Factual error: During the Christmas season (December) Travolta and Phoenix discuss a transfer to an aide's position. That same night Phoenix discusses the possibility with his wife - with crickets chirping away in the background. Not in Baltimore in December.
Ladder 49 (2004)
Directed by: Jay Russell
Starring: John Travolta, Joaquin Phoenix, Robert Patrick, Jacinda Barrett
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Jack and Lenny are arguing about Dennis's death, the cup on the table gets knocked over. The next shot, the cup is standing up. The next shot, it's down again.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Jack rescues the worker from the warehouse, while lowering the victim - the rope is wrapped around the beam - but in the overhead shot as the floor gives way - the rope is only laying across the beam.
Trivia: In the original script the movie was supposed to be set in New York City, but after the September 11 attacks the location was moved to Baltimore.
Trivia: Jacinda Barrett's father was a fire fighter in Brisbane, Australia. She has been quoted as saying that's what drew her to working on this movie.
Lenny Richter: Why does it always have to be the 12th floor? Why can't they be on the 4th?
Chief Kennedy: Hey! What the hell is going on in here! Huh? I come back from tellin' a mother her son is dead, and this is goin' on, in my house, in MY house! We deal with this by stickin' together. We take it. We learn from it. And we get back on the god damn truck and that's how we honor Dennis. You got that? Anyone think about lowering the flag? Do it.
Lenny Richter: I'm getting too old for this shit.
Question: When Jack went searching for the girl in the top apartment of the building he could hardly see because of the fog. As soon as the fire from beneath bursts through the floor the thick smoke has disappeared. Is this normal for building fires?
Question: Was Jack always supposed to die? Or was he originally supposed to survive?
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Answer: I'm not a fire fighter so I do not have a answer based on experience but I assume that when Jack was disoriented it's because there was no light in the building, then when the fire broke through it produced enough light to break through the smoke and make seeing easier for him to escape.
It actually doesn't break through the floor...it's a flashover where everything including the gases in the smoke reach their ignition temperature simultaneously and the room lights off...it's a very serious and dangerous situation to be in as a firefighter...I was in one, luckily we were only 10 feet inside the door.
Steve Kozak