Factual error: Near the end of the movie, Agent Terrence asks Mitch why he didn't release the recording to the media. Mitch replies that it would have been against the law. This is actually incorrect. Tennessee, where the movie is based, is a one-party consent state. Which means only one party needs to give consent to a conversation being recorded. That one party is Mitch McDeere.
Factual error: American law schools graduate students in mid-May. Tom Cruise and his wife drive from Boston, Mass. to Memphis, Tenn. to take the new job pending the bar exam, which is given in late July. So why during that late Spring/early Summer are autumn leaves falling?
Factual error: Early in the movie, Mitch is shown walking through a lounge at Harvard Law School. The lounge has multi-colored chairs and couches. It does not exist at Harvard. This lounge is actually the Mark Twain's Lounge in the University Center on the campus of The University of Memphis.
Answer: I've wondered about that, too. Avery appears to have somehow overlooked it, though it was in a highly visible and in a sensitive place (the locked closet). He probably returned late that night, and by the next day, the maid could have cleaned most of it up before he noticed anything. Also, on that particular trip, Avery may have had no reason to look inside the locked closet, so he would not have seen the broken glass. The spilled liquid outside the door would have dried quickly.
raywest ★