Continuity mistake: On Day 2, when the two officers go into the town's doctor's office, they leave the van with the driver's door way open, beyond 90 degrees, almost 180. The door didn't move to indicate it corrected itself as they went in. When they come out, the door is almost closed. And there has been no indication of a wind other than the helicopter, and that is supposed to be 1000 feet up and not even close to the office.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Dutton and Hall are viewing the monitor showing where the two patients are, Dutton's symbol (initial "D" on the monitor) is shown leaving the room on the monitor. When the monitor is shown again, Dutton's and Hall's symbols are both in the room. The characters had not left the room as of yet. (00:59:15)
Continuity mistake: When Stone and Levitt are examining the capsule, the angle of the camera changes each time the camera goes to a higher magnification. However, the following shot shows the camera mounted straight up and down with no joint to pivot for an angle change.
Continuity mistake: In the scene just after Dutton and Hall have their discussion in the level 5 cafeteria and are called to main control, Dutton's D symbol on the monitor turns left out of the outer room into the hallway, where main control is just to the right; but the scene continues with Dutton and Hall going in the opposite direction, walking some distance while making time for dialogue before turning right into main control, so the diagram and their movements don't match up.
Continuity mistake: In the briefing room Dr. Stone is explaining Wildfire's electronic mapping system. He advises that the old man and the baby are indicated on the diagram by the two red X's. When he says this the diagram shows that the old man and the baby are at the top of the complex, just right of the elevator shaft. Dr. Hall asks to see the patients and Stone switches to a camera view. On the video it shows that the patients have instantly moved into the elevator shaft and are already descending past levels 2 and 3, not at the top of the complex as shown on the monitor.
Continuity mistake: Stone and Leavitt are examining the rock in the capsule and decide they need to send it to the lab for higher magnification. Stone uses the mechanical tweezers to remove the rock and place it in a transport chamber. After removing the rock they look at the monitor to see the patch moving (Leavitt: "My God, it's growing"). However, at this time the rock was moved and no longer under the camera. Could they have been looking at one of the patches around the rock? Not possible, the camera was moved to get the tweezers in (the last camera view was a lower magnification shot of the tweezers entering the capsule).
Answer: The government would have concocted an official story about what happened in Piedmont - attributing it to some natural disaster. The old man had dementia, was alcoholic, and suffered a severe emotional trauma, so it's doubtful many would give much credence to anything he had to say. He was also confined to a small area of the Wildfire complex and was given minimal information about what it was or where he was at. In his confused mental state at the time, he probably would have remembered little about what actually happened.
raywest ★