Continuity mistake: When the woman and John Travolta get into the Hummer to go to the hospital, there is a car parked in front of them, but she pulls straight off and begins driving. She doesn't cut the wheel at all.
Revealing mistake: In one of the flashback scenes at the "bunker", a number of the shots fired pierce the sheet metal roof. When they show these holes, you can see fairly bright light coming through. This scene was supposed to be in the jungle during the night. There shouldn't be light streaming in; moonlight is not that bright. It was obviously artificial light used to enhance the scene.
Visible crew/equipment: In the scene with Hardy and the Colonel, in the Colonel's office where they share a drink and the Colonel gets shot, you can see a stage light outside the window as Hardy gets off the phone during the first shot. You can see the light and the gel-frame, looks to be a 5k HMI type light. (DVD)
Continuity mistake: When they're interviewing Levi for the last time (right before he dies) you see a close-up shot of his ear and blood spilling out of it. In the very next shot you see his entire face and neck, but the blood from his ear is gone.
Continuity mistake: When John Travolta grabs Giovanni Ribisi's face in the hospital watch as the camera angle changes, so does his hand position on the face.
Other mistake: When John Travolta is questioning Dunbar, Dunbar jumps across the table and knocks down Travolta, but the chair is standing, you see this when Connie Nielsen walks by it. Minutes later when they go back to Dunbar, they pick the chair up off the floor.
Continuity mistake: After Ribisi dies and Nielson stops and looks at the confession written by the other Ranger. Travolta asks what and she holds up the note. Before the other Ranger wrote on a yellow paper with large print, but she holds up a note on white paper with really small print.
Revealing mistake: There is a scene where Travolta is holding a prisoner up to a spinning airplane propeller to force him to reveal information. This is supposedly taking place in a pouring rainstorm. But during one of the close-ups, you can see that no rain is falling on Travolta's jacket. The jacket is wet, but no raindrops are falling on it.
Factual error: The Ranger beret should be tan. The Rangers used to wear black berets but switched to tan berets after the rest of Army changed from patrol caps to black berets in 2001. And I doubt that Rangers take their berets out on FTXs.
Audio problem: At the beginning when Nielsen says it must have been an honor to know Sgt. West, Travolta says "Well, that's one way to put it" without moving his mouth.
Continuity mistake: When Giovanni Ribisi starts spitting up blood, some of it lands on Connie Nielsen's face. As she and John Travolta talk about what just happened, the blood on her face disappears.
Factual error: Captain Osborn wears a uniform with lieutenant bars on it, not a captain's emblem.
Factual error: Throughout the whole movie, in most of the scenes at the jungle bunker while the rangers are talking to one another you can see condensation from their breaths as they speak. This wouldn't happen in the jungle and at tropical temperatures. So this scene must have been filmed on a studio lot in the states during cold weather and not in the tropics.
Factual error: The Soldiers are members of a unit training to be Rangers. Rangers are a light form of infantry and women are not allowed to be in infantry units in the US Army. Roselyn Sanchez would not have been allowed to be a part of that unit in a traditional infantry role, at best she would be used in a support role to help deal with women and children encountered on the battlefield, but she wouldn't be going through actual Ranger training like the men.
Answer: It added to the plan of section 8, in that they were successfully able to stage two contradicting stories and source further incriminating evidence about the doctor and Colonel. By having Kapler there, they were able to see who would make an attempt on his life, the Colonel, and completely shut down the drug smuggling operation.