Factual error: The customs warehouse guards are carrying guns. Canadian custom guards do not carry guns at any time.
Factual error: When Nick navigates through the sewer system, he checks his position using GPS. The position on his display corresponds to the middle of the North Atlantic instead of the Montreal area.
Plot hole: When the security guards enter the cage housing the blown safe there are no traces of the water used to break the safe - not even on the (dry) floor. This happens only minutes after the explosion sent the safe door and gallons of water across the cage.
Other mistake: When Brando, Norton and DeNiro are at the table, DeNiro accepts the job and tells Norton the stipulations. When they first begin talking the ashtray on the table is empty, but when Norton is telling his story there is a book of matches in the ashtray, then later they are gone again. Notice, none of the three characters smokes.
Continuity mistake: When Norton gets the passwords for the new cameras at the park, there are three passwords. The first and the second have three digits, but the third password has four digits. But when Norton types the three passwords, the sound was for three passwords of three digits.
Continuity mistake: The first time Marlon Brando visits Robert DeNiro at his bar, DeNiro is drinking Scotch at the table. He takes a sip, yet in the next shot, the glass is totally full. Then, he doesn't drink again, but the next time you see the glass, it is half full.
Audio problem: Nick uses the periscope camera through the grate of the basement floor. There is first a shot of the camera poking out and that is followed by a shot of a hand-held screen accompanied by a camera zoom sound as he zooms. Generally the zoom sound would come from the camera itself rather than the screen and a camera that size is not likely to make a electronic zoom sound of that amplitude. (00:43:20)
Factual error: When DeNiro scouts out the building by going inside, Ed Norton guides him via a handheld two way radio. Having been a Marine for 5 years and working with various high power communications gear, I have never seen or heard of a handheld two way radio that can talk to another radio that is underground and quite a distance away. Both of the radios were portable meaning they had small batteries powering them, not a powerful power supply. Handheld radios work on the UHF spectrum, which is line-of-sight. It is impossible for a UHF signal to reach a receiver by going through numerous walls and metal piping. Ever lose your signal on your cell phone when inside a building or tunnel? Same concept.
Continuity mistake: At the part where Robert De Niro is checking out the basement from below in the pipes, he sticks a tiny camera up through a grid and looks around. Later on, when they actually do the robbery, he climbs out and the grid is totally different to the one earlier on.
Continuity mistake: When Norton is guiding DeNiro through the customs house with the radio from the car outside, he's in the passenger seat with the driver. When the driver pulls away to pick up DeNiro, the shot through the back window shows Norton is not in the car anymore. (00:44:00)
Factual error: The computer hacker says: "I was cruising around Ironclad's server at the root cobol level. when someone counter-cracked me, hacked into my machines, my data. For three minutes, I was fully exposed." The term "root cobol level" is completely made up, and has no meaning to a computing professional.
Continuity mistake: Near the end when Ed Norton's character changes and gets ready to leave with the gold staff, he puts the bag with the gold over his back first and then puts on his backpack. Later, when you see him running to the bus station, you see that the backpack is against his back and the bag with the gold staff is on top. This is also evident when he is talking to Robert DeNiro's character and he takes the bag with the gold off first.
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the film when the alarms are about to go off Norton points a gun at De Niro. He holds the gun with one hand, takes a step back and holds the gun with two hands, then in the next cut he's holding it with one hand again.
Continuity mistake: At the start when DeNiro is driving the van he starts on the left side with his jacket on, then he switches to the right without it, and back again to the left with the jacket. (00:07:00)
Continuity mistake: When the piano is being burned the scepter can be seen melting in the furnace. In all future shots the scepter is undamaged.
Answer: Norton already has an advance plan to prevent himself from getting caught. The delay is both to fluster DeNiro, and to prevent him from having enough time at the moment of the double-cross to come up with an alternate to handing over the prize without getting caught himself.
Rooster of Doom