(at around 1h 40 mins) When Robert Graysmith is in Paul Avery's house after he is retired from the Chronicle, the score is 15-9 on the screen displaying Pong. However, another shot is taken and the score is 14-9, but instantly changes back to 15-9.
(at around 14 minutes) When Robert and his son walk in, his son is carrying 6 books, with all the book spines facing toward him. He puts them on the desk. In the next shot, a close-up of the desk, there are now only 4 books, and the spines face away from him and toward the camera.
(at around 2h 20 mins) Robert Graysmith follows Robert Vaughn's car to Vaughn's house in the pouring rain. Vaughn lets Graysmith in his house, offering to hang up Graysmith's wet jacket. Graysmith politely but hurriedly refuses. Next, Graysmith enters the kitchen and sits at the dining table, his back to the camera. His jacket is now dry.
Interior shots of the gold '63 Corvair contain errors. Some are shot in a two-door coupe and others are shot in a four-door sedan model. In one shot, the door-lock button for the rear door can be seen. And the rear-side window profile is distinctly different from one shot to another.
In the bar where Paul Avery and Robert Graysmith have their first
drink together, Avery's glass sits to his left in some shots; and in others, it sits to his right, next to Graysmith.
(at around 28 mins) The blood-stained fabric from the taxi driver should not have been red. The iron in the blood would have turned brown due to oxidation.
Many people are curious about what the Zodiac was doing to taxi driver Paul Stine in the front seat after having shot him. Later it's discovered that the Zodiac had cut pieces of Stine's shirt to send to people by mail in order to scare and shock them.
However, the fact pieces of the shirt had been cut off would have become obvious to SFPD police and coroner's office personnel as soon as Stine's body was placed in the morgue. It would have been no surprise to at least San Francisco cops that these swathes of bloody cloth existed.
However, the fact pieces of the shirt had been cut off would have become obvious to SFPD police and coroner's office personnel as soon as Stine's body was placed in the morgue. It would have been no surprise to at least San Francisco cops that these swathes of bloody cloth existed.
(at around 1h 40 mins) When Robert Graysmith visits Paul Avery at his boathouse, you can see "Pong" on Avery's TV. If Avery had been playing the game in one-player mode, the paddle on the right would have been controlled by the computer, and it would have been moving to block the shot. Moreover, 15 is the game point on "Pong." Once this is reached, the ball disappears until the game is reset. If it is left on for a long enough time, it will go into the Demo mode. But in Demo mode, there is no sound.
(2 hours 9 mins) Robert Graysmith did not actually solve the Zodiac's "Z-340" cipher. The code was finally cracked in late 2020 by David Oranchak, Sam Blake, and Jarl Van Eycke.
(at around 1h 12 mins) Aboard the PSA flight to southern California, the flight attendant makes an announcement over the speaker stating that "smoking is allowed only in the last six aisles." No airplanes have six aisles; presumably she meant to say "the last six rows."
(at around 24 mins) Graysmith and Arthur Leigh Allen both refer to "The Most Dangerous Game" as a book or a novel. It isn't; it's a short story. However, it is entirely possible that the characters only refer to it as such because are subconsciously simplifying their language in conversation with others.
(at around 2h 30 mins) In the store there is a calendar behind the desk that indicates it is February 1980. However, as Graysmith is entering the store, the caption says it is Dec. 20, 1983. The prominent out-of-date calendar may just be a way of showing that the store that Allen works in is a sleepy place where they've forgotten to change the calendar for four years.
(at around 24 mins) When the Zodiac hails Paul Stine's cab, an illuminated hair salon sign is visible on the other side of the street. However, the reflections seen on the cab's hood and trunk lid are of the modern-day Starbucks Coffee sign at the filming location, which was digitally removed in post.
(at around 1h 30 mins) In or around September, 1972, the wall calendar at the San Francisco Chronicle reads 1971.
(at around 52 mins) One of the books Robert Graysmith has in 1969 has a barcode on the back. Barcodes did not even exist in any stores until the summer of 1974, and most items did not contain barcodes for several years after that.
When Graysmith enters the hardware store where Lee works, the title on screen is dated 1983. Seconds later we see a calendar behind the counter that clearly reads 1980.
(at around 55 mins) On the evening of her abduction on March 22nd, 1970, Kathleen Johns is shown driving down Highway 132 while Lynn Anderson's "Rose Garden" is playing on the radio. "Rose Garden" wasn't recorded until September 10th, 1970 and wasn't released as a single until October 8th, 1970.
(at around 1h 8 mins) Chloë Sevigny's character orders penne ala vodka, but that dish wasn't invented until the mid-70s and wouldn't have made its way to an inexpensive San Francisco restaurant until much later.
(at around 1h 9 mins) When Avery is meeting someone in an abandoned building, and in the following scene where Graysmith and his date race to telephone Avery, a traffic signal in the background shows pedestrian control beacons of the "hand/man" style, rather than the "walk/don't walk" style of that era.
(at around 1h 40 mins) When Robert Graysmith visits Paul Avery at his boathouse, you can see "Pong" on Avery's TV. As the scene plays out, you can hear the Pong ball bouncing around for a while, then the sound of the ball scoring. But it's the same shot of the ball bouncing once, then going past the paddle on the right and scoring.
(at around 1h 20 mins) The scene where the detectives interview Allen at his job opens with an aerial view of Chevron Refinery in Richmond, CA. The subtitle says Rodeo, CA.
(at around 47 mins) The scene where Melvin Belli is to meet the Zodiac impostor at St. Vincent De Paul's Thrift Store in Daly City is actually filmed on the corner of 26th Ave. and Irving Street in San Francisco's Sunset District. In the background, the Sunset Supermarket can be seen, which did not have Chinese characters displayed at the time the movie took place.
(at around 1h 28 mins) During the time-lapse sequence of the building of the Transamerica Pyramid, light shines from the west as the sun rises.
Actors in the film pronounce "Vallejo," the name of the town, the way outsiders tend to - they assume it's "Vuh - lay - ho." Locals, however, which would definitely include police and even San Francisco reporters, pronounce it "Vuh - lay - o."
(at around 1h 45 mins) Graysmith says he is an "Eagle Scout, first class." There is no such award as Eagle Scout first class. There is a rank of First Class in Boy Scouting, but it is much lower than Eagle.
(at around 1h 28 mins) After their visit to Allen, there is a follow-up phone call between Toschi and Mulanax. Toschi calls him "Jake" instead of "Jack."
(at around 56 mins) When Zodiac is "fixing" Kathleen Johns' wheel, he is seen in the mirror twisting the wheel nuts clockwise, as if to tighten them (which he was supposed to be doing), but if the wheel were to fall off, he should have been twisting anti-clockwise to loosen the lug nuts.