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Mistakes

During the opening credits when the camera is following the bullet. When it is loaded into the gun magazine three other bullets are loaded in after it. However, when the gun is being fired, twelve bullets are shot out of the magazine before the one bullet is next to fire. See more...

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When Director Andrew Niccol was out buying thousands of AK-47 for the movie, he found that the real stuff was less expensive and more readily available than fakes. After the movie he had to resell them, and found himself becoming an arms dealer. See more...

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Genres: Crime, Drama

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.

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Agent Valentine, determined to hold Yuri Orlov as long as possible without charges, leaves him handcuffed at his airplane in late afternoon and departs saying he'll be back in 23 hours and 55 minutes. We then see in fast motion as the natives dismantle the airplane overnight and finish early morning. Just about when they finish, agent Valentine returns to release Yuri, thus keeping him there much shorter than he said he will, going against his word to keep him there for almost a day. [So he changed his mind. Characters are allowed to do that, y'know.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
When Yuri makes his first big sale, the pile of American M-16s in Beirut, the camera does a close up on the pile of weapons. Clearly stamped on the closest rifle is AR-15, the non-automatic civilian version of the M-16. [This is not a movie mistake. M16 is the military designation of the AR-15 rifle. AR-15 is still used as an official designation by Colt and is stamped on military rifles. Both the military M16 and the non-automatic civilian version are AR-15 rifles.]
Edit
The Interpol agents are able to operate with impunity in Sierra Leone, including arresting Yuri, even though Yuri is a personal friend of (and operating on behalf of) the ruthless dictator who rules the country. [This entry is correct in its detail, however it fails to point out any mistake in the movie. The applicable scene includes Yuri being detained at the AN-12's landing site. Interpol agent Valentine has no evidence of any wrong-doing so he knows arresting Yuri is fruitless at this point. All Valentine can do is inconvenience Yuri. Valentine even states that if he could delay Yuri for another 24 hours it will be another 24 hours in which Yuri will not be able to supply arms.]
Edit
When Yuri is ordered to reroute the plane to Kabala Airport, he decides to land on a narrow strip down below. As the plane approaches the strip there are people walking along the strip who apparently do not hear the plane coming. It's possible the director did this to give a sense of uneasiness while watching this scene. [It's common in third world countries not to have airports following general aviation rules or laws. There are reports of plane crashes because of cattle or other livestock being on runways, especially at small, regional aerodromes.]
Edit
In the opening and closing scenes, Nicholas Cage delivers a soliloquy whilst standing in what appears to be the aftermath of a battle. He is in front of some burning wreckage, power lines and a wall, standing on an almost unbroken carpet of expended cartridge cases. A quick calculation shows that there are at least hundreds of thousands and probably somewhere on the order of half a million cartridge cases in this scene, yet there is no visible bullet damage to the objects in the area, and the wall shows no bullet holes at all. Either the battle was supposed to have been fought by the most accurate marksmen in all history, or the cartridge cases where just dumped in the street by the truckload to create a particular visual impact for Cage's speech. [That last scene was done for effect, it was not meant to show the literal aftermath of a battle.]
Edit Corrected by pross79
When Yuri is narrating about selling weapons for the US government (this was around the scene when he sells M-16's by the kilo), he mentions Lieutenant Colonel Southern. However, when you see the him, he has Colonel rank, which is a silver eagle. The Lieutenant Colonel rank is a silver leaf, not an eagle. [Movies featureing the military have to have something wrong with the uniform unless it is sanaction by the military. IF not it is impersonating a military offical and is a federal offense.]
Edit
The machine guns that Yuri makes his first sale with are described as being Uzi's. They are actually M 10 (formerly known as Ingram) machine pistols. [The gun he sells in his first deal is not an M 10, but what is called a mini Uzi. It is considerably smaller than the standard version and does look similar to the Mac, but comparing pictures reveals that the gun depicted in the scene is a mini Uzi.]
Edit
Nick Cage says "At 4 and a half months, the human fetus has a reptile's tail". This is totally incorrect. A human fetus has a tail-like structure between 4 and 7 WEEKS not months, and it is little more than a mass of flesh which helps the muscular structure of the backbone develop before being absorbed for use in the formation of the legs and hips. [Character mistake, not movie.]
Edit Corrected by Rlvlk Time
In the arms factory sequence with beginning credits (after Nicholas Cage's opening monologue) we see rounds being produced from rough form to eventually being fired from a rifle. Although we see rounds being cut from brass, and soon after topped with the bullet itself, we never see the insertion of the primer and powder that comes before the round is capped with a bullet. [Just because we don't see it, doesn't mean it hasn't been done. This footage was not meant to be a documentary, and obviously is edited for time. Not a movie mistake.]
Edit
Over the 20 years that the film takes place, Yuri and Jack never change their sunglasses. Yuri and Vitaly should also have aged quite a bit more although they still have the same appearance throughout the film. [Why do they "have" to change their sunglasses? My father still has a pair of Ray-Bans from the '60's. Styles may come and go, but it doesn't mean that all men change their style along with fads or trends. Some people age more than others, and look it. I was just ID'd buying a case of beer at 40 years old yesterday. The legal age where I live is 18. I certainly don't think I look underage, but the sales clerk said she thought I was in my 20's. Their company policy is to ID anyone appearing under 25 years old.]
Edit
The first time we see Uri enter his storage compartment, the timeline is the late 1980s, yet there is a laptop set up on a table to Uri's left. This is before laptops. Strangely, the same laptop is in almost the same location in every scene involving the interior of the storage compartment. [Compaq had a laptop as early as the mid '80's and other companies such as Toshiba made laptops beginning in '88 and '89.]
Edit
When Yuri is in Odessa talking to his wife in New York it appears to be the middle of the night in both cities. Yuri's wife is asleep so it is reasonable to assume it is after 10pm in New York. However Odessa is 8 or 9 hours ahead of New York (depending on the time of year) and is in the south of the Ukraine so even the shortest days are not particularly short. As a result, it shouldn't be pitch dark in both cities at the same time. [It's 8 hours difference, Odessa goes on Daylight Savings Time as well. Odessa is north of NYC (46.28 degrees latitude vs 40.42 degrees) and will be dark sooner than New York except for midsummer. If the days are short in NYC, they'll be shorter in Odessa. We don't know what time Yuri's wife goes to sleep, so we can't assume it's after 10 PM. If it's fall or spring, it could be dark anytime after 6 or 7 PM, and in Odessa it could be dark until 5 or 6 Am, making it entirely possible to be dark in both cities at the same time.]
Edit
While Yuri, Vitaly, and Andre Jr. are in the truck in the desert, Vitaly is driving. He turns the steering wheel back and forth very much, enough to make the vehicle turn a little. If you look out the driver's window, the background doesn't move with the steering. This shows how they used a green screen. [It depends on the vehicle. Some trucks, with bad kingpins (very likely if it's poorly maintained) need huge steering corrections just to keep it straight on the road. With bad kingpins, there is a lot of "play" in the steering wheel, making steering vague at best.]
Edit
In "Weapons of Trade" in the special features section the caliber of the M16/AR15 is listed as 7.62mm when in fact it is 5.56mm. [Mistakes in the bonus features do not count as movie mistakes.]
Edit Corrected by Rlvlk
Yuri suggests that 10,000 AK-47s is far too few for a battalion and that his uncle should order more. Generally a battalion is of a size up to a few thousand men, not more than 2,000. So 10,000 is already a ridiculously high number of assault rifles for them to have. Let alone the 40,000 that he actually has in his possession. Furthermore, Yuri's uncle is a major general. A battalion would be commanded by a major or a colonel. The numbers and rank would make sense if the unit was a division, not a battalion. [Yuri knows that this would be far too many AK-47's. He wants his uncle to order as many as possible in order to make as much money as he can. He is an unscrupulous arms trader. This is the point of the film.]
Edit
Yuri's brother is shot a number of times and in particular he has three or four entry wounds right on the left of his chest, all of which indicate bullets entering his heart. These wounds would have caused him to be dead before he hit the ground and, needless to say, not allowed him to continue to breath or grip the grenade. If this were an action film with indestructible heroes then it wouldn't qualify as a mistake but this film strives for accuracy and realism. [It is a myth that all instances of being shot in the heart causes instant death or does not induce immediate paralyzing shock. In rare cases it merely stops your pulse, and the body's organs, including the brain, can function for up to three minutes without receiving fresh oxygen permitting the actions listed here.]
Edit
Yuri's storage container only has a consumer combination lock with an easy-to-figure-out combination (his son's birthday). To guard his secret supplies, it's highly unlikely that he would use such a simple setup. Any security expert will tell you to use random, meaningless combinations. [And any security expert will tell you that locks only keep honest people out. The better the lock, the better the criminal needed to get through it.]
Edit Corrected by Rlvlk