Factual error: When Chris is running from the cabbie he jumps into a train, and in the process gets his scanner stuck in the door, which he loses hold of as the train begins to move. BART trains will not move unless all doors are secure, so this could not have happened. (00:30:00)
Factual error: When Chris, and his son go to (at the time) Candlestick Park, home of the San Fransico 49ers, you can plainly see both when he is outside of the stadium talking to guys in the parking lot and when he's in the 'suite box' trying to get the guy to do business with him that all of the logos for the 49ers are from this time period. This is a huge mistake considering this movie was set in the early 80's whereas the 49ers did not begin to use black in their uniforms again until the earliest being in 1994 for the NFL's 75th Anniversary, which was the last year they won a Super Bowl, defeating the San Diego Chargers. The team didn't go to 'black' as a primary color in their scheme until 1996 when they added the black outline around their logo (which you see on the walls outside the stadium and on the field as you see the team playing) and by also adding it to their trademark sleeve stripes and around the their numbers which were given a drop shadow style as homage to the '94 year uniforms. They did however wear the correct 'era' uniforms which would be considered a 'throwback' uniform by today's standards.
Factual error: The abdomen x-ray in the first doctor's office that Will Smith visits is upside down, evident by the pelvis seen at the top.
Factual error: The nickel from the phone booth is fake. Unless it was a special minted edition. It doesn't look like any nickel I've ever seen from that era. It is also reflectively discolored compared to the proper coin to its left. It actually looks more like an '01 coin. (00:31:20)
Factual error: About halfway into the film, in the shot of Will Smith and his son walking down the downtown sidewalk, a late model Saturn car can be seen in the distance behind them making a turn at the street corner. This car did not exist during the time frame of the movie.
Factual error: When Chris Gardner's scanner gets stuck in the subway door, the door should've opened then closed.
Answer: In an interview, the real-life Chris Gardiner, (played by Will Smith) explained that the deliberately misspelled word was written that way on the child daycare center's wall (representing how children can sometimes misspell words). Gardiner later interpreted it to personally mean that true happiness is not defined in just one way, there are many ways to be happy, and that was reflected in the alternate spelling.
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