Goofs

When Ray steals the truck, he has to hot-wire it to start, but when he gets to the crack, he turns off the engine using the key.

In multiple shots during the destruction of San Francisco, certain buildings that were previously shown collapsing or in ruin, such as the Central Tower and 650 California Street, reappear intact.

(at around 2 mins) When Natalie in her Subaru Forester goes off the cliff she still has her seatbelt on. When the car flips one more time, she no longer has any seatbelt on and is holding on to where the windshield was broken out - so that when the car abruptly stops, she is flung into the back cargo area instead of remaining in her seat.

When Ray and Emma steal the truck from the looters, the back gate of the truck is down and the TVs fly off the back of the truck as they speed away. Seconds later we see the truck and the back gate is up.

When Emma is climbing to the top of the building for Ray to pick her up in the helicopter, she is shown running the same way twice near the top i.e. the same scene is shown twice.

The opening helicopter rescue attempt is a shambles of mistakes that no sane helicopter rescue crew would do. 1. Flying into the canyon (that's narrower than the helicopters diameter). Even if the canyon was wider flying lower creates a greater down-draft over a smaller area which is illogical when flying over an unstable vehicle. 2. The first rescuer tries to stabilize the car by attaching the helicopter to it - risking the crews (and TV-crews) lives as the helicopter could not lift the car if it slipped. This is also pointless as the girl was free to exit the car at far less risk. 3. The first rescuer putting himself under the balanced car - which is borderline suicidal. 4. The pilot leaving the seat.

During the destruction of San Francisco, the road surges up into a sheer wall, exposing two underground train tunnels. A train emerges from the tunnel to presumably crash. During any sizable seismic event, MUNI and BART trains come to a complete stop until the track integrity is verified. Passengers would have to exit the train and make their way to the nearest emergency exits to the surface.

An earthquake in California would not be felt on the North American east coast, even if a magnitude of this size were possible. For example, the 2011 Tohoku earthquake was of magnitude 9.0, and shaking was felt 2500 km (~1600 mi) away, while the distance from California to the east coast is almost twice that, at 4800 km (~3000 mi).

The San Andreas fault cannot produce a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, due to the geology of a slip-strike fault. At maximum, the largest possible earthquake it could produce would be about an 8.3.

The Arleigh Burke destroyer shown leaning against a tall building would not support itself as shown. There is not enough strength in the keel for it to support itself as shown. It would need buoyancy support along its length to remain intact.

When Ray and Emma are flying to San Francisco in the helicopter, Blake calls them. When Ray answers he is the only one that can hear and talk to her, then he turns the switch so only Emma can hear and talk to her. (This is proven by Ray not knowing what Blake told Emma about Daniel, until Emma says it out loud back to Blake). But just a short moment later they both can hear and talk to Emma without Ray turning any switches. INCORRECT: When Ray answers, yes he is the only one who can hear and talk to her. He turns the switch and allows Emma to join the conversation but he can quite clearly hear what's going on - he actually turns and looks at Emma with an expression that suggests he knows exactly what was said, Emma repeated the words in surprise/shock. There was no need to turn the switch again - they could already both hear/communicate with Blake.

While Ray is doing CPR on Blake he wraps one hand around his wrist while doing chest compressions. The correct form is to interlock your fingers with your more dominant hand on the bottom and push down with the heel of your hand. Wrapping one hand around the opposite wrist could cause a wrist injury to the person providing CPR.

This is consistent with the film being mostly shot in Queensland. CPR in Queensland was changed C.1990 to the wrist support method and later two hands on top of each other without interlocking fingers. The interlocking fingers method causes fatigue in the hands. Resulting in the compressions becoming ineffectual as CPR continues. CPR is also taught without pinching the nose as the rescuers cheek effectively seals the nose as rescue breaths are given.

An early scene in the film has the view from the Hoover Dam to the Bypass Bridge (AKA Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge) with traffic seen driving across the bypass bridge. To try and prevent traffic slowing down as it passes over the bypass bridge there are concrete sidewalls that restrict car passenger views of the dam. Only high sided trucks should be visible in the shot to the bypass bridge, not (as is seen) normal height cars. Furthermore, since the bypass was built there is no vehicular traffic on the dam any more. Tourists park close to the dam and walk on the former roadway.

Ray (Dwayne Johnson) has dark brown eyes, Emma (Carla Gugino) has hazel brown eyes. It is genetically impossible for the two of them to have a daughter with striking blue eyes like Blake (Alexandra Daddario)

Ben (Hugo Johnson-Burt) and Ollie (Art Parkinson) are supposed to be brothers, but Ben speaks with an Australian accent and Ollie speaks with an English accent. However, to an American both accents sound pretty much the same; this is an American movie and it's called suspension of disbelief.

The building which was under construction which Blake, Ben and Ollie take refuge in settles, visibly leaning against another building. Despite this, the floor is level in every scene.

When the main characters hot-wire a truck and meet the old couple at the airport, Ray switches the engine off with what appears to by a normal "turn key action".

Even if the tsunami as depicted was theoretically possible, it is fairly ludicrous to believe that a small boat with a 300hp outboard motor could go up its face over the crest and then stop just past the crest against a current that was strong enough to carry a much larger and more powerful container ship over its crest and flip it over.

During the final CPR scene the water remains perfectly calm, despite a building collapsing a few hundred feet from the boat.

In the beginning of the movie, the camera pans down to the cup holder as Natalie is reaching for her phone, and the automatic transmission selector is obviously in Park.

After the tsunami devastates San Francisco, there are no bodies at all in the water and all the debris has mysteriously gravitated out of Ray and Emma's path, allowing them to speed through the aftermath without striking anything. Additionally, besides Ray and his family, only one boat picking up one small group of survivors has managed to escape the destruction.

In the beginning of the film, Paul Giamatti is giving a lecture on past earthquakes while images of each corresponding earthquake are displayed on a projector screen. While on the topic of the 1960 Chile earthquake and tsunami, the projector incorrectly displays an image taken from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

When the tsunami is rolling into San Francisco, the camera changes to a 1st person shot of the tsunami, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge above, on the bridge a yellow bus is visible, but when the camera changes to a side ways shot of the tsunami rolling in and the road on the bridge, no bus is visible.

When Daniel and Blake are in the limo and they realized there's an earthquake, the white VW that's moving in the next scene, it's the rear end of the VW Passat (B7) that was on sale in Europe from 2010 to 2014. That style of Passat never made it to the United States. Starting in 2012, the US Passat (NMS) it's now being manufactured in Chattanooga, Tennessee and it's a different platform and design altogether.

When Ray is driving the truck and is waved at by the elderly couple, he comes to a stop because the road disappeared in front of them. When the camera pans out, if you look closely, you'll notice that the location of the road on both sides of the newly formed "canyon" doesn't match. If the road was in normal condition, there seems to be a distance between both sides of it.

Ray and Emma steal a skydiving school airplane. When the engine starts, the soundtrack is that of a piston engine with some puffs of smoke. The plane is a turboprop. Totally different sound and visual. That's rough on suspension of disbelief for those who know the difference.

When Ray and Emma go back to apologize to the elderly couple, the camera operator is reflected in the old man's glasses, and briefly on the car's window.

The straightest route from Los Angeles to San Francisco would not pass very close to Bakersfield. Bakersfield is also well to the east of the San Andreas fault, so anyone traveling directly from Bakersfield to the San Francisco Bay Area would never see any surface rupture of the fault.

There is a scene where everyone is walking and running down the street in San Francisco. Look closely and you can see a few signs for Bendigo Bank (bank), and Big W (retailer). Both companies are based in Australia, and aren't available in the United States.

When Blake first meets Ben whilst waiting in the lobby, a steel bridge is visible in the background. There are no steel bridges like this in San Francisco and it is actually the Story Bridge from Brisbane.

Many of the views within San Francisco are incorrect. For example, you cannot see the Golden Gate Bridge from Chinatown.

When Blake and Daniel land at the airport in Oakland, two factual errors appear. First, "Oakland Municipal Airport" no longer exists - it is Oakland International Airport. Second, the view of the airport actually features the old control tower at San Francisco International Airport, on the other side of San Francisco Bay.

When earthquake starts, Ray aboard helicopter is never contacted by the emergency services nor tries to contact them.

Just prior to the LA quake, Ray inexplicably takes the helicopter for a trip to "maintenance" and flies over rural LA county, despite needing to get to Nevada to assist there. The chief mechanic is already at Ray's home base, without any need to leave.

Blake and others, finds medical kit in an abandoned fire engine, and when Ben gets injured with the glass, Blake takes off her shirt to bandage the wound instead of using med kit from Ollie's backpack.

The height of the tsunami varies drastically within the space of only a few miles. It easily topples road level on the Golden Gate Bridge, which is 220 feet above the water, but only barely hits the 10th floor of the office building where Blake, Ben & Ollie seek shelter (which appears to be in San Francisco's Financial District, most of which sits only a few feet above sea level).

When Dwayne Johnson attempts to revive his daughter, at no point does he give her mouth to mouth. Then, she somehow spits up water while he's doing chest compressions on her. This is physically impossible: in case of drowning, the victim needs to be turned over and put face down to spit out the water.

Hayes asks where "Falco, Nevada" is located while sitting in front of a computer displaying a map of the southern portion of the state, and the epicenter of the earthquake swarm being discussed.

A young man asks a young woman why she wears two of the same necklaces, but only one can be seen on her neck. When they later kiss, she is wearing one necklace with 2 open hearts dangling on it. If that had been the case when he posed the question, he should have asked why she was wearing a necklace with two similar pendants on it. (By definition, a necklace includes the chain.)

Ray's fingernails are noticeably longer at the beginning of the movie.

When Ray closes his front door when coming home the door actually never shuts.