Continuity mistake: At the start when Jack is trying to get on the runaway bus, he is seen passing the guy in the convertible Jaguar on the freeway entrance-ramp. He continues to overtake lines of stationary traffic in order to catch the bus, and then pulls alongside it. In the next shot he commandeers the Jaguar so he can use it to get onto the bus; however the Jaguar should still be waiting in the queues some way behind. (00:32:55 - 00:35:00)
Continuity mistake: When the LAPD are making the money drop, one shot from Dennis Hopper's apartment shows a businessman walking past the garbage can with a silver briefcase (just as the garbage man comes), and the same man with the silver briefcase walks past about a minute later in another shot when Keanu Reeves is running towards the bin.
Continuity mistake: After the bus driver looks at the note "Bomb on Bus" he starts decreasing speed. So Keanu puts the Jaguar beside the bus and tells the bus driver to open the door for him to tell the driver to go at a speed of 50 miles per hour. Just before this you can see a camera shot in which the door is already open. This mistake is easily seen if you watch it in slow motion.
Continuity mistake: When the bus hits the back of the car on the tow truck, it appears that the hit is hard enough to launch the car up the ramp and over the front of the truck, but there is no damage to the front of the bus.
Continuity mistake: When Annie hits her head after jumping the gap on the road you can see a cut. The cut changes shape throughout the whole movie.
Continuity mistake: Travis shoots Harry in the leg, and Harry is slumped against the wall next to the doorway. When Payne sets off the bomb, Harry is now no longer near the door, and is halfway down the corridor. Not enough time had passed between shots for this to have occurred. (00:22:20)
Suggested correction: Harry drops to floor by door 1 on the right-hand side of the corridor facing the parking lot. We then get a 2-3 second shot of Jack shrugging and shouting "Freeze" at Howard. Howard is then seen staring at Jack in disbelief at the thought of him shooting a hostage. We then see Howard (still in the initial 3 seconds) walk into the parking lot and Jack run towards the door. As Howard is going through the door the shot changes to Jack and in this shot you can see Harry shuffling down the corridor.
Continuity mistake: When Jack and Mac are on the back of a truck with the red cart tied to the back of it, when Annie says "I have no idea", Jack and Mac both have their backs against the truck facing the camera, but in the following shot they are facing each other. (01:09:35)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning, when the employees are getting into the elevator, there is a close view of the man at the front pushing the button with his finger, but when it cuts to a wider shot, he is taking his thumb away from the button, instead of his finger. (00:04:35)
Continuity mistake: When Annie is running for the bus, she passes notice boards as such, yet when it cuts to a side shot of Annie at the door to the bus, the massive notice boards have suddenly disappeared and all it is now is bushes and gardens. (00:29:45)
Continuity mistake: After waving his LAPD badge at Sam and trying to warn him of the bomb on the bus, Jack places it at his side. But in the following shot Jack has instantly got the badge in his hand again, waving it in the air just like before. (00:37:00)
Continuity mistake: The bus hits many cars in the movie, yet there is virtually no damage sustained by the bus throughout.
Continuity mistake: When Annie drives onto the shoulder, after Jack has come out from investigating the bomb underneath, the bus crashes into a car on a tow truck. In the first shot the tow truck is well inside the white line on the road and it looks like it's half on the grass as well. In the following shot when the bus hits the car, the tow truck has moved to its left and is now on the white line on the road. (00:44:35)
Continuity mistake: When Jack is in "Tuneman's" car, driving alongside the bus, when Jack holds his badge up to the driver, he is holding it at the top, but in the following shot he is now holding it at the bottom. (00:35:30)
Continuity mistake: In the first part of the movie, it appears that the building is approximately 53 floors high, we can see this as when Keanu Reeves and Jeff Daniels go to the roof the label on the door is "ROOF/53". However, the service elevator seems to reach the top of the shaft after Dennis Hopper enters level 46 on the control panel. This is rather unfortunate, especially as the security console says that the elevator "serves floors GE-52". I wouldn't like to be in the elevator as it tries to go past level 46 to a higher floor such as 52. (00:21:45)
Continuity mistake: When Harry is talking to a police woman at the station, about going through the police files, the woman's bangs are messed up. When the camera pans back to her, every hair is in place.
Continuity mistake: When Jack slows down to break the door of the car, he comes to a complete stop but the very next shot, he is back at normal speed.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the film, the train flies off the track, through a wood-framed tunnel under construction, and then onto a city street. During the credits, as the shot is pulled back, there is no destroyed wood-framed tunnel. In fact, traffic is flowing normally in the background.
Continuity mistake: When Keanu and Jeff are on their way to the building at the start of the film, their car flies over a hill and lands back on the road. The right hand front wheel takes a really nasty knock as it lands and looks ready to come off, and yet in the next shot they arrive safely with no apparent difficulty driving the car. (00:06:00)
Continuity mistake: When Howard Payne calls Jack in the bus and is saying he wants his money, etc, at the start of the next scene the bus can be seen with not only its front doors open, but the back doors are also open with a guy standing on the step in the doorway, even though the back doors haven't been opened yet. This shot is actually cut from the following scene, when Jack gets off the bus, the young guy from the bus stands in the doorway looking out at Jack leaving. (01:07:55)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the movie after Jack has hooked up the crane from outside to the lift, there is a shot of the crane outside, and the line going through the vent. If you look closely there is a pipe in front of the vent, yet when the crane goes through the vent, the pipe has vanished. (00:14:20)
Suggested correction: If you have to use slow motion to see something, it's not a mistake.
Sacha ★