Trivia
According to veterans of the actual event, when the Rangers got the go-ahead for the mission and were getting their gear ready, "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N Roses was playing on the base's loudspeakers. There were some half-serious comments among the men about the appropriateness of this song. However, the film's producers failed to secure the rights to use "Welcome to the Jungle," so they substituted Faith No More's "Falling to Pieces"--which is perhaps thematically in line with what happened on the raid. See more...
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Black Hawk Down (2001) - 49 mistakes
Directed by Ridley Scott, starring Eric Bana, Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Josh Hartnett, Sam Shepard, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner (add more)
Visible crew/equipment: Near the end of the movie when the convoy is heading back to the Pakistan Stadium, a Humvee stops briefly to allow a man to walk across the street with a child in his arms. When the shot changes and the Humvee begins driving again, a crew member or cameraman is seen inside the Humvee wearing a white shirt. All of the men who entered the Humvee were wearing fatigues.
Character mistake: Early in the movie when Pilla is making fun of CPT Steele, he is referred to as 'Specialist' (E-4) by CPT Steele right before CPT Steele puts him in the headlock. However, later in the movie when he is shot while up in the turret, SGT Strucker refers to him as 'Sergeant' Pilla (E-5). E-5/SGT is denoted by 3 chevrons on the collar and E-4/SPC is denoted by the rank seen on his collar during his scene with CPT Steele.
Continuity: During the scene when the windshield explodes on McKnight's humvee, he gets clipped in the neck by a bullet. At that moment you can see a bullet hole appear in his passenger seat window. Rewind however and you will see that a few seconds earlier there was no window there. The window only appeared when the bullet was shot.
Factual error: The medic working on Jamie (the ranger with the femoral artery wound) is a delta named Schmid (from BHD the book). But in the movie, the guy's wearing green armor and has hair only on the top of his head - both typical of a ranger and not a delta. [Little known fact (far from OPSEC), but prior to deployment, all the Delta guys got high and tight haircuts. I was in 2-14 Infantry (part of 10th Mountain Division) during that timeframe.]
Continuity: When the two delta snipers are defending the second crash site, they sit the pilot down in a building right next to them. Several times it cuts to him sitting there defending their rear. Right after the first delta sniper is killed, it cuts to him again and he has the camo Car-15 in his lap. Following this, it cuts back to the downed chopper and the second delta sniper proceeds to take the camo Car-15 from his fallen comrade and bring it to the pilot covering his rear. The pilot shouldn't have the Car-15 in his lap when he does.
Factual error: In the movie, the stranded ground force calls in a gun run by Little Bird helicopters by having a Ranger post an infrared marker inside an enemy position to designate the target. This is the only time the attack helicopters are shown actively supporting the defending troops at the crash site. However, it is COMPLETELY absurd and unrealistic(not to mention suicidal) to mark enemy positions in this manner. What actually happened was that the markers were placed around the perimeter of the defender's position for the pilots, who made anything outside of it fair game. Also, the Little Birds provided CONTINUOUS air support with their miniguns and rockets through to the following morning, which is credited by US forces and Somalis alike as being the main thing preventing the Rangers from being overrun and wiped out.
Revealing: During the Humvee convoy's dash to the first crash site, a quick, far-overhead shot shows the column racing down a dusty street, kicking up an obviously CGI trail of dust. The dust billows up from the Hummers, but travels in the opposite direction far faster than the ground below, almost as if a very strong wind is blowing in the opposite direction of the convoy's travel, but everything else in the shot shows the air to be calm.







