Continuity mistake: The two fighter aircraft that took off from the carrier were unarmed. Later shots showed the planes armed to the teeth. (01:33:25 - 01:38:10)
Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the film, Tom Skerritt is on the same aircraft carrier as the fighter jets, but right after the jets bomb the enemy soldiers, Tom Skerritt arrives in a helicopter. There is no way that a helicopter is just as fast as an F-18 fighter jet. (01:44:25)
Factual error: In the final fight scene, you hear members of the SEAL team yelling "Grenade!" before chucking a grenade. They are supposed to yell "Frag out!" as yelling out "grenade!" is a warning of incoming enemy grenades.
Factual error: During the movie Tom Skerritt is seen talking to the SEAL team from the carrier's flight deck. That's impossible; command & control operations are being performed from the inside of the ship. Besides, roar on the flight deck would be so loud making it impossible to hear each other.
Factual error: At the end of the movie when Willis calls in the F-18s for an air strike we see them engage the rebels by firing a couple of AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles at the ground. This is wrong because an AIM-120 is a air to air missile only. The warhead on the missile is only a few pounds and doesn't produce the cluster munitions like effect that they show. It would have made more sense if the 18s would have dropped a couple of CBU's (Cluster Bomb Units) instead.
Audio problem: In the final shoot-out with the Nigerian rebels, Bruce Willis inserts a new magazine into his rifle. When he attempts to slap it into place, he completely misses it but we still hear the sound effect for him hitting the bottom of the magazine. (01:31:40)
Audio problem: Towards the beginning (in the night) the doctor is giving a young baby a shot. When she gives it to her it go to the girl's face (whose eyes are covered) and her mouth is closed when you can hear her crying. (00:23:09)
Continuity mistake: In the overhead scene of the first village, after the rebels had slaughtered all the remaining people, all the people strewn across the street are completely clean, no gunshot wounds, no blood, no gore or anything. Also in the same scene, the people that stayed behind (exceptions being the two nuns and the priest) had been so severely injured that they were unable to walk, so how did they miraculously heal themselves after they were attacked? (00:36:00)
Continuity mistake: When Lt. Waters informs Capt. Rhodes that he is going to take the group through the jungle Rhodes' phone switches back and forth between his left and right ear in alternating shots. (00:41:50)
Continuity mistake: When the group is resting at a riverside Capt. Rhodes calls them again. In the first shot the antenna of his phone is almost straight, but when the camera changes to a close-up it's bent as during the earlier calls. (01:19:00)
Revealing mistake: When Dr. Kendricks closes the eyes of the dead woman, you can see on woman's neck, that she is still breathing. (01:05:10)
Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie a very bloody Lt. Waters walks up to the Cameroonian border gate. The blood in his face has a different pattern in every single shot. (01:42:00)
Factual error: After the platoon killed the rebels in the village, Monica Belluci takes care of this severely injured woman and tells the "Doc" to pass her morphine. We see a close up and discover that she has a discreet but visible make-up. And that after days in the jungle.
Continuity mistake: In one of the scenes with Tom Skerritt talking to Bruce Willis, take a look at Tom's watch. It starts out at about 4pm, then 4:35, then 4:20. (01:19:40)
Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie, when Lt A.K. Waters and Dr Lena Hendricks are in the helicopter awaiting take off, he is sitting on her left and rests his head on her left shoulder. However, in the next shot as the helicopter takes off, he is sitting on her right side. (01:47:30)
Continuity mistake: When the refugees cross a river Dr. Kendricks is carrying a little child. The child is facing away from her, with its right arm around her neck. When the camera angle changes she is holding the child face-to-face, and now its left arm is around her neck. Then a soldier takes the child from her while it is facing away from him, but when the camera angle changes again the child is turned around and facing him. (00:18:40)
Continuity mistake: During the rebels' first major attack on the fleeing party, there is a lull in the fighting where Lt. Waters runs to find out whether Lena Kendricks is okay. When he reaches her, he lifts her up and she places her right hand against her ear. However, during different shots in this scene as he is talking to her, her hand goes from being next to her ear to not being there, several times. (01:29:00)
Factual error: At the very beginning of the movie, when the reporter is describing events in Nigeria, the 'footage' shows Kine 3 & 4, a movie house in Harare, Zimbabwe during the riots of 1996. (00:02:05)
Continuity mistake: If you watch the air support coming in to bomb the enemy troops from the time they take off to the time they leave, their load out varies a number of times. Watch as they approach for their bombing run - the weapons switch from white finned missiles to yellow-tipped green bombs and back before being fired.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the scene where Bruce Willis discovers the identity of the president's son and says to Dr. Kendricks .. "I wonder what it takes to earn your trust", Dr. Kendricks puts her right hand on the son's shoulder. In the next shot, it's her left hand. (01:16:50)
