Continuity mistake: At the beginning, De Niro wakes up and is offered a cigarette from Jean Reno. The cigarette changes hands as the shot changes. (00:09:40)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning, when the group are discussing the plans for the ambush and the driver says, "I'm gonna need an Audi S8," Gregor looks up and stops writing, but in the following shot his head is down and he is still writing. (00:12:05)
Continuity mistake: Just before they head out to make the deal with the arms dealers, De Niro and Skarsgård are talking at a table, if you look on the table there is a flask and a cup. In the first shot, the cup is on the left of the flask, but on the overhead shot it's on the right of the flask, then it's back on the left. (00:14:00)
Continuity mistake: Near the beginning, when the group are talking over the ambush to steal the case, Sam walks to the table where Deidre is and Gregor follows. When Sam accidentally knocks the cup off the table, Gregor's hand changes position on the cup between when he catches it and the following shot. (00:14:30)
Continuity mistake: Just before the group goes out to collect the weapons from the buyers at the beginning of the film, the group are gearing up to go out, and Sam is talking to Deidre about the arms people. When Deidre burns the piece of paper and walks away her hair is obviously going down her back, but in the following shot there is now no hair on her back. (00:15:50)
Continuity mistake: During the arms deal scene at the beginning, when Vincent and Spence go underneath the tunnel approaching the arms dealers boss, one of them shouts, "Stop!" He raises his right arm when shouting, but in the following close-up he has actually raised his left arm. Zoom in required. (00:21:45)
Continuity mistake: Just before the Nice chase scene when Deidre gets off the train, she walks to an elevator. If you look to the left of the screen you can see Seamus with a black hat or french beret on, but in the following shot, the hat has disappeared. (00:25:20)
Continuity mistake: When Spence draws the sniper ambush scenario on the whiteboard and gets stopped, the cup of coffee is set down on a small table. When Spence backs away into the cup, its handle has turned itself around. (00:27:30 - 00:28:20)
Continuity mistake: When the group are discussing the plan for the ambush, the top line and words on the whiteboard changes, and the arrow changes from being pointed at the bottom of one of the photos to pointing at the top photo. (00:27:35)
Continuity mistake: In their initial hideout discussing the ambush, De Niro repeats several times to Sean Bean "Draw it again" then they have argument and De Niro apprehends Sean Bean. In the shot where De Niro pulls gun out of the back of Sean Bean's trousers, Sean Bean is definitely turned with his back to De Niro, where in the previous and following shot he is facing De Niro. (00:29:30)
Continuity mistake: When the group is going over the Nice ambush, Sam gets up, closes the door and Deidre walks in from the kitchen and sits down. At the door, Larry is taking a sip of his drink, but in the following shot the cup is on its saucer and he is holding it with both hands. (00:31:15)
Continuity mistake: At the start of the "Nice" scene, De Niro is standing under the big NICE sign with a gold post, but in the following shot he is about two feet away from it. (00:39:50)
Continuity mistake: At the start of the first chase scene in Nice, Jean Reno walks across the road to test the traffic lights device. There are concrete cones to the right of the screen, NOT by the grocery store, yet, on the overhead shot, when he is trying out the lights, three have appeared in front of him next to the grocery store. (00:41:55)
Continuity mistake: At the start of the Nice ambush for the silver case, the bad guys are shooting at Sam who is leaning against a grey car. He ducks behind it, but in the following wider shot Sam is still leaning against the grey car. (00:43:10)
Continuity mistake: At 50 minutes in, we have the silver case and paint transfer which DeNiro sees as to why the case he had was fake. But when DeNiro first takes and hands off the case, he has no silver transfer on his jacket front, nor on his sleeve. There's also no silver paint transfer to Gregor, who'd been holding the case before DeNiro took it from him. Once the shot moves to the alleyway, then the silver is seen on DeNiro's coat. (00:50:40)
Continuity mistake: In the middle of the film when Gregor is selling the suitcase onto the Russian guy in his jeep, you can see that when Gregor puts his foot on the accelerator the other guy jerks about and the last shot we see his head is down, yet the following shot he is looking at Gregor before the splatter of blood on the window. (00:55:05)
Continuity mistake: As Gregor tries to flee on foot through a crowd from Sam and Deirdre, he jumps down several stairs and loses his glasses which spill to the ground, with Sam right behind. Cut to next shot of Gregor running toward the camera with glasses back on, pursued by Sam. (01:07:00)
Continuity mistake: When Seamus, Deidre and Gregor are in an apartment just after Seamus comes out of the bathroom after beating up Gregor, he is holding a glass in his left hand after he pours the drink, then in the following shot the glass is now in his right hand. (01:13:20)
Continuity mistake: On the freeway chase scene between the BMW and the Peugeot, when the BMW gets flipped over and slides and the Peugeot hits it, the BMW goes over the edge and Peugeot slides round almost facing backwards. In the following shot from the ground the Peugeot has changed direction. (01:29:55)
Continuity mistake: During the chase scene, there is a Citroen XM series II (the citroen sign in the middle, on the front) and then there's a Citroen XM series I (the citroen sign on the driver's side, on the front). It changes back and forth a couple of times. There's also a difference at the bottom of the car; the series I carries the name Citroen XM on the left side, while the series II bears a Citroen sign on the left side and the XM sign on the right.
Answer: It's a while since I've seen the movie but if I'm remembering correctly, the meet was at short notice. Gregor had the case prepped for the swap but didn't have a chance to paint it in enough time for the paint to dry properly.
The_Iceman