Con Air (1997) - 46 mistakes

Continuity: The hijack happens about eight years after the bar scene right at the beginning. In the close-ups of Monica Potter's head/face, she looks exactly the same. No woman's face stays the same over an eight-year period.

Continuity: At the beginning of the movie, Nicholas Cage is supposed to be an Airborne Ranger. His uniform is correct for someone being in the 75th Ranger Regiment but his hair is entirely too long. Rangers are required to keep their hair EXTREMELY short.

Revealing: Though it may be a little hard to see, when Poe is in his prison cell towards the beginning, he is doing handstand pushups. This would be really cool to see a star doing these only, you can see the strap around his foot holding him up.

Continuity: In the movie the officers are seen wearing brown shirts and pants. Officers in the federal bureau of prisons do not wear brown, they wear white shirts and grey pants.

Continuity: Still before the hijacking, Pinball is talking to his left neighbor, sitting in the same row. In one shot, from the left, they both sit next to each other, in the same row. In a shot thereafter, Pinball has his head turned left and is talking to his "neighbor", but there is nobody. The guy sits in the row behind.

Continuity: When Pinball is fighting the female guard on the plane they are struggling, and from one angle her hat has fallen off and from another angle she is still wearing it. It jumps between scenes like this with her hat being on and off.

Continuity: When Pinball is looking for the three convicts who are to get off at Carson City, Cyrus and Billy Bedlam are standing near the front of the plane. Cyrus says, "The pilot's white," which prompts a laugh from Billy Bedlam. When Billy smiles his teeth are perfectly white - in the rest of the movie they are yellow and stained.

Revealing: When the fake block is discovered in Cyrus's cell, the back of the block is painted and surfaced to match the surround blocks. This cannot be done from the inside of the cell (Cyrus doesn't have access to the other side to properly hide the fakeness of the block).

Continuity: When the plane is at Carson City for exchange of prisoners, the guards have jackets with 'Dept of Prisons' printed on the back, but there is a bus with 'Bureau of Prisons' written on the side.

Factual error: After the hijacked plane departs Carson City, they are pressed for time. We can assume they fly a direct route to Lerner Airfield, not flying any doglegs. So flying over Fresno can not have been a deviation, it must be on a direct route from Carson City. Lerner Airfield, however, is exremely dry, wide-spread desert land, but such type of land doesn't exist in the lush areas of California South of Fresno, on a straight line extended from Carson City beyond Fresno.

Continuity: When Diamond Dog puts the hat on in the plane after it's hijacked, he puts it on backwards.A second later, it's on straight without him turning it around.

Continuity: When Diamond Dog opens the door in the floor and tells Poe to go down to take care of the landing-gear problem, he has plenty of sweat in his face (downright wet and reflecting). In the next shot he has barely a trace of sweat in his face.

Revealing: When Pinballs is squeezed in between the landing-gear door and the fuselage/landing-gear, you can see in the face that it's a dummy.

Factual error: When Pinball falls from the aircraft, he lands in Fresno, California supposedly. Fresno does not have more than two buildings over 30 stories - the city in the movie has many more.

Continuity: Poe writes a note to the US Marshall on Pinball then throws him off the plane. Pinball lands on a car after falling - there wouldn't be much left of Pinball let alone the message.

Factual error: The tour plane departs Carson City, but shortly later Larkin says that the hijacked plane was over Arizona (still believing it to be the hijacked C-123, not knowing yet that the tour plane has the transponder of the C-123 on board). Even if we take the NorthWestern-most area of Arizona, that would be over 300 statute miles from Carson City. That small plane can not fly over 300 miles in that short time.

Continuity: When John Cusack is driving the old Corvette to Lerner Field he shifts the car. He is going way to fast to be shifting from second to third so apparently he is shifting from fourth to overdrive. The only problem is that five speed transmissions weren't available until much later. In fact, on these old transmissions, shifting up and to the right from fourth would put you in reverse.

Factual error: In a scene during the C-123 (airplane) flight, Nicolas Cage and another man open a trapdoor in the floor on the plane and go down to a lower level to discuss their plans. This aircraft sits very low to the ground and has no lower level in any part of the cargo area.

Factual error: The tour plane flies way too fast and way too close to the buttes on its scenic tour. For one thing, that prop plane type cannot fly that fast, and secondly, no tour pilot would ever fly that fast and close to the surrounding terrain. Such a tour would most definitely be operating according to Part 135 of the Federal Aviation Regulations, but even if operating under Part 91 (which a commerial tour cannot be) it would violate the FARs in terms of minimum safe altitudes, minimum lateral distance from obstacles/terrain, and the catch-all "reckless and careless" clause would apply as well. (Notice this happens already before they're confronted with the Cobras.)

Continuity: When Larkin is in the tower, the C-123 heads straight to the tower. When the shot cuts away, the plane flies right over it. In the next shot, from the side, the plane flies past the tower next to it. And in the next shot it's even banked in a curve, again next to the tower, although the camera is on the tower.