Continuity mistake: Gene Hackman begins the movie as a two-star rear admiral. Later in the movie, however, shortly after the second stand-down ordered by NATO Admiral Piquet, he wears three stars on his collar, signifying a promotion to vice admiral. This is highly unlikely, as he spends nearly all of the movie in the grease with his superiors. By the end of the movie, he retires as an Admiral with 4 stars on his uniform.
Continuity mistake: During the ejection sequence there is a major problem with the parachutes used by the crew. When you see the first parachute open, it is a standard Navy Conical round canopy with 3 colours; Orange, Green and White from the bottom view. A moment later they are flying ram air rectangular parachutes with different colour patterns.
Factual error: Gene Hackman's aide was a Master Chief. In the real Navy, an admiral would have a commissioned officer as an aide, such as a Captain or Commander, not a non-commissioned officer, such as a Master Chief.
Plot hole: According to the last radio conversation between Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman, the final "RP" was "5 clicks East." Why then, after a short run to the pickup ride, did he travel 26km in the pickup to the war-torn town of Hac?
Continuity mistake: The plane's weapons are there in some shots and not there in some shots. At 14:22, on the carrier you can clearly see 2 sidewinder missiles on the tips of the wings. At 14:52, they are there but are now blue. At 14:53, as it goes past "SHOOTER" they are gone. 14:57 there again.
Factual error: NATO officials are not against sending missions to rescue soldiers behind enemy lines. In fact, they are more than willing to send a rescue mission if there is a soldier behind enemy lines. Piquet would have been punished for trying to stop the rescue mission, and for only caring about the peace treaty, as NATO officials would not have tolerated Piquet's bad attitude towards the rescue mission, or him only caring about the peace treaty. They know that rescue missions do not start wars because peace treaties have mechanisms to prevent just that.
Factual error: Gene Hackman is the Adriatic Fleet Admiral. While onboard the aircraft carrier, he carries out duties as the captain of the carrier. The only people who can give orders on a carrier are the ship's captain or the airwing captain. Gene Hackman could only give orders to the captain, who in turn would give orders to the crew.
Suggested correction: The mission was unsanctioned and off the books. So in this case where the Admiral was the one who went "rouge" to save his guy it's completely normal that he'd be giving direct orders. He would not funnel an order through a captain in an illegal operation.
Admirals can only give orders to the captain who in turn would give orders to the crew. Missions being unsanctioned and off the books, and the admiral going rouge to save his would not change that.
Factual error: Most of the film footage shows the F-18E/F model "Super Hornet." At the time of the Bosnian conflict, this aircraft was not yet in service and was not slated to enter service until 2002. First flight: December, 1995. First carrier landing test: 1997. Entered Service: 2002/03.
Continuity mistake: Owen Wilson is carrying an AK47 with a wooden full stock when going to start the beacon on the ejection seat. When he is retrieving the film from the ejection seat, his rifle has a side-folding stock metal wire stock.
Continuity mistake: Towards the beginning of the movie when the F-18 is taking off to go on the recon mission, it shows a lot of different shots of an F-18 taking off. One of these shots is actually of an F-14.
Factual error: In the opening voiceover, the narration refers to the Cincinnati Accords, when in fact the Bosnian peace talks were held in neighbouring Ohio city Dayton, and commonly called the Dayton Peace Accords.
Visible crew/equipment: When Burnett is running through the mine field you can see a camera right in the shot. The camera takes up half the screen, but it can only be seen in slow-mo. (The use of slow motion is permitted when crew/equipment are visible.)
Deliberate mistake: The aft cockpit of the F/A-18F is not simply a 'Navigator' as they say several times in the movie. It is the Weapons Systems Operator, or WSO (Wizzo).
Factual error: Any satellite that could detect the scene where Owen Wilson is under a dead body, the satellite would be traveling so quickly it would be out of range in a handful of seconds - not minutes.
Other mistake: At the very end, in the helicopter, Gene Hackman is wearing a full helmet with a mouthpiece so he could hear and talk to the people in the helicopter and back at the ship; Owen Wilson is not wearing a helmet or a mouthpiece. There is no way Owen Wilson could hear what Gene Hackman is saying and vice versa. Battle helicopters are very noisy; you must have a helmet to hear and a mouthpiece in order to speak to be heard.
Revealing mistake: Towards the end of the movie when Burnett is by the plane's ejection seat, you see a puddle of water by him with snow flakes floating on top of the water. Snow flakes dissolve in water as soon as they hit. They use a corn starch type mixture to make fake snow, and that is what you are seeing in this scene.
Other mistake: When they show the Super Hornet ready to take off on the carrier we see lots of people standing around watching on the deck. The people are there because it is file footage of the aircraft's first carrier trials on the USS Harry S. Truman in 1998. As they bothered to CG paint over the trial markings on the plane, they could have erased the people at the same time.
