Goofs for
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: When Klaatu is standing in the interrogation room after putting on the suit, the interrogator's right hand is still on the machine. In the next shot, his hand is on his leg.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Klaatu was bleeding from the wound on the right side of his chest, yet when he smeared the wound with medicine, it was on the left side. The first time, Klaatu was looking in a mirror.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When Klaatu is walking in the train station, the "VIA Rail" signs make it clear he is in Canada.
  
  

• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Vladimir Putin appears in the global reaction videos, yet he had left office by then. He is still the Prime Minister and de facto ruler of Russia, so Putin making official statements about an international crisis is believable.
  
  
• Factual errors: The colonel commands the controllers of the MQ-9 Reaper to fire their Sidewinder air-to-air missiles at the robot. The Reaper carries only GBU-12 Paveway II or AGM-114 Hellfire II air-to-ground missiles.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the surgeon removes the placenta material from Klaatu, he hands a scalpel to a nurse who is not wearing surgical gloves.
  
  
• Factual errors: No British news service would use the British flag as its banner. The British flag is not widely flown within the country. It's never shown on television; stations feel that viewers already know which country they're in.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Klaatu escapes from the bunker, the camera is reflected the the elevator doors before they open.
  
  
• Factual errors: The MQ-9 Reaper is powered by a turboprop engine, not the jet engine shown in the film.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When the mother ship lands in the park, the shadows of approaching people shrink. One would expect they should lengthen, since the light is descending. However, if the light is coming from within the sphere, and it is approaching people not from directly above, but horizontally, shadows would appear to shrink.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: (At 1:08:03) When the television speaker announces the latest news that there was riots in "London, Chicago, and many cities in China", on the screen you can see some vandals breaking stores, police on horses, and the third video is not from listed cities, but from Belgrade (Serbia). They used a historical event which occurred on 5th October 2000, when 500,000 demonstrators set the Parliament building on fire. On that day, Slobodan Milosevic was overthrown from power.
  
  
• Continuity: In the beginning of the movie, when Helen Benson walks into the room of her son, in the background on a shelf you can see an action figure resembling a karate fighter due to its white outfit. However, when Helen leaves the room again, the figure is gone. It is replaced by an entirely different action figure.
  
  
• Plot holes: Although aware of multiple smaller spheres landing elsewhere on Earth, none of their potential landing sites appear to have been investigated or guarded.
  
  
• Factual errors: As soon as it was discovered that the object was not following a gravitational freefall trajectory, it would have been known to not be a natural object.
  
  
• Plot holes: If just a dab of the placenta material can heal Klaatu's cut, then when he was initially shot, he should have been fine since he was covered in pounds of the "magically healing" placenta material.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Helen is asked for her Social Security number by the people that took her from her house, the number she gives is one number too short.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When Helen takes Klaatu to the forest, the policeman remarks that they are located off I-67. There is no Interstate 67 in New Jersey or anywhere else.
  
  
• Factual errors: The robot figure intercepts the MQ-9 Reapers and flies them into what is depicted as a M1 Abrams Main battle tank. The destruction depicted could not have happened, even with the missile warheads on-board. The M1 variant tanks have taken hits from "explosive" tank rounds in combat with only minimal damage to their advanced armor composites.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: As Dr. Benson arrives at the facility, a soldier is depicted carrying a .50caliber MG on his shoulder, up a small incline. Although possible, it is unrealistic due to the extreme weight (85lbs) with the barrel inserted. Under normal operations, the barrel is inserted only after emplacement/mounting of the weapon system.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the car chase scene the clip is mirrored - the drivers are on the wrong side of the car and the license plates are reversed.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Even though it is 2008, Klaatu's ship, being identified as "object 07/493" and "discovered just beyond Jupiter's orbit" could have been discovered in 2007 because, as Michael said, "At first, it was projected to pass millions of miles out of Earth's orbit."
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: As the helicopter lands to unload the scientists including Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) in Central Park, the rotors don't seem to be creating any updraft as evidenced by the dead leaves on the ground. They're completely motionless around the helicopter.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Helen follows Klaatu into the forest, she leaves Jacob in the car, telling him to lock the door. As instructed, Jacob locks the door. Problem is, the car has 3 other doors which he does not lock. However most modern (post-1980s) cars have a feature called "central locking". At a minimum, all the doors are locked/unlocked if the driver's side lock is operated.
  
  
• Plot holes: When the Alien object is approaching Earth, it's known not to be in free fall. Yet they pinpoint exactly where the object will land.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The sphere in Central Park is bright and glowing, yet it doesn't seem to be reflected in the windshields of the vehicles on the site of the landing.
  
  

• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: SPOILER: Klaatu's business suit doesn't completely disintegrate in the storm. However, careful viewing shows that it does start to fall apart as he approaches the sphere.
  
  
• Factual errors: SPOILER: When the sphere leaves central park, we see scenes from all over the world showing people's reactions. Though it shows scenes from Australia, the United Kingdom, and America, it is light outside for each of them; a physical impossibility considering the time differences.
  
  

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