Black Hawk Down (2001) - 50 mistakes

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.

Continuity: In the scene where Star 41 is called to the first crash site, it has mini guns and rockets, but when it gets to the site it has seats for people.

Deliberate "mistake": When Blackburn reports for duty, he is asked his "Serial Number" and reels off some 7 digit number. However, in '93 and earlier, the Army was already using the Social Security Number (9 digits) for your Service Number (it's not called a Serial Number).

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.]

Other: During the scene when Chalk 4 is moving parallel to the crowd, and the .50 cal is waiting for them at the corner, they get pinned down. Shortly after that the Little Birds kill the .50 cal gunner. Right before that however, there is an above view of a helicopter that isn't seen at any time during the movie, neither a black hawk nor a little bird. From what I could tell it appeared to be a Huey.

Continuity: When all units are heading into town, there is a shot from the roadside of the convoy heading in. The camera cuts to the Black Hawks and all the gunners in the Hummvee's have changed position instantly.

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.

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.

Continuity: Just before Sgt. Eversman rapels down from the helicopter at the beginning of the raid you can see that he is not wearing kneepads. On the way down the rope he is wearing them. Once he is on the ground the kneepads are gone again.

Visible crew/equipment: Near the beginning as the helicopters fly in formation to invade Mogadishu, you can see the tail control surface of the film helicopter providing the shot for said scene.

Other: The credits (and various websites) lists Canadian-born actor Kim Coates as portraying the character Wex, but he actually plays Master Sergeant Tim "Griz" Martin.

Revealing: In the scene where Jamie dies from his femoral artery wound, the close up shot of his face after he is already dead reveals his jugular artery in the neck still beating.

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.

Continuity: The lead in convoy has it's window smashed with the glass and shrapnel going into the drivers face. A few shots later the glass is back in one piece.

Factual error: The first downed Blackhawk exhibits miraculous rotor behavior as it comes to earth. It does a slow roll onto its left side, and the main rotor continues to rotate. The blades are seen straight and undamaged, as if they are passing through the earth beneath the chopper without touching anything, and each emerges full length and straight to go around again and again. This is most obvious in the shot from inside a corner building when looking directly at the top of the chopper's rotor hub.

Deliberate "mistake": When the list of the KIA during the raid is showing, the name of Matt Rierson is up there but he died 3 days later from a mortar attack on the base.

Continuity: When the original leader for Chalk Four runs and sits down in front of the TV back at the base to watch the Steve Martin movie, the Jerk, he has a remote control in his right hand. As he has his seizure and falls with the remote control in his hand, subsequent scenes show it is not in his hand, then it is.

Audio problem: when Gordon and Shughart go to the 2nd crash site and Gordon knocks on Durants cockpit door, he asks him 'how bad' then fires his rifle. The problem is that 2 cartridges are ejected but there is only one shot heard.

Continuity: When they call for a stretcher for Blackburn, the stretcher is half folded up. The camera cuts and it is now fully open.

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.