Continuity mistake: In the scene where Ben and Riley meet Abigail for the first time, Abigail's assistant ushers them into the office and the camera shows her walking out of the office. In the next shot you see the camera on Abigail talking to the two men. When the camera pans back to them, you see the assistant leaving the room again. (00:22:20)
Continuity mistake: When Gates and Riley are talking in front of the Lincoln Memorial, the clouds in the background change. It would be possible that they change so quickly during the shots, but only if there was a gale and not sunny weather as it is in the movie. (00:27:00)
Continuity mistake: When Riley is in the Subway to install the video feed, he places his laptop on a table. On its left side there is a little antenna. When the laptop is on the ground, the antenna is horizontal. In the next shot, the antenna is already folded out in a 45° angle. (00:30:05)
Continuity mistake: When Riley is cutting into the pipe holding the cable for the National Archives, the hole he cuts changes shape after the shot showing him examining the wires. (00:31:35)
Continuity mistake: When Dr. Chase is entering her password she goes for the first letter on the keyboard. Her little finger is at the right end of the space bar and her index finger is hitting the key. When the shot changes to the close-up of her hand, the little finger is in the area of the CTRL key and the middle finger is the one which hits a key, in the area of the m or comma key. (00:33:15)
Continuity mistake: When Gates takes out the champagne glass after making the fingerprints visible, the time on his watch changes from 9:11 to half past something. (00:38:45)
Continuity mistake: When Gates enters the password he has hit the keyboard 4 times "V A (actually the "Caps lock-key, as explained elsewhere) L L" but when we see the screen with the access code, there are only 2 stars hiding the letters. (00:42:35)
Continuity mistake: When the FBI storms into Ben Gates' apartment, an agent is researching the Silence Dogood letters on his Hewlett Packard laptop. However, the web browser displayed on his laptop is the Mac Safari browser. HP laptops don't run Mac software so the "photoshopped" shot of the web browser on the laptop was done on an Apple Mac. (00:57:20)
Continuity mistake: When Gates and Dr. Chase are in the store to buy new clothes, Abigail is coming out of the changing cubicle. She opens the door wing while having both hands on the edge, when the shot changes, she leans on the edge with both forearms. (01:07:50)
Continuity mistake: When Ben finds the glasses at Independence Hall, it is 3:20 because of daytime savings time. However when the bad guys chase Abigail and Riley in the market they pass a large clock showing the time to be 2:37. (01:12:15 - 01:17:10)
Suggested correction: Actually, many places at a market like that sell old antiques and even old clocks. That could simply be one of them. Even if it was supposed to tell time, people often forget to set their clocks forward or back for Daylight Savings Time, and that could have happened here. Many of the clocks at my home and school are currently like that.
Continuity mistake: When Gates is arrested by the FBI you see Riley and Chase coming around the corner twice. (01:21:50)
Continuity mistake: When Ben and Ian stand at the corner of Broadway and Wall Street, while they are talking to each other, you can see people in the background passing Ben, but they never pass Ian. And, when Ian asks Ben where the treasure is, you can see a black guy wearing a blue shirt passing Ben in the background. 10 seconds later you can see the same guy pass Ben again. (01:31:00)
Continuity mistake: When the guy is smashing Parkington Lane's headstone, the number, size, and location of the holes change from one shot to the next. (01:39:10)
Continuity mistake: In the catacombs under Trinity Church, the lift Ben and Abigail are standing on falls. When it jerks to a stop, Abigail falls and Ben catches her. The lift is stationary at an angle. However, in the next shot, the lift is swinging forwards, allowing Ben to throw Abigail to safety. (01:40:00)
Continuity mistake: In the treasure vault Riley stands in front of that emerald statue, and on its chest you can see a part which is not covered in dust. In the next shot the whole chest is covered in dust. The clean area coincides with the later placement of Riley's cheek, which means the first shot was actually taken after the embracing and implemented before. (01:50:45)
Continuity mistake: When Ben is first confronted at his father's car by the FBI, you can see Chase and Riley in the background standing there and then turning around and leaving. Then as they arrest Ben against the car, you can see Chase and Riley just turning the corner, noticing Ben being arrested, and leaving.
Continuity mistake: The actor who plays Ben as a child has brown eyes, but Nicholas Cage has blue eyes.
Continuity mistake: When Ben and Riley go down the smuggler's hold in Charlotte, Riley's bag gets set on fire, the flap side. But in any of the following shots where we see his bag, it is not burnt.
Continuity mistake: When Ben walks in to the bathroom to remove his overalls, he slams the tool belt up in the corner of the counter next to side panel wall and tile wall. When Ben unzips the overalls, the tool belt is now behind the last sink's faucet with part of the belt and fastener in the middle sink. None of the tool belt is next to the side panel wall. We next see a shot where the tool belt is almost entirely in the last sink, then back to being behind the faucet.
Continuity mistake: As Ben is grabbing Abigail from Ian's vehicle, we see Shaw shoot at Ben and Riley's red van. He hits the top right corner of the sliding side door. When we see the side, sliding door again, there are no bullet holes, scratches, etc.
