Goofs

The bus station is supposedly only 30 minutes from the Andersons' house, yet as Chris and the kids are heading there, it has suddenly become nighttime outside although it wasn't even dusk when they left the house.

When Sara goes up in the elevator at her parents' building there are chocolate fingerprints on two of the numbered floor buttons. She ends up at the higher floor which is still under construction going right past the floor where her parents' party is. The elevator doors should have opened at the lower number floor first and seeing the party going on, she would have gotten off there and wouldn't have continued going up.

In the garage, the station wagon is covered with dust and is badly in need of cleaning. When they pull out, it is as clean as a showroom version.

Around 1 hour and 15 minutes, they said that the time was 11:41 pm. But when they were driving on the street, the clock on the tower was around 10:03 pm.

In the film's end credits, Lolita Davidovich (under the name Lolita David) is credited as "blonde". In the film, she is a brunette.

Kappa Phi Gamma is a sorority, not a fraternity.

The Associates Center elevator showed that there's a 46th story. In real life, the Associates Center (now known as Smurfit Stone) has 42 stories.

Daryl asks Joe to drop them at a mall. Joe scoffs and says, "Where do you think we are, Boise, Idaho?" At the time of the film's release, Boise, Idaho did not have a mall in the entire city. Boise Towne Square mall opened in 1988.

In real life the diamond-shape slant of the Associates Center is a 45-degree angle, but in the movie, when Sara is up against the slant, it's noticeably steeper than 45 degrees.

When Chris gets the flat tire, she crosses a double yellow line in order to pull over to the right. But a double yellow line indicates opposing directions of traffic so Chris driving on the left side of that line means she'd be driving the wrong way into oncoming traffic.

When Sara is in Chicago's downtown looking for her parents' building, she walks by a closed Scotia Bank. That is a Canadian bank, however, it has had a branch there since 1892.

When the kids are in the upstairs bedroom of the home near the end of the film and Chris comes up to give them the all's clear, heavy traffic can be seen outside the second floor window, even though the street outside is shown as a quiet suburban neighborhood and practically empty on the following scene.

NOTE: Per Google street view of the filmed location (4 Valleyanna Drive in North York, Toronto ON per itsfilmedthere.com), there is a four-lane avenue backing the property. This explains the traffic, assuming the window behind Brad and Sara is at the back of the house.

When Mr. Pruitt arrives in his tow truck to help Chris with the flat, he might have known to take off the left rear panel inside (1980's model Buick Estate Wagon) where he would have found the spare tire and jack. Any tow truck driver should have known that all GM station wagons were built this way between 1977 and 1990, however at no point is he invited to inspect the car for himself. He takes Chris at her word that she was indeed driving on the expressway without a spare and so doesn't bother to check.

When Chris and the kids approach the frat party, the Greek letters outside are actually Kappa Phi Gamma, not Phi Gamma Gamma. The shadow of the Gamma makes it appear as two. When they are inside the party reference is correctly made to it being a "Kappa" party. The letters Kappa Phi Gamma also appear on the wall behind the band.

When the bad guys are chasing Sara, she leaves perfect chocolate fingerprints on the elevator buttons. However, when she stole the chocolate pastry from the French restaurant she was wearing green gloves. She had them on when she ran to the building. The chocolate never touched her hands, so she couldn't have left the fingerprints on the buttons. However the chocolate fingerprints have the visible imprint of the wool fabric, so they were made with the gloves on.

When Chris presses the elevator button with the chocolate fingerprint, the button is completely clean when she removes her finger and it lights up. She is wearing woolen gloves, and a simple finger press would have left chocolate on the button.

On Sara's skate, her first name is spelled as "Sarah". In the end credits, it is spelled "Sara".

In the chop shop, we see the four kids walking across beam toward an open window. What is supposed to be dirt is actually instant coffee. When Chris knocks some off the been and into the coffee cup, it would not float on top like instant coffee does. It would sink. Dirt does not have the same brownish color that instant coffee has.

In the beginning of the movie where Sarah drags Chris to watch TV, after the scene where Brad talks to his friend Darryl, you hear a song from A Nightmare On Elm Street but as the camera pans over to Chris in front of the TV, she's watching something totally different (possibly a cartoon?).

When Sara is dangling outside the windows of her parents' building, you can see indentations of her safety harness under her stretchy pants.

When Mr. Pruitt gets out of his semi at his home, the camera crew is reflected in his truck's rear view mirror.

Crew members are reflected in Sara's helmet when Brad calls Thor a homo.

When Joe pulls the newly stolen car into the garage for the first time and Brad, Sara, and Daryl lean over to stare out the window, the crew is reflected in the glass of the window.

After the French restaurant incident, when the bad guys are chasing Sara and she is about to run into a building in which a janitor is washing the floor, a camera and crew are visible in the window.

Throughout a lot of the shots of the gang in Chicago, Brad and Sara's parents' building is shown facing them as they are running through the city. This is geographically impossible, as the diamond cut of the building actually faces Lake Michigan.

The John Hancock building is not on the southern side of the Associates Center as it's shown when Sara is up against the diamond-shape roof.

There are several skyline shots showing the Associates Center (now called Smurfit Stone) with buildings, different landmarks and an El Train route. In real life there are no buildings, El Train tracks in front of the Associates Center. In fact, the only landmarks the Associates Center faces is what is now Millennium Park, and Lake Michigan.

In the hospital, after the doctor tells them that Brad is dead, Chris faints. When he comes back out and she comes to, you can see the boom microphone above them. It is in two different shots before they leave the hospital.

When Mr. Pruitt and the group run out of the hospital, they are being chased by the police. They run down an alley toward the back of an ambulance. As the kids get close to the camera, you can see a shadow of a boom microphone on the white wall on the right side of the frame.

Not knowing who stole her glasses, Brenda would not have been able to see her glasses on the homeless woman based on how nearsighted she demonstrated she is by actions earlier on in the evening without her glasses.