Corrected entry: When Agent Perez arrives at the Defense headquarters, there's a shot of a helicopter landing. The US Flag emblem near the top of the elevator is reversed, probably meaning that they flipped the shot.
Corrected entry: At the end of the film, a news voice-over says that there are no named suspects in the attack on the Blair Tunnel. There is no Blair Tunnel in the DC area. (01:48:20)
Correction: It's not a mistake to have a fictional location within a non-fictional location.
Corrected entry: Many scenes (attacks by UAVs and the car chase through a junkyard) and even plot points (cyber-terrorism and artificial intelligence) are copiously similar to that of Transformers (2007) which also starred Shia LaBeouf and was also executive-produced by Steven Spielberg.
Correction: This movie also has scenes showing the sky, just like the movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, starring Shia LaBeouf and directed by Steven Spielberg. But that's not trivia either.
Corrected entry: Towards the end of the movie, Zoey destroys ARIA's robotic eye, causing her to shut down. Yet, later, we see ARIA's screen showing the countdown to when the bomb is triggered.
Corrected entry: Air patrols are always conducted with two or more aircraft, however there is only the F-16 ARIA ejects the pilot.
Correction: The F16 wasn't part of an air patrol, it was sent as an emergency measure to stop the rogue unmanned plane.
Corrected entry: When Jerry and Rachel are running away from the FBI, through the airport, they are instructed to go through the emergency exit. There is a lock on the door that can only be opened with an access card. The computer opens the door for Jerry and Rachel, and locks out the FBI. This makes no sense because it was an EMERGENCY EXIT and should have been open for everybody.
Correction: The door was in fact NOT an emergency exit, but a staff/maintenance exit, which is clear by the signs posted on the door: "NOT AN EXIT" "STAFF ONLY".
Corrected entry: The entire movie hinges on something that is an impossibility. One's twin cannot remove a biometric lock from a machine. This might be possible if it only compared DNA, as identical twins have the same DNA. This, however, is where the similarities end, as a hand scan would have been invalid, because of different fingerprints. The facial/retinal scan should have been invalid because the retinas would have been different, as well as their faces, as a result of different environments (i.e., scars, hair, facial hair, etc.). Finally, and the biggest hole, the voice print scanner. Maybe they would have been similar enough for comparison; however, I simply cannot believe they would have been identical.
Correction: Whether or not a twin could deactivate the biometric lock depends ENTIRELY on how the system was designed and programmed, and the Secretary of Defense says in the film that the system is still in beta testing.
Corrected entry: When Agent Perez gets out of the cooling pool at the end of the movie, she grabs a metal rod and shoves it into the eye of Eagle Eye. When she does this all kinds of electrical sparks fly, and even though she is completely sopping wet, including her hands, she is not electrocuted.
Correction: Sparks do not cause electrocution, electrical current does. The electrical current moved back up the devices arm, causing a series of explosions.
Corrected entry: Although this destroys the whole plot, there is no point in an evil supercomputer needing human beings to commit crimes. ARIA is powerful enough to control any electronic device in the country and should be powerful enough to conquer the United States. Many film critics have pointed this out.
Correction: ARIA doesn't want to conquer the United States, she wants to remove the existing executive administration. Throughout the film she explains that she has decided the current president/administration is harming the country because of the terrorist attacks in retaliation for the president's order to bomb the funeral at the beginning of the film (ARIA recommended against it). Because the constitution states that if any branch of government becomes harmful, it can be replaced, ARIA decides to replace the president with the Secretary of Defense (who didn't want to bomb the funeral). Sure, if ARIA wanted to just take over humanity, she could have, but in her "mind" she was performing a vital service for the country. Removing the 8-or-so people ahead of the SecDef in the order of succession wouldn't be easy to do while still keeping EagleEye a secret. ARIA decided that bombing the State of the Union Address would be the easiest, most efficient, and fastest way.
The computer could have taken out anyone. No need for human involvement.
The humans are her "alibis" so to speak. If a "terrorist" took out the President and the rest of the cabinetry, then she could continue to function undetected.
Corrected entry: Ethan Shaw would never have been allowed to operate ARIA alone. Government policy holds that anytime high security material is being handled, there must be two or more individuals in the room at all times.
Correction: The Secretary of Defense states the system is still in beta testing.
Correction: They also didn't operate her. They just sat there, as guards and waiting in case anything popped up so they could call on who they needed. They didn't actually do anything or handle information themselves unless ARIIA told them to.
Corrected entry: Where Aria says, "Hard Drive 3 is malfunctioning" or something and the guy goes in to get it, he should have been able to eject a Dynamic NAS system from the console. Yet he has to go inside and manually remove it. Also, re the point that they drain the liquid nitrogen and the freezing thing: that isn't the liquid nitrogen. It's a pool of water or something. The liquid nitrogen was drained into the "dangerous waste ejection chamber" as stated by the officer.
Correction: This is a fictional computer system designed by the government. You have no way of knowing how it's designed or what procedures they have in place to perform maintenance.
Corrected entry: When the orchestra is playing at the State of the Union address, there are cymbals and drums heard. The only percussion seen when the whole group is shown is bells.
Correction: There is a kid with an electronic keyboard, which is more than capable of making drum and cymbal sounds.
Corrected entry: When Jerry ducks in front of a car to avoid the remote control plane in the tunnel, he ducks in front of a Dodge Avenger. When Jerry steps away from the front of the car, it is a Chrysler Sebring. He gets into this car and drives away. He is then seen racing to the US Capitol in a Dodge Avenger.
Correction: The car he ducked behind and car he is driving is the same. The Chrysler is the car in the other lane when he came out from behind the avenger to look at the plane.
Corrected entry: When Agent Perez's helicopter takes off from "Chicago" after the recovery of the Cayenne, her helicopter has a California flag on its tail.
Correction: This simply means that the helicopter is originally stationed in California. No mistake here.
Corrected entry: Although it moves the plot along, it makes no sense for ARIA to force Rachel to deliver a bomb to the Capitol building, since ARIA has the ability to control military aircraft and could just bomb the building herself.
Corrected entry: The involvement of Jerry in this movie is completely unnecessary. Throughout the movie, ARIA continued her plans to activate Quarantine. She had already delivered the crystal and the sonic device, and the concert was already arranged. So why did she need Jerry to release the lockout if everything was already in place to carry it out?
Correction: A machine like that knows that humans are unpredictable, and that things can go wrong. Jerry is ARIA's Plan B, which is perfectly reasonable.
Correction: She was able to set the plan in place, but she was not allowed, by her programming, to actually do it, without Jerry's 'permission' by removing the lock. We can see at the end when Sam is practicing before the performance she zooms in on the detonator and 'activates' it. Based on logic and her requirement of Jerry removing the lock she would NOT be allowed to 'activate' the detonator. So she can set the plan in motion but nothing would've happened without the lock being removed.
Corrected entry: When the Secretary of Defense leads Agent Perez to the B36 floor, there are Marines under arms and covered (have their hats on) yet they do not salute. Any Marine under arms is required to salute any higher ranking officer, including the President and Vice President, and would have been required to salute the Secretary of Defense, who is in his chain of command.
Correction: That certainly qualifies as a character mistake, but it is not a movie mistake.
Corrected entry: One twin cannot pass a biometric scan and pass for the other twin.
Correction: As the Secretary of State says in the film, the system was still in beta testing. The security and biometric settings may not have all been in place. ARIA may have had some margin of error for biometrics.
Corrected entry: I can understand how Jerry can be shot 3 times by secret service and live, BUT the other two characters fall in the "liquid nitrogen" that keeps the computer cool and they live? the nitrogen would kill them instantly.
Correction: The liquid is not nitrogen, as there would be a 'fog' coming from the surface, as it would boil away and evaporate at typical room temperature, and when not contained or pressurized; the liquid is probably water, such as a water-cooled computer like some have.
Corrected entry: When Zoe and the military guy are trying to destroy the computer, they are draining the liquid nitrogen to the area below. Then both Zoe and the military man fall into it, but are OK. How can this be?
Correction: They were draining the liquid nitrogen to another location, as stated by the officer on duty. The liquid they fall into had to have been water, not in fact liquid nitrogen as there was no 'fog' lifting from it, as liquid nitrogen would have at room temperature and uncontained.
Correction: The US Military uses a reversed flag on uniforms and vehicles, in this case a helicopter. In this way, the flag appears to be blowing in the wind as the vehicle travels forward, never retreating.