Factual error: When Sam opens the door for Jack to get on he pulls the handle the wrong way. On GMC buses if you pull the handle back it opens the back door which activates the rear-interlock and that makes the bus come to a complete stop.
Revealing mistake: When the train is sliding along the ground near the end, there are sparks coming from the underneath (supposedly where the metal scrapes the pavement). Look more closely, and you can see that the sparks are coming from a bit of the train that's not touching the pavement anywhere. (01:44:55)
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.
Visible crew/equipment: When the speeding bus takes the really sharp right curve, while it leans over on its left wheels, you can see the crew's tire rig lift under the bus that they used to keep it steady for this stunt. (00:50:10)
Visible crew/equipment: When Jack is talking to Howard Payne from the payphone, you can see the boom microphone's reflection on the phone receiver in several shots. (00:30:00)
Visible crew/equipment: Aside from the mysterious other trooper(s) reflected in the tarpaulin on the roof near the start, as Keanu Reeves runs past it, you can see the clear silhouette and red light of a cameraman filming the scene. (00:11:30)
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)
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: 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)
Audio problem: When Annie asks Jack what the plan is, he says something like, "Stay above 50," and we hear Annie reply, "Nice plan," but her lips don't move.
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)
Factual error: When the bus jumps the gap in the freeway, the front wheels rise into the air while the rear wheels are still in contact with the roadway (that has a very slight upward slope). Since its trajectory is fairly flat in the movie (unlike the ramp used to actually film the stunt), the front of the bus would fall well short of the other side. Further, the impact of landing would render the bus unable to move (which is exactly what happened to the bus used to film the stunt). (01:03:40)
Character mistake: When Jack introduces Annie to his boss after the explosion at the airport he calls him Lieutenant McMahon but when the credits come up at the end of the film he is named as Captain McMahon.
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)
Factual error: In the scene where Keanu Reeves attempts to stop the subway train, he accelerates the train by pushing the handle forward. In the LA Transit System, the train is stopped by pushing the handle forward.
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)
Suggested correction: If you have to use slow motion to see something, it's not a mistake.
Sacha ★