Continuity mistake: When the jet crashes, we see a shot from below showing a large portion of it poking out over the cliff. We then cut to the parachutists, and when we cut back to the jet, we see that very nearly all of it is safely on rock.
Continuity mistake: When Stallone is told to climb up and retrieve the first suitcase of money, we see him reach a rather open landing with plenty of room to kneel and break open the suitcase. Once his partner (still below with the terrorists) screams "They're gonna kill you," and the terrorists start shooting up at him, the camera pans up to show him standing with his back to the rocks on a tiny ledge with barely enough space to stand.
Continuity mistake: Shortly after Frank is shot, Caroline Goodall's character checks the fuel gauge of the helicopter, and puts the kybosh on any ideas about flying around looking for the third case, as the helicopter only has enough fuel to get them down from the mountain. Later, John Lithgow, having kidnapped Janine Turner, flies around for ages, and the helicopter stays in the air for a surprisingly long time.
Continuity mistake: When the Government plane explodes, the cable that linked both planes is no longer visible anywhere in the shot where it shows both planes.
Continuity mistake: When Gabe climbes for the first suitcase, his type of shoes changes during the scene. At first when the rope is getting attached, he is wearing climbing shoes, and later he is wearing leather boots.
Continuity mistake: The white plane firstly has 3 stripes down the side, later in the film there are about 6 stripes down the side of the plane.
Continuity mistake: At the start when Sly drops the girl, as she travels down, her jacket top changes colour a phenomenal amount of times.
Continuity mistake: Just before the female helicopter pilot is shot, you can see she is wearing a brown coloured top, but when she is shot, her top changes to black- with a sort of scarf, then back to brown again.
Continuity mistake: When Rex Linn is looking for the third case, there is another shot of the screen shown. We can see his EMPTY left hand by his side. When the camera switches to a front view, he is suddenly holding a huge machine gun.
Continuity mistake: When Sly is attacked in one scene, he dives into a frozen river, only to reappear downstream, with a dry sweater and dry, coiffed hair, but switch to another scene and he's soaked, and yet in another scene he is dry again, repeatedly.
Continuity mistake: When Hal is on top of the mountain with the English bad guy and the guy with the tracker, the guy with the tracker tells the English bad guy to get rid of him quietly. 30 seconds later the same bad guy looks up and sees the English guy falling down the cliff having being killed by Hal. The bad guy has climbed down about 5000 feet in 30 seconds.
Continuity mistake: When Michael Rooker is fighting Craig Fairbrass, Rooker's jacket is unzipped in one scene, next frame it's zipped, then unzipped again.
Continuity mistake: Travers and the other guy are chasing after the sky diver. In one shot where they almost catch him Travers noticeably falls head first before the scene cuts. He's then seen standing up like it didn't happen.
Continuity mistake: During the shootout with the bad guy with the night vision goggles, his point of view is seen several times. When he is chasing Sylvester he is always moving in the night vision scenes but is stationary in the regular scenes.
Continuity mistake: In the last scene, when Gabe and the English guy are fighting on the red helicopter, notice that the number 3 disappears from the side of the chopper. The chopper is also a different shade of red.
Continuity mistake: When the Lockheed Jetstar is flying, it has an antenna with only one vertical tip that looks like a shark fin. Once the plane is on the ground you can see that the antenna is different and has two horizontal tips, similar to those antennas seen on limos or on the 'Fokker F-27' / F-28 models.
Answer: There was no realistic reason. First, the steel buckle on the safety harness would never just bend and break like that. The accident was not Gabe's fault, but Hal is supposedly so angry and grief-stricken that he unfairly claims Gabe ignored his advice when rescuing her. The movie uses melodramatic plotting to contrive a conflict between the two men. It's also unrealistic that Sarah, an inexperienced climber, was able to make such a difficult climb, even with Hal's help. The movie had many plot holes.
raywest ★