Continuity mistake: When Connie starts to give her speech at the White House press conference, the shots of her on TV show General Grey standing right next to her, but when they show the conference in the press room, he is a couple of steps behind her. (00:19:40)
Continuity mistake: When they all board Air Force One, David and his dad are led to a rear section of the plane. The corridor they walk down is on the left of the plane and when they emerge it's on the right, as though they used the same section for both shots. (00:50:20)
Continuity mistake: Close to the beginning of the film when we see the Casse kids leaving the trailer park, and Russell Casse rushes up and says, "You read my mind," the shot of the motorhome we can see a map or something, and in the following shot it's vanished. (00:33:55)
Continuity mistake: When David and Dr. Okun are inside the alien aircraft having a look around, it cuts to a front view of them, and if you look to the right two other scientists walk in. The scientist with the mustache and beard stops and looks, and the other walks a bit further and peaks over, then in the following shot you can see this action again. (Special Edition.) (01:18:20)
Continuity mistake: When Captain Hiller begins his attack with the rest of his crew from El Toro, when we see the room where the General and the President are, a man says "Missiles have been fired", it shows on their screen a countdown of "metres to target". It does a countdown of 5000 to 4000 twice, and 4000 to 3000 twice. Also, when we next see the countdown before the missiles hit the shield, the last number is 49m, then the following shot of this number it says 107m. (00:57:50)
Continuity mistake: In the middle of the film when the President is in Area 51 looking at the alien aircraft, there is a shot from the back and you can see that the General is not standing really close to the doctor, in the following shot from the front he is standing side by side with the doctor. (01:14:10)
Continuity mistake: The alien saucer that arrives over Los Angeles is said to be approaching off the California coastline, yet it is specifically shown approaching from Imperial Valley, which is to the east/southeast of Los Angeles.
Suggested correction: Not true, Constance says, "One is heading for Los Angeles, the other two are on our eastern seaboard heading toward New York, and Washington D.C." No direction of travel is given.
General Grey reported to the President the destroyer (hidden in a fire cloud) was being tracked "off the California Coastline."
Continuity mistake: When David and Julius are playing chess at the park in Brooklyn, Julius is smoking a cigar which varies in length between shots, when he holds it and also when it is in the ashtray. (00:08:00)
Continuity mistake: At the MCAS El Toro ruins, when Steven's chopper is heard overhead, the First Lady sits up and leans on her right arm with her left arm over the blanket. In Jasmine's close-up, the First Lady is lying down fully covered by the blanket, but when it cuts back to the First Lady her position is back as the first shot.
Continuity mistake: When Steven is dragging the alien in his parachute, the sweat stain on his tank top changes shape and gets smaller, by the time he speaks with Russell a few moments later.
Continuity mistake: When the two couples say their goodbyes, before Steven and David's mission, Jasmine has her right arm over Steven's shoulder in the shot facing her, but next shot her right arm is down, under his arm.
Continuity mistake: At the club, in Jasmine's dressing room, there are either two nail polish remover bottles beside the TV, or two white bottles - one large, one small, depending on the angle of the shot. (00:38:35)
Continuity mistake: In the motorhome, when Troy tells Russell that he feels sick, as the RV pulls over in the wideshot the back window curtain is open, but closed in other shots. (00:55:00)
Continuity mistake: When David removes the bottle that Connie put in the fridge, in the next shot as Connie says, "Research and development," the coffee filter behind her moves from the edge to farther down the table. (Fullscreen only) (01:33:45)
Continuity mistake: When Julius and David drive to DC, the amount of dirt on the Plymouth's front and back windshields varies between shots.
Continuity mistake: When the B2 releases the nuke it banks away to the left, however the next radar shot shows it flying away to the right.
Continuity mistake: When Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum are in the mothership, Will says that once the missile is fired they have 30 seconds to get out of the ship before it explodes. The sequence of events, portrayed in real-time, from the start of the countdown to the detonation is 93 seconds. By the time 30 seconds has elapsed; they are just barely getting to the inner-triangle opening, with 23 seconds remaining. From here, it takes an additional 40 seconds to traverse 'the triangle' and exit the ship; with another 10 seconds passing after clearing the doors. The timer now shows 10 seconds remaining. Basically (according to the countdown), the first 30 seconds were depicted as being only 7 having elapsed; and the 50 seconds after that being only 13. Everything was in real-time. (02:18:25)
Continuity mistake: When Steven returns to the base, some of the other guys are watching the news on TV. In the TV's close-up there is a towel right beside it and newspapers lying on top, but in the next shot the newspapers change and the towel is about two feet away. (00:34:20)
Continuity mistake: After David looks in the fridge for ice, Connie appears at the doorway, and when he makes a toast to the end of the world, the bottle to his right turns between shots, note the label. (01:33:10)
Continuity mistake: During the First Lady's death scene, Connie is on the First Lady's left, when the President asks his daughter to go out in the hallway. But in the very next shot, Connie is on the other side of the bed standing right next to the little girl. (01:39:55)
