Behind Enemy Lines (2001) - 61 mistakes

Factual error: In the opening carrier takeoff scene, someone says "OK for start" when the aircraft is already on the catapult, ready for launch. Then, there is a shot of the instrument panel showing the left engine coming up to speed. The engines have to be started to taxi the a/c into position, and they idle at about 70% RPM.

Factual error: There is a short discussion about famous persons dying on plane crashes with John Denver being mentioned. The movie is set in 1996. John Denver was perfectly alive and well. He died in late 1997.

Continuity: After takeoff is aborted, the crew leaves their aircraft on the catapult, still facing the bow of the ship. When Owen Wilson grabs the football and runs to the bow of the ship, in the background there is no aircraft lined up on the catapult.

Continuity: When Burnett is on the phone with his dad a man writes "Stackhouse/Burnett" on a board. Later in the close-up the handwriting has changed.

Continuity: When Burnett takes off, the wheels start to retract in one angle. Camera cuts and they're back out.

Factual error: During the Recon flight launch, one shot shows the Super Hornet taking off with a blue Sidewinder. These blue missiles are simulation Sidewinders, and as stated in the Top Gun mistakes (same missiles used), all they do when launched is drop from the aircraft.

Continuity: In the launch scene of the recon mission, one camera shot is centered on the aircraft's lower fuselage as it is moving on the catapult towards and to the right of the camera. If you look closely, you will notice that there are rounded intakes on the aircraft. Those intakes are only on the regular Hornet (F/A-18A-D). The Super Hornet (F/A-18E/F) has rectangular intakes like the Tomcat.

Continuity: Right after Stackhouse and Brunett has been spotted flying by the serbian soldiers and the soldier enters Lokar's office, we see Lokar resting his head in his hand while holding a cigarette. When it cuts he is no longer resting his head but he takes a lung full up smoke instead.

Other: When Stackhouse and Burnett are being chased by the SAM, they pull to the right after deploying flares and you hear a voice on the radio say "Chaff, Chaff, Chaff". Chaff is a cartridge of small metal strips released as a countermeasure for radar guided missiles. These small strips add noise to the radar and clutters it up giving the pilot about 5 seconds to evade the missile. Throughout the scene, several indicators such as the flares and exploding fuel tanks suggest that they are fleeing from a Heat-seeking missile, not a radar guided one. To add to this, the voice on the radio wasn't that of Stackhouse or Burnett and was added for radio effect.

Visible crew/equipment: In several shots above the Stackhouse and Burnett's plane you are able to see studio lights.

Continuity: After Stackhouse and Brunett has been shot down, we see the front part of the plane land and the inscription "Made in U.S.A" is writing on the right front of the plane. That wasn't there earlier.

Visible crew/equipment: When Burnett cuts away from his parachute and falls to the ground from the tree, you can see the crash pad he lands on.

Revealing: Gruesome but wrong. When the other pilot is murdered, the killer shoots him in the neck pointing downwards, but the spray of the blood-pack is from his forehead up high.

Continuity: After seeing his pilot get shot, Owen Wilson's character starts running uphill while being shot at. Of course you know he's being shot at because you can see the tracers. However, after cresting the hill, and starting down the other side, you STILL see rounds going past him. How did they get smart bullets?

Visible crew/equipment: Just after Stackhouse is executed, Burnett runs up then down a hill. Once he's over the other side he falls and rolls down a steepish incline. In the background (top left of screen) you can see set vans lined up nicely along the side of a road.

Visible crew/equipment: When Burnett jumps and Glen catch him hanging in the air, Leslie shouts "Pull up. Pull up.", it cuts and the security wire attached to Burnett's right shoulder is visible.

Continuity: The metal rod Burnett uses to stop himself from sliding down, while being shot at by the sniper, changes after he grabs it.

Continuity: In the scene where Serbian soldiers are searching for Owen Wilson's character almost all of them following the tank in that shot are left-handed. A few minutes later it happens again. In all other scenes most every soldier is right-handed. The odd shots are flipped.

Plot hole: When Burnett is hiding in the mass grave, the people on the ship are watching a thermal image of him. When he falls, his arm is at an angle and stays at that angle. To move under the bodies in the grave he would had to have moved his arm. But it stays at the same angle throughout, so how could he move under the bodies, without his thermal image moving?

Continuity: In the scene where Burnett falls into the graves, those watching the infrared satellite image on the carrier say that after Burnett falls, he never moves. If he doesn't move, then how did get under a body?