Continuity mistake: At the end of the film, during the wordless good-bye scene between Kelly McGillis and Harrison Ford, she stands at the door wearing her Amish bonnet. The straps hang untied in front of her shoulders, but after a cut to Ford, the bonnet straps are behind her shoulders. (01:42:30)
Character mistake: When Schaeffer, McFee, and Fergie walk down the dusty road to Amish village, Western gunslinger style, they make a silly mistake no cop would make - they assume that Amish villages are unarmed and undefended. No so. The Amish have no prohibition on guns and almost every house would have at least one hunting rifle or shotgun. The three bad guys are risking being shot to bits before they get halfway down that hill; they don't even make an attempt at concealment. (Wouldn't they also at least think John - a police officer - would still have his gun or might have got hold of a firearm from the Amish?)
Continuity mistake: When Schaeffer and the bad cops approach the Amish Farm, it's late afternoon/early evening. But when Samuel runs to the Hochleitner farm, and when the other Amish come running, it is mid-day or early afternoon.
Suggested correction: I always thought Shaeffer and Co arrived at dawn, not dusk. Workers could have been in the fields a bit later when the bell rang. But the morning does seem to brighten quickly.
Factual error: The car John Book was driving was a 1971 Squareback Volkswagen. They were "repairing the car" under the hood, but the engine on that model was in the rear.
Suggested correction: It is never specified that they were working on the engine. They could have been working on the brakes or the steering, both accessed via the bonnet/hood.
Factual error: When Rachel and Samuel are at the 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, the door Samuel walks through is not (and never was) the men's room entrance. The men's restroom is further to the left, behind the wall and out of the camera view. Also, the men's room at the 30th Station was never that dingy looking and, at that time of day, would have had a very steady flow of patrons going in and out.
Continuity mistake: When John crashes against the birdhouse, its pole is lying on the car's hood. When Rachel runs to help him, it is not on the hood anymore. It also breaks the windshield, though later it is intact.
Revealing mistake: After Book shoots McFee, McFee is leaning against the wall with a shotgun in his hand. He is holding a full pump action shotgun with one hand pointed up while wounded and then fires the gun. When he does, there is absolutely no kick to the shotgun at all, revealing it to be a blank shot.
Deliberate mistake: To keep things simple, the movie relies on the Lancaster County Sheriff as a county police force. In reality, the county sheriff serves the county court (transporting prisoners, for example) but does not serve as a county wide police force. In PA, each city, borough, and township has its own police force. Note the varied colors of police cars at the farm in one of the final scenes. These were borrowed from the various local police forces (Lancaster City, for example, is robin egg blue with a white top).
Character mistake: Locals pronounce Lancaster as LANGkaster. It is commonly mispronounced "Lankaster." When Shaeffer first calls the local police, the sergeant first pronounces Lancaster correctly but incorrectly later in the call.
