Corrected entry: Given the lengths that Escobedo is willing to go deal with people who have wronged him it's pretty hard to believe he would have wasted his time imprisoning the rest of Clark's team instead of killing them, especially after they caused so much damage to his cartel.
Corrected entry: The plot of this film relies on the notion that Cutter and Ritter (with the backing of the President) are able to conduct this illegal war against the cartels with this small team of soldiers blowing up planes and drug bunkers while making it appear to be coming from rival cartels. OK, fine. The problem though is when you bring an aircraft carrier into the story a lot more people are going to have to know what's going on that are not in the loop. You would have admirals, navy officials, possibly even the Joint Chiefs wanting to know why planes are taking off from one of their aircraft carriers just outside of Colombian waters. It didn't take Ryan any effort to find the operations report on the "car bomb" and put two and two together, so I find it very hard to believe none of the higher ups in the Navy were questioning Cutter or the President as to what was going on.
Correction: There is nothing in the film to suggest that nobody in the Navy questioned their orders. The film focuses on Jack Ryan and his efforts to uncover the operation, but that doesn't mean that the Navy wasn't also suspicious when an air strike was requested. It is plausible that Cutter and Ritter handed the Navy a credible cover story to authorize the air strike for Clark's team. We aren't shown any of this because it isn't relevant to the plot.
Corrected entry: In the scene in Colombia when the convoy is attacked, Jack Ryan is running away from the last car and falls as it explodes. In his left hand, you can see that he is pressing the switch that makes the last explosion as he is falling.
Correction: There is nothing in his LEFT hand. He is making a fist with his RIGHT hand, but there is nothing in it.
Corrected entry: When the laser guided bomb is dropped on the cartel meeting the nose of the bomb is painted blue. This colour is used to designate a training or inert round. This weapon could not explode. (cf blue sidewinder missiles in TopGun)
Correction: In the book, the bomb is painted blue because the jet carrying it is supposed to be on a training mission. It then just makes a slight detour and drops the bomb and gets back before anyone notices it is gone. It is an actual war shot they just painted it blue.
Corrected entry: At the beginning of the movie the Coast Guard is preparing to board the hijacked boat. Two crew members run forward to man the gun and there is a front shot of the gunner running forward where he is wearing a full orange jacket. In the next shot, he is at the gun and he is wearing a sleeveless life preserver.
Correction: I thought this was a mistake too, until I watched it again in slow motion. 3 crew members can be seen exiting a door on the boat. Two men in sleeveless life preservers take a position on what appears to be a .50 cal machine gun (seen in the wide shot), while a third man in a full orange jacket mans an M60 machine gun (seen from a frontal close up shot, but not in the wide shot from the side of the craft). These are two separate locations on the boat, showing two separate weapons being manned. The only mistake is that of the 3 men shown exiting the hatch of the boat; two are wearing full orange jackets and one wearing a life preserver, instead of the other way around.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Jack Ryan meets Ernesto Escabedo, when Jack tells him to play the tape recorder, the play button is on the long side of the tape player. However, when they play the tape to Felix Cortez, and when Jack tricks him in the woodshed, the play button is on the top of the tape player.
Correction: In all three instances the play button is on the side of the tape player. When Ernesto plays the tape for Felix he puts his thumb on the top of the player, but his finger is reaching around to the side to press "play". And in the woodshed it is quite clear that the buttons are on the side.
Corrected entry: Later the convoy he is riding in goes down an alley and the Colombians begin blowing up the convoy vehicles. At least one more vehicle is blown up/and or disabled than were in the convoy.
Correction: The vehicle Harrison Ford is initially in is hit, but the rocket only blows up a chunk of the vehicle's front. The scene cuts away and it could easily be mistaken that the car was blown up.
Corrected entry: At the end of the movie where Jack Ryan is testifying to the Senate Oversight Committee, he is called to the stand as John Ryan.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Jack Ryan is printing out the evidence before it is deleted, the printer indicates out of paper. Ryan rips open the drawer, sees that there is no paper, turns around, grabs some, then shoves it into the printer...that already has paper in it.
Correction: It is a common fault with feed tray printers - they read the tray as empty when there are still ten of so sheets of paper left. The only way around it is to reload the tray, as Ryan does.
Correction: However, the tray was empty when he pulled it out and yet has paper in it when he attempts to close the drawer. If you notice, after he refills the paper and pushes the drawer in, it actually remains open about an inch and those old spring loaded drawer machines will not feed paper unless they are fully closed.
Corrected entry: What Harrison Ford is desperately trying to print the evidence, he's out of paper, grabs some, slams it into the printer, and the sheet starts printing, but the paper tray wasn't shut properly, so it shouldn't print...
Correction: Do you think they built a special printer for the film? It's a standard PC laserjet printer. It looks like the printer tray is open, but it is really closed.
Correction: A choice that might seem out of character on its face is not a plot hole. Escobedo could have wanted to keep part of Clark's team alive to torture them, to get information out of them, to use them as leverage, to present them to the world as proof the U.S. Government was plotting against him, etc.
BaconIsMyBFF