Continuity mistake: After the CBP agent smashed the potato chip bag with the apple, the shot is switched from beside the agent to Viktor's viewpoint. The number of chips and distribution of those chips on the desk change. (00:06:35)
Continuity mistake: When everybody in the airport is saying goodbye to Viktor before he steps into New York, one shot shows Dolores and Enrique with their arms around each other. But in the next shot, Dolores is walking towards Enrique and then they put their arms around each other. (01:55:00)
Revealing mistake: About 30 seconds into the movie, when the camera is panning down the flight status board, the letters are flipping through to form the correct words. However, the board is digitally animated, and some of the sequences of letters scrolling (such as one square going from L to M to N) loop without making any sense, like in the line above the yellow "The /Terminal" (U, V, W, U, V, W, U, V, W.). (00:00:30)
Continuity mistake: In the scene towards the end where Gupta stops the plane, it's clear and sunny. At this point, Viktor immediately starts walking down towards the exit. By the time he makes it, it's snowing, and it looks as if it had been for some time.
Factual error: Novorski buys a small hamburger at Burger King for 74 cents. Airport fast food restaurant menus are priced higher than restaurants in the city. Even if a dollar menu was available (usually not at airport locations), you can't get a burger at an airport for 74 cents.
Continuity mistake: In the scene in Dixon's office, where he's trying to explain to Viktor that his country has fallen in a military coup, he uses an apple and potato chips to make his point. When the bag of chips pops open it sprays broken bits of chips all over Viktor's torso and lap. Although Viktor does brush some off, in the next shot he stands up to leave and there are no chips on his clothes or lap. You could believe he brushed them away off camera, but don't even see any on the floor around him. (00:07:05)
Factual error: When Viktor tells the story of his father collecting the jazz musicians' signatures, he shows an old Hungarian newspaper clipping with Cyrillic text. Hungarian uses the Latin alphabet and not the Cyrillic. (01:38:25)
Audio problem: When Viktor is celebrating the end of the war in Krakozia in the bar, we see Amelia approaching the bar. As she does, we hear Viktor give a loud "Krakozia!" Watch his mouth when he does. By this time, we have a clear view of his mouth and his cry of "Krakozia!" comes before his lips make the appropriate movements.
Deliberate mistake: When Tom Hanks is picked up at the airport by a taxi, its license plate number is TX7943. Later when he is picked up at the Ramada Inn, he is picked up by a taxi with a different driver, different numbers on the top, but has the same license plate number.
Continuity mistake: During Dixon's attempt to get Viktor to claim fear of return to Krakhozia, the phone cord and files on Dixon's desk change. (00:44:50)
Deliberate mistake: The driver's licence "Viktor" has does not belong to him. When he hands his visa claim to the officer, he's using a driver's licence to fill all the forms. The licence is actually a driver's permit of The Republic of Belarus. It belongs to totally another person(Gulinara Nadyrauna Gulina, she is not Slavonic at all), the permit is issued in Homel, a southern Belarusian city, on 30/07/1997- probably this person either has lost it or it was taken away for some reasons, but it is still valid(30/07/2007). However, the Cyrillic and latin letters do not match at all, as one can notice- surname Gulina is much shorter than Navorski, even given the fact that Cyrillic and latin writings differ, it should not be so. (00:42:25)
Visible crew/equipment: When Viktor is being asked to say he is afraid of his country, you can see a man with silver-colored headphones (a crewmember) reflected in the window.
Deliberate mistake: When Viktor is window shopping for a suit to wear on his date with Amelia, he aligns his head with the reflection on the glass to see how he would look in the suit, however, this is the view that the camera (shooting from an angle) has of him, his own view would not match up his head to the suit, it would be off to one side. Also, when he moves from the first suit to the second, he looks down to the floor, this would be to stand on a pre-placed marker which would align his head with the suit. (01:19:40)
Visible crew/equipment: When Viktor is in Dixon's office with the stuffed fish, you can see the reflection of a crew member on the window behind him. (01:16:15)
Deliberate mistake: When Amelia and Viktor are talking for the first time and she asks him out for dinner, look at the people behind Viktor. One of those men is actually Stanley Tucci wearing a tropical suit, when Stanley Tucci is the actor playing the bald bad guy who manages the airport.
Suggested correction: It's not Stanley Tucci. It's just another bald white man.
Continuity mistake: When Amelia and Viktor are having dinner, Amelia gets three pages on her beeper. On the first page she opens her purse, looks at the page she just got puts the beeper back and snaps her purse shut with the purse sitting straight up. On her second page, her purse is laying down, open so you can see her beeper. She didn't move the purse or open it from the time she closed it, after the first page. (01:25:45 - 01:26:55)
Continuity mistake: When Viktor is making his cracker sandwich we see a closeup shot with a lot of packs of ketchup, relish and mustard in front of the mustard and cracker layer he just made. The camera then switches to a wide shot and the packs are no longer in front of the napkins but off to the side. (00:36:10)
Factual error: At the end of the movie Viktor checks out of a hotel on Lexington and gets a cab to the airport. Then we see Viktor in the cab in Times Square. Times Square is several blocks west of Lexington, and the airports are to the east.
Factual error: Amelia gets pulled aside at a checkpoint that would be in the airport interior. She does not come through the gate (the only passage from the airplane to the airport).
Continuity mistake: This mistake occurs on Viktor's first night of sleeping, before he takes the chairs apart, after he sees the news and all that stuff. When he is trying to get comfortable in the row of chairs, in the first shot, he is stretching and places his fist under his chin. In the shot IMMEDIATELY after that, is hands are folded neatly and resting on his lap. (00:16:30)
