Visible crew/equipment: At the beginning of the film, the top of a crew member's head is reflected in the mirror of the bathroom cabinet as Jason closes it. (00:02:15)
Deliberate mistake: When the Neski file exchange takes place in the beginning, the Russian says "You can see who stole the money" and the camera shows the Russian documents. The documents (written in Russian), are in fact, a "Journal of Military Activity of Russian Army in April 1945." It is completely bogus and have nothing to do with the film. (00:07:15)
Continuity mistake: In India when Bourne is running away from the assassin, every time the camera cuts to him we see him run past the same toy windmill stand. This happens three times. (00:11:10)
Revealing mistake: Whilst Bourne is following the assassin and drinking his water, he passes some toy windmills. Just before passing them there is a group of people behind Bourne and you can see many are staring towards the camera. (00:11:25)
Continuity mistake: When Bourne is being chased by the assassin, he leans his seat back all the way in order to switch seats with Marie. After they switch, in the next shot of Marie the seat is back up and she has a seatbelt on. There was no time to do either of those, much less both. (00:15:00)
Other mistake: When Bourne's 4x4 is recovered from the river, there is no damage to the rear window. But Marie was shot in the back of the head while driving away, so there should be a bullet hole. (00:20:35)
Continuity mistake: After escaping interrogation Bourne switches SIM cards and throws the phone back down with it facing down. When we see the American awake the phone is now facing upwards. (00:30:10)
Visible crew/equipment: During the fight sequence "The Last Two" between the remaining Treadstone agents, after Bourne is first shoved into the venetian blinds, look on the lower right corner (behind the wall) for a camera operator's hands and the lens hood of their respective camera. (00:41:40)
Continuity mistake: The blue Saab convertible belonging to the Berlin-based assassin is parked with all wheels on the road when the call-in team arrives in a silver 4x4. Shortly afterwards, the same car parked almost completely on the sidewalk when the assassin's house explodes. (00:41:50)
Continuity mistake: When Bourne does in Berlin the online research in the newspapers about the two murders he is accused of, in the first shot (over Bourne's shoulder) the first word in the entry mask of the search engine is "Medienprodukt" (which, by the way, is a verbatim but bad translation of "media product" and no German would say that). Also in the field "Jahr" (= "year"), we can see that the numbers "198" (instead of 199) have been entered. In the next shot, the close-up of the entry mask, "Medienprodukt" has switched to the better translation, "Medium". The entry in the year field has switched to "1997 - 1999". (00:57:35)
Continuity mistake: When Bourne pushes Ward's head to the table and says, "I told you people to leave us alone.", you can see Ward's glasses. Two shots later his glasses suddenly disappear. (01:12:45)
Factual error: When Bourne's passport is checked at the border leaving Germany to Moscow, his fake Russian last name, Kiniaev, is incorrectly spelled in Cyrillic (Kiniyaev). (01:18:15)
Factual error: When Bourne arrives in Moscow at Kievskii station, he goes to check the address of the dead Russian reformer's daughter, looking in a phone booth yellow pages. There are no phone books, much less yellow pages, in Moscow phone booths. (01:21:20)
Continuity mistake: In the Moscow car chase, Bourne's car is hit from the driver's side by a patrol car. The driver's side window breaks. In the next few shots, you do not see any broken glass on Bourne. In the very next shot the car is not damaged on the driver's side. (01:25:25)
Continuity mistake: When the assassin is following Bourne in Moscow, he stops on a bridge and shoots at Bourne, a second later, when the Moscow police arrive to detain him, his car is not on the bridge anymore. (01:25:50)
Continuity mistake: In the Moscow car chase, when Bourne's car is hit by a FSB Mercedes which had been hit by a truck, the whole exhaust section of his vehicle is seen collapsing to the ground. In the next shot, the exhaust section is perfect. (01:27:50)
Factual error: The scene where Nicky is picked up in Amsterdam is not in Amsterdam - the skyline does not match that of the city.
Revealing mistake: When the demonstration crowd is assembling in the plaza, there's a yellow tram entering on the left hand side. Watch as someone walks across the tracks in front of it and disappears through the corner of the cab. The shot must be a composite of the crowd amassing and the tram shot separately and then overlayed.
Factual error: When Bourne escapes from the Hotel Brecker he comes across "Zoologischer Garten," which is near Kurfürstendamm and therefore fine. But after a little more running he finds himself at the train station "Friedrichstraße," which is four stops away from there. He then jumps off the bridge. Since there is no bridge near Zoologischer Garten, this is probably the reason this mistake was necessary.
Factual error: While supposedly being in Moscow, Bourne really gets chased past the German Foreign Ministry. This is a landmark building. A picture of the building, same perspective as in the movie, is found here: http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/pix/baubilanz/regierungsgebaeude/auswaertiges_amt.jpg.
Chosen answer: Conklin ordered Bourne to kill the Neskis, telling him it was a training mission, when in fact it was an unofficial, off-the-books assignment to cover up his and Abbott's corrupt dealings with Gretkov, which Neski was about to expose. Nicky did not know about this Berlin mission as it was not an official Treadstone operation.
Sierra1 ★
Conklin did not tell Bourne that it was a training mission. Conklin told Bourne "this is not a drill soldier...this is a live project, you're a go."
Partially correct. After Bourne eliminates the Neskis, Conklin says "Congratulations soldier, training is over." This implies that while the mission was real, Bourne was still an asset in training, and off the books.
By "not a drill" and "live project", Conklin is telling Bourne to actually kill the Neskis - like killing the hooded man for Hirsch, it's training him to do anything for Treadstone. It could be that the edit is out of chronological order, but the order of the scenes implies that after Bourne has done the job and returned to the car, Conklin says "Congratulations, soldier. Training is over."
Sierra1 ★