- Revealing mistakes: When Thade is holding the branding iron close to Ari's face, the hot part of the iron is obviously painted orange to appear hot, and stays that color way too long.
- Revealing mistakes: After the chimp gets into his cage, we see an ape with his makeup incomplete.
- Continuity: When they cross the river and arrive at the other side, they are all dry.
- Continuity: The scratch on Leo's neck swaps sides and disappears randomly.
- Continuity: When the chimp is taking off from the ship you see Leo with his hands behind his back. In the next shot you see them at his side.
- Revealing mistakes: As Leo and co. escape the city through the tunnels, they break through some boards covering the tunnel exit. One of the boards has been clearly sawn through and is broken at that point.
- Continuity: When Thade's niece buys their human pet, the bolt on the cage is left out. In the next shot, it's bolted shut again.
- Crew or equipment visible: During the final battle, studio lights are reflected on Thade's helmet.
- Continuity: At the end of the movie, the dome on the door to the space pod is facing upwards, but in another shot, it is flipped the other way.
- Continuity: As Leo begins to enter the water with Ari on his back, she puts her hands over his face. In the next shot from further across the water, they are by his side. The hands return over his face once they are in the water.
- Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): We first see Captain Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) training a chimpanzee in astronautics. Its inconceivable that an officer with such responsibility would be unaware of the taxonomic and cladistic difference between apes (including chimpanzees and humans) and monkeys (the New World and Old World monkeys). Yet he twice refers to his student as a "monkey".
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: There are numerous apparent plot holes in the story which are explained away in supplementary material (DVD booklet, novelization, etc). These remain goofs as far as the casual viewer is concerned, but they are the subject of much heated debate and are not now included in this list.
- Anachronisms: When Leo and co. come out of the shipwreck there's a shot from some distance, back at the ship. Look to the far right and you will see a road with clear tire tracks on it.
- Continuity: After the group cross the river, they set up camp and make fires. They are in the middle of the desert and there are no trees as far as the horizon. Where did they get the firewood?
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Goofs below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- Continuity: SPOILER: At the end of the battle, Ari covers Krull's face with sand. In the next shot his face is exposed again.
- Continuity: SPOILER: When Leo and Daena kiss at the end, Daena then runs off. But as Leo then gets into his pod, Daena is visible in the crowds again.
- Continuity: SPOILER: When Leo is about to trap Thade inside the wreck of the Oberon, the touch screen that activates the shield is shown twice. It is clearly encrusted with a thousand years of dust. But as Leo actually puts his hand over the screen it is suddenly as clean as the day it was made.
- Continuity: SPOILER: When General Thade is trying to shoot at Leo and others with Leo's gun, the gun changes from a futuristic "laser gun" to what appears to be a plain old Beretta 92/96.
Related Links
