Corrected entry: Hopper has the rank of Lieutenant when he is promoted to Lieutenant Commander at the end of the movie. Promotion to Lieutenant Commander can only be achieved after minimum 9 years of service as a officer and 3 years as a Lieutenant described in US Department of Defense DOPMA act from 1980. However Hopper was a civilian 6 years before the action took place and he has the "Enlisted Surface Warfare" badge that shows that he has been an enlisted and probably gone to OCS (Officer Candiate School) at some time to become a officer and given navy regulations he has likely just been promoted to Lieutenant and likely has been a officer for about 4-5 years. There is now way he can be promotet to Lieutenant Commander under military and DOD regulations since he barely can be a Lieutenant.
Corrected entry: Alex Hopper's brother receives posthumously a Navy Cross (2nd highest award) for attacking the aliens, but Alex Hopper only receives a Silver Star (3rd highest award) for saving the world?
Correction: Military politics. It's a mix of his accomplishments, his rank, and the fact that he paid the ultimate sacrifice. It's actually fairly accurate for the US Military to award higher awards to higher ranks as well as higher awards to those that have fallen.
Corrected entry: Lieutenant Hopper is called a Lieutenant Commander (one rank higher) at the end of the movie when he receives an award.
Correction: Seeing all that he has been through with great success, he could have easily received a promotion in the mean time.
Corrected entry: During the movie Rihanna was playing the role of an Fire Controlman [FC], but at the very end, when she is in her dress whites her rank insignia shows her being a Yeoman [YN]. Yeomen perform secretarial and clerical work, even during battle, they would most likely be, a phone-talker on the bridge, or a messenger for a damage control party, maybe even a status board writer in the combat information center [CIC]. So her being in the CIC controlling the guns is directly contradictory to her rate as a YN2.
Correction: Rihanna was playing the role of a Gunners Mate [GM]. Gunners mates have an insignia of cross cannons which may have been mistaken as cross feathers that the Yeoman's have.
Corrected entry: The first few projectiles fired on the destroyers by the aliens are taken out by a phalanx CIWS. However these systems use radar to track their targets, and the aliens have jammed all radar, so it shouldn't be working.
Correction: When the CWIS BLOCK B1b Upgrade was implemented beginning in early 2000-2002 [and continues to present], the CWIS system gained new tracking / engagement abilities. These include use of a FLIR [forward looking infrared] , AAVT [Automatic Acquisition Video Tracker], and E.O. [electro-optical] tracking. Although not originally intended for engagement of the inbounds found in the movie, it would be possible for an attentive Fire Controlman to successfully engage and neutralize said targets. Reference: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/mk-15.htm.
Corrected entry: When Hopper is being chased by the alien and he goes on deck, Rihanna goes into the control room and aims the cannon at the alien's head. Just before she fires she says "Mahalo" which is thanks in Hawaiian. It would have been better to say "Aloha", which is Hawaiian for hello and goodbye, just before she fires the cannon.
Correction: Not really a mistake, maybe her character doesn't have a grasp of the Hawaiian language, maybe it was a "thanks" because the alien just stared at the deck gun rather than moving slightly to the side to get out of the way. Either way a character saying something different that you wouldn't say isn't a mistake.
Corrected entry: When Admiral Shane salutes Alex upon presenting Stone's posthumous Navy Cross, his wrist and hand are bent, which an admiral would not do. In a proper salute, the wrist and hand are straight (one of the first things you learn).
Correction: The style of salute Liam Neeson uses is consistent with the time frame that a current 4-star Admiral would have been commissioned, as my father (commissioned USAF,1966) salutes in a very similar manner. The "straight hand" salute is taught to the current generation of military members, as it is what I was taught at BMT in 2001.
Correction: Officers salute incorrectly all the time, young and old.
Corrected entry: When Alex Hopper is being tazed he hands the chicken burrito over. His hand touches hers as she takes it. If she touched him while being tazed she would've been shocked too.
Correction: That's not how Tasers work. She would most definitely not be shocked if they touched hands. She could only be shocked if she touches him in between the two probes. Watch any video of someone being Tased where two people hold the Tased person and you'll see the two are never affected.
Corrected entry: Instead of blowing up an entire mountaintop communication facility, why didn't the military just destroy the Landsat 7 satellite? Either command it to self-destruct by burning up on an atmospheric re-entry or destroy it with anti-satellite weapons that already exist. Or just simply command the satellite to power-down.
Correction: With the dome in place, no one on the outside knew what the aliens were doing. The only way to stop them was to destroy the transmitters.
At around 1 hour 13 min into the movie, the pentagon is literally talking about the possibility of the aliens wanting to use Landsat7 to communicate with their home world. So they did know that the aliens were probably going to do that. Even if they weren't completely sure about it, they could've just destroyed it as a precaution. They could've launched a missile at it or put another satellite on a collision course.
Corrected entry: The physio leaves at 9am to take the amputee soldier on a hike, shortly afterwards the alien ships hit Hong Kong and Hawaii, but it's daylight in both places. It would be approx 3am the following day in Hong Kong.
Correction: The assumption here is that "a short time later" equates to almost immediately. It would take some time for the two of them to get out there, up in the hills. We (the viewers) are never given an indication on time of day it is. So if we allow for just a few hours, as little as 3-4hrs. It could be daytime in both countries.
Corrected entry: A satellite which has been designed by NASA to be as light as possible can damage one of the alien spacecraft in such a way that it becomes steer-less, crashes and burns. But the other four are perfectly undamaged while they smashed into water. Water has a relatively high surface tension. So when a satellite can damage a ship that badly, there is no way they would survive such a crash into the ocean.
Correction: In Space, the spacecraft were not prepared for such a collision with any object. Once in Earth's atmosphere the spacecraft were prepared for impact with the water. Slowing down, for example.
Not to mention the space shuttle Columbia was destroyed because of damage caused by a piece of insulation. Atmospheric re-entry can reach a temp upwards of 1650 c or 3000 f while the deceleration can have a force upwards of 7 times that of gravity. It also veered off, an entry that is too steep can increases those forces. One small ding can lead to disaster.
Corrected entry: The alien ships could not be seen by RADAR when in the ocean. However they were able to be tracked when in space coming towards Earth.
Correction: When they are in space they can be tracked visually by telescopes. Their size, shape, speeds and distance can easily be calculated without radar.
Correction: The president has the power to promote, with I believe senate approval, any member of the US armed forces (backed by the constitution, legislation and court rulings). As the Commander In Chief, that supersedes military regulation.