Die Hard (1988) - 47 mistakes

Revealing: In the shot where we see all the terrorists (except Karl and Theo, who are upstairs) walking into the building from downstairs, they are about to walk through a doorway when the camera cuts out. Watch the terrorist on the left (he's the one who guards the door) - before the camera cuts out he realises he's about to hit the doorframe very hard. Reminiscent of the Stormtrooper in Star Wars.

Revealing: When the boss discovers the first bad guy lying dead in the lift ("Now I have a gun - HO HO HO!") and slaps him over the cheek, the corpse is moving its head before it is hit (watch carefully!) He also blinks.

Continuity: When the terrorists launch the rocket at the RV, they break the same window of the building twice.

Continuity: When Bruce is looking on the touch-screen computer to find out where his wife is, he touches the name GENNARO, but when it changes colour it also corrects the spelling of his wife's name to GENNERO.

Continuity: When John and the terrorist fall down the stairs together, you can hear the yell of the terrorist signifying his death. Leaving the fact that dead men tend not to yell out alone, you can see the terrorist's corpse is still breathing.

Other: In the computer room shoot-out the bad guys shoot out all the glass room dividers in a hail of bullets, but the glass windows on the exterior of the building (behind the dividers and in the path of the bullets) stay intact; they don't even get scratched.

Revealing: Bruce Willis wore fake feet during the movie to protect his own while shooting the film. They were like boots that slipped on over his. At the part where the FBI guy shoots at him from the helicopter and Bruce jumps to a lower level of the roof, you can see the tops of the fake feet that aren't tight around his ankles.

Continuity: When Bruce Willis shoots Alan Rickman, Rickman falls through the window and grabs Bonnie Bedilia's arm to pull her with him. He has a good grasp on her arm because of her watch. When Bruce Willis is trying to release the clasp on her watch, you see blood on her face from his arm. The shot then cuts to Alan Rickman, and when the camera goes back to Bedelia and Willis, there is no longer any blood on her face.

Continuity: After the terrorists blow the roof and Willis jumps off with the fire hose, he hits the window. After kicking the window for a while, he decides to shoot it. As he pushes off the window you can see that his gun is out and pointed at the window yet in the next scene he pulls the gun from his side and then starts shooting at the window.

Continuity: When the terrorists enter the building, they stream out of the rental truck. You don't see the large ambulance that emerges for their getaway at the end of the film.

Visible crew/equipment: When McClane enters Holly's office, a crew member is reflected in the mirror.

Continuity: When the blonde baddie is about to kill the man in the front desk, his fringe changes from neat and combed to slightly messy from one frame to the other.

Continuity: Takagi is sitting on the chair facing the door of the room when he is shot. In the next scene, the same door is splattered with blood, yet the glass structure which should be splattered with blood should be the glass window behind Takagi, not the door which he is facing.

Factual error: Throughout the film, characters are able to break through on radio transmissions and speak to the other person talking, and the other person would hear them. In reality, they would have to wait until the first transmitter un-keyed the radio before any other discernable radio traffic could have be heard. (A good example of this is the scene where Ellis is giving up McClane.)

Continuity: At the start in the limo, when Argyle is listing all the features of the car, the bear is dead centre of the back seats. The very next shot is in the rear view mirror, and the bear's now over by the window.

Continuity: When he's climbing down the vents, the strap unties, and Bruce Willis falls. He misses the vent he was reaching for, and falls past the next one, so we assume he catches the third one down. However, after he flicks off his lighter, the camera pans up from the lit vent to Karl, and we can see that he somehow grabbed and climbed into the vent he definitely fell right past in the shot from above.

Visible crew/equipment: In the first scene of the Christmas party when Takagi steps out of one the offices and greets couple of his guests, the camera pans left to show the orchestra and other guests. A huge shadow of the camera and its operator is being shown in the backwall, then the stagelight gets moved to light a different area and the shadow is gone.

Continuity: After he climbs out of the air duct, John McClane's shirt goes from white to green. The dirt and grime from the air duct would cause discolouration only where the shirt comes in contact with the duct. However, his shirt is uniformly green including places that wouldn't make contact and it is impossible for all surfaces to make contact even in small areas.

Revealing: When the hostages are running down the stairs after the C4 explosion, a large, fist sized chunk of concrete falls on an older man's head and he just runs straight on.

Continuity: When Powell's police cruiser is first fired on, he accelerates in reverse quickly. The first obstacle he hits completely destroys the right-hand side tail light assembly. Subsequnt shots of the car show the tail-light to be totally intact again.

Visible crew/equipment: When McClane is crawling under the long table, to get closer to hear the terrorists conversation, you can see the reflection of the camera operator's legs following along with him on the table base.

Visible crew/equipment: When Al goes into the lobby of the building, he walks over to a large reflective marble counter. If you look at this counter you can very plainly see the reflection of a large metal stage lamp hanging right over the actors' heads.

Visible crew/equipment: John McClane stands in a little pool when the helicopter falling from the roof explodes outside and the windows shatter. In a short shot you see that this man is definitely not Bruce Willis.

Continuity: When Bruce Willis breaks through the window (as the roof is blown), he lands on his back, head pointing towards the window. However the next moment we see him catching his breath, lying on his stomach and feet aimed at the window as the firehose hanger falls past the window.

Other: Near the start of the film, when John goes to meet his wife at the office block, there is a party going on and a small orchestra playing. When Gruber and his gang enter, the orchestra are still there. Gruber locks down the building, and takes the guests hostage. Where does the orchestra go after that? They are never seen again, even when the hostages are taken to the roof.

Visible crew/equipment: Everyone is surprised when Karl is alive at the end of the movie because he appeared to be dead when hanging by the chain that McClane had wrapped around his neck. However, if you look at the back of Karl's head during the entire scene, you can see the safety wire coming out of the back of his shirt that holds him up. No wonder he survived.

Continuity: After John McClain has jumped off the top of the building, and the firehose hanger has got stuck to the railing, he has stopped at the top of the window, but in the next shot he is near the middle.

Continuity: When the box truck (carrying the thief gang) drives down the ramp and the grey Mercedes continues on, you can see that the driver of the Mercedes is a white male without glasses. A minute later, the grey Mercedes pulls up to the front of Nakatomi Plaza. Alexander Gudunov gets out on the passenger side, and the driver gets out: he's now a black male with glasses.

Continuity: In the scene where Sgt Powell is entering his patrol car after checking the building, you can see that the spotlight is missing from the car exposing the mounting holes. However, after the body has landed on his car and he retreats rather quickly, the spotlight is back on the car.

Visible crew/equipment: When John jumps off the roof with the hose tied around him, you can see that the stuntman's hair is slicked back with fireproof gel during the explosion.

Continuity: In the scene where Al asks John if he has any kids of his own, John pulls out his wallet with a picture of his family. He is holding the radio and the wallet, but when it cuts to John's "Jungle Gym" comment, both his hands are on the wallet. It then cuts to John again holding the radio and the wallet.

Continuity: When Powell is driving his cruiser in reverse to get away from the bad guys shooting at him, several shots show a full roll-cage in the car which is not there in any other scene or close-up of the interior.

Audio problem: Just after Hans addresses McClane by his name over the radio, we can hear Powell say, "Better get ahold of someone at dispatch," but his mouth movements don't match what we hear.

Plot hole: When the terrorists shoot the armoured vehicle from high up in the building, the angle at which the rocket launcher is fired seen from inside the building is simply wrong for a target that is virtually directly below them. The angle shown would have hit much further away. This is true for both shots but more obvious for the second one.

Continuity: Even though there is no light shining on John McClane during the fight with Karl, there are several shots where it's obviously not Bruce Willis, but a stunt double.

Visible crew/equipment: Just after John has shot Hans, he falls and smashes the glass window. Look behind him: you can see a wire in two shots. It's meant to hold the stunt double for either Holly or Hans. No slow-mo required.

Plot hole: A few of Gruber's henchmen set up the rocket-launcher to blast the armored police vehicle. As one of them swings the legs of the launcher down, another uses a 'Hilti' gun to anchor the leg in place. A 'Hilti' gun is a construction device that uses gunpowder (usually a .22 shot) to 'blast' a nail into very hard material such as concrete. The nail has to be manually loaded into the front of the gun for each shot before it can be used, however the guy using the gun never loads a nail into the gun. As it is, the result would be worthless.

Revealing: Having leapt from the rooftop, Bruce has his feet planted on the window. As he then goes to push himself back in order to smash the glass with his gun shots watch the rope. Someone above has kindly held the rope out several meters away from the building in the next shot, allowing him to get a much bigger swing.

Factual error: The news reporter is listening to the police scanner, when Willis is heard talking, the channel lights that blink on the scanner are supposed to stop on the channel being used, but they keep flashing.

Factual error: In the scene before the terrorists start to shoot the office windows, so Bruce Willis will have big trouble with his bare feet, Alan Rickman (the German - Hans) gives the order "Schießt / Schieß das Fenster". This is grammatically incorrect. He's supposed to say "Schießt / Schieß auf die Fenster" or "Schießt / Schieß das Fenster kaputt".

Factual error: When Willis kills the terrorist and throws him out the window onto the police car, the body lands on the windshield, and it shatters into little bits. The windshields on 80's cars were double paned with a thin, strong plastic between each pane, to keep them from breaking into little bits in accidents. Only the side and back windows would shatter like that.

Factual error: Bruce Willis' character arrives in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve around 6 p.m.   There is no way we would see that beautiful golden sunset we see. During that time of the year, the sun would have set more than an hour earlier.

Continuity: When John and Karl are fighting and Karl reaches for the gun lying on the floor,   John legs it out of an open door.  Karl fires two shots the first hits John and the second sprays blood all over the door.

Revealing: Bruce Willis jumps off the roof with the firehose. The hose hanger break off the wall and apparently gets stuck in the railings. The shot is very careless: slow motion shows that the firehose doesn't get stuck, but simply clings like a magnet to the top of the railings.

Factual error: The shrink on the news refers to the Helsinki syndrome. This should be the Stockholm syndrome. Being an expert, he should know the difference, and there's no suggestion it's a deliberate oversight to imply a lack of knowledge.

Continuity: When Takagi explains to the terrorists that, "he doesn't have that code," the trees outside the window are clearly swaying in the wind. The next shot is a panoramic view of the room, but now, the trees outside are still.

Continuity: At around 1:53, after McClane "kills" Karl by hanging him with the chain, Karl can be spotted at the top of the stairs on the right side as McClane is reloading his gun. Saw it on the BLU-RAY version of film.