Deliberate mistake: When the Matoban delegation arrives at the UN, it shows the motorcade entering the circle in front of the UN Secretariat building and stopping at the revolving doors right at the front the staff entrance. Diplomats' motorcades always continue on to the delegates' entrance under a protective tent in front of the GA building so as to allow VIPs to alight from their vehicles to prevent potential snipers from having a view of them. The very next shot of the ambassador shows him riding the escalator, which is at the delegates' entrance, going up to the General Assembly building. This would not have been possible unless they made him walk about 300 meters outside in broad daylight. No chance of that seeing he was already being protested on 2nd avenue all the way from the Queensboro bridge. Obvious reason for this error: The shot of the delegation getting out of the cars looks far better in the open right in front of the UN secretariat building rather than inside a protective tent.
Deliberate mistake: In the scene where the bad guy is attached to the missile and fired, in the split second before it hits the helicopter you can see below it a building called SUN BANK, but the letters are backwards. A close look reveals the likely reason - to the right of the reversed building is one which looks just like the building to the LEFT of the Sun Bank building behind the harrier a few seconds earlier. Most likely they couldn't film the chopper from the right side because there was a building there (the one the camera flies through), so they filmed it from the other side (the same side they'd filmed the harrier from), catching the "Sun Bank" behind, then had to flip it to have everything facing the right way. (02:06:55)
Deliberate mistake: There are several large security mistakes that were obviously added to the film to move the plot forward. The takeover of "Control" would not happen that way. The Secret Service keeps it in a secret off site location which not even the security detail knows. This location is in some kind of very remote bunker to prevent what happens in the movie. Secondly, when the threat is identified and the switch to the double is made, the President would have been moved to a secure bunker created for the purpose until the threat was dealt with.
Suggested correction: It actually could still be possible for a takeover of "Control" to happen even if it was a secret off site location/secure bunker. Depending on Taylor's security clearance and how high up he is in the secret service, he could have been one of the few in the security detail that knew where the secret location was. Since he's the one that got Barnes back on detail, he most likely has a high clearance.
No actually it couldn't be possible for takeover of control. No one in the security the detail knows where the secret location is. Even if Taylor had a high clearance it only grants access to a limited number of places. One of the places it doesn't grant access to is the secret location.
With a high enough clearance it could still have been possible. Not to mention there could have been more than one mole in the secret service other than Taylor who had the clearance to know the locations.
Read it again. "Even if Taylor had a high security clearance it only grants to a limited number of places. One of the places it doesn't grant access is the secret location." So Taylor would not have access to the secret location no matter how high his security clearance was.
Takeover control couldn't be possible if the location was an the location an off site secret bunker because the villains wouldn't be able to find it. Even if Taylor had a high security clearance he wouldn't know where the secret bunker because if he was ever allowed in there he would blindfolded to prevent him from learning where the bunker was. Taylor would get arrested if he learned where the bunker was.
Only the service officials know where the bunker is. Taylor is not a secret service official.
Deliberate mistake: The "flow" from Fred (Rachel's brother) urinating while strapped to a chair was not what would be expected. His pants would absorb the urine, so urine would not flow to the floor like from a faucet or large streams drip straight down and form a puddle beneath him. (00:57:06)
Deliberate mistake: In the scene with the first demonstration of the digging laser, they dig/blast quite a hole in the mountain. Even assuming the laser can very easily shatter the rocks substance, still the debris would have to go somewhere, yet there appears to be none. And the amount of power needed to convert matter into energy is not practical.
Deliberate mistake: Near the beginning, Col. Mortimer takes down a wanted poster and goes after the man. The man he kills looks nothing like the man pictured on the poster.
Suggested correction: There is a similar situation in the UK produced western movie "Carry On Cowboy" (released 1965). Johnny Finger/The Rumpo Kid (Sid James) shoots the sheriff of a US town. The sheriff is related to legendary sharpshooter Annie Oakley (Angela Douglas) and she swears revenge. Finding that Johnny Finger is staying in a saloon, Annie Oakley sets up a trap on the staircase. Another person (an uncredited extra) inadvertently walks up the staircase, so she shoots him instead. As he falls down the stairs she calls out "I'm terribly sorry I thought you were somebody else." Perhaps Col Mortimer has made a similar mistake. Being less polite than Annie Oakley he does not have the good manners to apologise.
Suggested correction: Is that a mistake? (Either on the part of the people who made the film, or assuming this was real life, on the part of Colonel Mortimer?) They're a pretty bloodthirsty lot in this film, and nobody seems to really care who gets shot. Maybe he figures he can get a bounty for that person anyway.
Deliberate mistake: When the penguin goes into the cemetery, he bumps a tombstone and it moves. Almost certainly a tribute to legendarily poor director Ed Wood, who Tim Burton later directed a biopic of - this exact thing happened in one of his films. (00:39:15)
Deliberate mistake: When Max and 99 are in the air, they can be seen talking to each other. This is not possible (as proven on Mythbusters) even if you were yelling at the top of your lungs. The wind would make any noise unrecognizable, yet we hear them talking to each other just fine.
Deliberate mistake: Every time Nicholas enters his gate at home, it's daylight and then when he drives up to the house it is night. Either he has a 300 mile property or there is something else going on. It would appear that it is deliberate as it happens many times in the film. Symbolically, Nick is leaving the world as he appears with wealth and privilege (light) and entering the real van Orton world of solitude and sadness (dark). (00:09:00 - 00:09:55)
Deliberate mistake: If you look at the IP address of the junkyard, it is listed as: 634.634.99.234.88. An IP never goes over 255. (01:00:10)
Deliberate mistake: At the end just before the president is killed he fixes his tie, but it keeps on getting fixed to messed, to fixed, etc. Deliberate homage to "A Few Good Men", but worth looking for nonetheless. (00:28:15)
Deliberate mistake: Father Merrin says, "It is He who commands you", and we hear and see the ceiling crack above his head. In the next shot we see the ceiling above him and they are no cracks in it, but four shots later we see the exact same spot and now cracks appear even though we hear no more cracking over-dubs after the first one. (01:49:15)
Deliberate mistake: In the scene where Bond and Kananga are fighting underwater, Bond shoves the bullet into Kananga's mouth. Then, Kananga rises up and explodes. He explodes like a balloon, with not much blood at all.
Deliberate mistake: Laser beams are normally not visible, except for a small dot where they hit a surface. Even if made visible, using smoke or dust or special glasses, they are thin as threads. Obviously something more visual was needed for Toulour's dance act, hence the thick beams of light.
Suggested correction: Talour would need to see the beams in order to get through. I would attest that he let off a low grade smoke canister with a fine mist like a concert hazer to make the beams visible yet not trip a smoke fire detector.
Deliberate mistake: In the shot near the end of the film where Donnie grabs the keys for the station wagon, you can see a Blockbuster Video member card in a cup. That card design wasn't used until the mid to late 1990's. This movie is set in 1988. Deliberate as it's a product placement, but still wrong. (01:37:10)
Deliberate mistake: The slow rate of the radio telescopes at the VLA has been greatly increased for the movie. They are actually quite slow and make little to no noise.
Deliberate mistake: Mr. Medulla said that Will stepped on his foot when he was walking to his desk. If you look closely you can notice that he stepped over his foot instead of on it.
Deliberate mistake: The 'NNN' news program shows a picture of some animal crackers in Frank's stomach. The problem is, they are still all in one piece and are pretty big. I don't think Frank would swallow them whole.
Deliberate mistake: In the scene where Alex, after having been released from prison, is standing near Albert Bridge and staring down at the River Thames, the tide line, as measured by the bridge's support column, changes several times.
Deliberate mistake: There is just too much movement and detail in the synthetic skin masks. Peyton lost a large portion of his face in the explosion, and cannot make much expression with his own face, but somehow he can make the masks move perfectly just like a real face.