Factual error: When Dr Ryan first arrives in Colombia and takes a government vehicle through town, he rolls down the window. The DEA agent says, "Don't do that because it's a bulletproof vehicle." In reality, you can't roll down the window on an armored/bulletproof vehicle. (00:50:00 - 00:55:00)
Suggested correction: A quick Google search shows that some armored cars have roll-down windows and some don't. Maybe this one did.
Factual error: A bunch of troops are in heavy camouflage in helicopters, going to an assignment. The officer in charge tells them to take their dog tags off and empty their pockets of anything that could identify them. This is silly: first, in troop helicopters, the troops wouldn't be able to hear the officer's voice - it's too noisy - and second, this would be ingrained in them, to remove dog tags etc, and would have been done back at the base, before they left.
Continuity mistake: When Jack Ryan is in his office and hacks into Ritter's computer, he is trying to print out some files before Ritter deletes them. His printer fails to print, and after pulling out the paper drawer of his printer he discovers it is out of paper. Immediately, without closing the drawer, he quickly opens the door to the cabinet beneath the printer, grabs some paper, and the very next shot shows the printer paper drawer has mysteriously closed, so he has to pull it out again to add the paper.
Continuity mistake: At the end, when Jack Ryan is arguing with the President, his "A" tag switches from being over the lapel of his jacket to under it, without him moving.
Visible crew/equipment: When the lone Huey helicopter comes to rescue Jack Ryan from a roof top, the reflection of the filming helicopter can be seen in its window.
Revealing mistake: When Jack Ryan goes to Ernesto Escabeda's residence and asks to see Ernesto, as he is led up to the house we see his two companions on a roof top ledge watching through binoculars and one of them says "He's in", if you look at that shot closely the suppressor on the mp5 laying next to the sniper is fitted at a decidedly wonky looking angle.
Revealing mistake: There is a scene where the Army team is moving through the Colombian jungle. At one point one of the team members has the muzzle of his weapon pointing straight at the camera. You can clearly see the Blank Firing Adapter (BFA), a shiny brass looking thing, in the compensator of his M-16.
Revealing mistake: There is a scene where a jet flies over a city which the movie states that is Bogota, Colombia. But those who have been around South America will notice that this scene shows Quito in Ecuador, not Bogota. This doesn't only happen in that scene, but also at the airport scene where the jet lands. You can notice a couple of Ecuatoriana 707s as well as some other Ecuadorean airliners in the background. Also, if this were El Dorado airport in Bogota, you wouldn't see Pichincha mountain, first of all, and secondly Pichincha wouldn't appear so close to the airport as it does if this were to be Bogota.
Factual error: On the sniper range in a close up of Chavez's finger going on to the trigger, his placement is completely wrong. He's wrapped his finger around the trigger instead of using only the pad.
Factual error: On the Sniper range the reticle used in Chavez's weapon is completely wrong. It would have mil-dots on both the vertical and horizontal lines.
Continuity mistake: A Hawker 125 executive jet lands with the guys who are eventually involved in the street ambush. The hangar scene where Ryan greets them getting off the plane has them deplaning from a larger Gulfstream executive jet.
Other mistake: The first plane to explode has a very neat symmetrical blast originating from underneath the plane - which is in fact wrong given that only one charge was placed on the side of the plane. The plane would be badly damaged and probably jack knife through the side of the hangar instead.
Continuity mistake: During the scene in which the convoy of CIA Suburbans is ambushed from the rooftops, Harrison Ford and the remaining men get back in a Suburban that has already been hit and the driver's door is missing. Ford hurriedly jumps into it and begins backing out of the ambush. Even though he didn't buckle it, a seat belt is visible around him. When he jumps out of the Suburban, he doesn't unbuckle the seat belt.
Factual error: When Jack Ryan arrives in Colombia you can see clearly a street name on a plate. That's not a Colombian street plate and it's a Mexico City street.
Visible crew/equipment: When the Coast Guard Captain is looking through her binoculars at the yacht the camera switches to the binoculars' point of view to show the yacht in the distance. The front of another boat is visible just below the back of yacht, this couldn't be the front of the coast guard vessel so it would have to be whatever the film crew was using to get the binoculars' point of view of the yacht probably just a few feet away.
Continuity mistake: While Clark is talking with Ritter in Panama, the level of beer in the glass increases between shots.
Factual error: When Willem Dafoe is targeting the villa with an air-launched bomb, the first time you see the F-18 in flight, it has a drop tank, but no bombs.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning, where the Coastguard is chasing down another vessel, both boats are ploughing through heavy-looking seas. When the Coastguard boards the other vessel, the sea is flat calm.
Other mistake: In Columbia, Ryan gets an RPG shot at him while he's driving an SUV backwards. It blows up right in front of the vehicle, and causes fire to get into the open driver side door. Miraculously, Ryan isn't suffering from severe burns.
Factual error: It wouldn't have mattered that Ritter had his "autographed get out of jail free card" given to him by Cutter or authorized by the President, it was still an illegal operation that Congress didn't know about. Anyone involved in it would be going to prison regardless of position.
Suggested correction: The point Ritter is making is the operation was personally authorized by the President behind closed doors. If Cutter and Ritter were arrested for their involvement, they would be pardoned by the President. The President of the United States has the authority to pardon someone even before they have been charged with a federal crime, as Gerald Ford did for Richard Nixon. Jack doesn't have this protection because he is to be the scapegoat if the scandal is exposed.
