- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: As always in "based on a true story" stories, there are many inconsistencies between the people and events from "real life" and the people and events as portrayed in the movie.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: As always in war movies, some of the antique military hardware, while coming from broadly the correct period, does not precisely match the precise timeframe of the movie.
- Anachronisms: When Vasily and Danilov arrive at the banquet with Krushchev, the Soviet National Anthem can be heard playing in the background. The version of the anthem played, however, was not adopted until early 1944, just over a year after that scene takes place.
- Factual errors: The Soviet National Anthem was not composed until 1944. A year after the battle in Stalingrad.
- Anachronisms: From certain angles it can be clearly seen that the lenses of Danilov's spectacles have modern, anti-reflective coating.
- Factual errors: German bombers would not bomb so low to the ground, especially over a city like that. The explosions could damage the planes.
- Factual errors: The countries shown in the animated sequence as having been conquered by Germany in 1942 are incorrect. Switzerland and Turkey, for instance, were neutral and had not been invaded.
- Anachronisms: The hand that Tania puts down Vassili's trousers has clear, shiny varnish on the nails. Possible in 1942, because it was invented by Michelle Ménard in the early 1920s, but unlikely to be used by a Russian soldier in Stalingrad.
- Continuity: Where the Russian soldiers charge the German lines, and retreat to be shot by their own troops, the same Russian is seen dying twice, once on the advance and again during retreat.
- Continuity: The bolt on the rifle Danilov picks up at the beginning changes positions from the ready position to upright, and then back again, as he prepares to shoot
- Continuity: The two chocolate bars that Major König gives Sacha jump about on the table before Sacha picks them up.
- Continuity: At about 46 minutes of the movie, Zaitsev came back from the war zone. He had blood on his right forehead. Danilov started to talk to him. Then all of sudden, a bandage appeared on Zaitsev's forehead. Once they got inside of the house, all Zaitsev's blood disappeared from his forehead, only the bandage is still there.
- Revealing mistakes: In the opening fighting scene, a gigantic metal bust/statue moves when a soldier bumps into it.
- Factual errors: The one ribbon that Major König wears on his ribbon bar is a non-combatant's version of a commemorative medal for WWI veterans. Not only is it unlikely that an ace WWII sniper would have been a non-combatant in WWI, König wears a combatant's WWI Iron Cross ribbon through the buttonhole of his tunic, directly contradicting the ribbon bar.
- Continuity: After Vasily kills his first five Germans near the fountain, Danilov prints a leaflet extolling his feat of arms. When the leaflet comes off the press it clearly shows only four crossed-out helmets. By the time he hands the leaflet to Vasily a fifth helmet has appeared.
- Continuity: Koulikov's teeth are not always metal, mostly in shots where his mouth is barely open.
- Continuity: When Danilov is about to attempt to shoot the German officer, Vassily takes the rifle from Danilov, loads it, and sets the rear site to 100m. Yet when Danilov takes aim again its rear site is set back at the same place it was before.
- Factual errors: Whenever we see Soviet soldiers in battle, not a single rifle has a bayonet. However, in WWII, Soviet soldiers always went into battle with the bayonets on their rifles.
- Factual errors: "Zagradotryad" - the NKVD regiment responsible for shooting retreating troops are dressed in regular army uniforms, not NKVD issued uniforms.
- Factual errors: Whistles were never used in the Soviet Army as a signal for attack.
- Factual errors: While Danilov is a commissar for most of the course of the film, the rank of commissar was eliminated on 9 October 1942, well before the end of the Stalingrad battle.
- Revealing mistakes: When the camera focuses on Zaitsev after he first speaks to Danilov ("You'll get us caught, Comrade Commissar."), the "corpse" next to him blinks.
- Continuity: Tania's glove before the love-making scene
- Revealing mistakes: When Danilov's vehicle crashes the stunt driver's bright red helmet can clearly be seen.
- Revealing mistakes: When Zaitsev first meets Danilov (before the first five shootings), you can see many of the corpses breath in the cold air.
- Continuity: Nikita Khrushchev's mole at the left edge of his nose is sometimes prominent, sometimes minimal, and sometimes missing altogether in several scenes.
- Factual errors: Several times when the soldiers are firing their weapons a flame is shown but no cartridge cases.
- Miscellaneous: The promotional poster for the film shows the Russian Mosin Nagant M91/30 sniper rifle backwards, with the bolt handle on the left side of the stock instead of the usual right side for bolt-action rifles. The poster must have been designed correctly but rotated horizontally before printing.
- Miscellaneous: On the DVD cover, the Moison-Nagant Russian Rifle has a left hand bolt action. This is never found in any variation of this rifle. All original military bolt action Moison-Nagant rifles (M91, M91/30, M38, M44 etc.) are right hand bolt actions.
- Continuity: In the scenes where the Russian soldiers charge out from under the train carriages, after Vassili falls asleep and Major König is making it across safely over the yellow heap, the charge is incoherent; The bunch of soldiers charging from under the train carriages have charged twice if you look closely.
- Factual errors: The rifle barrel shown in the opening scene was so thickly wrapped it would have been impossible to align the sights.
- Continuity: When Koulikov, Vassili and Volodya are going under the tunnel, Vassili spots a dead soldier. First scene shows the soldier with a grey finger. The second scene, after Vassili observes him with periscope, we see that the finger has turned red for a brief second, and after that scene we can see that he has no finger at all.
- Anachronisms: The stethoscope used to examine Tania near the end of the movie is actually a post-1960 style. Stethoscopes before 1960 always have two separate tubings attached to the bell.
- Revealing mistakes: In the scene where Zaitsev is trying retrieve his rifle with a string and pocketknife, the German shoots the string, but the bolt on his rifle is not locked down. This would have resulted in a misfire and possibly would have injured the shooter.
- Factual errors: Danilov enthusiastically tells Zaitsev that their article will be republished all over the country, including in the Crimea, the Caucasus, and the Urals. However, the Crimean peninsula fell to the Germans in June 1942 - some several months before the action in the film begins.
- Revealing mistakes: In the scene where Vassili shoots the five soldiers, right after Danilov says "Don't shoot, don't shoot, he's looking right at us." You can see a foot moving amongst the dead bodies. The foot moving has a light brown sole, and Vassili's is much darker so it cannot be his foot.
- Revealing mistakes: The movie depicts events which occurred during one of the coldest and snowiest winters in Russian history yet we almost never see snow. And we never see the characters' breath. The cold was so intense that it was considered a common enemy on both sides.
- Factual errors: Vassilij is always called with his full name. That is a mistake, especially when such a name is used by the grandfather and Vassilij is a kid. No Russian grandfather calls his grandson by full name - a diminutive should be used like Vasja or Vasjachka. The full name is used only if it's short (Ilja) and to add respect (such as between comrades, or in official ceremonies), and the patronymic should be used together with the name.
- Factual errors: The role which Eva Mattes is playing Mother Filipov. Filipov can not be a women's surname in Russia as all women surnames must end with an 'A' if her husband's surname end with 'OV', e.g. Filipov > Filipova, Maslikov > Maslikova.
- Continuity: The dead German on the catwalk in the factory changes positions after Vassili checks him with the para-scope.
- Continuity: When is shows Sasa in the German camp, he puts a boot on his cobblers bench to repair the sole, but it looks to be fine with no apparent wear. In the next shot the sole is heavily worn and Sasa precedes to replace it.
- Factual errors: The scope mounted on Vasili's rifle in the movie is of the PU type. On actual pictures dated 1942 another type of scope can be seen, most likely of the (larger) PEM type.
- Anachronisms: Major König salutes by touching his cap whereas German officers of the period would have clicked their heels and said "Heil Hitler" while raising their arm in salute.
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Goofs below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- Anachronisms: SPOILER: Every pistol shown in the film seems to be correct, being either Tokarev TT-33's or 1895 Nagant revolvers, except for one. During the initial "human wave" charge, after the Soviet conscripts turn to retreat back to their lines and are cut down by friendly fire, there is one camera shot which shows two NKVD officers firing semiautomatic pistols. The nearest one is only partially visible, but appears to be a Makarov PM, rather than a Tokarev TT-33. The Makarov pistol was not designed until just after the war.
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