Revealing mistake: When Dormer fails to pursue Finch during the log chase scene, he climbs out of the water by a ladder. If you look at Dormer's back as he gets out of the water onto the dock you can see an outline of the life jacket Pacino wore to film the scene. You can see the outline again when he turns around and walks up the walkway. (01:00:49 - 01:01:11)
Insomnia (2002)
1 revealing mistake
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Robin Williams, Al Pacino, Hilary Swank, Martin Donovan, Oliver 'Ole' Zemen
Continuity mistake: When Robin Williams is being questioned by the police for the first time, one of the cops is talking to him. Very soon afterward the cop leaves the room and is walking away. We see the cop in the distance in another room, yet we hear the cop talking to Robin Williams again as Al Pacino shuts the door. Almost immediately, the camera angle changes to the cop as he finishes talking. He is standing in front of Robin Williams again.
Ellie Burr: A good cop can't sleep because he's missing a piece of the puzzle. And a bad cop can't sleep because his conscience won't let him.
Trivia: Al Pacino's character is named Will Dormer; Dorm is the latin root for 'sleep'.
More questions & answers from Insomnia
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Answer: Plot device to make Ellie look like a super sleuth remembering Dormer even carries a backup. When Hap and Dugger were comparing guns Hap says he and Dormer both carry S&W .45s. This makes the 9mm casing Ellie found a complete mystery to everyone else. So why the switch? Dormer's primary might be empty, but this is the first time Dormer shoots and all the characters act like there are only two shots fired in the fog, so for it to be empty he would have to be terribly sloppy. If he's so bad he forgot to load his gun it's equally likely he left the safety on. Maybe Dormer is just so used to being a dirty cop he instinctively uses the backup whenever possible to create an alibi. Ultimately, there is no explanation for this in the film, and if blink you don't even see the switch and are very confused when the 9mm casing shows up in the first place, if Nightmute carries.40, and Dormer .45, then 9mm has no place at all.
In the Netflix version with subtitles, when Dormer fires his primary weapon, the subtitle says "gun clicks." Dormer briefly looks at his gun and then pulls his secondary weapon. Nolan may have intended this to be ambiguous so the viewer doesn't know whether it was an accident or intentional (Nolan would never leave a "mistake" in the final edit - in fact, in interviews, he said he watched the movie at least a hundred times while editing), but the subtitles seem to put this debate to rest.