if they were all shut down, there would be no time or way to remove all the fuel and no place to safely store it all if they did. There are thousands of metric tons of fuel that have to be actively cooled for years, otherwise it would all catch fire and burn, or at the very least boiled all its cooling water away and melted/uncovered it to allow gamma shine. This would have, in and of itself, made the northern hemisphere uninhabitable for several hundred human lifetimes.
Continuity mistake: When Jenny is talking in front of the Capitol Building, the lady she's talking with has a hold of her bag in a distinctive way. When the shot changes she's no longer holding her bag. (00:10:50)
Continuity mistake: When Jenny is first talking to her mum, her mum gets the name 'Chloe' wrong. When she does she has nothing in her hands besides the cigarette. Camera changes and now she's got a watch in her hands. (00:09:40)
Continuity mistake: When the guy is leaving the observatory, the door is left almost fully open while getting in his truck. When we see him drive off the door is now half closed despite us seeing the door come to a stop in the previous shot. (00:05:33)
Continuity mistake: When they are on the motorcycle near the end, he is first traveling with the flow of traffic that is stopped (west). When she gets on the bike with him and the baby, they keep going with the flow of traffic. Than the smaller asteroid enters the atmosphere, it is traveling in the same direction they are driving on the motorcycle. But when it passes the girl's family in the van, now the asteroid is traveling against the flow of traffic (east).
Continuity mistake: On the comet the screen shows the position of the vessel right at the sunlight line. A few moments later the position is shown as being on the far side of the comet away from the line, even though the comet didn't turn.
Continuity mistake: When the boy takes the motorbike from the garage the mirrors are out of line. In the next shot before he rides out, the mirrors are all in line.
Answer: There is no logical reason. It can be argued that people are just stubborn and/or reluctant to leave their homes under any circumstance. However, this is a movie, and showing the last-minute chaos of people attempting to evacuate heightens the tension and the drama.
raywest ★