Corrected entry: During a scene in Joe's room, a model of a TIE Bomber is seen. These did not appear until Episode V (The Empire Strikes Back), which was released about a year after the movie took place.
Corrected entry: In the scene with the Missing Dogs Board is shown, it includes a missing Puggle. The Puggle cross-breed was not created until the 1980s.
Correction: I didn't see a Puggle, but I did see a Pug. The name above him looked like it said "Chuggles". The name definitely started with a "Ch", not "P". It didn't say Puggle.
Corrected entry: When the evacuation siren goes off, the small spool of film is yanked off the feed spindle of the projector without first being rewound. All the footage they just viewed would have still been on the take-up spool at the other end of the projector.
Correction: He does remove it from the take up handle at the back of the projector, so this technically isn't an error.
Corrected entry: At the end of the movie, the locket flies out of the boys pocket. He should not even have had the locket because one of the soldiers took it from him when they were caught in the school. In the following scene in the bus, the soldier with the locket was taken by the alien.
Correction: Joe can be seen getting the locket from the soldier's dead body after they get out of the bus.
Corrected entry: A character is seen building an Aurora Hunchback of Notre Dame glow in the dark model which is correct for 1979, but the model box is the "long box" used for the non-glow in the dark model in the sixties.
Corrected entry: Joe has a Space Shuttle poster on his bedroom wall, but the Space Shuttle program started in 1981, 2 years AFTER the film is supposed to have taken place.
Correction: The first flight of the shuttle was in 1981, but the space shuttle program began in the late 1960's, the program was officially announced in 1972. The first shuttle, the Enterprise, was rolled out in 1976. A poster of the event was available.
Corrected entry: In the scene where the water tower is attracting the metal and Joe's locket flies out of his pocket and he catches it, it opens and reveals the picture of Joe and his mother. The picture is flipped upside down.
Correction: It might be a personal tick, not a mistake. I frequently put pictures 'upside down' in lockets so I can look at them without having to twist the chain around to put the locket right side up - especially when the chain is fairly short, like the one on Joe's locket.
Corrected entry: When the electric company goes to check the power lines, a half a mile of lines disappear, yet when the camera cuts to the man on the truck, you can see power lines with all the cables attached behind him.
Correction: The additional missing cable must go in the opposite (off-camera) direction.
Corrected entry: In the town meeting, the store owner talks about having so many microwave ovens stolen. Although microwave ovens were commercially available in 1979, they were not common at all. Even by the mid 1980s, only about 25 percent of American households had microwaves. So it's very unlikely that a small town hardware store would carry these - there just wouldn't be a market for it in 1979.
Correction: How does a retailer develop a market? Often he or she will need to create the demand for a product. In other words, you can't sell a product you don't have in stock. In 1976, microwaves were selling for as little as $196, while dishwashers were over $280, and a 25" color TV was around $600. VHS cassette machines were going for around $700 in 1979. Lillian, OH is a fictitious town, but was filmed in a WV town. That town had a population of 25000 in 1979, making it a small city, not a small town, and microwaves wouldn't be uncommon for sale in a city that size.
Corrected entry: During a scene in Joel's room they show a model of the Space Shuttle and the external fuel tank is red/orange. This change did not occur until the 80's as a cost saving measure. Shuttle models before this had a white tank.
Correction: It's a model. He can paint it any colour he wants. I used to do that all the time when I was a kid making models. I'd paint the car/boat/plane/motorcycle whatever colour I had enough leftover paint for.
Correction: That was Darth Vader's Tie Advanced not a Tie Bomber.
Greenman37