When David and Jennifer are on the ferry, the sky changes from a late afternoon blue sky, to sunset, then back to blue sky after they get off the ferry.
When David, Jennifer, Stephen Falken and their driver are running down the tunnel at NORAD, the door securing the mountain is shown to be close to be closed and moving toward being fully closed. When they arrive at the door with Pat, the door is further open than it was before.
Throughout the Infirmary scenes, the guard's gloves disappear and reappear on his hands, most notably when David asks to use the restroom.
When David is communicating with WOPR, the words appear on the screen before he types them.
When David first places the phone receiver on the modem he puts it on with the cord to the front; all other times he puts it on with the cord to the back. At all times he activates it by the button on the front.
When WOPR is searching for the launch code, it is shown to be
able to lock onto each digit individually. In which case, it would only take 360 tries (one for each letter and digit), to definitely find the entire code.
There are improper arrest and apprehension procedures by the FBI. When David is picked up by the FBI, he is immediately read his Miranda rights as if it were a local arrest. Since David was a minor under 18, the FBI would have been required to bring him either to the local police precinct or his home so that his parents could be notified. Furthermore, there is no way that the FBI could have linked David to the calls made to the WOPR, since his home telephone was in his parents' name; thus, the FBI would have in reality gone to David's house first and questioned his parents.
After David is arrested, the next scene is at NORAD where a tour group is being escorted. The escort asks a woman with a camera around her neck to sit in the command chair. A visitor would not be allowed to bring a camera into NORAD.
There is no possible way that the FBI or any agency could link his connection to the WOPR through the phone line, as (1) the phone bill would be in his parents' name, and (2) David would be too young to have established his own line with a different number than his parents. The worst that would have happened is that the FBI would have come to David's house and talked with his parents, but not by kidnapping him from a 7-eleven parking lot.
In the beginning of the movie the Air Force captain refused orders to launch the weapon. Later on in the movie, the captain is show shaking his head in disgust as the new computer takes over. In reality if the captain refuses to launch, he is disobeying a direct order and would have been relieved of duty and/or put on trial. He would never been allowed back in the bunker.
In the 1980s it was not permitted for any Department of Defense computer with classified information on it to be connected to external communication equipment. It would therefore be impossible to dial in as shown. However, during a scene, the military technician exclaims that the phone company "screwed them", implying an external contractor allowed the connection against request and policy.
Despite the DVD commentary and popular belief, Defense Conditions (DEFCONs) actually do go from 5 to 1 as the situation worsens. DEFCON 1 represents imminent or ongoing attack on the US by a foreign power, while DEFCON 5 represents normal peacetime operations.
As the WOPR is obtaining the launch codes, the missiles are shown to have the engines spinning up with the sound of a turbine engine. In the case of a Titan missile, this could be correct, because a Titan has two fuel components: Hydrazine and Nitrogen Tetroxide, which are pumped together by a turbine pump that is in fact powered by small amounts of these propellants. When the turbo-pump is on, it forces large amounts of the fuels together which spontaneously burn. When the pump stops, so does the engine.
When the relief crew arrives at the silo it appears they are in a snowstorm, as they are wearing heavy winter parkas. In the opening NORAD scene the guards are all in shirts - no jackets. This is unsurprising; US missiles are in many states, including North Dakota, where the winter scene likely took place.
After David realized the seriousness of his situation, after the WOPR (aka Joshua) called David back, why didn't he simply order the WOPR to end the game? To concede, to surrender, to terminate the program? Joshua would have had to obey. (David does try to stop Joshua, but Joshua's prime directive is to "win the game.")
When an Air Force woman is walking around Joshua and is apparently working on checklist, there is no paper on the clipboard as you can see the reflection from the clipboard.
Also, she looks like she is copying information from the displays, but the lights are blinking too fast to be read. They can be read only when the computer is stepping through the code one line at a time. Meanwhile, she completely misses the only readable display that show the system is running a game, proving David's point.
Also, she looks like she is copying information from the displays, but the lights are blinking too fast to be read. They can be read only when the computer is stepping through the code one line at a time. Meanwhile, she completely misses the only readable display that show the system is running a game, proving David's point.
While David is in Mr. McKittrick's office, he accesses a computer. This computer "talks" to him without the aid of a device that interprets signals from the computer and turns them into sound.
At the end when Joshua says "How about a nice game of chess?" the lights come up. The cut right after you see David and Jennifer shows the war room as viewed from the front of the room. At the back of the room, the entire row of computers and electronic equipment lights up for about half a second and then all go off while the rest of the equipment in the room remains on. Clearly, switching that group on tripped a circuit breaker for those props alone.
When David is typing in the passwords and fails, the log on screen spells out "Indentification failed" not Identification.
David walks out of the 7-11 with the refreshing Big Gulp which he had just purchased. But you can see through the cup and notice that it's only about 1/4 full.
Near the end the General dispatches F16s from Galena but what are shown are F15s.
When David and Jennifer are starting the game of "Global Thermonuclear War", the computer asks them to select a side, 1 for the US and 2 for the USSR. The computer then displays the choice that David makes, "2", before he makes it.
The Air Force uniform worn by Barry Corbin, in his role as General Beringer, appears to be a stock costume designed to depict an Air Force general of the early 1960s rather than the 80s. This is obvious from the complete lack of medals for the Vietnam War, while at the same time having an abundance of World War II decorations. A four star general in 1983 would most certainly have served in Vietnam and most likely would not have joined the Air Force until after World War II.
When WOPR reports a Soviet launch detection, Beringer asks McKittrick if this is another simulation. While McKittrick's response is heard, his lips do not move.
When playing Galaga (1981) the second time (when Jennifer asks David to change her grade) the audio of a Galaga sending down its tractor beam is heard, but that is not happening on the screen.
When David and Jennifer are coming up to David's house for the first time, there is a shot of David's dog, Beau, barking. However, he is just running and his mouth isn't moving.
When Jennifer tells David to "Hop on" the moped her lips do not move.
When the Horizon Air aircraft is landing, its clearly a turboprop aircraft. When the engines are reversing as it lands, the engines are of a jet engine.
As the camera passes around the WOPR computer, it stops at a point where you can see a crewman in a red shirt trying to hide out of sight of the camera behind the computer.
When David is arrested in the 7-11 parking lot, a blue van pulls up, cutting him off. Just before the FBI agent opens the side door, the lighting equipment can be seen reflecting off the van.
[0:23:58]The address shown for Protovision is 2407 Rogers Blvd Sunnyvale, CA 95051. 95051 is the ZIP (postal) code for Santa Clara, and neither city has a Rogers, Blvd.
The scene in which one of the radar analysts is asked to report activity showing Soviet submarine deployment, he says, "22 Typhoon-class submarines departing Petropavlovsk, turning south bound at Nordkapp." However, the screen displays submarines around a map of the Kola Peninsula in European Russia. Petropavlovsk is located on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Asian Russia. The location shown on the map is accurate, however, as all of the Typhoons were based at Nerpichya Base which is located on the Kola Peninsula.
Just before the junior crewman "enables" the missiles a list of geographic coordinates (target locations?) appears on the video feed of the missile in the silo. The coordinates are all for locations in the Pacific Ocean. Since targeting data is pre-selected, this couldn't be the location of Soviet submarines.
When we see David, Jennifer and the Professor running from the entrance to the NORAD tunnel to the blast door it takes them only 27 seconds to travel from the tunnel opening to the blast door. The distance from the tunnel opening to the blast door at NORAD is one mile. The world record for fastest one mile run is 3 minutes; 43 seconds and 13 nanoseconds. There's no way they could have possibly made it from the tunnel entrance to the blast door (one mile; on foot) in 27 seconds.
When David was asked why he had called back, he states that Joshua called him. They should be able to see via the trace that the call had indeed originated from Joshua.
David reads Falken's classified address from McKitterick's computer screen (not having time to erase it before they're dragging him out) in addition to him yelling "Call Falken" as he is dragged from the war room. Given such information the FBI should have been been waiting for him in Oregon.
Richter realized the first "attack" was just a simulation. There is no reason he wouldn't recognize the second one was, also, especially since it was right after the first one.
Jennifer surprises David in Oregon, saying it was only a three hour drive down there, yet in the next scene they are taking a bus to the ferry for Goose Island. They should've taken Jennifer's car.
There is nothing Falken & the kids could have said to the jeep driver to make him risk ramming the gates at high speed of an operational military installation. Even if the crash hadn't injured anyone in the jeep, the guards certainly would have been firing at them before & after the crash.
In the list of Global Thermonuclear War scenarios, the names of some countries are misspelled: Angentina for Argentina, Isreal for Israel, and Palistinian for Palestinian, and Maylasian for Malaysian.
When David is asking about the list of games that he printed out earlier, he asks Jim why the list has games such as checkers and backgammon. However when David was printing the list of games, backgammon was not one of the listed games. We can surmise that since David was talking about simpler games, backgammon came to his mind without him remembering it wasn't on the list.
When David requests the number for Protovision from the operator, he's given a number with a 555 prefix. He also requests other prefixes for the area and is given four more, but when he sets up his autodialer, he only uses the four additional prefixes and neglects to include the 555 prefix in his scans.
Near the end of the film, the female corpsman says, "General, DBS is tracking 300 inbound Soviet ICBMs"; that should be DSP, not DBS.
The F15 pilot reports 40 miles visibility, but the cockpit is shown passing through clouds.