Continuity mistake: When Tom jumps from the helicopter, into the truck that is hanging over the bridge's edge, the rope that is attached to him remains attached until Tom and Alec start fighting. Then it disappears, and suddenly reappears when Alec wraps the rope around Tom's neck. (01:14:05)
Continuity mistake: In the fight scene between Tom and Alec in the truck that is hanging over the edge, when Tom is pulled up by the helicopter he cuts the rope and lands on his back. He actually loses his knife which is in his right hand, yet in all following shots its reappeared back in his hand. (01:15:05)
Factual error: When Dusan, the Bosnian terroist, arrives in the U.S. the text reads LaGuardia Airport. An international flight would have landed at JFK or Newark. Dusan also views downtown Manhattan on the left side of the plane heading east, which is towards JFK. (01:29:00)
Revealing mistake: At the end of the movie when Dusan sets the bomb for a time to blow up, he also sets his wristwatch, but if you look closely at the watch, he hasn't set it to a timer/stopwatch. (01:31:15)
Continuity mistake: When the bomber walks on to the streets of New York, he passes a violinist standing next to a tree. There is a man with a red coat sitting on the trees ledge and a black man standing next to him, yet in the following shot (perhaps 1 second later) the man sitting on the ledge and the black man are both standing up about 4 feet away from the tree. (01:33:00)
Continuity mistake: When one of the snipers accidentally shoots a woman in the leg, she falls backwards onto her back, yet on the closeup shot of her she falls to the side of her not on her back. (01:41:00)
Continuity mistake: When Tom points the gun at the bomber who is at the top of the stairs, his brother comes round the corner, and in the distance he is walking and creeping up to Tom and Julia, yet in the closeup he is running and waiving a gun not creeping up. Also when the bomber starts to shoot at Tom, Tom and Julia get under a grid of some kind, and when Julia drops her walkie talkie on the floor, its position changes between shots. (01:43:10)
Factual error: The Russians stopped using steam locomotives in the 1970's. So bringing one out of retirement in 1997 to haul nuclear warheads would mean that your highly secret nuclear train would be well known among rail enthusiasts for weeks before.
Factual error: When LtCol Devoe enlists the help of the US Air Force in Turkey to intercept the truck carrying the nuclear warheads, the squadron is operating Eurocopter AS 565 Panther multirole helicopters. The USAF does not and has never had AS 565's in their inventory.
Continuity mistake: As Nicole walks across a plaza with Clooney to meet the Russian spy, she is wearing sheer stockings and low pumps. As she walks off the plaza she is wearing knee high boots with fur tops.
Suggested correction: I think what we see from behind, under the coat is dark trousers and dark low heels.
Factual error: When they download the requested file from the computer you can read ie."600 Dantensatze in Databank." Correct is: "600 Datensätze in der Datenbank." At the same time when the bad guys try to identify Clooney you can read on the screen the German "Gerwicht" for weight. Correct is: Gewicht.
Continuity mistake: In the first scene that introduces us to George Clooney's character, we see him in front of some sort of Judicial committee. The first scene he wearing gold leaves which indicate the rank of Major, although in the movie he is a Lt. Colonel. Then very next scene when we see Clooney he is wearing the correct rank.
Plot hole: When the diesel train stops in the tunnel, one of the soldiers tells another one how far they are from the spot where the nuclear detonation will take place. Do the math: the distances don't work out. At least one of the trains would have to do over 100mph AVERAGE to put enough distance between them. Military precision, indeed.
Other mistake: In the subtitles, when the Russians are locking onto the US Army helicopters, "Attack" is incorrectly spelt "Atack".
Plot hole: Where are the police? The chase takes about 8 minutes in the centre of the biggest city and capital of Austria, not to forget the using of the guns.
Other mistake: When they have recovered the nukes, after the nukes are set on the bridge George Clooney is rolling on the ground. His gun holster is unfastened and the gun is missing. A few moments later when he is talking to Dr. Kelly on the phone, the gun has reappeared.
Continuity mistake: When Clooney is fighting in the truck on the bridge, he is pulled up by the helicopter. As the camera follows him, you can see him pulled up at least 10 meters. When cutting himself from the cable he falls back into the car. but only about 3 meters.
Plot hole: After Vlado was shot and his brother (the one with the bomb) was carrying him, there's no way Tom and Julia shouldn't have been able to catch him. He was MUCH slower carrying Vlado and they should have been able to catch up to them in no time. And there were other law enforcement following DeVoe. There was only one way out of that alley. Why weren't they at the entrance?
Continuity mistake: When the helicopters return to base after capturing the warheads, it does a shot showing both of the helicopters coming from either side of the shot and landing. The next shot from the hangar however, shows one of the helicopters landing again.
Plot hole: When the two remaining American helicopters return from their incursion into Russian airspace, both land outside the operational HQ hangar. This is fine, except for the question of where the eight warheads that they recovered have gone to. Surely they would have brought them back to the base rather than just leave them on the bridge, but if they had, then shouldn't they either have them underneath one chopper when they both land? Or if the chopper carrying the warheads had offloaded somewhere else on the home airbase, why did both helicopters land at the same time outside the HQ hangar?
