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)
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)
Factual error: If you look at the loop Keanu hooks the crane onto on top of the lift you can see that it and its bracket have been recently welded on (by the black residue it leaves), obviously because the lift itself didn't have such a loop. Even if such a feature existed, it wouldn't be simply spot welded on the top as this one is, it would need to be part of the lift's structure if it were to serve any purpose in supporting it in an emergency. (00:13:05)
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.
Revealing mistake: In the scene where Jack and Annie escape from beneath the bus via a trap door, the shot of them skidding across the runway shows a ring on Jack's left hand as it is wrapped around Annie. Jack is not married in the movie, but his stunt double must be.
Factual error: When Payne blows the safety catch on the elevator it shows a shot of the floor level indicator going down from 29 to 25 in about 3 seconds. The camera cuts to inside for 5 seconds then the cable stopping the lift. This has taken approximately 8-10 seconds in total, but they are only on the 22 floor now. By the rate of which they were falling they should be on at least the 13th floor. Not taking into account that it would be accelerating as it goes down. (00:13:45)
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)
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.
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)
Audio problem: When Jack and Harry are running down the stairs to get to the elevator Harry radios his lieutenant and says "Mac we need more help up here now", but his mouth does not appear to be saying these words when it is visible. (00:14:40)
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.
Factual error: At the airport, Jack attempts to disarm the bus bomb from underneath, on a dolly towed by another vehicle. Meanwhile, Annie must continue driving the bus in circles on the runway at a speed above 50 mph. This scene takes 8 minutes, meaning Annie makes at least 2 laps of the entire 2-mile-long runway, complete with turns at the ends. There is no way that the towed dolly could remain positioned directly underneath the bus through the turns, as Jack would have swung out under centrifugal force.
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.
Visible crew/equipment: The first bus explodes, and the traffic on the road mysteriously disappears. If you look down the road, there are construction barriers blocking off the entire road, which would not allow any cars to drive through.
Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where the bus is exiting the highway on that sharp curve there's a medium shot showing the bus from the driver side. Look closely at the driver, it's either a really ugly woman or that's a man in a wig driving the bus. (00:47:04)
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)
Suggested correction: If you have to use slow motion to see something, it's not a mistake.
Sacha ★