Deliberate mistake: During the last assault against the hill, a duo of helicopters is mowing down the Vietnamese soldiers with miniguns. In one shot, you can see one chopper coming up behind a tree, all guns blazing. However, the tree, which is in the way of the helicopters right side minigun, remains totally untouched, although, looking at the carnage the guns do to the Vietnamese soldiers, it should have been reduced to toothpicks. (01:51:00)
Deliberate mistake: After Mina leaves the car in Venice, Sawyer just manages to avoid several obstacles on the way, including a bend in the canal. But in the first scene, where Sawyer swerves the car around, its front should have slipped into the water anyway, considering the speed of the car and the tightness of the street, which makes a sharp L-turn at such close quarters next to impossible. But then the scene jump-cuts, and the car is well past the hazard.
Deliberate mistake: After pulling the e-brake in his car (Mustang) and turning completely around during a chase scene, "Driver's" vehicle continues to shift gears as he drives in reverse at high speeds.
Deliberate mistake: During the space battle, one of Drax's men gets his back pack blasted. (1:46:37) His entire pack explodes so that his jet pack and life support are destroyed. But as a result of that blast, all the parts from his suit FALL DOWN! Even though there's no gravity.
Deliberate mistake: When the woman is attempting to escape from the elevator, it dislodges and falls down, so then the actress is facing the ground...but when her arm hits the floor, the floor itself bends. If you watch the DVD with the commentary on, the director points out that it was a break away floor in case the actress' head accidentally snapped forward, to avoid any injury. (00:08:00)
Deliberate mistake: On the map showing the location of all the 'Camel Hump' refuelling blimps, none of them are anywhere near the countries EDI visits in the film - the nearest one is more than a thousand miles away over the Pacific.
Deliberate mistake: When Jimmy Dove responds to the bomb in the computer lab at MIT, the camera shows the boyfriend on the floor, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The pistol is lying next to his head and it is a 1911-type .45 automatic with the hammer down, not cocked. When an automatic pistol is fired the slide automatically cocks the hammer as it moves back. This will happen even if there is only a single bullet in the gun. The hammer should be back in a cocked position.
Deliberate mistake: None of the helicopter's in the movie have the Army markings seen on Vietnam era Hueys. The most you'll see is some crooked, faint and inaccurate stencils in the wrong spots. (00:37:50 - 00:51:25)
Deliberate mistake: The angle of the footage of the Air Force jet (from inside the 747's passengers' viewpoint) observing the 747's damage shows the Air Force jet would be flying away from the 747 instead of flying exactly parallel as the outside footage shows.
Deliberate mistake: The explosion of the ship at the end of the film is actually another angle of the explosion of the house from a few seconds earlier. The craft's explosion is much too small for what is shown in the film.
Deliberate mistake: The Army Colonel's Class A uniform does not have a name plate on the flap of the right breast pocket as per regulations. If the Colonel's name plate was present, there would be no twist to the movie. (01:21:50)
Deliberate mistake: In the scene where the characters are initially signing up for the contest, Gene Hackman's henchmen cock their weapons as they enter, then after Sharon Stone shoots the rope apart the henchmen cock their rifles again. The problem is that with a second cocking the rifles would be ejecting any chambered brass. It seems like a deliberate mistake because they cock their rifles an inordinate number of times throughout the movie; I would guess the director wanted the effect of hearing the weapons being cocked multiple times at the expense of continuity with the rifles.
Deliberate mistake: When the tribe does the ceremonial dance to bring the crow back to life, you can see the same shot of the bird leaping up twice.
Deliberate mistake: When 11 is dropped into the water and eaten by the piranhas, although the ravenous fish probably ate most of her and what was on her, there should at least be pieces of clothing that would rise to the surface in the flurry of activity. Not to mention that even though the water is a murky green all the blood from her body should have created a temporary, but very noticeable darkening of the water.
Deliberate mistake: One of Eva Marie Saint's lines in the dining car seduction scene was re-dubbed. She originally said, "I never make love on an empty stomach," but it was changed in post-production to "I never discuss love on an empty stomach." It is said that the censors felt the original version was too risqué.
Deliberate mistake: When the raptor breaks into the control room and is hopping around the computer workstations, we see sharp, distinct genetic coding projected from a computer screen and across the raptor's face (starting 1:55:50). Aside from the fact that computer displays have never projected focused images onto nearby surfaces, the projected text shown in this scene oddly reads from left-to-right, when it should actually be a flipped mirror-image (right-to-left). Spielberg probably realised this factual incongruity while filming but chose to use the left-to-right text for the sake of audience recognition, given that the multiple lines of "GATC" genetic code were already confusing enough. (01:55:50)
Deliberate mistake: When the armored car hit's the police car the police car flies up in an explosion. Due to the size, style, and weight of the armored car, the police car should've been run over and crushed. (01:02:05)
Deliberate mistake: When Alice jumps from the rooftop, the entire roof explodes, but the wire she is on is still intact. (01:00:50)
Deliberate mistake: Throughout the film, Babydoll's shoes will go from her heels to some kind of flats during high-action scenes.
Deliberate mistake: When the list of the KIA during the raid is showing, the name of Matt Rierson is up there but he died 3 days later from a mortar attack on the base. (02:11:50)
Suggested correction: Although he was killed 2 days later, he is still considered a casualty of the battle in official records so it's not a mistake.