(at around 48 mins) When the Ferrari crashes through the parking meters, the indicator lights on the bumper have disappeared (presumably as this car is a mock up), but in the next shot of the Ferrari from the front, the lights have reappeared.
(at around 48 mins) The windshield of the Ferrari is shattered by crashing into the parking meters. A few seconds later while Goodspeed if fighting to release the airbag the windshield is intact.
(at around 48 mins) When the Hummer crashes into the meter-maid vehicle, it skids and goes sideways. In the next shot, it is still pointed straight down the street.
(at around 1h 23 mins) Mason and Stanley dry off too quickly after sheltering underwater from the firebombs.
(at around 46 mins) The same extras (most notably the man with a large white beard) can be seen standing both on the left and on the right of the Ferrari when it breaks the storefront window.
VX in liquid form, as presumably shown in the film by the small balls containing the substance, does not take effect immediately. After absorption through the skin and/or mucous membranes, it takes approx 1 to 2 hours before visible nerve agent symptoms begin to show. However, if a person is exposed to the aerosol form of VX, effects are immediate. In either case, the symptoms of VX poisoning resemble more of a full-body seizure than a bubbling/melting of the skin. Atropine must only be injected into the heart when poisoning by the aerosolized version occurs. Otherwise, the atropine is injected into the thigh. Furthermore, Atropine is also poisonous to the human body when it's injected into the body before aerosolize exposure occurs, either case Atropine's main side effect weakens the human body to the point of incapacitation and would be in no fit state to diffuse a bomb or get up and run and wave flares as depicted in the movie.
For operational security reasons, Navy SEALS never acknowledge each other by rank, nor do they use their surnames. Everyone on a SEAL team, even the officers, only address each other by first name.
As the Marines are patrolling, they continuously charge their weapons. While on patrol, it would be assumed that they would already have a round in the chamber. As a result, charging the weapon again would not only be unnecessary, but it would cause the weapon to eject a perfectly good round.
No antidote injection could possibly prevent something from melting one's skin.
(at around 37 mins) Mason uses the edge of a smashed quarter to score a circle in the interrogation room's one-way glass observation window. The metal of a quarter is too soft to score glass.
(at around 1h 5 mins) When Mason is with the troops in the basement of Alcatraz, he states that he studied the timing of the boiler that he must roll through. The question has often been asked why he wouldn't then just be able to open the door during his original escape. However, when Alcatraz was functional, the door may well have been guarded or locked from the other side.
Mason has been imprisoned for the past 30 years yet when he escapes he knows how to work a cell phone (reasonable, since it's not hard; he also mentions that he watched TV in jail, so he has probably seen plenty of examples) and modern scuba gear (which hasn't changed all that much).
Incorrectly Regarded as Goof: When Goodspeed says that VX gas was discovered by accident, he is technically correct. The biochemist that discovered it in the 1950's wasn't trying to make a nerve agent or even a chemical weapon, he was trying to create a pesticide. The gas was originally called Amiton and was actually used as a pesticide for a short time before being taken off the market for being unsafe to use around humans because of it's harmful affects on the nervous system. When word of Amition's affects on the human nervous system reached the British military they wanted to investigate Amiton's potential use as a nerve agent. VX became Amiton's military designation and after some research and modification VX was made into a chemical weapon of mass destruction became the most deadly nerve agent ever created.
Though it is unusual for the President of the United States to appoint someone as young as thirty-three years old as his Chief of Staff, both Presidents Ford (Dick Cheney) and Carter (Hamilton Jordan) had Chiefs of Staff under 35 years of age.
(at around 1h 55 mins) Right before the Marines betray General Hummel, Captain Darrow refers to Gunnery Sergeant Crisp simply as "Sergeant". NCO's and SNCO's in the Marine Corps are always referred to by their full rank, i.e, "Gunnery Sergeant", never simply "Sergeant". Captains Frye and Darrow are, however, likely Army captains and not Marines (multiple evidences are given for this), and so they are not as immune to this mistake.
Throughout the San Francisco car chase scene, driver frequently turn their steering wheels as if they were on a narrow and winding lane when their cars are moving in a more or less straight or at least consistently curved line. numerous cars are also shown to explode after being hit at roughly forty to fifty miles an hour. Both are common goofs for the genre but happen so frequently in such a short space of time in this movie that it's worthy of a mention.
(at around 45 mins) During the chase scene with the Hummer, one of the cars that flips, clearly showing the explosives-holding special effects canister under the car, still smoking.
During the chase scene with Mason's (Sean Connery) Hummer and Goodspeed's (Nicolas Cage) Ferrari, both vehicles hit numerous objects before showing any type of damage.
(at around 48 mins) Rubber tires are visible underneath the cable car as it crashes into the SUV.
(at around 49 mins) When Goodspeed is riding the dirt bike, on a up close shot of Goodspeed on the phone. You clearly see the front tire of the dirt bike is not moving.
In the gun fight when the General (Ed Harris) is killed a drop of fake blood hits the camera lens.
The idle of the dirt bike after a long chase . When Goodspeed pulls up to the House of Fine Arts after locating Sean Connery's character after he gets away from the hotel, the idle of the dirt bike is too high for a motorcycle that has just been in a Chase across the city. Instead it makes the sound of a motorcycle that has just been started after it has sat for an extended amount of time and is idling back down due to having a cold engine.
In the Czech translation, the term "Attorney General" (which in European cabinets is more commonly referred to as "Minister of Justice") is translated as "General Attorney", meaning a general whose last name is Attorney.
(at around 47 mins) When Mason answers the phone in the chase scene, the vehicle's owner says, "you have my Hummer, you stole it" to which Mason replies, "I'm only borrowing your Hum-Vee." But how could he have known that a Hummer was also referred to as a Hum-Vee?
(at around 1h 27 mins) While Agent Goodspeed is describing the horrible effects of VX gas, the part where he says "it melts your skin off" does not match his mouth movements, and sounds different than the rest of the audio (since real VX gas does not melt skin (see above), it was probably added to make VX gas seem scarier to the audience).
(at around 1h 30 mins) When Mason and Goodspeed fall from the cart and then the marines come down along the track, we can clearly see the rope attached to the first marine from certain angles.
When Goodspeed is blown away by the bombs you can see the wires that pull him.
(at around 45 mins) Cameras are visible on the roads at several points during the car chase (Mason's Hummer can be seen to drive over one as it collides with the vehicles by the telegraph pole).
Just before the president gives the order for the air strike the camera shows ground crew marshalling an F-18 coming towards him and turning to its left. As the camera pans down a towing arm can be seen attached to the nose wheel indicating that the aircraft was not moving under control of a pilot but being towed by an unseen tractor off-screen (as at an airport when aircraft are pushed back from the terminal).
(at around 1h 45 mins) The coordinates given for Alcatraz when the missile is launched are 67°25'0"N by 37°25'0"W. These actually put you in Greenland. (Alcatraz is actually at 37°49'36"N by 122°25'23"W.)
(at around 1h 45 mins) The launched missile is said to be launched toward a football game in Oakland. However, the next shot shows the missile flying over Candlestick Park in San Francisco, not the Oakland Colliseum. In fact, the missile is clearly shown grazing trees on top of Bayview Hill.
(at around 38 mins) Goodspeed lives in Washington D.C., but when he calls Carla, you can clearly see out of the apartment window that it is the skyline of downtown Los Angeles.
(at around 2h 10 mins) The final scene is located in Kansas. However, when Carla and Stanley leave the church, they drive towards mountains in the distance. There are no mountains in Kansas.
(at around 29 mins) After Goodspeed is informed that it is not a training exercises, they show a shot of Pier 39 in San Francisco and show the FBI setting up their mobile command center. It is in an enclosed warehouse setting. Pier 39 is an open air area with restaurants, shops and lots of public area. Not inside a warehouse.
Why is the guidance chip located on the canister that holds the VX gas bubbles and not on the missile itself?
General Hummel was lauded as possibly the greatest battalion commander of the Vietnam War, which ended in 1973, and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions as such. The movie is based in a time line that occurs over 20 years after our last troops left Vietnam yet Hummel seems to only been promoted twice going from lieutenant colonel (O-5...the standard rank for a battalion commander) to brigadier general (O-7). This seems highly unlikely especially considering the awarding of the United States highest award for valor.
Despite having been unused for 33 years, all the mechanisms for the tracks and carts in the caves seem to work fine. The rope is also strong enough to halt a cart moving at moderately high speed, with the additional weight of two fully grown men on it and there is very little evidence of rusting, despite the incredibly damp environment.
It is specified that the F.B.I. loses radio contact with Goodspeed and Mason due to the undergrounds explosions, but they still have them on locators. However, it is never specified that the F.B.I. loses tracking of Goodspeed and Mason on the locators, particularly after they exit the morgue.
Early on in the film, General Patterson says that a teaspoon of VX gas is lethal up to 100 foot radius. Later on when Goodspeed smashes an entire VX ball into a soldier's mouth nothing happens to Mason, the hostages, or anybody else nearby on the island.
(at around 24 mins) In the Pentagon scene, they say that VX was made to be resistant to napalm. However VX is destroyed in the heat of napalm.
The FBI never thinks about motivating Mason to cooperate by telling him that the entire city, including his daughter may be killed. Stanley tells him only after he tries to jump ship. No more specific details would have been necessary, only the fact that the civilians in danger include Jade.
Also, on the beach on Alcatraz Island, Mason wants to quit before the mission is complete, even though by that point, he knows his daughter is still in danger.
Also, on the beach on Alcatraz Island, Mason wants to quit before the mission is complete, even though by that point, he knows his daughter is still in danger.
At one point one of the younger Marine Captains, Captain Frye (Gregory Sporleder) in trying to convince General Hummel (Ed Harris) to launch his remaining rockets, urges him saying, "Come on, General... Let's be all we can be."
"Be all that you can be," is a 1980's recruiting slogan of the US Army, and no Marine would be caught dead using it.
"Be all that you can be," is a 1980's recruiting slogan of the US Army, and no Marine would be caught dead using it.
On the helicopter en route to Alcatraz, one of the Navy SEALS is lecturing Goodspeed on the importance of using atropine in the event of exposure to VX gas. He even tells him "Don't fuck with me on this. It may save your life." Goodspeed is the top FBI expert on chemical and biological agents. He would not be getting lectured by a SEAL about chemical weapons - he would be the one instructing team members about VX and the use of atropine.
Carla knows Stanley is an FBI employee, yet she flies to Frisco without a second thought, completely ignoring the fact Stanley might have a really good reason to tell her not to go there.