In the movie, "Men in Black," one character explains to the others about the constellation Orion.  He says that Orion is in the northern sky.  It isn't, in the United States you need to look into the southern sky to see Orion.  He shows a picture of Orion's Belt.  Orion's Belt consists of three stars that lie almost in a straight line.  In the movie, they formed an inverted V.  Someone was careless.  A little research wouldn't have hurt.

In the movie, "Out to Sea," (definitely not a science fiction thriller) Jack Lemon's character and his prospective girlfriend look out over a full moon sparkling on the ocean. How romantic!  The next day they are supposed to view an eclipse of the sun.  An eclipse of the sun can only occur at new moon, two weeks away from a full moon!  Someone was careless.  A little research wouldn't have hurt.

Again, it's easy to get science into science fiction.  But you should do it very carefully!  All it takes is for the writer to do a little research in order to keep the story consistent with reality.  In these two examples, it would have been very hard, if not impossible, to come up with "plausible explanations" for what otherwise are very serious errors in fact.