- Factual errors: Twice, the explorers run across veins of free metallic magnesium in the ground. Magnesium is extremely active chemically, and is only found in compounds.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In neither this movie nor Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) nor the source Jules Verne novel, does anyone get anywhere near the literal "center" of the Earth. The title is only a metaphor, like "the sun rises in the East" - it's useful for describing what we see, but is not scientifically accurate. We know this for several reasons. 1) Trevor, Hannah, and Sean fall to the center of the earth for about 1 minute and 40 seconds. They should fall for almost a day and a half. After a few seconds of falling, they would reach a terminal velocity of about 120 miles per hour, so a 4000 mile fall would take about 33 hours. However, this is true only if they go to the actual center of the planet. Since the Earth's core is molten metal and rock, it's obvious that they don't travel that far. 2) The pressure at the center of Earth is believed to be 3X10 to the eleventh power pascals. The pressure at sea level is approximately 101 kPa, meaning anything from the surface would be crushed by the enormous pressure of the Earth's center, and anything from the center would collapse when exposed to the pressure of the surface. So Trevor, Sean, and Hannah would have been crushed to death, and the blue bird would not have been able to live, let alone fly. 3) At the direct center of the earth, the mass of the earth is equal in all directions. As such, the gravitational force would be equal in every direction such that it would seem to the group that there was no gravity, and they would float.
- Continuity: When Trevor Anderson looks at the book in his flat, the front cover reads Journey to the Center of the Earth. Moments later, as he is flicking through the same book, the page headings read Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
- Continuity: When Sean is lying on the "beach" after being carried across the ocean by the kite, he is wearing gloves. In the next shot, when he is standing up, the gloves are gone. In the next shot, he takes the gloves off. In the following shot, as he begins to follow the bird, they are gone again.
- Continuity: From the giant mushroom scene to the "sunset" scene on the beach, the sweat on Trevor's, Sean's, and Hannah's shirts keeps disappearing and reappearing.
- Continuity: When Hannah rolls over at the end of the ride in the mine, a loop of rope is over her right breast. Seconds later, the rope is gone.
- Continuity: When Trevor looks through the book in his flat, the shot jumps from in front of him to an over-the-shoulder view. He is reading a different page in each shot.
- Factual errors: A steam geyser capable of lifting a boat with 3 passengers several hundred meters would scald the passengers to death, and the accompanying G-forces would flatten them into pancake smears.
- Factual errors: A rock wall contains raw diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. The diamonds are clear and already cut. They should look like dull yellow pebbles.
- Factual errors: Sean walks across a chasm on magnetic rocks that float on a horizontal plane and bump off one another like bits of flat wood. Magnetic poles either attract or repel, so the rocks should either snap together or repel from one another, spin, then snap together. Even if large, flat magnetic rocks somehow found a natural equilibrium between their weight and magnetism, the weight of a person walking on them would destroy it.
- Continuity: Early in the movie, Sean's pants are beige. After they get separated in the storm, his pants have a camouflage print.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: A T-Rex skull looks like it can't float; the eye sockets and nostril would let in water. However, the T-Rex's skull is a honeycombed lattice, not solid bone, to provide both strength and flexibility. Theoretically, there could be enough air pockets to make the skull float.
- Crew or equipment visible: When Trevor and Hannah's mine cart crashes into the wall, cables are briefly visible in the middle of the tracks.
- Continuity: The characters constantly drop and pick up their backpacks inside the mountain. A few times, the dropped backpacks reappear without being picked up.
- Factual errors: A diesel generator that was abandoned 60 years ago would not start by simply pushing the starter button; the batteries would be totally dead.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In the tube, Trevor tries to light the magnesium with a flare. Seconds later, the flare is out. Flares usually last up to 15 minutes, but they can be smothered.
- Continuity: A few minutes after the mine-wagon race, the three main characters explore a vast cave. Hannah's necklace disappears, then reappears back a few seconds later.
- Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Hannah says "there are no roads to the north". If she means there are no roads to the Snaefells Glacier, she is wrong. Anyone can drive a regular car within 500 meters of it.
- Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Trevor drops a light stick into a pit and asks Sean to time how long it takes to fall to the bottom. It takes three seconds, and Trevor announces that that makes makes the pit "almost 200 feet" deep. The formula for the height an object falls in a given time is 0.5*g*t^2 (g=the force of gravity=32ft/s^2; t=time). This works out to a height of 144 feet for an object falling for three seconds, which is hardly "almost 200 feet."
- Continuity: (At 1:18:45) In the scene where Prof Anderson, Hannah and Sean are stuck in the magma pipe in the T-Rex jaw, Prof Anderson tries to ignite the magnesium with a flare. He instructs Hannah and Sean to hold his legs so he can reach further down the magma pipe. As he holds the flare to the rock face you can see that the T-Rex teeth are at chest height, indicating that he is not leaning far out of the jaw. When he tries to get back into the jaw you can see the teeth are at waist height now.
- Continuity: (At 1:20:51) After Prof Anderson has ignited the magnesium seam in the magma pipe causing the water to pour into the pipe and generate a steam geyser, the trio can be seen lying in the bottom of the T-Rex jaw as it hurtles towards the surface at great speed. At first, despite the speed, the trio's hair (particularly Sean's) is hardly moving from the wind. The next moment, as Sean declares, "This thing's heating up." you can see that their hair is waving around wildly.
- Continuity: (At 1:21:37) After the trio have been ejected by the steam geyser, they can be seen sliding down the mountain in the T-Rex jaw. The view from outside the jaw shows them moving at great speed through the vineyard while the view from within the jaw shows them moving a leisurely pace.
- Continuity: After being separated in the storm when Sean is pulled away by the parachute, he is seen wearing gloves when he wakes up. He then drinks from a puddle of salt water without gloves, then the gloves reappear on his hands when he steps away from the puddle.
- Revealing mistakes: In a scene where Prof. Trevor Anderson asks Hannah Ásgeirsson the temperature, a Kestrel 2500 is shown briefly with a spinning fan. In actual fact, this fan for for detecting wind speed and will not move without wind. It would be impossible for the fan to be moving in its position at that time.
- Factual errors: Hannah Ásgeirsson is a man's name. In Iceland, a person's last name is derived from their father's (or, less commonly, mother's) first name. Her father, Sigurbjörn Ásgeirsson, is the son of Ásgeir. Her last name would be Sigurbjarnarsdóttir, daughter of Sigurbjörn. Plus, no Icelandic word or name ends with an H. Her name should be Hanna Sigurbjarnarsdóttir. Since 1925, by law, Icelanders are not allowed to adopt family names, but must adhere to the patronymic or matronymic system. Furthermore, a naming committee exists to ensure that personal names adhere to cultural standards and are gender-appropriate. However, some Icelandic spouses and children use a single "last" name when traveling abroad so as not to confuse customs and entry officers in countries unfamiliar with this convention. (For a period of time, persons applying for Icelandic citizenship were required to adopt Icelandic names.)
- Continuity: When the trio is first standing on the muscovite, the group reacts to falling before the muscovite floor falls out from underneath them.
- Continuity: When Trevor is placing the final rocks on Max's grave it goes to Trevor looking out to sea, but as Hannah and Sean approach him he is seen bowing towards the rock pile. When the two get there, Trevor is again still looking out to sea.
- Continuity: In the scene just before the group are about to head out to sea on their man made raft, Trevor is shown explaining things to Sean and Hannah. When Trevor starts to explain things, he has a noticeable pimple (apparently covered with make up) then the scene goes away. But, when it returns, the pimple is gone.
- Factual errors: While Sean and Trevor were on the plane, Sean gets out his PSP and starts Googling, but the PSP wouldn't be able to get Internet connection at 30,000 feet.
- Factual errors: There is no way that Sean could receive a cell phone call when thousands of miles below the earth's crust.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The Giganotosaurus is bigger than its forebears in the Cenomanian Stage, because this size was acquired from evolution in the 96 million years since then.
>>> 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.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: SPOILER: Max died alone. Some years later, Trevor, Hannah and Sean found his body and built a cairn over it; we see Trevor placing the last stone. The abrupt scene transition misleads some viewers to believe that they improbably found a cairn already standing when they arrived.
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