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.
Plot hole: When Burnett is hiding in the mass grave, the people on the ship are watching a thermal image of him. When he falls, his arm is at an angle and stays at that angle. To move under the bodies in the grave he would had to have moved his arm. But it stays at the same angle throughout, so how could he move under the bodies, without his thermal image moving? (00:42:00)
Revealing mistake: When Burnett stabs Sasha the sniper with the flare, you can see the outline of the padding visible under his blue jacket. (01:29:20)
Factual error: The heat seeking missiles would not have gone after the fire ball created by the fuel tanks as shown in the movie. Heat seeking missiles don't go after just any heat. They go after specific frequencies of infrared found in jet engines. (00:20:00)
Revealing mistake: When Owen Wilson is trying to restart the beacon in his ejection seat, his right hand is ungloved. Yet in the scene before, he took off his left glove. It is my belief the negative is reversed, as you can catch a quick view of a Duracell battery with the letters mirrored. (01:24:43)
Continuity mistake: The metal rod Burnett uses to stop himself from sliding down, while being shot at by the sniper, changes after he grabs it. (00:38:15)
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.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Serbian soldiers are searching for Owen Wilson's character almost all of them following the tank in that shot are left-handed. A few minutes later it happens again. In all other scenes most every soldier is right-handed. The odd shots are flipped. (00:40:10)
Continuity mistake: At the end when the 3 Marine helicopters take off to rescue Burnett one of the 3 has their side door open. The position of this helicopter changes instantly between camera cuts. It goes from left to central of the 3. (01:26:50)
Continuity mistake: When the soldiers find Stackhouse one of them stands on his injury. When the shot changes to Burnett's point of view, the soldiers haven't reached Stackhouse completely yet. (00:28:50)
Continuity mistake: When being confronted by the resistance fighters in Hac, Burnett has a gun to his right cheek in one shot which moves to his left side by his neck between instant cuts. (01:08:10)
Continuity mistake: When Burnett climbs out of the mass grave, he is completely covered in mud. In the flashback at Hac however his face is almost completely clean when he emerges from the graves. (00:45:00 - 01:07:50)
Revealing mistake: When Stackhouse is shot, the smoke doesn't come from the gun. It comes from the hill. (00:31:30)
Audio problem: At the start a yellow jacket says to Burnett about loosing a finger. However, his mouth doesn't match what he is saying. (00:04:40)
Continuity mistake: While speaking with the Admiral, Burnet's collar is turned up at the back of his neck. When he leaves and is talking to Stackhouse it's lowered and neat. When Stackhouse turns him round to speak to him, it's raised again. (00:11:40)
Factual error: Fighter jets cannot dodge heat seekers head on. Missiles are simply too fast to be dodged head on by a jet due to the fact that fighter jets have to be at full throttle to stay in the air. (00:20:50)
Suggested correction: Actually they can. Head on presents less of thermal signature to the missile, as the aircraft engines are in the back. A radar guided missile could not be dodged so easily, however.
