Die Hard 2 (1990) - 58 mistakes

Factual error: The payphone McClane uses in Dulles airport has the "Pacific Bell" logo. Pacific Bell is a West Coast phone company.

Factual error: Prior to the 747 take off, a bad guy is sucked by one of the engines and all we see is blood being spit from its exhaust. Turbofans are very sensitive and may collapse by sucking a heavy bird (like a vulture), but this one stayed undamaged after sucking a 200 lb man.

Continuity: When Richard Thornburg is in the aeroplane bathroom giving his live report, in a number of the shots he is holding the phone upside down.

Continuity: Bruce Willis is emerging from an underground air-vent when the plane with General Esperanza is landing. Initially the plane is coming on a direct course for him and he struggles to get out. In fact the front wheel is on course with and knocks the vent cover. But in the very next scene, the tire marks clearly show the front wheel passed to the right of the vent and so completely missed it.

Factual error: The terrorists some how raise the elevation of the airport in relation to the ILS (instrument landing system). This causes one of the jets to crash. The ILS glide slope is broadcast from a fixed antenna beside the runway, 1000 feet from the approach end. The glide slope is fixed at (usually) 3 degrees. Even if someone changed the slope (ie, degrees of slant), it would still terminate on the runway at the touchdown zone. Besides, the pilots have charts that give all pertinent information about the ILS and also have altimeters, radar altimeters, ground proximity warning systems (GPWS), and brains (duh). They would not have descended into the ground even if the terrorists had tampered with the ILS.

Factual error: When Holly's plane finally lands, the cockpit shot shows the pilot with his hands on four engine throttles. But Holly's plane is an L-1011 TriStar, which only has three engines.

Continuity: In the beginning of the movie when John is sitting at a table in the airport smoking a cigarette, you see him notice the table with the 3 (2 white and 1 black) guys that are acting suspicious. When the black guy gets up to leave, he leans down and you see a hand grab a package. If you notice, the hand that grabs the package is white. Later when the two white guys leave, one of them leans down to grab the package and it's the same shot that was used when the black guy grabbed his package.

Revealing: At the end of the film when John and Holly get driven away on the back of what resembles a golf cart, the long shot of them clearly shows two dummies that nearly fall off when the cart sets off.

Factual error: Near the beginning of the film when John McClane goes to the pay phone and calls his wife Holly on the airplane, that is impossible. Those phones you see on the seats on the plane can only be used from the air to the ground not the other way around. Holly does answer on the plane phone and not on any cell phone she had in her purse.

Revealing: In the skywalk scene, when McClane pushes the paint stand on the terrorist, you can clearly see that they use a dummy when the paint stand falls on the terrorist.

Factual error: There is no airport anywhere in the world with a manhole cover in the middle of a runway.

Factual error: After the fight with Colonel Stewart on the wing of the plane, Bruce Willis falls down from the wing. As he falls, watch the tyre-tracks near him. Those are definitely NOT the tyre-tracks of a plane. A jeep or a truck, maybe, but not a plane.

Factual error: When McClane (Bruce Willis) is brought into Capt. Lorenzo's (Dennis Franz) office at Dulles Airport for the first time, Lorenzo mentions that McClane was in violation of several District of Columbia laws. Dulles Airport is in Virginia, not DC, therefore any DC laws would not apply to Dulles. (Although VA may very well have similar laws about airport misconduct.)

Factual error: Since the terrorists have implausibly taken over all the radios at the airport, the good guys use the marker beacons to communicate with the airplanes. Even if the marker beacons could be modified to talk rather than beep, they are directional, such that you only receive them for a few seconds as you pass over them. There is not enough time to get a message. Nor could a marker beacon be used to broadcast to a large number of airplanes. The outer marker is only 5 miles from the airport. At most, one airplane would be holding over the outer marker.

Continuity: The dead bodies of the SWAT team move around on the escalator between shots. The best example of this is after the last SWAT guy dies, there is a body or two near the end of the escalator. They disappear or at least move much further away after McClane drops his gun on the escalator. And all this happens while the escalator is not moving.

Continuity: When McClane is desperately trying to get out of the manhole cover to avoid the plane, he props it open with a steel bar. Moments later, just before the plane runs over it, the bar is gone, so there should be nothing holding it open. The size of the gap between cover and runway also decreases between these shots.

Revealing: Throughout the whole movie, you can see bits of 'snow' stuck to various things in close up view (i.e. guns, hair, faces, clothing). Look closely at the snow, its painfully obvious that they are little thin scraps of white plastic. Most evident is in McClane's hair when the platoon is about to move in on the church, the shot of him saying "You're not such an asshole, after all."

Deliberate "mistake": When the terrorists shoot a man in the church and he falls on his back, both benches behind him topple (in the shot from the ceiling of the church). You can't see that the benches are connected and even if they were, the bench he doesn't actually touch wouldn't topple.

Continuity: When Col. Stuart is talking to Gen. Esperanza on the walkie-talkie about what runway to land on, behind Stuart you can see one of his men walk up to the map of the runways. Stuart turns around and starts walking to the map and the guy isn't there anymore. When Stuart gets in front of the map, the guy comes up and tells him which runway Esperanza should land on.

Revealing: Obvious stunt double for the black terrorist during the fight with McClane in the baggage area.

Revealing: On one of the first shots of inside Holly's plane, you can see the blue screens through the windows. No, it's not blue sky, in all the following shots the sky outside is orange.

Continuity: During the last fight scene on the wing of the plane, just after the guy is sucked into the engine, general Stuart comes rushing out and yells something like "it’s time for the main event". At this, John rolls over onto his back. The shot then switches to much further away, and he is still on his stomach. The camera cuts in close again, and John is back on his back, and sliding towards the center of the wing. The camera cuts away again and shows John back on his stomach and just now rolling over.

Factual error: When the terrorist clears the nearly fuel-exhausted plane to land on the lowered ILS, the terrorist says, "Windsor 114, you are cleared to land on Dulles Runway 29, ILS." Problem is: There is no Runway 29 at Dulles. The closest runway alignment for a 290 degree heading is Runway 30.

Audio problem: When General Esperanza is trying to land the plane there's a hell of a lot of noise from the wind blasting in through the shattered windscreen. Yet when we see McClane listening in to his radio communication he can be heard completely without a trace of wind noise.

Plot hole: At the beginning of the film, it is still daylight, which at Christmas, would mean it's about 4:30pm at the latest. The whole incident of the film lasts around 4 hours (figured by the scene when Barnes was talking to the planes and said the trouble started around 2 hours ago coupled with the fact that not long before that, Trudeau confimed that Holly's plane had only 90 minutes worth of fuel left). So why at the very end are there shots where it appears the the sun is rising in the distance? (And no, it's not caused by the fire of the exploded plane. By that reckoning, the terroists would have had to have taken over the airport well after midnight, which is pretty much impossible since Esperanza's plane was already on route.)

Factual error: Firing a full clip of blank cartridges from an automatic weapon in the police station office as McClane does would deafen everyone in the room. Not one person shows the slightest effect.

Factual error: When the 747 explodes, fire is rushing up through the cargo hold. Esperanza - in the cockpit - looks back over his shoulder as if seeing the fire coming. Clearly he can't see the fire - since the view we are seeing is inside the cargo hold and cabin. But why is he then turning his head and looking back against the cockpit wall? And the flash we see on his face - from the explosion - that would not be there until the fire was inside the cockpit. And that would go so fast that he wouldn't have time to scream.

Audio problem: When Esperanza shoots the pilot of his plane the sound of the engine changes its pitch immediately. Why does it do that? It is not as if the pilot's foot slid off the accelerator when he died.

Deliberate "mistake": In the fight scene at the luggage machine McClane pulls a golf club from a golf bag. But a golf bag would never be sent as luggage without being wrapped tightly up. Otherwise the clubs could fall out or be damaged on the way.

Other: In the first shot of McClane on the snowmobile his breath can be seen in the air in front of his face. But he's driving so fast that that would be impossible.

Continuity: When John is coming out of the drain on the runway, in shots facing him it's snowing, and in the shots that face both John and the plane, it's snowing. Yet, when the camera is just on the plane it's not snowing.

Continuity: John McClane and Major Grant are fighting on the wing of the aeroplane, and Major Grant's mouth gets extremely bloody. The shot switches to McClane and then back to Grant, whose mouth is still bloody. However, after the shot switches back from McClane to Grant, Grant's mouth is no longer bloody.

Continuity: After McClane gets the car towed away, notice that it is night and snowstorming all over the place. When he enters the airport, you can see that outside it is daytime and sunny, yet McClane shakes off snow whereas other people in the airport don't have snow on them at all. The airport scenes were filmed at LAX's Bradley International Terminal during the month of February, so this explains the sunny day.

Factual error: The plane from which Bruce Willis escapes by using an ejector seat is a non-existing plane. The fuselage is from an old transport plane from the US Air Force made by Chase. But there has never been a Chase with 4 engines buried in the wing. America uses underslung engines. In this case, it is the wing of an Arado Blitz prototype from the second world war and the fuselage of a Chase cargo plane.

Continuity: When McClane is lying on the conveyor, and he picks up his gun, just before the camera switches to the terrorist, you see the slider on the beretta go back into the empty position, yet when the camera changes, you hear another shot from McClane's gun!

Revealing: When we first see McClane on the snowmobile, marks from the camera snowmobile are visible.

Other: When the bad guys 747 is blown up it is about 40 or 50 metres off the ground and travelling at take-off velocity, yet when Holly's plane is landing you can see that the debris field is perfectly circular. Surely the 747s speed and angle of descent would mean the debris field would be elongated?

Audio problem: In the climactic scene where the 747 is taking off, the general applies full power on the throttles and the engines spool up to full power as they should. However, in the next shot from the cockpit, the general is pulling back on the yoke, nobody's hands are on the throttles at all, and yet we hear a second (apparently) identical increase in engine power. Pulling back on the yoke has nothing at all to do with the engines - the noise we hear should remain at a constant level.

Factual error: The chase scene involving the snowmobiles is problematic in that McClane can actually see where he's going. In driving snow, it's often difficult to see, as snow blows in one's eyes. On a speeding snowmobile, in heavy snow and with no eye protection, it would be practically impossible to see anything.

Factual error: Just before Col. Steward activates his equipment, we can see one of his men working with a welding torch on telecommunication equipment. You can't patch telco connections using a welder.

Revealing: When McClanes wife is thinking about using the phone to call, there is a shot of the phone. Behind the phone, you can see a circular staircase. The aircraft she is on, an L1011 TriStar, has only one passenger deck.

Factual error: At the time Die Hard 2 was made the only people in the Army that wore black berets were Rangers. If anything an SF (Green beret) team would be responsible for providing aid in that situation.

Other: When the soldier is lighting General Esperanza's cigar while Esperanza is still a prisoner in transport, the cigar is visibly already lit before the soldier's lighter brushes over the cigar.

Factual error: Several runway numbers are mentioned in the movie. Runway 10, 15, 25 right and 25 left. Runway 25 means course 250. The opposite end would then be Runway 7 (course 70). No airport would have runways running course 70, 100 and 150 - that is way too close. And Dulles certainly does not.

Other: When we see pictures from the cockpit of the planes we can see the individual snowflakes. That is impossible with the speed an airplane is flying.

Factual error: When McClane lights the fuel with the zippo, the flame trail is all wrong. There appears to be a thin strip of fuel which accelerates away from him. However, we have seen the Fuel spurted out in a wider less controlled manner from a wing tip that has to be at least fifteen feet up, in a wind, which would have sprayed it around further. There is no way it would light in the tight manner shown.

Continuity: Two guys dressed in red go to the church and are let in by the old man. One of the men then says something like "You were right about that," and the scene shows him shoot his gun with his arm outstretched (obviously). The next scene though of the old man falling backwards shows the shooter's arm down by his side, however in the next scene where it cuts back to the shooter his arm is outstretched with the gun again.

Factual error: The terrorists are using Kenwood 46AT Handheld Radios that operate on 440Mhz. The Army moves in with a Kenwood TS-850 Radio that operates on 30Mhz-3Mhz. Nowhere near the frequency that the terrorists are using.

Plot hole: Look at the people carefully when they run out of the airport. They don't seem to have any hurry or rush. You have to watch single people to see it.

Factual error: When the platform falls on top of McClane and he drops his gun, I don't see how it would land more than six feet away from him. One foot at the most. Unless of course it was made of rubber.

Deliberate "mistake": At the very end, John McClane lights the fuel trail which subsequently engulfs the plane. To do this, he tosses a lighter onto the trail which begins six inches from where he lies, having fallen from the wing while pulling the lock off the fuel dumper. Trouble is, the fuel began flooding out at the same time he fell, and the velocity would carry him some distance forward on the ground after he lands (which it visibly does); hence, it is physically impossible for him to be in the position he is in relation to the fuel.

Plot hole: When McClane gets kicked out of the control tower and is sent down in the elevator with Coleman he quite obviously stops the elevator before saying "Here's a couple of words, F**k off." to Coleman. He then opens the top panel and climbs out WITHOUT restarting the elevator. Almost as soon as he has closed the panel again the elevator has reached the bottom and the cops are asking "Where's the other one?". As it is meant to be a single shot and there is no delay we know Coleman did not start the elevator again herself.

Revealing: When John is fighting in the baggage area and he and the bad guy fall off one of the conveyors, you can see it is not Bruce Willis as he's falling.

Continuity: McClane's fireman's jacket gets progressively bloodier throughout the film, but around the time when he is fighting the terrorists on the planes wing, it is miraculously clean again. McClane is not wearing it, but it does get cleaner.

Continuity: Col. Stewart asks if the 747 is ready and says he wants ground personnel to inspect the plane. Maj. Grant intercedes and tells Stewart to check out his own plane so not to have potential hostages (which, of course was a ploy). When the hanger door is opened, you see ground personnel running back and forth between the door. They are noticeable by their orange vests.

Other: Bruce is sitting in what looks like a C-130 while terrorists throw grenades in it thru the window. Never mind the grenades going off too late, because they wouldn't all have made it thru the small window anyway. In fact some of those grenades would've bounced back killing the terrorists also, which would've made for a surprising end to this movie.

Factual error: When Bruce Willis faxes the finger prints of the person he killed to his friend cop in LA, I don't see how you can determine the prints through a fax. They would appear as blobs on the other end.

Continuity: When the bad guys are throwing hand grenades in to the plane to kill Mclaine, the last grenade misses the window. The camera cuts and it has gone through the window.