Goofs for
Behind Enemy Lines (2001)

photos

board

trailer

details

• Continuity: The rank insignia change regularly on Reigart's uniform, despite his not having been obviously promoted.
  
  
• Factual errors: As always, there are many minor errors in military procedure and in the technical details of the military equipment.
  
  
• Continuity: When the three helicopters are returning to the carrier, there is a scene showing two of them veering off to the left. Both helicopters in the scene have one engine. Then the view changes, showing all three helicopters from rear. Two of the three have two engines and only one has a single engine.
  
  

• Continuity: The level of the Coke that Chris Burnett drinks in the back of the pick-up truck increases as the ride progresses.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When Burnett sits in the back of the pick-up truck you can see yellow road marking lines. In Bosnia, where the story takes place, these lines are white, not yellow.
  
  
• Continuity: When Reigart hands a paper to Burnett, it is partially crumpled. After Burnett takes it from him it is no longer crumpled.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In some of the overhead shots of the jets, studio lights are reflected on the cockpit glass.
  
  
• Continuity: When Stackhouse and Burnett decide to fly off-course during their recon flight, the fighter turns to the left, but when the crew of the aircraft carrier are tracking their flight on the computer map, it appears that the fighter turns to the right.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: An ejection seat disappears near bottom left corner of the screen after the pilots pull their chutes - the seat falls, then disappears before leaving the frame.
  
  
• Continuity: When Burnett and Stackhouse are flying on their mission, they get a hit "over there in the forest to the left." However, when the camera pans to show where the pilots are looking, the direction of travel would have them looking out and to the right.
  
  
• Continuity: Admiral Reigart's tie is alternately neatly tied/loosened between shots when he is interviewing Lt. Chris Burnett on the aircraft carrier.
  
  
• Continuity: As Burnett is being chased through the forest towards the mass grave, he is running full speed (with a decent head start), while the Serbian soldiers are walking at a slow pace. Yet, when he reaches the mass grave the soldiers arrive a very short time later.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The movie is set in 1996, but a pilot mentions John Denver as being a famous person to have died in a plane crash. John Denver died on 12 October 1997.
  
  
• Continuity: The wingtip missiles on the F/A-18 disappear and reappear several times.
  
  
• Factual errors: A surface-to-air missile could not follow the F/A-18 as shown. A SAM must fly at several times the speed of the aircraft it is intercepting to be able to overtake and destroy it. Therefore the SAMs would all have overshot the F/A-18 when it made it's first evasive maneuver and not followed it through a complex set of banks and turns.
  
  
• Factual errors: The announcer at the beginning credits the "Cincinatti Accords" with keeping the peace. The actual name was the "Dayton Accords," since the agreement was signed at Wright Air Force base near Dayton, Ohio.
  
  
• Factual errors: No missile in existence would be capable of chasing the F/A-18 as it is portrayed in the film. A missiles rocket motor only holds enough fuel for one pass at a target. The second missile fired in the film flies through a fireball, completes a loop, and continues to chase the F/A-18 the way a dog chases a cat. In reality, the missile would have either exploded the first time it got close to the fighter, or simply ran out of fuel.
  
  
• Continuity: When Sasha is looking for Burnett near the statue, the cap for his scope disappears in head on close-up shots and reappears later.
  
  
• Continuity: Riegart's helicopter keeps changing from a Bell Huey (2 rotor blades and one engine exhaust port) to a Bell 412 (4 blades and two exhaust ports).
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Some of the machine guns on the backs of the Serbian jeeps have no ammo boxes, but still fire.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The enlisted uniforms in 1996 were the traditional dungaree uniform (denim bellbottom trouser, flat-lying collar). The utility style uniforms (straight-leg trousers, stand up collars) worn by the Vinson's enlisted personnel weren't phased in until 1999.
  
  
• Continuity: When the fighter is shot down the entire front end is clearly separated. Later on when the Serbians are examining the crash site you can see the remains of a complete fighter in the background.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The F/A-18-E/F Super Hornets didn't begin sea trials until January 1997 onboard the USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74).
  
  
• Continuity: Just before Chris Burnett gets on the helicopter, he has blood stains on his face. On the chopper, the blood is gone. When he gets off the chopper onto the carrier deck, the blood is back.
  
  
• Continuity: Towards the end, Chris gets shot in the left shoulder. On the plane, Glenn pats him on where that wound should be. Chris should be in extreme pain but he smiles.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the scene when Burnett fell in the mass grave, after Serbian soldiers retreat, he has memory flashes about the killing of civilians. There is a Croatian badge on one of the soldiers. However, it is obvious in the movie that the Serbian army killed those civilians, so there can't be a Croatian badge on their uniform.
  
  
• Plot holes: Burnett is sent to a rendezvous point for evacuation. He radios in when he reaches it and informs Reigart of this fact. However, when the radio contact goes down, Reigart orders his staff to "find out where he is" and triangulate his position, even though they know where he is: at the rendezvous point they told him to go to!
  
  
• Factual errors: Admiral Reigart references a letter Burnett received dated "September 23rd." The Admiral then says Burnett received another letter "a month later for something involving Chinese New Year." This would place the Chinese New Year in late October. In reality, the Chinese New Year falls in either January or February.
  
  
• Factual errors: At minute 40: Serbian soldiers are chasing Burnett. They come from right to left. All of them appear to be left handed and all the guns have ejection ports on the left side showing that the whole scene has been inverted.
  
  
• Factual errors: On an F-18, the survival radio and beacon are located inside a seat pan underneath the pilot. After clearing the cockpit canopy, the ejection seat separates, but the seat pan falls 26' where a life raft is actuated and survival items are revealed, all of it attached to the pilot via lanyard. The beacon, having gone off at ejection, would still be attached to the pilot. He would have not needed to get to the beacon at the end because it would still be in his hands.
  
  
• Continuity: When Burnett is waving down the truck to stop you can see the skid marks already on the ground from previous takes.
  
  
• Continuity: Three 'Huey' type helicopters take part in the rescue at the end of the film. However, the helicopters continually switch between varying combinations of the earlier single-engined Huey, and a later more advanced two-engine variant. The main difference is the number of exhausts behind the cabin.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After ejecting from the aircraft, both pilots are seen floating down past the statue on Ram type parachutes. When Burnett hits the trees and the camera is looking up at him coming down through the branches, he is under a round parachute.
  
  
• Continuity: When Stackhouse ejects, the spring apparently cuts through his left leg. However, when he's on the ground, the field dressings are applied to his right leg.
  
  
• Continuity: In the ejection scene when the chute deploys and the camera is looking up, it shows a round canopy deploying. The camera then cuts to both chutes deploying and they are both RAM air (square) canopies.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the scene where Burnett sets up a trap for the Tracker, Burnett is running towards him while firing his pistol. During this sequence the ejection of a spent casing can be seen (as well as the slide moving to the rear to eject) but there is no gunshot. The gunshot and subsequent muzzle flash happens noticeably after.
  
  
• Continuity: At the beginning of the film, when Burnett sets up the football for the catapult, he sets it up with the laces facing away from the catapult. When the catapult strikes the ball, it hits the laces, indicating the ball was turned around. We never saw Burnett do this, and there wasn't much time nor reason for him to do so.
  
  

Related Links