Factual error: Tom Cruise says of the song 'Sitting on the Dock of the Bay' "my folks loved it". However, his father died in 1965, his mother died "shortly after him", and the song wasn't written until 1967.
Factual error: During most of the basketball games, you can see an American flag in the background. This is not the problem, the problem is that it is hung wrong, the stars should always be on the top LEFT not RIGHT.
Factual error: Doug Masters and his friend Reggie would be grounded on the spot and have their pilot's licences suspended (and in all likelihood cancelled) after buzzing the motorcyclist. Their flying is grossly unsafe. They would be visible for miles flying well below a safe altitude, but even if they were not seen their radio traffic and radar tracking would tell the authorities everything they needed to know.
Factual error: The mounted machine gun fires far too many shots for the limited supply of ammo it has in the box attached to it.
Factual error: When Steve Martin dies with the mask on, the inflation bulbs (the little black bags that inflate and deflate) deflate completely. Actually they should INFLATE completely and stay that way. The gas is still on full blast and Steve is no longer inhaling (which would cause them to deflate). It was done only to emphasize Steve Martin's demise but it's factually incorrect.
Factual error: While using the phone in his cell, Dr. Lecktor asks an operator to dial a Maryland area code, but is then connected to the University of Chicago. (00:30:10)
Factual error: Teddy wears army boots that did not exist in 1959.
Factual error: When the Delta Force lands on a beach, prior to their assault, their landing craft is lit up like a christmas tree. The commandos wear dark uniforms and have blackened their faces, but they also carry bright white ropes around their chests. Some of them are scuba-divers, wearing yellow oxygen-tanks. In short, in the real world they would have been spotted within minutes.
Factual error: Right before Frank humiliates Dorothy for the first time, he blows out one of the gaslights in her apartment. That is never done in real life, for the same reason you would not blow out the pilot in your stove.
Factual error: When Nancy goes in a car in London to score drugs there is a political poster stating 'Labour Isn't Working'. This poster was used by the Conservative party in the 1979 general election - Nancy was killed 9 months prior to this election.
Factual error: When the first robot is trapped in the lift, the teenagers shoot the propane tanks on top of the lift in order to get them to catch fire and explode, killing the robot. However the teens are firing pistols or shotguns, and these do not contain incendiary ammunition, which is what is required to make the propane to catch fire.
Factual error: Calendar date at the very beginning of the film (in the police station), shows the dates of Saturday 20th/Sunday 21st July 1983. However the 20th and 21st July 1983 fell on Wednesday and Thursday.
Factual error: When True Heart skydives down to Earth, she is wearing goggles with a wraparound strap. She takes these off and drops them in her backpack where Baby Swift Heart is hiding. When he pops up a split second later wearing the goggles, the strap is under his bonnet.
Factual error: The "whaling boat" is too small to function as such. It isn't large enough to hold a fin, let alone disassemble a humpback whale.
Factual error: There is no possible method of "fusing" the genetic material of a common housefly (Musca domestica) and a human. The housefly has twelve chromosomes, humans forty six. There is no way to combine the two in order to produce a viable organism. Thirty four of the human chromosomes would have no matching chromosome to "fuse" with, meaning the physical characteristics coded by those genes would not form. The Brundlefly would be missing three quarters of his human body.
Suggested correction: There's no possible way of teleporting physical objects either, but it happens in this movie. This is science fiction. These kinds of "factual errors" are not valid.
The film presents no scientific explanation for "teleportation" but does for "genetic merging." Teleportation is possible in this film's universe, but "genetic merging" is impossible in any universe.
Factual error: Bunny bites an aluminum beer can in half. Beer cans weren't aluminum until the mid 70s. He would have hurt his mouth on that one.
Factual error: Cruise is breaking and if you watch the eight ball after the break it's following the 5 into a pocket at the end of the table closest to Tom. Now the 8 ball didn't necessarily go in because they focus on the one ball, but in the next frame shot, there's no way it could be at the opposite end of the table like they show. (00:29:20)
Factual error: The movie they're watching in the theater, "The Fly", is shown backwards. The first scene they see should have happened after the last scene they see.
Factual error: In the scene where Mr. Miyagi and Daniel arrive in a taxi at a construction site, the taxi is stopped by a U.S. Air Force airman first class. The airman asks, "Where you going, buddy?" Mr. Miyagi says, "Tomi village." The airman says, "Never heard of it! This is Kadena Air Base." He then calls out to an off-screen person, "Sarge! Tomi village?" The off-screen voice replies, "You're standing on it, corporal!" The U.S Air Force has never had the rank of corporal in its organization.
Factual error: When we first see Kurgan in modern day New York, he begins to assemble his sword in a motel room. The very fact that he is assembling his sword the way he is, snapping segments together, especially the blade itself, which is segmented in the middle, would make that quite possibly one of the weakest and most inefficient weapons a person could ever wield. Being that it is segmented the way it is, it is structurally weak, and a clash against another sword, or any hard surface for that matter, would break the segments apart easily.