In the final desert scene at the night-time party when Swoff and Troy arrive and begin shooting into the air, the camera cuts to a other men at the party also firing into the air. Swoff begins by firing his sniper rifle but when the camera goes back to him his weapon has switched to a light belt-fed machine gun.
When Kruger is drinking, his shirt is soaked with the alcohol. In the next shot, his shirt is dry.
When Swoff is getting his first firing training to be a Scout Sniper, his first shot is fired and he scores a hit on the upper right side of the target in the head. When he re-chambers to prepare for his next shot and we see through his cross-hairs, his last shot appears to have been a bullseye in left center of the head.
When Cortez shows the picture of his wife, she is facing the right in the first shot. In all following shots, however, she is facing the left side in the picture.
While Swoff is being punished for abandoning his watch for the party, the water bottle on the table shifts position between shots.
When trying out for the MOS scout sniper, not all of the marines are of rank Lance Corporal or higher, the required rank necessary in order to obtain said position.
When they first arrive in Saudi they are in a tent when the staff sergeant yells gas, Swoffard tries to get his NBC Suit on first. All military are trained to put on their protective mask first before before getting the rest of their MOPP gear on. This is part of Basic Training and should have been second nature to someone who has trained all the way up to scout sniper school.
The Marine officers look as though they're wearing standard, shiny officer badges. Marine officers do not wear standard badges during deployments because it would give away their rank to the enemy. They wear non-standard badges to maintain a low profile.
Some of the Marines wear their dog tags outside their t-shirts. U.S. Marines are supposed to wear them inside their t-shirts.
During the press interviews in Saudi Arabia the caption for Dave Fowler lists him as a private first class, but the rank insignia pinned on his collar is lance corporal, one rate higher than private first class.
The "M1A1 Abrams" tanks we see in one of the scenes are fake: the number of road wheels is incorrect (6 instead of 7). These are British Chieftain tanks mocked up to resemble Abrams tanks.
When the sausages caught the truck load of para-flares on fire, they would not have shot up in the sky as they are all laying on their side in the crate. They would have been all over the compound. They would have been in a secure area to begin with and not so close to living areas.
In some night scenes, for instance during the party after the Marines return to the base, the orange lights standing in for burning oil wells are visible. These lights were supposed to be digitally replaced with fire in post-production.
Flipped shot: As Swofford says, "My war experience has begun," and sand is falling in his face, the two moles on his face appear both as he is shown in right and left profile.
During the opening scene, when Fitch orders Swofford to drop and do push ups, a recruit can be seen behind Fitch, breaking character and laughing.
We see the Marines partying to Naughty By Nature's "OPP" during a Christmas party in 1990. However, that song was not released until 1991.
When Swoff walks into a command and communications tent, a few of the Marines are using personal computers with flat panel consumer brand LCD monitors. These would not have been available in 1991 during the first Gulf War.
When Swofford returns home from the Marines, he has a Kuwaiti Liberation Medal on his uniform. That medal wasn't created until 1994 and U.S. military personnel didn't start wearing them until 1995, which was several years after Swofford left the Marine Corps, so he would not have been wearing it.
The chartered planes aboard which the Marines arrive in the Middle East are 747-400s, which were not yet in service in 1990, and which were never operated by TWA before it was acquired by American Airlines. (TWA operated 747-100s and 747-200s.)
The sunglasses worn by the Marine's are Oakley M Frames. However, the actual frame style was not introduced until the late 1990s. There was an early-'90s style, but much different.
When the A-10 Warthogs attack marines accidentally in the desert, neither the sound of the GAU-8 Avenger nor the bullet hits are even close to real. The A-10 main (and only) gun shoots 30 mm depleted uranium and high-explosive bullets at 4,200 rounds per minute. These bullets can penetrate 69 mm of armor and they'll rise significant amount of dirt in the air. The gun sound is more like giant hammer drill against a rock.
After Troy is branded, Swofford leans in and tells him, "You earned it, man!" This does not match up to his lip movement.
In Anthony Swofford's sunglasses, a cameraman is visible.
In the scorpion fight scene, there is a Emperor Scorpion (P. imperator) and Desert Hairy Scorpion (H. arizonensis). The former is native to Congolese Africa, the latter to Arizona and surrounding states. Neither has any place anywhere in the Middle East.
When Swoff's squad arrives at the "Highway of Death" a road sign in the background reads "Abdali 150 KM, Kazimah 80 KM, Mutlaa 10 KM". There is nowhere in Kuwait where all three of these distances would be accurate: Al-Mutla and Kazimah are only about 10 to 15 kilometres from each other, and Al-Abdali commune is only roughly 70 to 80 kilometres from those two districts and roughly 90 to 100 kilometres from Kuwait City. Most of the carnage on the "Highway of Death" took place along Highway 80, in the area around Mutla which would have put Abdali only 70 to 75 kilometres and Kazimah only 10 to 15 kilometres away.
When the new Marines first meet SSGT Sykes, the water tower in the background has a USAF Tactical Air Command or USAF Air Combat Command emblem on it, which new Marines would never see at Camp Pendleton. This scene was filmed at George AFB in Victorville CA.
Troy gives the range from their position to the Iraqi officers in the control tower as "900 yards." His rangefinder and Swofford's rifle scope would both be configured in meters. The U.S. military uses the Metric system to ensure commonality with their NATO allies.
Whenever snipers are shooting at their targets their spotter does a countdown by saying "Fire! Fire! Fire!". The sniper then fires on the third "Fire!" to ensure a well-timed kill. However, in the movie the snipers fire whenever they want after the spotter says the third "Fire!".
In the "Interview" section in the DVD's bonus features, Jake's character confuses Iraqis with Saudi Arabians when he is asked how he feels about the Iraqis. He also confuses Kuwaitis with Iraqis when he is asked how he feels about Kuwaitis. In the commentary it was noted that they allowed the actors to ad-lib a lot of the interview material.
Swofford's rifle points towards Troy's face while they're low-crawling towards the Iraqi compound. The U.S. Marine Corps considers this a safety violation. First weapons safety rule: never point a weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot.
When they first arrive in Saudi they are in a tent when SSGT yells gas, and Swoffard tries to get his NBC Suit on first. All military are trained to put on their protective mask up first before before getting the rest of their MOPP gear on.