Goofs

The position and quantity of black garbage bags used to "Move" Albert Sparma keep changing in the back of Deke's GMC truck.

(At around 1hr 29 mins) Deacon's car kicks up sparks on the highway due to low-hanging equipment on the car's undercarriage. In every subsequent shot, the low-hanging equipment has been fixed.

When Sparma is looking through photos in the interrogation room, his mouth is hanging open from one angle, almost closed from the other, between shots.

At 6:35, the dog runs up to Deke, he puts his muzzle into Deke's hand to get food (noted as a goof elsewhere). In the next shot, Deke's hand is 6 inches further back, now holding onto the dog's collar/tags without ever having moved his hand.

During the interrogation, when Jim slides the photo to Sparma, the distance from the photo to Sparma's hand goes back and forth from a few inches away to touching his fingers in between cuts.

When checking the mileage on the suspect's 1970 Chevrolet Nova, it showed a 6-digit odometer to better explain the high mileage theory. However, all Novas made between 1969-1974 with the 120 mph dash board had 5-digit odometers. This fact was checked with GM.

(at around 25 mins) Malik interviews a KSO who already has invoked his right to counsel. That can't happen in the real world. Once a perpetrator says 'lawyer', all isolated interviews by the police are ceased.

Marsha comes out of her house, to go to work, already dressed in her scrubs. That was bad practice, even in 1990. The clothes could pick all sorts of contaminants en route. MEs should change into scrubs when they get to work.

When they are waiting for the power to come back on, it's said they're waiting for Edison (SCE). Edison provides power to most of Southern California except for the City of Los Angeles, which is provided by Dept. of Water & Power (DWP). These movie scenes are in the County which is served by Southern California Edison (SCE).

When the detective gets in Leto's car, they pass a Cadillac with no lights on at night.

Drivers sometimes to forget to turn on their lights when they first start driving, especially if they begin on a brightly-lit street. Also, some drivers might drive at night without lights for a nefarious purpose.

When Jim is tucking his kids into bed, they are sleeping in a bunk bed; however, there is no ladder or any discernible way for the child in the top bunk to get down.

Getting down from a bunk bed is easy for an able-bodied child. They can easily lower themselves over the edge of the bed while hanging onto the side, then dropping a short distance to the floor.

(at around 20 mins) While Deacon is traveling down the boulevard past the street walkers, his Blazer is moving, but the camera shows the vehicle's gear selector in Park. Such scenes are filmed with the vehicle on a flatbed trailer, towed behind another vehicle, so that the actors can concentrate on acting, while they pretend to drive. It makes sense (for safety), for the vehicle to be in 'Park'.

(at around 1hr 36 mins) As "Deke" pulls through the light, his vehicle turns to the right to enter the freeway, yet the steering wheel never turns.

(at around 6 mins) When Deke kneels down and the dog runs to him, it can be seen that he has food to entice the dog as the dog puts his muzzle down and into Deke's hand. A piece of the food even falls to the ground. Deke didn't know that the dog would show up and would not have had food in his hand ready to feed to the dog.

Kids can be seen playing a Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet when Deke enters the mini-mart. The film was set in 1990, while Mortal Kombat was not released until two years later, in 1992.

The movie takes places in 1990 (as evidenced by the ABC Appliances appointment book), but Joe Deacon is wearing unpowdered black Nitrile gloves while doing his research in Albert Sparma's apartment. They were not invented until the mid-1990s.

A bottle of Screwball whiskey can be seen on the shelf in the background at one of the bars. The movie takes place in 1990; Screwball did not launch until July of 2018.

1969-72 Nova is shown with a 6.1-digit odometer indicating 463,099.6 miles. A) they had only 5.1-digit odometers and B) no Nova ever drove that far, ever.

Although the film takes place in 1990, the Los Angeles street lighting is distinctly modern. In 1990, Los Angeles was still utilizing orange sodium vapor street lighting, while the modern white LED street lamps, which are visible throughout the film, were not updated until 2009.

(at around 1h 45 mins) When Joe Deacon is driving the car away from the scene, a person's head can be seen in the passenger side of the car, but he's supposed to be alone.

Pause at PRECISELY 1:03:10. Deacon (Denzel) is speeding backward during this cat 'n mouse game. But look CLOSELY out Deacon's (Denzel's) driver's side window. See a green car getting into position? I think this was done purposely as either a subliminal thing or Easter egg.

At 1:02:30, one can note the tracks on the roadway where Leto's green car either backed into place or tore the tires up while squealing away.

Deke makes the statement that he came from the "Mississippi valley ... Alabama ... Birmingham." It would be more correct to state that he came from the Tennessee Valley or, better, the Mobile Basin. The river in Birmingham drains to the Mobile River.

Albert lives in North Hollywood, according to the sign directly across the street from his apartment. But when he and Jim drive to the freeway, they get on at Franklin Ave, driving north. That entrance is 5-7 miles south of North Hollywood, in Hollywood.

When Joe leaves Jim to dig a hole, he leaves his car and take off with Sparma's to ditch it. But somehow he manage to come back with his own car that he left on site. This is incorrect because Joe arrives in Jim's car then leaves in Sparma's car and returns in his own blazer.

Deacon tails Sparma until he (Sparma) parks on-street in another part of town, but Deacon's car is car is already parked when Sparma get out of his. Also, he is parked on the opposite side of the street, facing the other direction. If he was really following Sparma, he would end up parked (after Sparma) on the same side, facing in the same direction.

Deke touches the beer cans brought by the landlady but he should have made sure they were sent to the identification department for fingerprints.