Continuity mistake: When Jack is trying to catch up to the bus in Tuneman's car, the sun changes several times. In most angles, it's to their right. At one point, it is behind them. Then, it's above them.
Continuity mistake: Jack is lying on his horn trying to get onto the onramp. This is right before he drives past Tuneman. He is lying on the horn, and yet both of his hands are on the wheel.
Continuity mistake: When Jack handcuffs Ray to the metal handrail, Ray's right wrist has the double strand bars facing up and single strand bar facing down, but when Jack tells the passengers about the gap and then uncuffs Ray before the jump, the handcuff's single strand bar is facing up on his right wrist.
Continuity mistake: When Jack shoots Harry, the door (to the garage) behind Payne has a deadbolt lock right above the door's finger plate, but just before the door blows up that deadbolt lock has vanished. (00:22:35)
Continuity mistake: Early in the film, Jack shoots Harry through the left thigh (taking the hostage out of the equation). At the police awards ceremony, Harry is using a cane on his right side and his limp favors his right leg. After the ceremony, in the bar, when Harry gets drunk and starts to leave, he's using his cane on the left side and his limp favors his left leg.
Continuity mistake: In one scene where Dennis Hopper is holding the phone with one hand, he very obvious snaps with the other one just a little bit off camera. The hand holding the phone has all of the fingers, but the off-camera one is missing a thumb. How can you snap without a thumb?
Continuity mistake: When Jack runs and tries to get onto the bus on the highway, his elbow breaks the door window. In following shots this repeatedly changes. When Jack gets on the bus from the moving car later, the door window is perfectly intact. Then later the door glass is broken again, in a different pattern, while the bus is on the freeway. (00:33:40)
Continuity mistake: At the airport the black sign on the side of the bus disappears for one shot. (01:09:00)
Continuity mistake: When Dennis Hopper psyches the police chief out by making him think he's on the third floor, the elevator clicks one too many times. The camera shows the numbers: "5, click, 4, click" then it switches to the police chief, during which time you hear another click. It then switches back to the numbers: "3, click." Shouldn't it be on floor 2? (00:20:50)
Continuity mistake: When they run onto the roof near the start, there's another trooper behind Harry running onto the roof (only visible in widescreen - in 4:3 it looks like a weird reflection). In the following shot of Keanu Reeves you can see the reflections of Harry and the other guy on the plastic covering the scaffolding. We're led to believe that Harry and Jack should be the only ones up there, as everyone else has a job to do. Aside from those two shots, this third trooper disappears once they start hooking the crane up. (00:11:30)
Continuity mistake: On the subway train where Payne opens the money bag, a dye pack goes off and leaves a purple stain on the dead man's handle. But moments later in the shot where Payne stops firing his machine gun at the ceiling, the stain has vanished. (01:42:35)
Continuity mistake: After Keanu commandeers the civilian's car, breaks off the door and jumps to the bus the civilian loses control and heads for the water barrels in front of the divider. Right before he hits you can already see water all over his windshield. (00:38:20)
Continuity mistake: Just after the bus driver has been unloaded and Helen tries to get off, Annie shouts "No Helen" at which point Jack turns around and grabs her shoulder to stop her. The shot switches to Dennis Hopper watching TV and then back to the bus where Jack is no longer even close to Helen when the bomb detonates. (00:56:45)
Continuity mistake: In the last 20 minutes of the movie when Howard Payne is on the train and offers Jack some money, Howard opens the money bag and gets sprayed with purple paint. When Howard climbs on top of the train to fight Jack, all of the paint is gone.
Continuity mistake: When the subway carriage bursts out into the street, Annie's handcuffs slide off the broken pole and in slow motion you can see the pole is shorter than all others. Besides, all the other poles in the carriage are intact. (01:49:15)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Jack goes and answers the phone after the bus exploded, if you look at the reflection on the phone, it shows the explosion right behind the phone, but the bus is actually down the road maybe half block. (00:27:50)
Continuity mistake: After Jack wounds Harry's leg, Payne makes his escape to the parking garage. Watch as a garbage can appears from nowhere on the left hand side of the door frame in the shot where Payne starts laughing maniacally. (00:22:40)
Continuity mistake: When Jack starts wiggling the train's pole, his hands switch places between shots. (01:46:05)
Continuity mistake: When Jack and Harry are on the top of the building at the start, Jack climbs up a ladder and proceeds to walk along to the crane. In one shot he moves the big gun round to his back, and in the following shot the big gun is still in front of him. (00:11:55)
Continuity mistake: Just before the first bus explodes, Jack leaves the cafe and puts his coffee cup onto the top of his car. When he runs back to his car, the coffee cup is different as well as in a different position. (00:26:25)
Suggested correction: If you have to use slow motion to see something, it's not a mistake.
Sacha ★