Factual error: Cell phone signals are repeatedly blocked by electromagnetic radiation from the sun. However, GPS devices, which receive a much fainter signal from satellites, continue to operate. For that matter, television broadcasting, which relies on satellite relays, continues until the end of the film.
Suggested correction: Only local TV news - from a local news studio - is shown near the end of the movie. Local TV stations don't require satellites for operation, only for receiving live reports from distant locations.
Factual error: In the scene where Nic Cage sits at his computer and discovers what will destroy the world, he describes it as "A super-flare. A 100 microtesla wave of radiation that would destroy our ozone layer, killing every living organism on the planet." First, "tesla" is a measure of magnetism, not radiation, and 100 microtesla is a very weak magnetic field - an MRI machine uses around 3 Tesla. Second, destruction of the ozone layer would eventually kill all life on the planet, slowly, through radiation poisoning. It would not burn the planet to a cinder, as depicted in the movie.
Continuity mistake: At the museum, John and Diana are talking at a table while the kids are playing together. There is an empty glass with a blue straw in front of John. Sometimes, the straw points away from him, sometimes it points towards him.
Suggested correction: The straw never points in the different directions throughout the scene, it alwaysstands there almost the same way.
Factual error: The 9/11 death toll of 2996 - which John Koestler notices on the sheet of numbers - is the overall total for that day's attacks. But it is next to New York's co-ordinates, and the other attack sites have their own entries with locations and death tolls.
Other mistake: He says his wife died in a hotel fire at 4 am, and then says he was blowing leaves when she died. Who blows leaves at 4 in the morning? Or even 7am allowing for the time difference?
Continuity mistake: Early in the film, Nicholas Cage is hitting the bottle. After pouring one or two drinks, he starts to pour another, nearly fills his glass, then spills it. Although the bottle is about half-empty at this point, the next time it is shown standing on a table, there is only a small amount remaining at the bottom.
Suggested correction: There's no indication how much drink is in the bottle after he spills it. There's the correct amount of drink in every point of the scene.
Continuity mistake: The day after John has discovered that the numbers refer to dates and number of deaths, he shows the sequence to his friend on a flat screen TV. On the left of the TV there is a pile of 4 DVD boxes with white labels. They are gone in the shot where John leaves the room.
Continuity mistake: When John leaves his house after Diana takes the kids, the tailgate on his truck is open. Then, when he leaves the gas station, the tailgate is missing. When he pulls off the road to find Caleb, the tailgate is back on and closed.
Continuity mistake: When Nicolas Cage runs outside and yells at the elusive intruder, he hits the tree with his baseball bat, breaking in half. But a second later, after picking up his dropped flashlight, his bat is whole and unbroken.
Factual error: The envelopes and letters from the time capsule are in pristine condition after 50 years underground. Even the papers are crisp and unfaded.
Factual error: The aircraft that crashes in the movie is an Airbus A320-200, but however the wing strobe lights (white blinking lights on the end of the wings) are flashing in single phase (only flashing once a second), Airbus aircraft flash twice every second, only Boeing flicker once.
Revealing mistake: Right after the plane crash (when John is running to the crash site) you can see that the fire is C.G. because of the tracking errors.
Continuity mistake: When Caleb and his father talk about his late mother on this bed while watching TV about tigers, watch the position of Caleb's head on the pillow. In close-ups, it is resting on the right edge. In medium shots, it is in the middle.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where there is heavy traffic on the road (before the plane crash), John gets out of his car to see what's going on. As he's making his way to the front, he passes a black pick-up truck. The camera angle changes, and you can see John pass the same truck again.
Suggested correction: He never passes a black pick-up truck, the only minor flaw is he is shown a little further in the next shot from that truck, than he was in the previous shot.
