Continuity mistake: When Cortez gets out a photo of his wife pregnant, the photo changes between shots. She is facing a different direction in the next shot. His USMC tattoo, however, stays the same direction throughout the scene. (00:26:55)
Audio problem: In the scene where the guys held down Troy to burn him with the USMC symbol, and he's crying on the floor, you see Jake Gyllenhaal's character move in and you can hear him whisper, "You earned it, man," but if you read his lips, he is actually mouthing "Asshole!" (01:17:05)
Factual error: In the scene where Swofford is playing the bugle a water tower in the background has an Air Combat Command emblem which is used by the Air Force and would not be seen on a marine base.
Suggested correction: That part of the movie was filmed at a Naval Air Facility in my hometown. That movie theater where they were watching Apocalypse Now was also in the same said NAF.
Factual error: When the marine troops arrive at the airport in Saudi Arabia, they arrive on what is a TWA Boeing 747-400, which is evidenced by the extended upper deck and winglets. This is a factual error because TWA never in its history flew 747-400s, only 747-100s and -200s, which have shorter upper decks and no winglets on the wings. In addition, this aircraft and several other planes that are visible on the airport tarmac are painted in TWA's old paint scheme (livery) from the 1970s, which they no longer had painted on any of their planes at the time of the first Gulf War.
Continuity mistake: After the Christmas party and the fireworks blowing up, Swofford is seen sitting at a table drinking Crystal Geyser spring water and talking to Jamie Foxx. Between shots the front of the bottle keeps moving to continually show the Crystal Geyser logo facing the camera for perfect product placement.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Swofford is threatening to shoot Fergus, in all the frontal shots we see that Swofford's face and ear are touching the end of the rifle. In all of the shots from behind, his face and ear are no where near the rifle. There isn't enough time for him to move the rifle away from his face between shots.
Factual error: When the platoon crested the dune in Kuwait and came upon the Highway of Death, all the vehicles were going in the wrong direction. They were traveling south, not north to Iraq. Saudi is located west southwest of Kuwait and the only way the Marines could have approached the convoy in that scene would have been if they crossed over it once before or went completely around, through Kuwait City and then headed northwest.
Factual error: In the scorpion fight scene, Cortez is holding a new five dollar bill, seen from the back.
Factual error: When Swofford is burning the sh*tters, he says he used diesel fuel and matches. In reality, diesel fuel will not burn with matches, like we see it do in the film.
Factual error: When SSGT Sykes is showing the reporters how the drinking tubes work on the M17 A1 field protective masks he's passing out the canteens. On one of the canteen tops, the style of gas mask top for the canteen wasn't around in 1991, when the movie is set, but would have been widely available in 2005 to 2006 when this movie was filmed.
