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Quotes

Walter Burke: All right, your objective: Reach the parking lot with an asset who intends to have sex with you.

James Clayton: You want us to pick up a girl?

Walter Burke: Five, actually. One each.

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Mistakes

In the middle of the film, as Farrel and Pacino talk in the park, Pacino tells Farrel about a new computer virus that Langley's created. He says it uses existing wires to propagate itself and can spread through, say, an electrical wall outlet. Computer viruses are programs that copy themselves (spread) when executed - this requires specific operating systems and CPUs. Anybody even remotely knowledgeable about computers knows this. The thought that a computer virus could somehow spread through the electrical grid or infect a toaster is ridiculous, since the only part of a computer actually connected to the electrical net is the PSU, and no data goes from it to the CPU. See more...

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Roger Donaldson's mother Dorothy appears as a bystander in a street scene where Colin Farrell is running for a taxi. See more...

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The Recruit (2003) - 22 corrections

Directed by Roger Donaldson, starring Al Pacino, Colin Farrell (add more)

Genres: Action, Thriller

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

Mistakes
Trivia
Quotes
Corrections
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When the trainees are shown breaking into the bug house, Zack is shown installing a bug and is then trapped in the toilet by the sliding door. Later in the same sequence, James and Zack are trapped in the corridor and Zack is pinned to the wall, while James dives through the window. Surely the trainees would have only had one attempt at planting the bugs and not be let free to try again? [Zack is trapped in the bathroom, and is not with James in the corridor. It is another CT.]
Edit
When Burke tells Clayton at the Crab house that they are being followed, the camera cuts to the guy who's suppose to be following them and he's at the bar just starting to order a drink. The camera pans back and he's still at the bar but he's no longer ordering a drink. [Honestly, how long does it take to say "one beer please", or simply "beer" if the bartender asked him what he wanted? Absolutely not a mistake.]
Edit
Layla's car has a Virginia license plate, but she lives in D.C. Also the license plates in Virginia have 3 letters followed by 4 numbers. Her plate was 4 numbers followed by 3 letters. [I'd rather call this a deliberate mistake, if a mistake at all. The car needed some plates to look like it was a normal car, and not a "movie car". So they smacked on some plates. They couldn't put real license plates on, i presume for the same reason real phone numbers are never used, as they can be traced back to real people.]
Edit
When Burke tells them about the NOC, Zack is sitting in the front row (he has a red sweater on) on Burke's right. In later shots he is shown sitting on Burke's left. [Actually if you look carefully, he is sitting almost directly in front of Burke. When they show Burke from his left, it appears that Zack is on Burke's right. Then when the angle switches, he looks like he has moved. He hasn't.]
Edit Corrected by shortdanzr Time
In the movie Burke states that none of the computers has a floppy disk drive so that no information can be copied and smuggled out, but Leila uses a USB device. With all their technology and computer scientists, the CIA, or anyone who is semi-computer knowledgable should know that information can be copied through the USB port. [A good number of mice and keyboards connect to the computers through the USB ports. If they took out all but two ports, and left those for the mouse and keyboard, it could be possible. If Leila pulled out the keyboard plug she could put in the USB device and copy the files. Heck, she could have even opened the computer up herself and installed a hidden USB drive (smuggling in the tools with her coffee mug of course). She would just have to be sneaky about it, and that's nothing unusual for these characters.]
Edit
When Layla is checking her computer after Clayton uses it you can hear her punch the buttons four or five times, yet a whole string of commands is being typed. [The lines coming on the screen are from her bringing up an event log to see exactly what James did on the computer. She only needed to hit a few keys to begin the 'playback'.]
Edit Time
After Clayton gives Burke's name the door to the class opens. Clayton uses the other door to stand, but you can see the door moves when he uses it to prop himself up as if it was never locked (either that or the interrogators are really stupid for leaving the door unlocked). [Or the small cell door unlocks automatically when the big door opens, since there is no point in keeping it locked then.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall Time
Why would the CIA be interested enough in Clayton to have Layla mark him in the first place? According to Burke CTs that wash out of the farm are hired to other positions in the CIA anyway. If it's surprising to find Clayton there, they should have enough common sense to find out who hired him (Burke) so they shouldn't be surprised later to find out that Burke was the traitor. [She doesn't mark him to begin with. Her mission is to attempt to smuggle out ICE-9 from Langley, to check for security breaches. It is not until Clayton starts asking questions and snooping around in her computers that she reports him as a threat. And the only reason she is surprised to see Clayton at Langley is because she herself is new, and does not know of the routine hiring of washed out recruits.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall
In the scene where Clayton is following Layla in the taxi (after their night together) they are supposed to be coming from Georgetown and going to Union Station. In one shot out the window they are headed from Washington Circle towards Georgetown - not away from it. You would not get to Union Station by going that way. [Layla is going to a covert meeting. It makes sense she would go in a roundabout way.]
Edit
Zack kind of stands out like a sore thumb wearing that hood in the middle of Union Station, just so we don't know his identity until later. [Character decision, I'm afraid. Zack is an inexperienced NOC agent, and makes mistakes like this.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall
When Al is talking about being from Florida, he says the name of a town where he grew up. He pronounces it "OAK-LA" when it's pronounced "O-KAL-LA". The correct spelling is OCALA. [But we also know that Burke is a liar about most things; and during the lie detector test he also admits that Burke is not his real name. If he has a false identity, why not also have a false background story to go with it?]
Edit Corrected by Twotall
When Farrell is being held in the metal cell by the supposed bad guys we see him throwing the food about and banging on the door with his hands untied. In the following shot when he is removed from the cell his hands are now tied tightly. [This has already been corrected. Some time (possibly days) passes between these scenes. There is no telling what the "captors" did to Clayton in this time; one of them could have come back and bound his hands to prepare him for the shower.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall
Wouldn't the scanner that she puts the coffee mug through be able to detect the USB connector in the bottom? [No because the heat of the coffee makes the data stick invisible.]
Edit
In the scene when Clayton got out of the car and Burke is telling him that he's become a NOC there's a clear view of microphone under Clayton's blue t-shirt. [These are just pendants Clayton wears around his neck. You can see him removing them when he is about to make love with Layla.]
Edit
In the scene where Colin Farrell is hitting the punching bag in the barn, just after Al Pacino says "it's in your blood," you can hear someone yell "Cut" right before the scene switches. [The voice you hear, yelling "Cut" isn't "Cut" at all. It's Colin Farrell grunting as he's slamming his shoulder into the punching bag.]
Edit Time
At the very end, Burke is exposed as a traitor and shot to death after he raises his gun. When the shooting team surrounds the body, one of the members is carrying a Heckler & Koch G36 with no magazine in it. [If you look carefully you can see that he has a low capacity magazine commonly used by law enforcement.]
Edit
In no way could Burke have covered up, even if Clayton was dead, that he was the one who ordered Layla to smuggle out the data. [His goal is to frame Clayton. So he is having Clayton take the program from Layla. It would look like Clayton stole it from Layla and sold it on his own. No one would know that Clayton gave the program to Burke. Burke's mission with Layla is legit, it would just look like it got foiled by a double agent (Clayton).]
Edit
If Burke's goal in the movie is to obtain the secret computer program, and sell it for 3 million...WHY does he need Clayton again? Why would he need to involve him unnecessarily? He could merely have Layla sneak out the data as an "assignment" like she thought and then he'd be done. [His goal is to frame Clayton. That's why Layla says that Clayton is the double agent. He plans to have Clayton get the program from Layla and bring it to him. No one but Clayton and Burke would know that Clayton brought it to Burke and didn't sell it himself.]
Edit
Just an overlooked point: In the seen where Al Pacino orders a martini from Colin Farrell at the bar, all Pacino asks for is a martini, and Farrell makes it. Any bartender worth anything knows that martinis come in two distinct varieties: Vodka or Gin. You could also note that he didn't request shaken/stirred or a garnish (olives/twist), but no matter what, the least that should be asked is Vodka or Gin, and a good bartender should know that. And the CIA looks for recruits with an attention to details? [Actually, when someone orders a martini it is made shaken with gin and an olive. If you want it made with vodka you have to order a "vodka martini."]
Edit
When Farrell's character is taking a taxi to the hotel after being washed out, the taxi is seen pulling up to the hotel entrance with its roof light lit. As the cab is still occupied/hired, the roof light (designed to indicate availability-for-hire) should not be on. [Wouldn't the cab driver want to turn on his light as he pulls up to the hotel to show that he is dropping someone off and will be available for someone at the hotel who might need a cab?]
Edit

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