Continuity mistake: When John is driving to the gas station, the back door of his car is missing, although it was there when he was driving from his house.
Continuity mistake: The truck John drives in the movie constantly changes from one model to another depending on an exterior vs. and interior shot. The exterior shots are using an XL edition F150 while the interior shots are from an FX2 edition F150.
Continuity mistake: In the opening 1950s school scene, the children all run up the front steps of the school. A little blonde girl wearing an orange cardigan and white dress is seen running up the stairs to the school building. A few seconds later the same girl is seen running towards the school again - from further back. (00:01:45)
Continuity mistake: When John gets out of his truck on the highway to talk to the cop, his windshield wipers change speed. While he is still inside the truck the wipers move slowly, but they move a lot faster as soon as he steps out of the truck.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where John and Diana are searching Lucinda's trailer, when the horn blows they rush outside. John unlocks the glove box and gets his gun, leaving the keys hanging in the lock, then outside the truck, he hands the keys to Diana.
Continuity mistake: When Nicholas Cage is watching Tigers under threat, he pours himself a drink. He ends up overfilling the glass, resulting in him spilling on the floor. It sounds like the scotch hits a wooden or tile floor, yet when the angle changes he would have spilled on a rug. Here the wet spot on the rug is also magically gone. (00:21:30)
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.
Continuity mistake: When John is decoding the numbers for the first time, he uses a whiteboard. On the whiteboard are, presumably, spelling words for Caleb. He erases some of these to make room for the numbers. In the various shots of this scene, words disappear and reappear continuously, often written slightly different.
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: When Ms. Thomas is showing them the time capsule, she pulls it out of a box. The box is on the floor when the capsule is put on the desk, and it is plain to see that the capsule would not have been able to fit in the box that is shown.
Suggested correction: The capsule is laying in the box on the side. It's totally the same box in which the capsule was from the start, and there's no reason for the filmmakers to change it at all, it's always the right size to contain the capsule.
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 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.
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.