Con Air (1997) - 46 mistakes

Factual error: When the aeroplane is crash landing in Las Vegas, it follows a flight path from shot to shot that would have been physically impossible; one moment bearing down on the strip, next downtown, back to the strip, back to downtown, and back to the strip before crashing there.

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.

Audio problem: There is a scene where Johnny 23 is on the tower and he sees all of those cars coming. He runs, and while he's running he yells "holy shi*". His mouth didn't move at all.

Continuity: When the car hits the control tower and falls. You can see the "azz kickr" licence plate still intact. A few seconds later a crumpled up licence plate that says "azz kickr" is picked up by Colm Meany. That plate is meant to have come from the front of the car, but we've seen before there was no plate at the front.

Plot hole: At the end of the film when Cyrus is handcuffed to the ladder of the fire truck, he crashes through a restaurant bridge and falls towards the road below, (the fire truck passes below him) but somehow he lands in a construction yard on a conveyer belt leading to a crusher.

Continuity: Near the end when Cyrus is about to get his head crushed, he falls from the carousel head first and as he falls his legs are facing the stone crusher but for some reason his head lands under the crusher not his legs.

Continuity: At the air field there is a scene when Cyrus is loading his gun. If you look closely at the clip you will see that it is hollow. You can see right through it.

Continuity: The plane began its flight in the desert just outside Las Vegas in broad daylight (the sun was still shining). But when they reach the strip it is late at night.

Continuity: When we see the close-up shot of Steve Buscemi grabbing the doll, he is picking it up with his right hand. But in the next shot, when you see a wider view of him picking it up, it is now in his left hand.

Continuity: After the plane has crashed in Las Vegas, Cameron Poe rescues the bunny (his daughter's birthday gift) from the sewer/gutter. The bunny is obviously soaking wet since it had just been floating down the street in a stream of water. Later, when he gives the bunny to his daughter, it is dirty, but dry. It is clear because the ears are sticking up and bouncing, and the fur is fluffy.

Factual error: The type of fire pump that would be on the ladder truck that they're driving at the end can not pump water and drive at the same time. The transmission has to be moved from "drive" to "pump".

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.

Continuity: Cameron Poe's stubble length changes noticeably while they are on the plane. At one point when him, the guard and Baby-O are about to jump off the plane after taking off from Lerner Airfield it has almost disappeared.

Continuity: When Colm Meany's car comes crashing to the ground, not only does John Cusack's arms rapidly change position, his sunglasses seem to rapidly jump onto, and off of, his face.

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.

Other: When the car crashes into the tower, you can clearly see when it goes through that the car is not attached to anything, the rope that was pulling the car has gone, yet when the car lands on the ground you can see the rope still attached to the car.

Continuity: After Nicolas Cage pries open the door on the fire truck there is no damage to the door.

Continuity: While landing at Lerner, the C-123 has to lift and fly over the Cessna to avoid a crash. As it touches down again, the pilot of the Cessna has to duck to avoid being hit. Given the landing speed of the C-123 it would be a very long way down the runway at touchdown and no where near were the pilot jumped from the Cessna.

Continuity: Some people have said there's no tunnel in Vegas: there is a tunnel in Las Vegas, but it doesn't go under the Blvd.

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.

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 final chase scene at the end of the film where Poe and Grissom are fighting on the ladder of the fire truck, and Poe handcuffs Cyrus to the ladder rail, Poe activates the ladder causing it to raise....this is not possible.  The transmission of fire apparatus do not permit aerial ladders to be operational while the vehicle is moving.

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 Sandino is getting ready to leave the others behind, Larkin opens the tarp to the garage and is blown backwards by the engines. He then runs from the garage, the plane then comes from the garage nose first facing Larkin after it's engines were just facing Larkin. How could it turn around in that small of space?

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.

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.

Plot hole: When Larkin runs towards the crane to use it to stop/damage the business jet, he totally outruns it. In the beginning shot he is right next to it (alongside), and as the plane accelerates he starts running, he makes it to the crane, then in one shot from the front you can see how close the plane is already to the crane, and in the shot from the side you can see that it's farther away again but much faster, with Larking already sitting in the crane. Cindino is in a rush, they taxi/accelerate as fast as they can. It's impossible to outrun it, climb into the crane, and start operating it in a desired manner.

Continuity: When Steve Buscemi and the little girl are sitting at the table in the swimming pool, right before they start to sing, the fruit on the plate changes position.

Continuity: Colm's car gets hooked up to the plane and then, after crashing into the watchtower, falls to the ground. If you watch the shots of the car falling you can see John Cusack's arms go from folded to at his side multiple times. You never see him move them, they just appear to have changed positions.

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).

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.)

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.

Plot hole: In one shot before the almost-collision between the C-123 and the Cessna, you see both of the planes on/above a runway. In the next shot, just before the almost-collision, you see the C-123 from behind, with the Cessna in front of it, but this shot is not on that runway anymore, it looks like a taxiway, and there is some airport building in close proximity at the end of it. Nobody would intend to land there (this is before the evasive maneuvre of both).

Continuity: When the C-123 lands at Lerner it stops with its nose down in the dirt which would have done serious damage to the thin skin. Later as it heads toward Las Vegas, there is no visible damage to the nose.

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 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.

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.

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: After the plane crashes in Las Vegas, the police pull Johnny 23's body from the cuffs. His arm is clearly made of wax because the fingers are stuck together and they don't fall when the arm swings around.

Continuity: The Debbie Reynolds Museum is not located along the strip.

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.

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: 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: 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.

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.

Continuity: When the plane is crashing into the hotel, it crashes into a white corvette. Then it cuts to another scene, then it cuts to back outside, and you see the plane crash into the corvette again, from a different angle. Then it does the same thing 2 more times, until the plane is actually stopped. After it cuts to another scene outside, you see the same corvette, with only a flaming piece of metal on the hood, not completely shattered like it should be.