Black Hawk Down (2001) - 50 mistakes

Visible crew/equipment: When McKnight's convoy rolls away from the scene where the Delta guy got his legs blown off, there is an explosion right next to one of the Humvees. You can see a small pile of dirt and the supposed grenade or RPG explodes exactly in the middle of it. Seems like it is an explosive charge that was deployed in the dirt bump for security reasons.

Continuity: One scene shows a Blackhawk being called into the fray from circling the city. The first outside shot shows no one inside the bay then the next shot it's full of soldiers and guys sitting with their legs dangling out.

Continuity: When Sizemore goes to cut off his cast, if you look closely the sleeve is down over the cast just before he pulls out the knife. Then it's rolled up.

Revealing: When the two Delta snipers are approaching the second downed Black Hawk, a Somalian man in a white shirt is shown from behind. Clearly visible is a pack on his back. A few seconds later he is shot by one of the snipers in that exact spot. It's a blood pack.

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.

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where the Ranger driving the Humvee is hit by the unexploded RPG, the closeup of his midsection clearly shows (although VERY briefly!) the black special effects gaffer tape that secures the special effects charge.

Continuity: When the two Delta Force members are defending the second downed chopper one of them shoots an attacker and he does a unique side flip as he dies. After the story progresses a few minutes we see the same attacker shot and flipping again but from a different camera angle.

Continuity: When the soldiers are trying to clamp Jamie's femoral artery, there is a shot of Jamie's head and a comrade next to him holding it. He has no blood on his head, but all of a sudden it just appears. It wasn't from his leg as his comrades were putting pressure on it at the time, so it wasn't squirting blood.

Continuity: In the scene with the aerial view of the Rangers pinned down at night the camera uses night-vision to show its dark. Then the scene changes to General Garrison in the command centre and the live TV screens behind him show reused daytime footage from earlier in the movie.

Continuity: After the failed femoral artery surgery attempt, that soldier slowly dies. When he finally stops breathing the medic jumps in to do CPR. The soldier dies with a blank stare, but during the shots of the medic doing CPR the dead man's eyes are closed.

Revealing: Just after Jamie 'Smitty' Smith has passed away due to being shot in the thigh, the medic starts CPR. The camera cuts from the medic to Smitty and you can see his eyes move.

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.

Revealing: At the end of the movie, where Sgt. Eversman talks to the dead Corporal Jamie Smith about Blackburn, he says he's gonna talk to Smith's parents when he gets home. When Eversman places his hand on the chest of Smith, you can see his eyelids move.

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.

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: 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.

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: 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.

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.