Continuity: When Odette is climbing up the ladder in the beginning during the song, her dress turned from blue and then when the camera comes back on her, it's white with green.
Continuity: During the MoD squad meeting, when Polly takes a bite of the pie she messes the cheese up, but in the next scene it's fine. Also, when Nick sees the cheese on top of the pie it is not melted, but when he pauses to think and stares at the pie, the cheese is clearly melted around the edges.
Continuity: After Heather's article hits the paper, Nick Naylor has a conversation with his son over a glass bottle of Coke. The amount of cola in the bottle increases between shots.
Revealing mistakes: In one of the hospital scenes, Nick is shown with an IV hooked up to a machine on a pole behind him. The machine, however, is actually a tube feeding pump, not an IV pump. There also isn't any tubing on it, or feeding solution, or IV solution.
Continuity: During the MoD meeting, Bobby is shown wearing a tie with a very distinct pattern; in a later shot, his tie doesn't match.
Continuity: In one scene, when Nick is talking to BR, the camera switches from looking at BR to behind BR. When it is looking at BR he doesn't have his glasses on, but when the camera is behind BR, we see he has his glasses on.
Continuity: In the dinner scene with Heather Holloway and Nick Naylor, Heather's glass of wine magically becomes more full.
Continuity: When Nick is testifying before the Senate committee, there is a man in the front row behind him. In the next shot, a woman is sitting in that seat. Then, one shot later, the man reappears.
Revealing mistakes: During the scene where Nick is talking to the press about Heather's article, as the film cuts to Heather Holloway in the office (when she drops the files while watching Nick on TV), the computer monitors on the desks clearly have no cables plugged into them, making the computers on which the other journalists are working useless.
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Billy is describing Heather to Nick he says she has blue eyes. However, when we see Heather, her eyes are brown.
Factual errors: Nick is shown flying from Washington D.C. to Greensboro, NC (the airport serving Winston-Salem) on a wide body jet. No wide body has served this route in the last three decades.
Errors in geography: When the "Captain" dies, Nick flies to Winston-Salem NC, to attend the funeral. As the limos are pulling in to the cemetery, you can see the following on the bumpers: TCP-54321. That could only happen in California. The CA Public Utilities Commission issues permits to operate limousines called Transportation Charter Party. Each limo has to have the letters TCP and its individually assigned number on the corners of both front and rear bumpers.
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Nick tells Jeff that lighting a cigarette in a space station would cause an explosion because it's an all-oxygen environment. This is only partially correct. In real spaceships, there is a pure oxygen environment but at a reduced pressure (about 5 psi) so there is no danger of run away explosions. The Apollo I incident, where three astronauts died in a similar situation caused by an electrical spark, was a ground test and so the pure oxygen environment was about 15 psi - hence the run away fire.
Continuity: When Polly is arguing with Nick about cigarettes and alcohol, in one shot her hair is tucked behind her ear. Then in the next shot her hair is covering her ear. Then in the last shots of her, Polly's hair is tucked back behind her ear.
Continuity: While speaking to Senator Ortolan K. Finistirre, Dennis Miller comments that he must have the senator's tie pin which is clearly visible. The next two times that the senator is shown, his tie pin is gone. It returns the third time the senator is shown.
Continuity: In the hospital cafeteria when Bobby tries to give Nick the handgun, his finger jumps from inside to outside the trigger guard between shots.
Continuity: When the Academy of Tobacco Studies closes, the sign being dismantled is different from the one shown in the beginning.
Continuity: When Nick is giving the stats of how many people cigarettes have killed, the 1 appears in the millions place before the scrolling numbers hit 999,999.
Factual errors: The lobbyist for the alcohol industry, Polly Bailey, is labeled on the cover of the liquor trade magazine "Daily Drinker" as "Mother Burgandy" - a common misspelling of "burgundy".
Factual errors: Near the end of the movie when tobacco settles with the people of America by paying $256 billion, the courtroom-type picture shown on the screen is actually from the criminal trial of Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn, Detroit police officers accused of negligence in the death of a citizen in 1992.
Factual errors: During a meeting of the "MOD" squad, Polly Bailey, spokeswoman for the alcohol industry asked for advice for her upcoming appearance on "Dateline". The spokesman for the firearms industry then asked if Sawyer or Donaldson was going to do the interview. Polly Bailey replied that "Sawyer" would be doing the interview. Diane Sawyer and Sam Donaldson work for ABC. Dateline is on NBC, therefore it would be impossible for Diane Sawyer to interview Polly Bailey on Dateline NBC.
Continuity: When Nick's ex-wife and son visit Nick after the Heather Holloway article, he first talks to his wife from behind his closed door. At this time he has stubble on his face from not shaving. When he answers the door - and for the rest of the scene - he is clean-shaved.
Anachronisms: In the scene where it flashes back to Bobby Jay Bliss's youth it states he tried joining the National Guard days after the 1971 Kent State shootings. However, modern cars can be seen in the reflection of the Military Recruiter's door.
Factual errors: At Nick's press conference in which he addresses Heather's article, in the cut scene with Heather, you see from the window that she is located in a sky-scraper. This is not possible in Washington because of the building height restrictions. Director Jason Reitman points this out during the commentary.