Goofs

The number of framed photographs on Lt. Mitchell's desk changes from one to two, and back again, several times.

Before Wells crosses the street when the sign says don't walk two men are already in the middle of the street and the sign already says don't walk. Wells steps into the street and the cars screech to a stop to avoid hitting him, but the men have disappeared.

While Wells and Amy are walking on the street they are passed by two men, one in orange pants and the other in a brown jacket. A minute later, the same two men pass them again as the camera zooms in for a closeup of a newspaper report about a murder.

Before Jack asks Wells for the return key for the time machine and attacks him, he locks the door to the Hotel room. A maid knocks on the door and then opens it saying, "Room service." The door should have still been locked.

When Wells replaces his broken glasses in museum, he does not have a hat under his left arm, but in the next scene he does.

California had a 15 working day waiting period for firearms purchases starting in 1975, so Wells couldn't have just walked away with the gun he'd purchased.

In the film, Wells claimed that his writings on "Free Love" financed the construction of his time machine. In reality, H.G. Wells was only 26 years old in 1893 and he would not yet have been an established, acclaimed, and well paid writer that had a large circle of peers, as depicted in the early scenes at his house. The early 1890s was a struggling period for Wells and he was actually living with his aunt due to being unemployed and having little money of his own. This would be after his short lived stint as a secondary school teacher, his first real professional position after graduating with a Bachelors Degree in 1890. Wells did not get his big break until 1895 with the publication of The Time Machine, only after which he was able to support himself with his writing.

When Malcolm McDowell (Wells) and Mary Steenburgen (Amy) are first headed to her apartment, they walk through the grounds of the Palace of Fine Arts. She remarks that it was built for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1914. In reality, the Fair ran from February 20 through December 4 in the year 1915.

As Wells learns how a car is driven, the automatic gearbox is labeled P-R-N-D. When he first tries to drive it, he starts in Park, but wrongly revs the engine before moving the lever. This should make the car suddenly Reverse, but it Drives forward.

After the scene where Wells says, "The first man to raise a fist is the man who's run out of ideas," Amy's car backs out of the driveway then drives off. The engine revs while driving off suggest the car is a standard transmission, but Amy has an automatic.

Some viewers have noted that Jack the Ripper committed his murders in 1888, while the film begins in 1893. However, as the police begin to search Wells' home, someone mentions that the Ripper "hasn't been seen in years", thus explaining the discrepancy.

Many have asked why Wells could not simply travel back a day or two and prevent Jack from leaving in the first place. There is no evidence in the film that changing history is that easy or indeed possible. Everything that transpires happens in a linear framework. Wells travels in time but at no time changes it. Any attempt to do so might have proved paradoxical. For example, if Wells were to travel back a day and stop Jack, the police would never have come to his house, and he would have had no reason to suspect Jack or make that journey back one day; making such a journey would actually prevent its necessity or occurrence.

The machine, supposedly solar-powered, never appears to be exposed to sunlight. But a later shot reveals that the time machine is under a skylight in the basement, and it's not implausible that the museum, open only during the daytime, would have a skylight as well.

The jeweler tell Wells that it will take a week to give him a check for his jewelry, and Wells replies that he doesn't have a week. Although Wells could theoretically use the time machine to go to November 14 or 15 and collect the check, cash it, and return to November 7, he may believe it would be difficult to re-enter the museum multiple times to use the machine for that purpose; he might also have difficulty cashing a check with no ID.

During the time travel sequence, the voice-over from King Edward VIII's (Duke of Windsor) abdication speech precedes Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Fear itself" speech. FDR's speech came first (4 March 1933), then Edward both ascended and abdicated in 1936. However, the audio clips are not in strictly chronological order.

When Jack/John takes off H.G. Wells' glasses before hitting him, the camera focus is thrown to show how poor H.G.'s vision is. Although Jack/John's face is badly out of focus, the wall and door behind him are in sharp focus, displaying a possible error by the focus puller - to make this effect obvious, everything should be out of focus. However, this effect could be seen as showing Wells being far-sighted.

The control panel in the time machine showing the dates and times, has the year of origin replaced with a superimposed image: "1979". The camera moves slightly but the superimposed image does not, giving the effect away. This happens twice.

When Wells returns to the basement to find time machine gone, he turns on the light, which comes on instantly, but the basement lights up gradually.

In the museum, just before closing, Amy hides in the women's room, Herbert in the men's room, but neither bathroom has a sign on the door saying which is which. The only sign is the handicap sign.

When Herbert, Amy and John break into the museum, an alarm goes off, but it only sounds for a very short time.

When the taxi is speeding to Wells' destination the motor sounds exactly like the high powered V-8 engine in Steve McQueen's "Bullitt" Ford Mustang and not the Dodge Coronet taxi's V-6 engine. "Bullitt" was also filmed in San Francisco.

Someone living in late-Victorian England would have been used to guns being readily purchased legally, much as in 1979 San Francisco. It was only in 1920 that gun laws in Britain began to be significantly tightened.

The London bobbies who search Wells' house are not carrying electric flashlights. The Metropolitan Police were issued small lanterns that would have been fueled by oil or kerosene. However, the movie props were undoubtedly battery-powered lights.

When Wells is looking for his doctor-friend at the hospital after he has been hit by a car, he calls the vehicle a motor car (which confuses the nurse he's talking to). Since he came from 1893, he would not be familiar with this term since it was coined in 1895 (according to the Oxford English Dictionary).

When Wells is in McDonald's and sits down to eat the food he comments: "Pomme frites...fries are pomme frites." However, it is clear Malcolm McDowell says the British term "chips" which is later dubbed to "fries" in post production.

In the rotating restaurant Wells mentions the Scottish place where he had breakfast. His mouth says "McDonald's," but his voice says "McDougall's". In the original theatrical release, Wells DOES say "McDonalds," quite clearly. The insecure McDonalds corporation likely objected to the negative reference and forced the change on later releases.

Early in the movie, Amy's Honda Accord is shown to have an automatic transmission, but later when when she backs it out of her driveway the sound of a manual transmission is heard.

Wells drove up onto the Museum's steps. The reverse angle shot revealed the sandbags that made driving onto the steps easier while protecting the steps from damage.

Amy drives Herbert to the scene of what they believe is to be the next murder, in McLaren Park, but she turns into Golden Gate Park from Fulton Street which is a different park in a different part of San Francisco.

We are told Amy lives at 2340 Francisco Street, which could be a real address, but when Jack finds her name in the San Francisco telephone directory, it's listed as 2340 San Francisco Street.

Stevenson claimed that he had to have the key so that he could prevent Wells from following him through time. However, there should have technically been two time machines. The one that Wells and Stevenson use to travel to 1979; the other being the one that is in the museum exhibit, which happened to be the same machine, only dismantled by Wells at some point in his future, as explained in the museum recording. The time machine, when it appeared in the museum would have superimposed itself perfectly over the one that was already there.. Wells, built the machine so he should have been able to repair it and fashion a new key.

Herbert finds out from the woman at the bank what hotel she referred Jack to. When Herbert arrives there by cab, the scene switches to inside Jack's room and Herbert knocks on the door, pretending to be bringing Jack's breakfast. It is not revealed how Herbert found out the room number. For security reasons, clerks at the front desk would not divulge that information without first trying to call the room for permission.

When they have a flat tire, Amy asks Herbert if he has a dime so he can call 911. Money has never been required to call 911.

In McDonals, Wells orders his food "to go" but is then seen eating inside the restaurant. Of course, Wells wouldn't know what to go would mean and was simply copying the man in front of him.

In the early part of the movie, Wells' chess board is set up wrongly. The black corner square must be on the left as each player faces the board.

Wells travels from 1893, when he is explaining his machine he says, "12 years ago a French Engineer harnessed the power of the sun to run a printing press." This would have been 1881, but in fact Monsieur Abel Pifre demonstrated his solar powered printing press on August 6th 1882.

When Wells and Amy are leaving the movie theatre...Amy is holding her briefcase in her right hand but in the next shot she is holding it in her left.