Factual error: The German text on the screen in Vienna has many small spelling errors. 1.) Under the sign of printing you read the English "Quantity" and the German "Betrag" (Amount) in the same invoice 2.) Under the search bar you first read the wrong word "Schen", one minute later the right "Suchen" (Searching) (00:44:05)
Factual error: "Lieutenant" Beach is actually wearing the rank of a Warrant Officer 4 (WO4) on his collar and head gear (beret). (01:00:02)
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)
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.
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.
Factual error: In the end when our two heroes try to deactivate the atomic bomb, they manage to take away a little piece of explosive, so that the bomb will not do a nuclear explosion, only a conventional one. The problem with plutonium-bombs is that plutonium itself is extremely toxic when pulverised and dissolved into air. And an explosion would surely pulverise the bomb and all people (especially our two heroes being only some metres away) in the city would eventually die because of intoxication...
Factual error: Colonel Devoe wheel spins the Mercedes to create sparks to ignite the spilt fuel. This wouldn't be possible as the wheels were Alloys and not steel.
Factual error: Near the end of the movie, when the heroine is attempting to disable the nuclear aspect of the bomb, she spends a lot of time trying to remove one of the high explosive segments form the core, when simply cutting as many of the detonator wires as possible would seem to have accomplished the same thing. A nuclear detonation requires simultaneous detonation of all the explosive segments to cause the core to go critical. Even a small delay, caused by one or more segment not going off at precisely the right time would have resulted in only a non-nuclear explosion, which is what happened.
Factual error: The IFOR forces looking through the Bosnian's house have Polish badges on them, suggesting that they are indeed Polish, but the one who speaks has a heavy Slovakian accent.
Factual error: When the truck carrying the nukes is being tracked by a spy satellite we see a view of the vehicle that is meant to be from high up in the atmosphere. After the truck has left the convoy and is moving along a road in a valley, the perspective of the passing countryside would suggest that the shot is taken from a low flying helicopter, certainly not a satellite.
Factual error: In a briefing room the branches of service are incorrectly lined up in incorrect order and should be Army, Marines Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard.
Answer: The two train engines colliding caused the explosions, all the other cars derailed. All the warheads were carefully packed and disarmed.