At about 01:26, shortly before Queen takes the stage at Wembley, a quick shot of a monitor in one of the media vans shows Bob Geldof taking a seat in the arena next to Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Later in the movie, at about 2:02:50, Geldof is in a call center watching the donation totals instead of in the stadium.
During the Live Aid scenes, there are some close-ups of Mary, Jim and David watching the performance from behind Freddie's piano. However when Freddie is dancing on stage, there are some long shots in which they don't appear at all.
Freddie is shown approaching the Live Aid stage from upstage right, behind the piano, in the two non-identical scenes at the very start of the film and prior to the Live Aid sequence. However, the long shot shows him entering from stage left and crossing to the piano.
The weather changes outside the windows in Ray Parker's office when he refuses Bohemian Rhapsody. Sometimes it is raining, and other times (and when Freddie Mercury throws a brick through the window), it is a sunny, dry day.
When Freddie goes on stage at Live Aid the second time at the end of the film, the people coming down the stairs and all around him are different to the beginning of the film. He also moves differently, jumping more shallow in the second clip. However, these clips are meant to be the identical few seconds of him going onstage and should not be different at all.
The film indicates that the band's manager Jim Beach was trying to get them onto the list of acts to play the Wembley Live Aid concert. In reality, Bob Geldof had held a press conference in early 1985 to announce the concert and named Queen as one of the acts who had agreed to play. Geldof had not spoken to any of the acts beforehand so this was the first any of them had heard about it. However as nobody wanted to look like the party pooper and back out, almost all the acts Geldof name-checked played at the concert, including the band Dire Straits (who had sold out a concert at nearby Wembley Arena on the night of the Live Aid concert so had to play two gigs in one day).
The film makes it appear that the band left their label, EMI Records, in the mid 70s because the company's chief exec wouldn't release Bohemian Rhapsody as a single. In actual fact, Queen stayed with EMI throughout their career and for over 20 years after Freddie Mercury's death.
In reality, Freddie Mercury was not the only Queen member to record a solo project. Before Mercury's 1984 "Mr. Bad Guy" album, drummer Roger Taylor recorded his first solo album "Fun in Space" in 1981 and Brian May collaborated with several musicians to release the "Star Fleet Project" EP in 1983.
The film depicts Freddie Mercury's going solo as breaking up the band and shows his time in Munich as if he were isolated from the others. In fact, all band members were working on solo projects between 1982 and 1985, even as the band recorded and toured together. Roger Taylor was recording his album "Strange Frontier" at the same Munich studio and at the same time Mercury was working on "Mr. Bad Guy." Mercury (as well as Brian May and John Deacon) even played on Taylor's album.
The film makes Freddie Mercury seem like he came from nowhere when he joined Smile, like it was a secret he could sing. But he had been in bands since high school. In 1969, he joined the Liverpool-based band Ibex, later renamed Wreckage. When this band failed to take off, he joined a second band called Sour Milk Sea. However, by early 1970, this group had broken up as well.
The tail number of the 747 Freddie is unloading is "N88892", which is a fictitious registration number used by Hollywood, appearing on aircraft in Hero (1992), Casino Royale (2006) and several other movies. This registration number was issued by the FAA to the film industry for filming purposes, analogous to the "555" telephone prefix.
Just before the Live Aid performance the Queen song 'Who Wants to Live Forever' is heard being played. That particular song was part of the 'A Kind of Magic' album which Queen recorded after Live Aid. The character doesn't listen to it, only the audience does.
Freddie says that he was born with four extra incisors. While human beings are born with no teeth whatsoever *showing*, all the teeth, both milk and adult, are already present in the jaw at birth, so Freddie's statement is not incorrect.
When Freddie visits his family on the day of Live Aid, the weather appears to be a fall/autumn day with brown leaves on the ground. Live Aid took place 13 July 1985, a very hot summer day.
In the shot where Freddie hangs up the phone after talking to Mary, the adhesive on Rami Malek's mustache is visible.
Freddie's cats do not age at any point in the film, apart from a short shot of a kitten.
Freddie often wears very reflective sunglasses in the film and many shots have used VFX to remove equipment or crew. However, at one point in the film Freddie places them down on a glass table and the reflection Freddie sees of himself in the lenses is the same way up in the mirroring from the glass table where it should be inverted.
Seems to be a small visual effect error in the aerial shot presenting the concert at Wembley. There's a red hair or blond man from the Live Aid staff who is walking close to the stage from right to left. At some point there's a two, maybe three frames flicker down that makes him almost disappear.
When Freddie reconciles with the rest of Queen prior to Live Aid in 1985, Deacy states that from that point on, all future songwriting credits will go to the band collectively instead of just one member. In reality, Queen's 1986 album A Kind of Magic still had individual songwriting credits and it was only in 1989's The Miracle and 1991's Innuendo that all songs were credited to the band as a whole.
Paul Prenter was not fired as Freddie Mercury's manager until after the Live Aid concert not before as shown in the film.
The band is shown recording/releasing "We Will Rock You" in a scene set in 1980. This song was recorded/released on the News of the World LP in 1977, three years prior to this.
"Fat Bottomed Girls" is being performed on an American tour set prior to 1975. This song was not released until 1978, on the Jazz album, well after the release/recording of (the song) "Bohemian Rhapsody."
Freddie Mercury changed the band name to Queen shortly after joining Smile and not during the recording of the first album two years later.
While Freddie plays Bohemian Rhapsody at Live Aid, on the first chord he plays the G key octave (G is a white key) with his left hand. However, on that part the song is in B flat chord (B flat is a black key).
When they show fans dancing and singing in the big stadium shows, none of the fans mouths matches what they are singing.
In Beach's office, Freddie makes a remark about "Not bad for four aging queens," and seemingly reaches over to smack Brian's foot or leg, in jest. You can hear the impact, but Brian's actually sitting too far away for Freddie's hand to have reached him.
During the initial Live Aid concert at the beginning of Bohemian Rhapsody, the microphone for Freddie is in the off position. The microphone switch is incorrectly positioned but corrected in following shots.
When Mary is driven away from Freddie's Munich house, the car is a Mercedes Benz (W-123) 240D or 300D, very common at the time. The engine sound is distinctly that of a Spark Ignition Gasoline motor, rather than the Compression Ignition Diesel motor used by almost all Taxis at that time.
During the montage of their first US tour members of the band says "we love you Cleveland" and then the same for Houston, Atlanta and Pittsburgh. Queen did not play those cities on the Queen II tour.
In Munich, Freddie lived in a flat in the center of the city and not in a house with garden.
The Queen tour bus in shown driving down the road on the band's first American tour. The scene has MIDWEST USA across the screen but a road sign can be clearly seen identifying the road as a state route in Georgia. Georgia is in the Southeastern USA and not in the Midwest.
At one point in the '80s, it's stated that the members of Queen "haven't recorded together in years." This isn't true. In the years the film covers, Queen put out two albums in the '80s: one in 1982 and one in 1984. They wouldn't have been apart more than a year or so at any given time.
When changing the wheel on the van, one of the band offers the suggestion that the bolt needs to be removed "Counter Clockwise." This is an Americanism and is never said by native English speakers, which the whole band would be, where the correct term would be "Anti-Clockwise" or even "Widdershins."
Several times in the film characters reinforce their point by ending the sentence 'period!' That's an Americanism. In Britain, a period is a full stop so people say 'I'm not doing it, full stop.' Also, someone refers to a drink as a beverage, another Americanism that doesn't exist in England.
During the Live Aid concert, the Front-Of-House engineer is wearing headphones that cover both his ears. As his sole duty is to make the concert sound good for the audience attending the event, there is no way he could do this both ears covered. He could have had a headset that covers only one of his ears, but the majority of sound engineers have both their ears uncovered.
Just after Freddie and Mary get engaged, the rest of the band storm in and there is a quick shot of Mary looking back to the door and you can see the engagement ring is on her middle finger.