Goofs

When Tommy bends the car door back into position at the gas station, it is visibly dented and crumpled along the edge. Immediately after, Richard goes to open the door, it falls to the ground, and is in pristine condition.

In the airplane restroom, the door was not opposite the toilet, yet when Tommy pulls his tie out of the commode and falls backward, he goes through the door and into the aisle.

When the hood flies off the car the freeway has dozens of vehicles traveling in both directions. Once the car comes to a rest on the side of the road, all traffic has disappeared.

Near the beginning, when Tommy's dad shows Tommy his office, the door reads "Thomas R. Callahan III." At the end of the movie, when Tommy is being introduced as the new President, he is introduced as "Tom Callahan Jr." It is common for a son to take his father's suffix when the father passes away. So Tommy takes his father's suffix of "Jr." it may be implied that the grandfather, "Sr." is still alive as Tommy's father has not taken the "Sr." suffix.

Richard hits Tommy in the face with a 2x4 when they get into a fight. This board was nowhere in sight in the long shot of them getting out of the car, and not enough time passes between shots for Richard to have run off, found it, and returned.

At the beginning of the movie, Tommy rushes to take his American History Exam. The first question is "James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and _____ Hancock were all Framers of the Constitution." (Tommy writes Herbie). However, a University History Professor would know that while Madison was a Framer, Hancock and Jefferson were not. The latter two were not at the Constitutional Convention.

When Richard was drinking too much alcohol while Tommy is driving and the cops start to follow them and Tommy gets worried that he'll get arrested and thinks the cops wouldn't believe that he wasn't drinking. If Tommy did pull over and the cops smell the booze in the car. They would have Tommy take a breathalyzer and see that he's sober. Tommy wouldn't get in trouble because he's a designated driver.

When Big Tom, Tommy Boy and the bankers are entering the factory floor, Big Tom says, "Look out! Low bridge!" and he and the bankers walk right under a forklift load, which, of course is a huge safety and OSHA violation. Big Tom should have known better, as well as those following him. Even Tommy Boy should have walked around instead of walking into the forks.

When Paul pees on the electric generator, he is seen flying back as of pulled by a hidden wire. In reality, if he would be shocked at all, it would have likely killed him, he certainly wouldn't have been around for the rest of the film.

Mr. Callahan is meeting with the banker to get money to expand. He later takes the banker to the new brake pad division and mentions that he needs capital to buy the materials to make the pads. When a business expands in this nature, the capital needed to build the machinery and have the material would have already been appropriated from the lender before building the expansion.

When Richard is looking at the girl in the pool though his hotel window you can hear a zipper noise (as if his pants zipper was going down), but later in the scene you can see he is wearing boxers. Richard is intending to do something inappropriate and the sound effect was likely done on purpose to be funny.

At the beginning of the airplane bathroom scene, Richard's double can be clearly seen entering the bathroom - the double's hair is much more gray than Richard's. Then, visible through the crack in the door, the double can be seen to go left as Richard comes back of the bathroom.

Obvious stunt double for Tommy performing a cartwheel during the "What'd I Say" number.

When Rob Lowe's character has the giant bag, crush his groin,he makes a very distinct sound and it's done for a laugh. Realistically, this wouldn't happen. Not only would this have crushed his groin, but he would have likely died because of blood loss and possibly everything from a broken pelvis to possible death could have occurred, he certainly wouldn't be walking around to be arrested.Funny scene, but it's definitely not realistic.

When Big Tom introduces the bankers to the "new" brake pad division, it is clear that the machines are used and worn in places, despite their attempts to cover them up. Missing paint on the hook, grease on the machines, etc., indicate that it is not a new division, but an old one cleaned up.

There is an obvious stunt double for Paul when he is on the hood of the crash test car.

When Tommy and Richard are in the cafe on the road, the waitress tells them that they "just have cold stuff until dinner. No cafe in America, for those that have them, would ever have their deep fryers turned off in the middle of the afternoon.

In the beginning, when Tommy is late for school, he runs through a lawn and the sprinklers come on when he is in the middle of them. In the next shot he is completely dry.

In the scene on the plane where Tommy & Richard are about to change from their airline uniforms, you can actually see in the space between the plane's restroom door when David Spade's double for his character 'Richard' actually switch places with Spade In the restroom to accentuate the 'quick wardrobe change.'

The top of the building where Tommy meets Mr. Zalinsky on the way to the conference room is made largely of solid concrete where they are testing cars. Such weight would imbalance the whole building causing it to tumble. Cars are always tested on the ground floor or below where it is safer.

When Tommy gets home from college and goes to his dad's shop, they walk through the floor. It can clearly be seen that one of the girls taking out an oil filter from the molten lava is not using gloves.

At the beginning when Tommy is running as a youth, which would have been set in the late 1970s, several late model (1990s) cars are in the background.

When Tommy and Richard stop to pick up the hitchhiker you hear a car horn that trails off as if someone was beeping as they passed by, but there is no car.

When Tommy get out of the car to "tinkle," Richard slowly drives forward and a blue van passes by. You can see the camera in the reflection of the van.

In the scene where Tommy and Richard stay at the Deer Glen Hotel, Richard makes a comment to Tommy about the moths inside of the hotel room. If you look closely you can see a member of the crew's hand throwing moths in the air at the base of the lamp behind the end table.

Before Beverley comes out of the pool, a crewmember and a boom mic are reflected in the glass door that Big Tom closes.

When Paul arrives in Sandusky on a bus, a camera man and camera can be seen in the upper left-hand corner of the front window as the bus comes to a stop.

When Tommy and Richard drive into Detroit, the skyline depicted is not Detroit, but Toronto. Detroit has fewer (and smaller) skyscrapers than Toronto, and the CN Tower is also visible.

The airport shown at the beginning of the movie is supposed to be "Sandusky" but is actually the Island Airport at Toronto Ontario. The base of the CN Tower is seen off to the left of the picture.

Michelle goes to the Sandusky airport to catch a flight to Cuyahoga Falls. This would be impossible as Cuyahoga Falls has no airport. The closest commercial airport to Cuyahoga Falls would be Akron-Canton Airport (CAK) which is 20 miles south of Cuyahoga Falls. Also, Sandusky is 83 miles by car from Cuyahoga Falls, so it makes more sense to drive.

Tommy and Richard are flying to Chicago however when they show the office building that Zalinsky's office is in, it is the Fox Plaza building in Century City, Los Angeles, CA.

Near the beginning of the movie, when Tommy Sr. takes the men onto the factory floor, he makes everyone put on a hard hat for safety. But as they walk through the factory, most of the employees are not even wearing hard hats.

It is mentioned on several occasions that Callahan Autos is the only major industry keeping Sandusky, Ohio afloat and that its closure would devastate the town's economy. However, Sandusky is home to Cedar Point, one of the country's largest amusement parks which brings lots of tourism to the region.

Big Tom tells the bankers about the new brake pad division that he needs "...fresh capital before I can turn these machines on." Normally, a "new division" in an automobile parts plant relies on existing capital to begin rather than a loan, and during the first year it would either show a profit or a loss. Either way, Big Tom did not need to go further into debt just to start making brake pads because he already had a staff and the machines ready to go.

Zalinsky's business plan is to put inferior products into a Callahan box and charge premium prices for it. However, good reputations are fleeting and within a few years the Callahan name would be ruined with shoddy brake pads, thereby limiting his return on investment. Zalinsky would have been better off leveraging quantity for a lower price to shift the profits to himself. Since Callahan management was desperate, they would likely have agreed. This strategy would have been much more profitable for Zalinsky over the long run and would not have required the large capital outlay he was planning.

Michelle attempted to go home to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio at the Sandusky, Ohio airport but stops when she sees Paul and Beverly kissing and calls her brother (who's a cop). From Sandusky to Cuyahoga Falls is 1 hour and 22 minutes away from each other. Michelle could've drove instead of going to the airport trying to catch a flight.

After Tommy teases Richard about wearing his coat and sings "fat guy in a little coat" and Richard tells him to take it off. He is heard trying not to laugh.