Visible crew/equipment: After Lieutenant McMahon requests to be flown to the 105 freeway interchange, a camera operator can be seen standing beside an overpass column when the bus and police escort drive by. (00:52:50)
Factual error: The bomber demanded his money by 11 a.m., so the sun should be high in the sky toward the end of the bus situation. However, in many shots at the airport, there are long shadows, indicating either sunrise or sunset.
Factual error: According to the TV announcer, the bus went from the Santa Monica Freeway to Western Avenue to the 105 freeway. Two problems would have occurred. First, the Western Avenue exit from the SM freeway is way too narrow to safely make a turn at such high speed. Second, there is no onramp from Western Avenue to the 105 in any direction.
Audio problem: As Payne cries "My Money!" when shooting at Jack, who is on top of the train, his mouth doesn't match what he is saying. (01:38:50)
Continuity mistake: When the elevator free falls and the floor opens, all the shots from below, with or without the woman falling through the hole, show the elevator is empty. (00:13:50 - 00:13:55)
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.
Revealing mistake: As the bus makes the impossible right turn at high speed, you can see the outrigger wheels underneath to stop the bus going over.
Other mistake: In the scene where Jack and Annie escape from the bus after they have gotten all the passengers off, when Annie is tying up the wheel, if you look closely, you can see that the gas gauge is at about 3/4 full. Isn't the gas tank supposed to be almost empty? (01:29:35)
Other mistake: As the first bus explodes on its way from the cafe, we can see a blonde pedestrian casually walk past a window with her ears covered. At no point does she even stop to glance at the burning wreck. It seems (from her perspective) as though the explosion were merely an inconvenient loud noise and nothing worth noticing. (00:27:55)
Factual error: When the terrorist's first target, the elevator, first has its cables blown, it goes into free-fall for about 7 floors before the brakes kick in. That is about a 100 foot free fall, and not one person even falls down afterward. Are we to believe that around 5 seconds of negative G does not even result in a single person ending up on their rear? (00:05:00)
Revealing mistake: In the scene where Payne is waiting for the money to be dropped into the bin, he looks through the blinds out onto the street. When he lifts up the blind with his 'bad' hand, you can see his fingers and thumb taped up out of the way.
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)
Other mistake: Just after the police close the roads in front of the news crews and the black police chopper lands in the road. There is a scene where the bus passes under a flyover with a police escort but the police car in front of the bus nearly stops, making the bus brake hard and nearly stop, bringing it well below 50 mph.
Revealing mistake: During the rescue of the elevator passengers at the start of the movie, when coaxing the last woman out, there is a shot of the interior of the elevator where you can see the ground through the hole in the elevator floor, even though the elevator is still meant to be on the 22nd floor. (00:16:47)
Factual error: Near the end of the movie, the villain shoots the operator of the subway car. In all rail transportation situations I am aware of, an operator falling from his seat would immediately cause the train to slow to a controlled stop. It's called the "dead man's switch." Obviously does not happen in this movie.
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: 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: 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)