Plot hole: Further to the comments about the Lunar Lander being useless as a Mars Lander - who is going to believe that three men spent eighteen months crammed into a tiny Lunar Command Module? Not only would they go out of their minds, where would they store the tonnes of water and food they would need in that tiny capsule? How could the Service Module carry enough oxygen or have enough battery power to make the trip?
Continuity mistake: There is a scene at an airport where Mel Brooks is approached by a man claiming to be a FBI agent or something like that. In the next shot inside the bathroom you can see the boom microphone from the top of the screen. (00:04:05)
Revealing mistake: The shot of the two nuclear missiles being launched is used twice, just reversed. They seem to have changed the saturation slightly in one of them to make it look different, but there are identical clouds at the top left/top right in both shots, ruining the trick.
Factual error: After the plane is submerged, Jack Lemmon says, "... this plane is pressurized!" Jet aircraft are pressurized by bleeding air from the compressor sections of the engines into the cabin; in other words, the plane is only pressurized while the engines are running. Also, aircraft are only pressurized to a few psi above the outside air pressure at altitude, and never to more than the air pressure at sea level. The water pressure would be a great deal higher than the air pressure in the cabin, and since aircraft are not water tight, the water would quickly fill the aircraft. (If the aircraft was in 50 feet of water, the water pressure would be 21.7 psi, versus a maximum cabin pressure of 14.7 psi.)
Continuity mistake: When the crew hauls the female orca aboard the boat, the harpoon line is wrapped around her entire body several times. When they cut the rope and drop her into the water, the line is wrapped only around her tail. When the male orca is pushing her at sea, the rope is again wrapped around her entire body.
Factual error: After mounting armor in the bus they are approaching Phoenix on a two lane highway from the northwest. When entering the city they are shown coming around South Mountain on Interstate 10 from Tucson from the south.
Visible crew/equipment: During the opening scene when the boat is being pushed ashore you can see the shadow of the boom mike in the water's edge.
Continuity mistake: When Pat is attacked on the stain glassed window near the start, she has blood on her right cheek. When she is then dropped and hung, the blood stains are different. (00:12:20 - 00:13:00)
Factual error: Donald Pleasence's character makes a left turn at an intersection controlled by a traffic light. The camera pulls back and reveals an Interstate highway shield on the road he turned from. Interstate highways never have at-grade intersections controlled by traffic lights; they are designed to be non-stop routes with access to side roads available only through ramps and grade-separated interchanges.
Plot hole: When the bomber is surrounded at the end he gets shot in the leg but manages to get away from all of the police that were surrounding him. They were literally an arm's length from him.
Visible crew/equipment: When 'The Car' catches the truck, it tries to shove it off the road. The 3rd attempt happens as the Car gets very close to the camera, then veers across the screen, our left to right. The clear shadows of several crew members aboard the camera truck are visible on the front of the Car. (01:24:50)
Continuity mistake: In the opening scenes, when David is chiding Gail for grabbing him through the porthole of the wreck, his right hand is gloved, then ungloved, then regloved..all in the space of a few moments.
Visible crew/equipment: After Bruno Ganz shoots the man in the train station he walks out onto an open-air concourse. In the overhead shot facing him, we can see the strip of duct-tape on the ground marking the spot where he is supposed to stand.
Factual error: After loading the bomb, Dern and Keller hijack the blimp. As Shaw watches the blimp heading for the stadium, he spots a helicopter across the field, moving bundles of pipe. Shaw and Weaver commandeer the chopper to chase down the blimp. A major part of the security plan for the Superbowl, was that the only aircraft "trusted" to be allowed to fly within a 100 miles of the stadium are the Goodyear blimp and the Police helicopter. The other helicopter would not have been allowed to fly that day.
Continuity mistake: When Regan and Bianca first jump on the bus to escape the hitmen you can see through the windows that there are only six people on the lower deck, but when the scene changes to inside the bus all the seats are full. (01:00:24)
Continuity mistake: When Bobby's watch turns 11 pm, he goes outside. His injury on his face is on his right side, but when he starts to go out into the desert, the next close-up of him, he is wounded on the left side of his face. Then, in the next shot of him after running and tripping, the wound is back on his right side. It is obvious the shot was reversed.
Continuity mistake: The protagonist and his friend are driving to the designated target. The headlights of the car behind them get significantly closer in a sudden cut during their conversation. (00:02:35)
Suggested correction: You're assuming they travelled from Earth to Mars in the lander alone. The astronauts didn't do this when they went to the moon. The Lunar Lander was attached to the command module during the 3-day journey. When the astronauts reached the moon, they detached the lander from the command module and landed on the surface. It is reasonable to believe the astronauts for Capricorn One did the same thing, except on a much bigger ship for a journey that lasted over a year. We just never saw it.
Mike Lynch
The posting did not refer to the Lunar Lander, it referred to the tiny Lunar Command Module, the only part of the Saturn V that returned to Earth. From 44:00 to 48:08 of the film we see a live broadcast, supposedly from Martian orbit, showing all three astronauts crammed into a Lunar Command Module. The posting is absolutely correct.
This is another Deus ex Machina explanation for a blatant film mistake. The astronauts launched into orbit in a standard Saturn V rocket which could not possibly carry anything like a spacecraft large enough to make the trip to Mars. There is nothing in the film to suggest that there was a "much bigger ship" involved.
They are also shown seated in the tiny Apollo command module, supposedly transmitting messages from orbit around Mars. The posting is absolutely correct.
You're assuming the astronauts were launched in a standard Saturn V rocket, but with all the resources needed for a journey to Mars that took 18 months round trip, NASA would have to send them on a larger rocket to accommodate the required oxygen, water, food, spare parts, supplies, etc. needed to bring them back safely.
Mike Lynch
Did you watch the film? From 1:54 to 2:25 we see an establishing shot of a perfectly ordinary Saturn V rocket on the launch pad. From 6:05 to 6:43 we see all three astronauts strapped into the tiny, Lunar Command Module. As has already been pointed out from 44:00 to 48:08 we see a live broadcast, supposedly from Martian orbit, showing all three astronauts crammed into a Lunar Command Module. There is absolutely no mention of a larger spacecraft and none is ever shown.