The 2 fighter aircraft that took off from the carrier were unarmed. Later shots showed the planes armed to the teeth. See more...
"Tears of the Sun" was originally going to be the subtitle of Die Hard 4.0. Bruce Willis told the film company he would commit to DH4 if he could use the subtitle for this film. See more...
Directed by Antoine Fuqua, starring Bruce Willis (add more)
Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.
In this movie almost all the Nigerian people have bright white teeth, whiter than the soldiers. These people live in poverty, its most likely they don't by supplies for their mouth to keep them that white. [Since these people live in a missionary station, where they are cared for, it is a safe bet that there will be supplies for some form of basic oral hygiene.]
Corrected by Scrappy
When the refugees and the US boys reach the chopper for the fist pickup, the door gunner (that dude with the white helmet w/ black visor) exits the bird in order to secure the extraction or whatsoever. His position changes every shot. First, he is at the left side of the door close to the heli. Then we see a overhead shot and he is kneeling at quite a distance to the slick. Finally he is at the right side of the door, again really close to the bird. And this within splits of seconds without moving. Seems the US have secretly invented the beaming technology... [As LT Waters is taking the Doctor to the helicopter, there are actually 2 guys with white helmets. There is one right beside the door to the helicopter, the other is at the turn in the path. This can be see at 33:57. So it's not confused, the guy on the path is with the corpsman. So there are 2 guys at the path and one by the helicopter.]
Whenever Tom Skerritt is talking on the phone with Bruce Willis on the deck of the ship and they cut to Tom talking there is always a plane either landing or taking off, there is no way that an aircraft carrier can have that much traffic. [Aircraft carriers are always at a near-constant level of operations. Between launching and recovering combat air patrols, tankers, supply craft, and training missions, there is hardly ever a time during ops when aircraft aren't taking off or in the landing pattern. Thus, it is certainly viable for an aircraft carrier to have "that much traffic."]
Lt. Waters (played by Bruce Willis) is well into his thirties, if not early forties. The character seems to be remarkably old for someone who is still only a Lieutenant. Since this is the most junior commissioned rank it is almost exclusively occupied by much younger officers, there also being an age restriction within which a commission can be awarded. The only reason to remain a Lieutenant would be due to being unworthy of promotion, but then why put such a soldier in charge of a high profile rescue mission? [He might not actually want a promotion, rather being in charge of small units in dire situations at which he is apparently very good; a character decision, even if slightly strange, is not a film mistake. (Also, a lieutenant in the Navy is NOT one of the most junior ranks. A Navy LT is equivalent to an Army, Marine, or Air Force Captain. They are experienced personnel and members usually stay at this rank for four to seven years prior to being promoted to the next rank.)]
If the doctor was able to choose the people to go on the helicopter, why didn't she make up a reason to put the president's son on the helicopter for his safety? She could have said he was sick. [He is shown to be a caring person. There is no way he would take the place of a sick woman or child just to save his own neck.]
It gives a very ethnic touch, however it doesn't make any sense that the refugees sing loudly on their escape to the helicopter pick-up, thus increasing the danger of being discovered by the rebels. [The African refugees are singing because they are scared, it's not just "an ethic touch" it's shows what they do when faced with fear. They're singing so that it takes their mind off everything that has happened (or is going to happen).]
When the Rebels find the dead body (with the tracking device) before this there are some vultures in the sky. You can hear them cawing but it is not the sound a vulture would make. [You hear some kind of bird cawing, but who's to say it's the vultures? Vultures do not tend to make noise while circling, and the SEALs are in a rain forest. There are lots of other bird species around and active at all times.]
During the movie one of the US army soldiers uses a laptop. It must be a very special one since the battery lasts for days. [Maybe he brought extra batteries? Hardly unlikely.]
Corrected by shortdanzr
The Aim Point sight on Bruce Willis' M4 rifle is mounted back to front and would in fact be useless. [First off, Lt. Waters is carrying a modified M16 Carbine, not an M4. They are both manufactured by Colt and are part of the same family of rifle, the CAR-15, but the M4 is a newer generation weapon than the M16, though they are both still widely used. I've watched the movie over and over and haven't seen a part where his iron is backwards. If you can see it backward in any other scene, then you have better eyes than I. As far as I can tell the scope and iron are lined up the way they should be. Even if the iron was backwards, the weapon would not be useless. SEALs often train without the use of a sight or scope to be as accurate as possible.]
After the Seals are picked up the first time and most of the people are left behind, on the way out, they fly over the village and see the destruction. There are plenty of areas big enough to land a helicopter. Why did they have to travel all night to the pick up point? [Generally, you don't want to make the extract/exfil anywhere near your target area. Especially one that may come under fire in the near future. Better to have to hump it out a couple of kliks than to lose a bird on exfiltration. ]
Tom Skerrit's character is always called "captain". But his rank insignia show that he is a colonel. [A Navy captain is an 0-6, rank equivalent to a colonel, and on their duty uniforms (khakis and BDU's) they wear the eagle insignia.]
When the Navy Seals are liberating the small African Village, watch the part right before they find the very badly tortured African mother. We see them walk up a dirt path to the tortured mother. You can see in the background a fire, but it isn't burning like it's on grass, you can see it's coming straight out of a theater flamethrower. [If you watch the movie again, with the director's commentary, you will find out that the flames are shown in a manner of "coming out of oil pipes." This was deliberately created because in the real world, they run the pipes right through the villages. If anyone complained about it, police would come and do horrid things to you. It is not a mistake, it was created that way.]
In real life, an aircraft carrier always sails with a battlegroup (cruisers, destroyers, etc.), never by itself. [First off, the carrier scenes were filmed aboard the CVN 75 USS Harry S. Truman. The Truman is an active carrier and was active during filming. So logically the rest of the battle group would have to be there as well. I've served aboard carriers many times and know that the rest of the battle group could be up to several nautical miles away, sometimes well out of sight. See, because of their size, carriers don't have much maneuverability, so they travel directly to it's destination or to the next checkpoint in the patrol. The other ships in the battle group generally run patrol patterns in the vicinity of the carrier and often times out of sight of the carrier. Because of modern navigation technology and communications technology, this is a very easy and sometimes strategically advantageous thing to do.]
In a Navy Seal Team, the soldier with the M203 grenade launcher would never be a radio operator, another soldier would do that. [The M203 Grenade launcher is an attachment. It can be carried by any SEAL depending on their preference.]
Throughout the movie the SEALS never re-apply camo paint. While I understand that they are traveling with civilians, this would be important considering that they would be scouting, pulling guard and working as rear security. Bruce Willis's shiny head would not benefit them. Why would they try to be more visible than necessary? [When they were first inserted, the mission was to last only the night. Most of the time Cammo cream will last that long. Since they only planned to be on the ground a short time, most likely none of the SEALs felt it necessary to carry anymore cream. When you are bogged down with over sixty pounds of gear, you only bring what's absolutely necessary.]
In the scene where the SEALs are eating the MRE's, feeling guilty, they give them to the natives, and one of them says, "I don't like roast beef anyway". There are plenty of MRE menus, (over 30) but no roast beef version. [Yes there is. See: http://www.dscp.dla.mil/subs/rations/meals/mres.htm]
If the SEAL team can see the location of the enemy following them, why didn't they call an airstrike in earlier? [Earlier on it's stated the zone is too hot for air support, hence why they didn't even get an airlift out. No airsupport was available till later.]
Seals were evacuated by 2 SH-60 Seahawk helicopters. This kind of helicopter is used for ASW (anti-submarine warfare) operations, it wouldn't be used for evacuation. [The SH60 Seahawk is used for anti-submarine warfare, search and rescue, drug interdiction, anti-ship warfare, cargo lift, and special operations. So it can be used for evacuation and extraction.]
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