Revealing mistake: During the night surfing scene notice that the sun is evident in the background (look closely it does not appear long). There are also shots where you can see clouds and faint blue sky. Moments later you see Keanu and Lori sitting in the water with completely different lighting which was actually taken at night and further distinguishes that the surfing shots were not actually done at night time. I heard the scene was shot during the day with a filter so it looked like it was shot at night.
Continuity mistake: During the night surfing scene, you see a shot of the surface of the water from below, the sun is obviously visible.
Other mistake: In the fight scene where Bohdi helps special agent Utah you see that his surf board gets broken in two and then after the fight he is seen leaving without the board, but in the scene where he and Tyler are woken up early to go surf right before Tyler says "you look like you just saw a ghost" you see him carrying the same board.
Continuity mistake: During the scene where Utah is chasing the ex-president, we see Ronald Reagan run out of a house and scale a fence into a neighbours garden, instead of running down the driveway. The next shot then shows Utah running out of the house with the fence coming into view, but without seeing the ex-president, and then give chase over the fence. He wouldn't have known to jump over the fence, because he wouldn't have seen him go over it.
Suggested correction: Watching this scene now. It's not clear whatsoever that Utah didn't see him hop the fence. Utah was not that far behind.
Continuity mistake: In the stakeout at Latigo Beach, Pappas is surveying Utah's surfing activities from a parked car with binoculars. Pappas takes off his sunglasses and puts them on the dashboard. Watch the sunglasses change position from upside down to right side up for no reason and in a matter of seconds between shots of Pappas watching Utah surf and then especially when Pappas and Utah are communicating on the radio. (00:32:35)
Factual error: In the second skydiving scene Patrick Swayze tells the pilot to fly the plane at 4000 feet, which he does as this can been seen on an altimeter. When skydiving from 4000 feet it would take 25 seconds before you hit the ground but the skydive in this scene lasts 1 minute 51 seconds.
Continuity mistake: In the first sky diving scene all of the ex-presidents have joined hands waiting for Johnny Utah to join them they then cut to a close up of Johnny Utah and then a shot from behind Utah trying to reach the group which is not holding hands anymore for about 2 seconds.
Continuity mistake: In the night surfing scene, as Johnny gets up for the first wave, he is riding regular (left foot forward), but as the camera cuts back and forth he jumps back and forth between this stance and goofy (right foot forward). All other surfing shots of Johnny in the movie show him surfing goofy.
Continuity mistake: During the chase scene, some of the hub caps fall off the Lincoln, but they are not always the same ones as shown, some of the hubcaps jump back on for a shot.
Other mistake: When the guy shoots himself in the foot, there is a close up of the gun as it fires. If you watch it carefully you can see that when the gun fires it's pointing outwards, not at the guy's foot. More obvious in slow motion but not necessary.
Factual error: The first time Johnny and the guys jump, the jump lasts for several minutes, but the maximum they should have been able to be airborne would be a little over a minute before they hit the ground.
Continuity mistake: Pappas describes Tyler correctly according to the first look at the computer screen as having blue eyes and black hair, but when Utah looks at the screen it says blond hair, green eyes.
Visible crew/equipment: When Johnny Utah jumps out of the plane in the last free fall scene, he jumped out without a parachute. If you look closely, you can see that the stuntman who did the jump has a huge parachute on underneath his shirt.
Continuity mistake: When Angelo gets shot in the back in the airport, right when the shot is fired all of his back is bloody, but in the next clip when Johnny comes up to him, there is much less blood.
Continuity mistake: In the last jump scene with Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves, when they need to pull the cord and Keanu has to hold on with both hands, it cuts to a shot where Keanu is not holding on at all.
Continuity mistake: When Gary Busey looks at the computer description it says Lori Petty has black hair, but when Keanu Reeves looks at it, it says she has blond hair. (00:17:25)
Factual error: There is no way Utah could have gotten information about Tyler's parents' death, let alone the city and year, from the computer he was using at the FBI office. He would have had to run a separate search for that information using other sources. That type of personal information is not contained in any crime information database.
Other mistake: Patrick Swayze has a shotgun in a scene where he's forcing the FBI agent to come on a plane with him. In this one scene, he cocks that gun at least twice and perhaps a third time, without the benefit of firing it once.
Continuity mistake: When Utah is playing football on the beach with Bodhi, and his buddies and Bodhi makes a catch, he begins running down the beach towards the endzone. Utah can be seen giving chase and checking the same two people twice. (00:26:15)
Continuity mistake: In the final skydiving scene, Johnny Utah is holding his gun on Bohdie in his left hand. A shot from above them during the fall shows Utah holding the gun in his right hand. Much is made about how Utah can't switch hands.
