Continuity mistake: This has to do with Ben getting Abigail's fingerprints off the champagne glass. When he hands her the champagne glass, her fingers are positioned on the lower half of the glass. Later, when Ben "takes" her thumbprint off the glass, he takes it from a much higher part of the glass.
Other mistake: When Gates enters the password to enter the preservation room he accidentally hits the Caps Lock key instead of the "a" key. (00:42:35)
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 is taking the screws out of the case that holds the Declaration of Independence, the first screw we see him removing is the one in the little "compartment" with an extra little rod across. There are three little compartments with this extra rod across and he is removing the screw from the left-most compartment. Next we see him removing the screw from the compartment just to the left of the previous compartment, but that screw is now back in place. The next time we see him removing a screw, it is again, one compartment to the left and again, the compartment to the right, the one he just removed the screw from, is back in place.
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: Right after the scene where the FBI break into Ben's apartment, Ian is puzzling over the clue from the Charlotte. He circles the phrase "in silence" but when he holds the notepad up to his friends, only the word "silence" is circled.
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 Riley starts down the smugglers' hold his bag is on his left side but when it shows him landing, his bag is now on the right.
Continuity mistake: When Ian and Ben are sitting on a couple of barrels discussing what the riddle means, there are a couple of balls hanging from chains very close to Ian's head. A scene or two later, there are a couple of oblong, round, flat bottomed things hanging down next to Ian's head that actually brush against the fur on his hood. Next scene, nothing is close to his head and then the balls come back and then nothing again.
Character mistake: Nick states that Wall Street was originally a wall (correct) built to defend against the British (incorrect). The original wall was a wooden palisade built in the 16th Century to defend the Dutch colonists against invading natives and to prevent livestock from wandering uptown.
Continuity mistake: As Ian watches our heroes leave Independence Hall the clock in the tower reads 3:27. That gave Ben only five minutes to climb down the tower, dig out the brick, meet up downstairs, unroll the Declaration and decipher it, realize they're being followed, plan their escape and leave. It took me longer to write all of that.
Continuity mistake: When we see Ian's men pull up over the grate that they are going to go down through to get to the National Archive, we see the street wet so it had to have rained, been hosed down, etc. But when one of Ian's men drops a large bag down, it whirls up a huge cloud of dust when it lands. This shouldn't have happened because there was nothing over the tunnel but a grate and some water would have gone down the tunnel, wetting the dust.
Continuity mistake: As Viktor is driving the catering van while Abigail is still in the back, we see the windshield get cracked near the bottom left. It gets hit by at least two more things but the next time we see a full shot of the windshield, it is perfect.
Continuity mistake: Near the beginning of the movie when Ben, Ian and Riley are in snow CATS and we see Riley's computer screen, viewed a little from the left, and there is a jiggling hula dancer, supposedly mounted on his keyboard surface. In the background, a window has popped up showing the location and route of the two CATS. Then we hear alarm go off and we see almost the same shot but a little closer in on the computer screen. The hula girl is missing. The difference in angle and "zoom level" could not account for not seeing the hula girl in the second shot.
Continuity mistake: Ben dipped the George Washington button in a liquid solution. But, when he puts it into the gift box, it is considerably larger than before he dips it.
Factual error: The ropes under Trinity Church are all shiny and new looking. These ropes would most likely be rotten and not able to hold up the massive chandelier or be supportive for the dumbwaiter system.
Factual error: The clock on the back of the $100 bill is stated in the movie to show 2:22. In reality the clock on that bill reads approximately 4:10. (01:09:45)
Factual error: Ben, Riley, and Abigail are driving into Philadelphia at sunrise to go to the Franklin Institute. They are shown driving west on the Ben Franklin Bridge. The sun is actually setting in the west behind Philadelphia, not rising. (01:07:00)
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 they get ready to climb into the tunnel left by removing the coffin, Ian says, "McGregor, Phil. You stay here." When you see the people coming through the tunnel, it's not Viktor and Shaw as you would expect but Shaw and McGregor. Don't know if Sean blew his line, the writers got the characters mixed up or the actors blew it, but something went amiss.
