Continuity mistake: When Agent Gibbs shoots the 3 guards on the airplane, the last one who is shot keeps both the arms lowered. Then, in a next shot he is with the left arm lifted up. (00:20:35)
Continuity mistake: When Agent Gibbs goes into the closed room and hands out the advance team reports from the Miami field agent, when he executes the three agents, if you watch, just after he kills the third agent, the agent's entire arm falls down behind the arm rest below the seat. However, in the following shots, when Gibbs re-holsters and turns to enter the armory, the agent's arm and hand are now risen upward, leaning against the window with his elbow propped up on the arm rest. (00:20:45)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the President is being escorted to the escape pod, there is an extra shot where the President is hiding on his own around the corner from a terrorist, who is sneaking around in the background looking for him. In both the preceding and following shots, the President is being physically escorted by two Secret Service men who are pulling him along and forcefully holding his head down. This shot is wrongly inserted into this portion of the scene and needs to be later in the film, when the President is trying to escape. (00:23:40)
Suggested correction: This mistake does not occur in the film.
It is a fragment of the scene when the man is checking downstairs when the whole plane is to be re-checked.
Continuity mistake: When the Secretary of Defense receives the letter that the escape pod is empty, look to the character to the right of Glenn Close. There is another character behind him, and when the character by Glenn Close moves, the one behind him disappears. (00:38:30)
Continuity mistake: When Harrison Ford is fighting one of the terrorist guys, they go into a room with two chairs. Ford spins a chair to knock down the guy, and they keep fighting. As they go at it we see a knocked over stool with a black seat. Instantly, in the next shot, the stool is standing up, and in a perfect position for Ford to knock the guy out with. (00:44:30)
Continuity mistake: When the F-15s fire on the Kazakh MiGs you can see the rockets soar up in the sky, indicating that AF1 and the MiGs are flying higher than the F15s; however, when the first MiG gets hit, you can see the rocket approaching at a steep angle from above. (01:46:00)
Continuity mistake: When Harrison Ford tries to enter the conference room when he comes upstairs from the lower level, he first struggles with the guard to the conference room door. While fumbling with the keys, the guard "wakes up" and shoots 2 shots toward Harrison Ford, where he turns around and shoots back. Those 2 shots from the guard leave bullet holes in the conference room door. When Harrison finally enters the room, the bullet holes disappear. When the bad guys return, the bullet holes are gone.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the real pilots of AF1 are trying to land, you can see people and things flopping around in the plane. Later, the President enters a room that looks so neatly organized and clean that no one would ever know that they had such a roughly attempted landing.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning, when AF1 is landed, and the two pilots and navigator get shot, a Russian guy takes over. AF1 is then driven around the airport. The Russian guy controlling AF1 speeds up to take off again. When he does take off he barely misses a plane that was on the ground. The next shot is from the back of AF1 and the plane that was on the ground has disappeared.
Continuity mistake: In the beginning, it goes from 5 guys with white parachutes to 4 guys with black parachutes, back to 5 guys with white parachutes.
Continuity mistake: Defense secretary Walter Dean makes such a big deal out of getting the cabinet to declare the president to be incapacitated, he gets Attorney General Ward to draw up the papers. They are then given to the Vice President to sign, and there are 16 signatures on it, presumably all the members of the cabinet. Funny thing is, the names are pretty easy to read using the zoom feature on the DVD player, and not one of the names is Dean or Ward.
Continuity mistake: In the scene when the Russian is shooting the 3 doors, on the second door, if you look in slow motion, you see 2 muzzle flashes before a hole is made in the door. The same on the 3rd door. Also, when he shoots the 3rd door, he puts 5 bullet holes in it, but when he opens it to check, there are 6 holes in the wall.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Gary Oldman shoots the National Security Advisor, the tips of his shirt collar vary between being tucked under his bulletproof vest and lying on top of it. It is untucked for the rest of the movie.
Continuity mistake: The blood that spatters on the bad guy's forehead after he shoots William H. Macy changes from gravitational drops on his forehead to smears on his cheek and chin.
Continuity mistake: When the traitor first begins to shoot the 3 people, we see a close up on one of the victims (the one who gets shot in the head). If you look behind him in slow mo, you'll notice that the furniture is already red (from the blood).
Continuity mistake: In at least one external shot with the plane on the ground, the wing tips have winglets (angled-up extensions of the wing) of a Boeing 747-400. In other shots, the winglets are missing.
Continuity mistake: In the beginning when the hijackers are trying to take off at the airport there is a shot where the plane goes over some emergency vehicles (before it takes off). These vehicles disappear in the following shot when the plane hits the tree branches. Also, a taxiing jet would've blown the vehicles and people around. Nothing of the sort happens in that scene.
Continuity mistake: When Gary Oldman is boarding Air Force One, his ID shows him at 5'11" (which I thought was rather generous) and then later in the movie it's shown as 5'8."
Continuity mistake: When the President is finally discovered, they bring him upstairs. William H. Macy's hands are "taped behind his back" but notice when Ford finally overtakes Oldman, Macy's hands magically appear in front of him and he overpowers one of the guards. Finally he tells Ford to run after Oldman to stop the release, and his hand is taped behind his back again.
