Plot hole: Even if the 30 bus passengers that were already dead had been burned up in the explosion of the building their bodies would still have been autopsied after the fact, thus proving that Phoenix had killed them beforehand and vindicated Spartan.
Suggested correction: Considering a building fell on the bodies it would be extremely hard to determine the actual cause of death. Phoenix also could have killed them in a way that doesn't easily show in an autopsy, like asphyxiation.
True, but why would they take the word of a known murdering kingpin over a police officer that while may not do things by the book, has always been for the greater good? It just seems way too far fetched.
The lack of soot and other ignition debris in the lungs and tracheas of the dead bodies would have immediately told the pathologists and coroners who examined the bodies that the hostages were dead before the building was destroyed by an explosion supposedly set off by John Spartan. It doesn't matter how badly mangled the bodies were - a tissue sample no bigger than your little finger would have told them everything they needed to know. John Spartan did not commit manslaughter.
Character mistake: When the alarms go off in the police station indicating the code 187 all the police officers are confused as to what is going on since they know nothing of MDKs. Zack Lamb should have already known what the code meant, yet he never says anything and just waits for everyone to figure it out.
Suggested correction: I took it as he went into almost shock that after so many years a murder had actually taken place. He says, "I don't believe it," indicating he knew what the code meant but then he kind of froze until Phoenix's name was mentioned.
Suggested correction: Zack Lamb is quite old and it's possible he simply forgot what the code meant. He was a pilot too, not a street cop.
When Stallone first meets Lamb after being thawed in the future, he tells Spartan he was "grounded" after the events in the opening scene so had not been a pilot for 36 years.
Continuity mistake: When an employee wipes the frost of the date display in 2032, it says that it's August 3rd. However, after the 187 alert, when Huxley accesses the parole hearings for the cryoprison later that very same day, the computer says that it's August 4th.
Other mistake: It seems curious that the museum, even in the weapons display, would have functional firearms and LIVE munitions of any sort, even if no one would be interested in ever taking and using them.
Suggested correction: That was the point of it all. This society believed no-one would ever want to get a hold of those weapons so they put them on display to show how barbaric the previous generations were. It's really no different than a museum today putting swords and spears on display.
Continuity mistake: When Phoenix is talking to his group, one of the guys says, "You mean, we get to kill John Spartan?" Phoenix says, "Exactly," and you see a shot of more men at the table, including Jesse Ventura laughing. There is a girl on the lap of the guy who asked. In the very next shot that shows Phoenix, she's standing off to the side, a step or two away from the guy that she was sitting on the lap of.
Continuity mistake: In Cockto's office, Phoenix gets up from the chair behind the desk, turning it clockwise to get up. But, when he's at the window, reciting a couple of cities, the chair is turned to squarely face the desk.
Other mistake: When Spartan is talking to the old Zack Lamb, he says, "Shit, you were a damn good flier." When says "shit", the morality machine buzzes, but the red light doesn't come on until he says "damn," where it buzzes again.
Continuity mistake: When the small disk-like objects are placed on Spartan before he gets frozen, the one on his head is right on his temple. But, when it cuts to the future and shows him in the block of ice after an employee wipes the frost off the date display, the disk on his head is more forward, almost above his eye.
Continuity mistake: As Phoenix comes up from underground, his eye colors reverse.
Continuity mistake: When Spartan, Huxley, and Garcia get in the car to head to the museum, Spartan sits behind the wheel. In the shot from the front, you can see that the wheel Is open (self-drive mode), but when it shows what he sees, it's closed (auto-drive mode). When he switches with Huxley, you see her sit down from the front, and she grabs the wheel in self-drive mode again.
Other mistake: When Huxley delivers the line "Let's blow this guy" a hair, fiber, or scratch is visible on the film at the bottom of the screen slightly right of center. The contaminant is visible again when Huxley delivers the line "Whatever" a few seconds later.
Revealing mistake: When Simon Phoenix needs to get out of the cryo-prison, we are led to believe he removes the eyeball and put it on the nib of a fountain pen. When he scans the eyeball to get out of the prison, the outer edges shows that the scanned eyeball is still in the eye socket. You can see the eyelids on the in the top right and bottom right edges of the shot.
Continuity mistake: In the car chase he crawls out of the window, the next shot shows the car door is open.
Suggested correction: He doesn't crawl out the window, this type of car door has only glass above the door so with the glass down he can go out before fully opening the door. You just don't see him opening the door in the previous shot.
Continuity mistake: When Spartan is swearing at the verbal morality machine and pulls out several citations at once (the last ones he grabs), an actor and actress standing directly behind him start to walk away and go off screen to the right behind Spartan. The view snaps to Huxley and Garcia, then back to Spartan. When it snaps back to Spartan, the same two are standing directly behind Spartan again and start to walk away to the right again.
Other mistake: During John Spartan and Simon Phoenix's first fight in the museum, Phoenix hides behind a statue/display and swears, but the machine that gives the Verbal Morality Code, things do not go off, like they did before for Phoenix.
Continuity mistake: When Spartan starts shooting up the screens with Cockteau's face on them, he fires more than eight shots (for eight screens), but there are at least two screens remaining when Cockteau chastises Spartan. Surely, someone like Spartan would not use more than one bullet per screen. Where did the other shots go?
Continuity mistake: Simon Phoenix's eyes change. Sometimes the blue is in the left eye, sometimes in the right.
