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Mistakes

During Bishop's first mission for Nathan, he kills a general in Vietnam. The first shot hits the general in his chest on his right side. The second shot hits the general in the head, but the bullet hole from the first shot is now gone. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

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Directed by Tony Scott, starring Brad Pitt, Catherine McCormack, Robert Redford, Stephen Dillane (add more)

Genres: Action, Crime, Thriller

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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In Suzhou Prison, presumably the Suzhou near Shanghai, all the prison guards are speaking Cantonese, which is a southern dialect. They should be speaking either Mandarin (Putonghua) or their regional dialect. [There's no reason that their language should be based on the location of the prison, but that they are guards. Why would the author of this comment expect the guards to be local? Does everybody work in their own neighborhood?]
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At the end of the movie it is about 7:42am in Langley, Virginia. In Hong Kong, Tom Bishop is being rescued out of the prison and as he is being flown away you see sunlight poking down through the clouds in the backdrop. According to Timezones it would actually be about 8:42pm in Hong Kong. Since they showed the Berlin wall falling on the news that would put the film at the beginning of November in 1989 where it would be dark at 9pm. [Key error in this submission is that Bishop is not being rescued from Hong Kong, he's being rescued from Su Zhou. Since the location of Su Zhou in the film is unclear we don't know what timezone it is in.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart
In one scene Brad Pitt's character has a silver and black Leica camera around his neck. Then the camera changes to an all black Leica. Then the camera changes to an SLR camera. This all occurs in the course of one conversation with another character. [He has multiple cameras around his neck. You can see then in one of the first shots with him as a photographer when he is running through the battlefield.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart
At the end of the movie when Brad Pitt is being airlifted away his left eye is black. In the next scene it is the right one before changing back to the left one for the final shot. [I've just watched this scene and Brad's entire face is black and blue, there's no way to even see if he's got a black eye or if it changes sides.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart
Near the end of the movie when bishop is getting rescued and escorted into the helicopter; he looks at the other helicopter where he sees the girl. You can perfectly see that her hair is long, but when they show her again when she's in the chopper, you can see her is chopped off, leaving just a buzz cut, most likely because the guards cut it that way. You can see it again when her head is under a blanket. [It does look very like that but in fact her "long hair" is the blanket draped over her head.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart
Right after the Nebaa is demolished by the bomb, some people are tending to the wounded. One man is laid down on an improvised stretcher. He is missing his left arm. The problem is, the actor is missing his left arm: he was evidently born without it. The arm gets thinner towards the end and, aside from the fake blood, you can see no fake bones, ripped skin or ripped shirt around the end. The skin at the end of the arm is smooth. This man was evidently born without the arm. [Where's the mistake? There's a guy with one arm playing a guy with one arm, seems OK to me. If there's no blood then there's no indication that the missing arm is the injury - he might have other wounds we can't see.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart
When Bishop is seen walking away from the explosion at the hotel, you see a vertical cut on his face. When he meets Nathan at the airport, the cut is now horizontal. [The cut was horizontal. What you saw that was vertical was the blood, not a cut. That is why in the airport scene the scar was horizontal.]
Edit
When the helicopters are landing at the prison you can see someone directing the landing who is on the ground but no U.S. forces were on the ground yet. He was directing the first helicopter on where to land. [We don't know the details of the operation. There may have been advance troops. We know that there were additional people involved to cut the power so having someone to guide the helicopters is not impossible.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart
In the scene where Robert Redford calls his broker at the London Stock Exchange to have $282,000 transferred to a Caiman Island account, the time that's given on screen is 9.22 p.m. in Langley/Virginia. Knowing that EST is GMT -5 hours that would mean that the London stock exchange is open at 2.22 am, which is impossible. [We see him call a secretary who then transfers his call, but we don't know to where and there is never any indication that the London Stock Exchange is open, only that his broker is still available.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart
Near the end of the film, when the helicopter carrying Brad Pitt away from the prison lifts off, it is silhouetted against a lighted cloud of steam or smoke. If the whole city had its power shut off, what was lighting the cloud? [Earlier it was made clear that the power was cut for 30 mins. By the time we see the helicopter, the power has been restored.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart
Look at the buttons on Muir's safe. They're upside down - because the entire lock is upside down. Why? Presumably because it looked cooler. [Unusual perhaps, but certainly not a film mistake.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart Time
During one scene 1975 flashes on the screen (indicating a flashback) and the song they are playing is Dire Straits "Brothers In Arms". This song did not appear until 1985. [It's not because the song didn't exist yet in 1985 that they can't use it in the movie, it's just supposed to help create the mood.]
Edit
In a scene, Catherine McCormack was distributing candy to kids as she got off her car. According to a friend who does extensive volunteer work in third world countries, field workers will never distribute food or anything to locals like that. The situation can easily go out of hand because you never know what these kids will do to get the candy/food. [Catherine McCormack was distributing 'Crayola' style crayons to the children, not candy.]
Edit
At the end of the movie as the rescue helicopters are returning the pilot of the helo containing Brad Pitt radios in with a callsign Blackhawk One. They are actually flying in a Bell 204. The other helicopters are also Bell 204s. [The radio callsign of a particular military unit, i.e. aircraft, tank, platoon, etc. is not based upon the kind of vehicle that is being referred to. These are assigned randomly or through some choice of the commander, depending upon the situation. So you can have any kind of helicopter referred to as Blackhawk One over the radio, or a tank, or even an infantry unit.]
Edit
Much of the movie is set on the day before Robert Redford's character is to retire from the CIA. As a security precaution, the CIA has restricted much of his access and made him turn in some of his badges. At one point in the movie, Redford asks to borrow a collegue (Mr. Able's) phone, claiming that his secure phone has been disconnected. While using the phone, he see's Able's keycard on his desk and takes it. Later, Redford uses this keycard to access Able's office when he isn't there. However, at the end of the day, Able is unable to leave the building without swiping his keycard (because Redford stole it). Able tells the guard that he must have left it in his office and he will go look for it. In a later scene, we see Able rummaging through his desk looking for his keycard. If Able doesn't have his keycard to leave the building, how did he get into his locked office? [A security guard could have let him in.]
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Brad Pitt is rescued by commandos dispatched by helicopter from Taiwan's Peng Hu islands, depicted as only 40 minutes away from Suzhou. In fact, Peng Hu is very far from Suzhou (probably out of helicopter range) and no US soldiers are based there. [There are two cities named Suzhou in China, there is Suzhou, Anhui, China and there is also Suzhou, Gansu, China. The city that is in the Anhui province is about 40 minutes from a ship that is just north of Peng Hu.]
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Right after Nathan and Bishop are finished talking on the rooftop, Bishop is seen slamming down a chair next to the table. The camera angle changes to a wide view and the chair and table are gone. [The table and chairs are seen fairly clearly in all shots.]
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