Iron Eagle (1986) - 8 mistakes

Continuity: In all of the aircraft scenes, almost every time they showed his aircraft, he has different types of weapons on it.

Continuity: After Doug drops the Hades Bomb, the next scene shows his F-16 landing to pick up his dad. Look closely at the belly of the plane and you can see that the Hades is still there.

Continuity: When Doug Masters and all his friends at the Gas station and Masters has just received a letter saying he has been denied enrolment into the US air force academy, his enemy Knotcher tries to humiliate him by announcing it over the Loud speaker. Masters then runs up to the window and threatens to assault him and Knotcher suggests that a Race would be more appropriate to which they both agree. During this whole conversation, Knotchers right arm is up, next shot it's down, then up, then down again. This goes on throughout the whole conversation.

Revealing: If you pay close attention to the close up shots of Doug's F-16 dropping bombs or launching mavericks, you will notice that the fighter is a poorly detailed scale model of the real thing. In the scene where Doug drops the Hades, you will notice that he is actually a barely painted figurine and that he suddenly has no headrest/ejection chair.

Plot hole: Doug begins to land on the air strip after his father has been moved. But note, the Hades bomb had not yet been dropped. If his dad had not been shot at that moment, one can assume that he would have finished his landing and been a complete sitting duck when he has to get out of the plane. What was he saving the Hades for at that point? It is only later when he actually drops the Hades that he barely has enough time to rescue his wounded dad.

Continuity: In the scene where Doug first approaches Chappy on the tarmac about helping to get his dad back, Chappy says he doesn't know Doug's Dad, but he knows the type. Later, after Chappy has agreed to help Doug rescue his dad in the restaurant, he relates a story about meeting Doug's dad in the simulator room at the Air Force Base and how Doug's dad took up for him during a misunderstanding with 2 other pilots.

Continuity: When Doug Masters is told that his father has been shot down, he is told (roughly) that "He waxed three of the bastards". He only shot down two enemy fighters.

Factual error: The training scene where Cappy and Doug are doing target practice is all wrong. First of all, an F-16 would never be able to launch missiles at a cloth target on the ground. Those targets are for gun practice. Secondly, the MK-82 is a BOMB, not a missile as the movie shows. Also in order to drop a bomb, the pilot must use a computerized inertial pipper which calculates the precise drop zone. There is no way the absence of Doug's music could "mess up his rhythm" on the practice drop.