When Tony Darvo gives Jack his phone number, he can clearly be seen writing it on a matchbook cover in pencil. Yet when Jack refers to it later, the writing is in blue ink.
A clock in the background LA airport shows the time as 12:30. Shortly after, we hear that it's 11:35.
When Jack first meets FBI agent Mosely and steals his badge - we are not shown any point where Jack comes close enough to Mosely to "lift" his badge. And more than that, the only hand that Jack can reasonably use to lift the badge is his right hand (because Jack's left arm is even farther away from Mosely - and also Jack pulls the badge out of his own right pocket to look at it after Mosely leaves), and Jack has a cigarette in his right hand - until the other FBI agents grab both his arms and drag him into the car. Jack couldn't lift the badge using his right hand when he has a cigarette in his right hand.
After Jonathan hands him the money belt, Walsh unzips it twice.
When dining on the Amtrak, Jack is eating fried chicken. In the closer shots we see he is eating a drumette (wing piece). But in the wider shots he is eating a regular drumstick (leg).
Meals for First Class Amtrak passengers (Jack has a bedroom) are included in the fare. Jack is seen paying for their meal in the dining car and miscalculating the tip.
When Jack "taps" the line of Mrs. Nelson to record the touch tones for the Duke's phone number using a scanner, this would only work if Mrs. Nelson was using a cordless phone (not a certainty) and even if she was using one, Jack would need to either know her phone frequency in advance or make sure the scanner locked onto her phone frequency and not another phone in the area when she made the call to the Duke. While not impossible, a lot of things would have to improbably fall into place for the phone tap to go as smoothly as it was portrayed in the film.
When Jack Walsh and the Duke arrive in Los Angeles from Las Vegas the airplane they are leaving is a wide-body L-1011, probably TWA. The L-1011 would not be used on such a short haul flight from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.
At 13:38 Darvo gives Walsh his number on a matchbook, telling him "they'll put you through to wherever I am." When Walsh goes to use the number at 1:41:30, there is no area code on it, yet somehow he connects on the first try.
At 25:48, Walsh and Mardukas are shown in New York City's Grand Central Terminal, preparing to board an Amtrak train to Los Angeles. Amtrak trains depart from New York's Penn Station, not Grand Central.
Mardukas has three shadows when rescuing Jack from the river.
In many action scenes (car chase, the rapids, falls, etc) the use of stuntmen for De Niro and Grodin is obvious.
When Jack Walsh takes aim at the helicopter tail rotor blade, the rear shot of him doing so is clearly a stuntman due to the different head shape and cropped hair style.
Why didn't the hit men just shoot the Duke when he gets off the bus. Instead they wait until all the FBI gets there and then start shooting. They would have been able to kill the Duke on the first shot.
When Dorfler is being released after questioning prior to the desert chase, the desk officer tells him he'll need to go to Flagstaff if he wants his cigarettes back. There is no reason a law officer would tell a civilian, let alone one who was questioned, the itinerary and whereabouts of an FBI agent pursuing fugitives.
Just after leaving his ex-wife's house, Jack makes a collect call to Eddie Moscone. Jerry answers the phone and Jack immediately starts talking and telling him to put Eddie on the line. No one actually accepted the collect call.
Back in the days of collect calls, one way to dodge charges is: when the operator asks for you to say your name so the recipient knows who they accepting the call from, to quickly blurt out your message in the few seconds available, before the operator cuts the call off.
Back in the days of collect calls, one way to dodge charges is: when the operator asks for you to say your name so the recipient knows who they accepting the call from, to quickly blurt out your message in the few seconds available, before the operator cuts the call off.
When Alonzo Mosley is in the office, there is a California State Flag. However, since he is an FBI agent he would not have the state flag in his office.
He would have if he were the field SAC for California or, maybe it's not his office and he's using a California agent's office.
He would have if he were the field SAC for California or, maybe it's not his office and he's using a California agent's office.
At 1:38:13, Walsh's Zippo lighter is empty. The diner counter man lights his cigarette with a match and gives him the rest of the matches. At 1:57:20, Walsh lights a cigarette with his Zippo but has not been shown refilling it.
Maybe he didn't refill it. Not lighting at first when low on fuel is common. A Zippo will usually light if the fuel compartment is shaken upside down. He got his light before he could try the Zippo again.
Maybe he didn't refill it. Not lighting at first when low on fuel is common. A Zippo will usually light if the fuel compartment is shaken upside down. He got his light before he could try the Zippo again.
When Jonathan opens the bathroom door to see what's got the dog all upset, the dog runs up to Jack who's behind the shower door. The loud barking continues but the top of the dog's head can be seen and it's quite apparent that she is not barking at that time.
When Dorfler takes the duke to the airfield after taking him away from Jack, the duke tells him that he can't fly. Dorfler tells him to sleep on it and knocks him out with a punch. The sound of the punch is noticeably out of synch with the punch.
When Jack and John crash the jeep in the desert, and Jack tries to flag down an approaching car, a crew member can be seen sitting behind the passenger seat during the in-car shot as Marvin speaks.
When Jack is in the raging river, just before he is pulled out of the water by the Duke (with the stick), you can clearly see the strap that is keeping him safely against the rock.
The action in the movie takes them through Amarillo, Texas in the Texas panhandle. Mountains are visible between the buildings in the background. The topography of the panhandle is a flat, treeless plain.
During the car scenes after the 3 characters leave Amarillo, in one scene when the car rounds a corner a orange road sign is visible. It's says to take the bend in the road at 50km. The the sign is also on the wrong side of the road as in New Zealand where this sequence was shot they drive on the left and in kilometers per hour.
When Jack and John were in Amarillo, TX, they obviously were on the streets of Globe, Arizona. The streets were on hills and there were mountains in the background. Amarillo, TX is on flat prairie and surrounded by cotton fields.
While on the plane to Las Vegas, Mosley is told over the phone that Serrano is "heading north on Las Vegas Blvd, 2 minutes from the airport." The next scene shows Serrano's limo passing the old Stardust Hotel and Casino, to the right of the car. This means the limo was heading south on Las Vegas Blvd. Furthermore, if they were taking the route down the Strip, the Stardust was approximately 5 miles from McCarran Airport, meaning Serrano was further than 2 minutes away.
At 1:05:42 Walsh cons Dorfler into thinking he has thrown away the handcuff key after handcuffing himself to Mardukas. Dorfler is portrayed as not very bright, but as a bounty hunter a) he should have recognized no handcuff key was on the ring, and b) should have had his own key, as Dorfler had cuffed Carmine to a pipe at 30:18, and managed to cuff Mardukas to the sink at 1:44:26.
You're supposed to stand clear of a closed door, so someone shooting through it will miss you; as an ex-cop Jack Walsh should have known that in the opening scene.
Escaping from the Gunfight, Jack and Jonathan steals Alonso's Impala, when he puts the R gear to get out of the alley, the backup-light doesn't illuminate, and the car plate is "620-673", when he gets to the street, the plate becomes "BCR-5085". And we see this car has bucket-seats not bench-seat when Jack tries to retrieve the light-bar.