Corrected entry: Jeff should have just locked Red and his crew in the cellar using the key that Arlene used to open it. Instead he barricades it just so Billy could ultimately get access to it. Had Jeff locked it with the key and then taken the key with him, Billy wouldn't be able to free them. Jeff could have then just called the cops and told them where the kidnappers were contained, and then maybe later Billy could just get arrested.
Corrected entry: When the car is breaking down, Kurt Russell's character yells out "I can't steer!", but when they show the car, it swerves off of the road and then starts to come back on to the road.
Correction: This is not a flaw.. "I can't steer" means after the car's engine was shut off, the power steering was also turned off too. You can still steer manually, it's just not as easy..
Corrected entry: When Kurt goes inside the food store he leaves the hood of his engine open. A few minutes later, when the car breaks down, he re-connects something under the car and it works. Later in the movie, one of the bad guys say "He was an idiot for leaving the hood open", but they never touched the engine, did they?
Correction: Of course they touched the engine (when they disconnected the wires that caused the Jeep to break down). Just because they didn't show it didn't mean it didn't happen. This is all part of the plot. We as viewers are not "all knowing". For example, we don't see anything happen to Russell's wife for most of the movie, but does that mean nothing happened to her?
Correction: It was probably the crankshaft position sensor, the car will start and drive but then cut out after 10 minutes.
Corrected entry: Any auto mechanic will tell you that there are no wires underneath the area where Kurt Russell is looking on a Jeep that will prevent it from starting.
Correction: The car CAN be immobilised from underneath the car, by simply removing the plug/lug from the starter. 99-100% of car/suv starters are fitted to the lower part of the engine. Never ontop.
The starter only fires up the engine. This correction doesn't explain how they got down the road and it broke down. The starter has nothing to do with the operation of the engine except to get it going.
Corrected entry: When Russell is kidnapped and is in the trunk of the Trans Am talking to the kidnappers, on the shots where they show the kidnappers from his point of view you can see a distinct curvature at the end of the trunk lid. Trans Ams of that era had flat trunk lids, that was obviously a trunk lid of a different car.
Correction: All "f" series 70'-81' Trans Ams had the curved "Spoiler " air deflector at the end of the trunk lid.
Corrected entry: Near the start of the film Kurt Russell gets a little worried and speeds away from a garage after seeing someone he almost hit earlier. After a few minutes the Jeep breaks down. Kurt finds out after a while that some wires have come undone, he puts them back together and the Jeep starts. Later in the movie the guy that he almost hit told him that he undid the wires. How did the Jeep run for so long before it broke down?
Correction: The bad guys could have just left the wires loosely connected so the car would break down far enough away. Maybe the Jeep went over a bump and knocked the connections apart. I also believe that the reason is plot motivated. If the Jeep broke down near the gas station, J.T. wouldn't be able to pick Kathleen Quinlan up in the first place, they would have had the problem fixed and would have been on their way.
Correction: Jeff does in fact lock the cellar with a padlock and key. Billy opens the lock somehow off screen, either by using the tools present in the barn or using a spare key.
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