- Continuity: The amount of damage on Thomas Barnes's car changes throughout the chase scene.
- Factual errors: Towards the end of the movie, there is a stop sign that says "ALTO". Stop signs in Spain say "STOP".
- Errors in geography: At several points in the movie you can see palm trees lining the streets of Salamanca. Salamanca is located in northwestern Spain, a city in a higher latitude with no palm trees. This is another error that reveals the movie was shot in Mexico.
- Errors in geography: During shots of the multi-lane freeways, typically Mexican green and white VW beetle taxis are clearly visible. That type of taxi doesn't exist in Spain. Also, Salamanca doesn't even have freeways and overpasses.
- Continuity: During the aerial views of the plaza, the shadows cast by the buildings change throughout each "vantage" view although they all take place within the same time frame.
- Continuity: During the first scene of Barnes in the Hotel room, his shirt goes from untucked to being tucked during his flashbacks.
- Factual errors: The blue Astra and police cars did not wear the Vauxhall badge but the Chevrolet badge on the grills of the cars. But main land Spain and the rest of Europe excluding the UK use Opel badged cars. All three makes of car Vauxhall, Opel and Chevrolet are owned by GM.
- Factual errors: Several North American vehicles can be spotted during the car chase. Among them are the North American Ford Escort and Focus (Ford Escort and Ford Focus are quite common in Spain). The emergency vehicles are also Chevys and Freightliners.
- Factual errors: During the scenes in the multi-lane freeway an "AU" (Autobuses Unidos) bus is clearly visible turning to the right near the overpass. AU is a Mexican transportation company that operates only on national territory.
- Revealing mistakes: As the president presses the button to catch the lift, the light on the button comes on before he presses it.
- Factual errors: The accents are Mexicans (except for a forced "th" sound that tries to imitate the Castillian sound without much success).
- Crew or equipment visible: During the car chase scene (right after the cars drive down the stairs) there is a part where you can see two brand tags on the seat belts in Barnes' car mirror. This indicates that a stunt driver is actually driving the car. During the rest of the chase, Barnes is shown not wearing any seat belt.
- Continuity: During the car chase between the police car and Barnes in the Astra the same red Volkswagen Golf (Rabbit) keeps reappearing.
- Continuity: During the aerial take of the big explosion on the square some national flags are visible. Some of them change in different shots, although the shots are taken from the same angle. Sometimes there's Polish flag visible, sometimes another one.
- Factual errors: Spanish police agents, like the Noriega character, do not use the Beretta 92FS. Guardia Civil agents do (the female agent with the green outfit) but in the movie they use another gun.
- Continuity: During the chase scenes several cars keep re-appearing. For example a red Peugeot 306 sedan, a white Nissan Platina (which is not sold in Europe), and an orange Opel Corsa.
- Errors in geography: The President's limo stops in front of a building with a statue of a man on a horse. This building is the National Museum of Art, located on Tacuba Street, in downtown Mexico City.
- Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): At a point, the character Phil McCullough says: "I know that sir, but we're looking for five people out of six million. We are trying." Salamanca, Spain, is a city of roughly 160,000 people.
- Revealing mistakes: Officer Barnes is on his cell phone when he steals the blue Vauxhall Astra from one of the Spanish citizens. As he gets in the car the camera shows a clutch pedal and a gas pedal. Barnes shifts the car into first and then continues to talk on his phone. He drives for a good 40 seconds without ever shifting out of first gear.
- Factual errors: At the speed the blue Astra was going, both when it crashes out between two parked cars and when it's crashed by the truck, the front and side airbags respectively should had come out.
- Continuity: The rewinds to the beginning of each vantage point starts with a digital time display that counts to 12:00:00 PM. The clock on the wall of the building behind the stage, where the flags hang, reads 10 past 10, or 10 to 2.
- Revealing mistakes: When the package under the stage explodes, everything (including Forrest Whittaker) is thrown back by the concussion of the blast. Despite the fact that they are hanging directly above the area of explosion, the flags hang from the building without any more movement than as if they were just blowing in a light breeze.
- Continuity: In the car chase between Barnes and Taylor, as the cars are driving down the stairs, the front bumper of Taylor's police car is clearly crushed and hanging off, yet throughout the rest of the chase scene it is intact.
- Plot holes: A bomb is set off in the lobby of a hotel, causing the fire alarms to go off, but the elevators still run. In most buildings when the fire alarm is triggered the elevators would stop, rendering them unusable.
- Continuity: When Barnes first stops and gets in the Blue Vauxhall/Opel Astra, you can clearly see the particular alloy wheels the car is using. Later in the chase when Barnes stops at at a junction and looks left, you can see the alloys have changed therefore showing that there is another car being used.
- Continuity: When Barnes is trying to communicate with the Secret Service Command Post, he is shown speaking into his left hand, which should have a radio PTT palm microphone. In close-ups, it is clear that there is nothing in his hand.
- Revealing mistakes: In the movie, the Seal of the President decals on the presidential limousines are shown to be behind the rear-passenger doors. In reality, the seals are on the rear-passenger doors.
- Revealing mistakes: The acoustic tube earpieces used by the Secret Service agents in the movie are of the wrong design. The real earpieces are a single, coiled tube worn behind the ear.
- Revealing mistakes: When Howard is filming what's around him (before the president is shot), there's a shot from behind the camcorder clearly revealing that the on/off dial is turned to off.
- Continuity: When following Enrique, he escapes the police foot chase and after checking his pistol's magazine, he loads the pistol and cocks the hammer before confronting someone unseen. Later in the movie, from Howard Lewis' point of view, Enrique puts the un-cocked pistol in his rear waistband before stepping out to confront the unseen individual.
- Errors in geography: Chase scenes were through a city that was obviously much larger than that of place of Salamanca's size of approximately 160,000.
- Revealing mistakes: Agent Barnes shot many more bullets than the capacity of the gun he was using during the long chase scene towards the end.
- Continuity: Towards the end of the film when Kent Taylor is being shot at while driving, he is seen on the right of the car (through the windscreen) but just before he swerves into the concrete (before he realizes he is going to crash) he is seen on the left of the car (through the windscreen).
- Continuity: When following Enrique, he escapes the police foot chase and after checking his pistol's magazine, he loads the pistol and cocks the hammer before confronting someone unseen. Moments later, from Howard Lewis' point of view, Enrique puts the pistol, no longer cocked, in his rear waistband before stepping out to confront the unseen individual.
- Continuity: The first time at the Plaza, when Barnes is reviewing the footage, Taylor asks "You saw the shooter?" to which he replies, "No ... I saw a flash of light". The second time at the Plaza, when asked the same question, he just says "I saw a flash of light".
- Continuity: When the real president is attacked in the first sequence, he is attacked after he has seen the bomb blast on television, but the second time the story is told he is attacked before Enrique triggers the bomb.
- Revealing mistakes: When Howard films from the pedestrian overpass, it is covered in wire mesh. However when we see the view from his camcorder the mesh is not visible.
- Revealing mistakes: In the final scene the President is being carried away by a helicopter with "United States of America" on it's side. It's not an American-built helicopter - it's Russian-built and it's painted pea green rather than the olive drab that the "Marine ONE" Presidential helicopters are.
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Goofs below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): SPOILER: At the end of the movie, the broadcaster announces that they have killed the lone assassin. However, the bottom of the screen reads, "Lone assassin arrested."
- Crew or equipment visible: SPOILER: Near the end, when Kent Taylor finally crashes his car, several shots reveal a dummy in the front seat clearly, some of which are wearing sunglasses. Taylor had not been wearing any.
- Continuity: SPOILER: In the portion of the film following Enrique, there is a major change in the timing of the two explosions. Being led away by Secret Service, the agent handling Enrique is momentary distracted by the distant explosion at the hotel. Enrique takes advantage of this opportunity to punch the agent, but before the struggle can continue, the podium explodes only seconds after the first bomb. In every other portrayal of events, the first bomb explodes well before the one under the podium. Barnes and Taylor are able to talk to Lewis, and Barnes reviews the video that Lewis shot while Taylor makes it to the 3rd floor of the plaza, all in then time it allegedly took Enrique to throw a single punch.
- Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: Towards the end of the film, after Javier has been killed, the camera zooms out on his dead body lying on the floor. If you look closely you can see the upper part of his mouth twitch.
Related Links