Ronin (1998) - 49 mistakes

Continuity: During the big car chase the Audi S8 rams the Citroen, pushing back the headlights on the Audi but on the subsequent scenes in the town the front of the Audi is intact.

Continuity: During the chase scene, there is a Citroen XM series II (the citroen sign in the middle, on the front) and then there's a Citroen XM series I (the citroen sign on the driver's side, on the front). It changes back and forth a couple of times. There's also a difference at the bottom of the car; the series I carries the name Citroen XM on the left side, while the series II bears a Citroen sign on the left side and the XM sign on the right.

Visible crew/equipment: When Vincent and Sam are running through the ice rink's changing rooms to get the case off Gregor, the camera passes a mirror. If you pay attention, you can quite clearly see the boom operator wearing a blue and white checked shirt in it.

Continuity: At the end of the Paris car chase with the BMW M5 and the Peugeot, actor Jonathan Pryce fires a few shots at De Niro and Jean Reno in the pursuit car. One shot takes the left wing mirror clean off, and De Niro even jerks his head to the side in reaction to the shot. The mirror comes off in mid frame, and you can even see the adjustment wires dangling from the mirror base. In all subsequent scenes, the mirror is back on the car.

Visible crew/equipment: During the initial chase with the Audi S8 immediately after the messed-up arms deal, you can see exhaust fumes and tire smoke from the leading camera car in most front shots of the gang.

Factual error: Supposedly the holders of the mystery briefcase are holed up in Nice; but when De Niro and McElhone go to check out the bad guys security arrangements at their hotel, the hotel is in Cannes (believe me) and the Michelin Green Guide that De Niro is carrying is opened to a map of Cannes.

Continuity: In the car chase after the bald guy with the suitcase, when his car approaches a fish market inside Nice, you can see a guy with a water hose running to the right, to avoid being hit by a car. His hose is connected to some point on the left, however in the following shot there is no pipe across the road.

Continuity: In the apartment with Diedre, Seamus's hand jumps from the bottle of scotch to his side.

Continuity: In the early scene of the arms deal, when they are waiting in the car for the arms dealers to turn up, Robert De Niro (in the back seat) is initially unshaven, but then later in the scene he is clean-shaven.

Revealing: In the rink, only a few shots after Natasha Kirilova is introduced, the camera pans across the crowd where Sam and Vincent are sitting and you can see that the upper half of the crowd are all cardboard cutout people.

Factual error: In the scene where Sam & Deidre are sitting in the Audi spying on the villa, you can see that the car steering wheel is a 3 spoked sports type which is right for that model. Later just before Larry smashes it into the Citroen outside the cafe, there is a close up of him as he comes out of a side street, you can see that the steering wheel is changed to that of 4 spoke design used on the normal A8 and not on the S8.

Continuity: When Spence draws the sniper ambush scenario on the whiteboard and gets stopped, the cup of coffee is set down on a small table. When Spence backs away into the cup, its handle has turned itself around.

Continuity: When Gregor is in the chase scene at the old stadium, he runs/falls down some stone steps and loses his wire-rimmed glasses. In the next scene, he is wearing them once again, looking over his shoulder for Sam, who is chasing him.

Other: When the arms deal goes wrong by the river in Paris, Larry drives the Audi flat out straight into the tunnel where the bad guys BMW is parked right in the middle, leaving little space to get another car through. Even if he could squeeze the Audi past the other car, there were dead bodies either side that he would have to drive over, as well as crashing into the doors that were left open. This would have done some damage to the Audi at the speed he was going.

Continuity: Near the beginning, when the group are talking over the ambush to steal the case, Sam walks to the table where Deidre is and Gregor follows. When Sam accidentally knocks the cup off the table, Gregor's hand changes position on the cup between when he catches it and the following shot.

Continuity: At the beginning, De Niro wakes up and is offered a cigarette from Jean Reno. The cigarette changes hands as the shot changes.

Deliberate "mistake": When Gregor is holding a long lens camera in a cafe house, he is pointing it at two men, you can see this when he looks through the lens, yet the next shot of through the lens is not from his camera but more like from a person standing right next to the two men.

Continuity: After the first big chase scene, Robert De Niro is seen with the group in their hideout. As he treats the man who was injured, he puts the bottle of alcohol down twice.

Plot hole: What happened to the second car? Larry sideswiped it and forced it off the road. Vincent and Sam seem to arrive in Nice first but somehow that second car is ahead of them when they force it to crash at the market.

Audio problem: At the start of the car chase between the BMW and the Peugeot 406, there is one shot of the BMW heading toward the camera, and the engine noise is one of it accelerating, yet you see the nose of the BMW dip down as the brakes have been pressed sharply.

Continuity: When the BMW exits the final tunnel before it crashes, there is a shot of the windscreen wipers moving up, but in the immediate next shot, they are down.

Revealing: At the start of the chase, the Mercedes slides around a bit, and it is comically obvious that the tire smoke has been poorly painted onto the scene.

Continuity: In the Nice chase scene, when the two cars come to construction work on the road, in the far shots the Audi S8 is quite close to the Peugeot, yet when the Peugeot swerves to avoid a crash with the construction lorry, if you slow it down you can see the Audi has completely disappeared.

Continuity: In the middle of the film when Gregor is selling the suitcase onto the Russian guy in his jeep, you can see that when Gregor puts his foot on the accelerator the other guy jerks about and the last shot we see his head is down, yet the following shot he is looking at Gregor before the splatter of blood on the window.

Continuity: On the freeway chase scene between the BMW and the Peugeot, when the BMW gets flipped over and slides and the Peugeot hits it, the BMW goes over the edge and Peugeot slides round almost facing backwards. In the following shot from the ground the Peugeot has changed direction.

Continuity: Just before they head out to make the deal with the arms dealers, De Niro and Skarsgård are talking at a table, if you look on the table there is a flask and a cup. In the first shot, the cup is on the left of the flask, but on the overhead shot it's on the right of the flask, then it's back on the left.

Continuity: At the start of the "Nice" scene, De Niro is standing under the big NICE sign with a gold post, but in the following shot he is about two feet away from it.

Continuity: When the group are discussing the plan for the ambush, the top line and words on the whiteboard changes, and the arrow changes from being pointed at the bottom of one of the photos to pointing at the top photo.

Visible crew/equipment: In the mountain chase scene where Robert De Niro pops up out of the sunroof with a bazooka, a close shot of the Mercedes' right front tyre reveals a shadow of equipment ~ possibly the camera.

Continuity: While chasing Deidre the dividers between the lanes change. Right after the chase leaves the tunnel all the views of the road scene looking back at the cars show a road with a solid concrete divider separating oncoming traffic. But all the "driver's eye" views of the road show a post and guard-rail type divider.

Continuity: At the start of the Nice ambush for the silver case, the bad guys are shooting at Sam who is leaning against a grey car. He ducks behind it, but in the following wider shot Sam is still leaning against the grey car.

Continuity: During the arms deal scene at the beginning, when Vincent and Spence go underneath the tunnel approaching the arms dealers boss, one of them shouts, "Stop!" He raises his right arm when shouting, but in the following close-up he has actually raised his left arm. Zoom in required.

Continuity: Just before the group goes out to collect the weapons from the buyers at the beginning of the film, the group are gearing up to go out, and Sam is talking to Deidre about the arms people. When Deidre burns the piece of paper and walks away her hair is obviously going down her back, but in the following shot there is now no hair on her back.

Continuity: At the beginning, when the group are discussing the plans for the ambush and the driver says, "I'm gonna need an Audi S8," Gregor looks up and stops writing, but in the following shot his head is down and he is still writing.

Continuity: Just before the Nice chase scene when Deidre gets off the train, she walks to an elevator. If you look to the left of the screen you can see Seamus with a black hat or french beret on, but in the following shot, the hat has disappeared.

Visible crew/equipment: During the scene at the whiteboard where Robert De Niro is asking Sean Bean about the colour of the boathouse at Hereford, the shadow of the boom mia can be seen on Robert's forehead.

Visible crew/equipment: Shortly after the AudiS8 chases the CitroenXM through the fish market, both cars then go into a narrow street. There is a rear shot of the Audi going into the street where you can see camera equipment on the roof of the car. In the next outside shot of the car it has gone.

Continuity: In their initial hideout discussing the ambush, De Niro repeats several times to Sean Bean "Draw it again" then they have argument and De Niro apprehends Sean Bean. In the shot where De Niro pulls gun out of the back of Sean Bean's trousers, Sean Bean is definitely turned with his back to De Niro, where in the previous and following shot he is facing De Niro.

Revealing: During the final chase scene with the BMW and the Peugeot. Just as they go down into the first tunnel, they cut in front of a car transporter forcing it to brake hard. A car on top of it then flips forward onto the road. If you look at the ramp as the car tips up, you can see a mechanical arm/rod lift it up to make it fall off.

Continuity: When Seamus, Deidre and Gregor are in an apartment just after Seamus comes out of the bathroom after beating up Gregor, he is holding a glass in his left hand after he pours the drink, then in the following shot the glass is now in his right hand.

Continuity: When the group is going over the Nice ambush, Sam gets up, closes the door and Deidre walks in from the kitchen and sits down. At the door, Larry is taking a sip of his drink, but in the following shot the cup is on its saucer and he is holding it with both hands.

Other: At the very end of the final chase, Vincent fires his gun and the BMW wheel was slashed. But Vincent aims his gun to a higher position, not to the position of a car wheel.

Continuity: During the final chase, if you see Deidre's hair, you will realise that the window was sometimes open and sometimes closed.

Visible crew/equipment: After they find the case, De Niro throws the case under the car before it blows up. Then the French guy drives a car up to pick him up and get away. Look at the window when the door is open, you can clearly see the reflection of the boom mic.

Continuity: In the ambush under the bridge, the police car which can be seen across the river is a Peugeot 405, yet by the time it reaches the people at the bridge and chases the Audi it is a much smaller Peugeot 205.

Audio problem: Near the beginning, when the group are discussing the plans for the ambush, Sam asks, "Can you get me a simulator?" When Gregor eventually says, "Quite diverting" his lips fail to move as he speaks.

Continuity: At the start of the first chase scene in Nice, Jean Reno walks across the road to test the traffic lights device. There are concrete cones to the right of the screen, NOT by the grocery store, yet, on the overhead shot, when he is trying out the lights, three have appeared in front of him next to the grocery store.

Continuity: In a close up of one of the alloy wheels on the BMW during the big chase, the wheel has changed style to a cross spoke.

Continuity: At the end of the chase in Paris, when the BMW falls off the bridge into the building site, Gregor leaves the car through the back door window. During the chase he sat in the front of the car. He had also fastened his seatbelts, which would have prevented him from falling into the back of the car while it was crashing.