The Jackal (1997) - 21 mistakes

Revealing: In the first meeting with the Director of the FBI, you can see some of the latex is peeling off the Russian Major's burn, just over the right eyebrow there's a small flap of it.

Continuity: When Bruce Willis is driving his car to the abandoned warehouse to get the "gun" to commit the assassination on the first lady, the vehicle does not have a license plate... You can see that it is missing, plain as day... In the next scene, he pulls a switch, removing a once non-existent plate and replacing it with another.

Continuity: As the Jackal is checking out the tripod with the gun mounted on top, we see that the camera on top still has its lens cap on, but when we flick to the next angle that cap is missing.

Continuity: In the scene where the Jackal is testing the gun and mount, the gun misses the pumpkin to the left. He then says that the mount's around 3mm off. That's a mistake in itself, but after his speed test, the Jackal targets the cigarette pack and the gun misses to the right. Seems like the camera is poorly mounted.

Continuity: When Bruce Willis turns the big gun on the guy who made it, the ammo feed belt falls out. The next time you see the weapon the ammo feed belt has been placed back in.

Visible crew/equipment: When Bruce is shooting the guy with the big gun, you can see the crew's reflection in his sunglasses.

Continuity: When the Jackal shoots Lamont, only the lower arm is shot off. Then we cut to the Jackal, who says 'I told you it was off', and when we cut back to Lamont, the arm is cut way up at the shoulder.

Continuity: In the scene where Bruce Willis comes out of the subway tunnel and steps onto the platform, he shoots a subway cop coming towards him. The cop falls backwards with his head pointing away from the subway tracks. In the next shot, the camera is in front of Bruce and we can see the cop in the background with his head pointing towards the tracks now. A couple of shots later, Richard Gere comes out of the same tunnel and checks the cop to see if he's alive, and the cop's body is back to its original position with the head pointing away from the tracks again.

Continuity: At the marina, around the time the kids burn the firecrackers, the Russian Major is smoking a cigarette. In one shot it's slightly bent, then in the next it's straight.

Factual error: On the ferry boat ride, which should have been from Canada to the United States, they were aboard a North Carolina ferry... The North Carolina flag was flapping in the wind next to the US flag. There was a closeup, and you could even see the name of the boat, which is named after a North Carolina Governor.

Factual error: In the scene where the Jackal is sailing in the "Mackinac Regatta" toward Chicago, the direction seems to be wrong. I believe that race is from Chicago to Mackinac. Also, all the boats are shown flying spinnakers, which makes a colorful scene, but which would require a very unusual north wind since the boats are headed south into Chicago.

Continuity: Toward the end of the movie, the assassin (Willis) fatally shoots the female Russian agent (Venora). As Willis is advising Venora that she will die within twenty minutes, he draws a picture on her cheek with her own blood (a grim pictogram of a love heart). When Gere arrives on the scene a few minutes later, there is no sign of blood anywhere on Venora's face. Obviously, the authorities would not have washed away such a vital clue. Neither would emergency personnel have transferred the victim from the floor where she was lying, onto the living room couch; rather, they would have put her on the ambulance stretcher.

Factual error: The Jackal attempts to assassinate the First Lady just outside the Capitol Heights Metro station, which is in Maryland - yet all the police are DC Metro.

Continuity: Near the end of the film, as Willis is about to shoot the First Lady, we see a close up of him wearing sunglasses (part of his cop disguise) and looking through his binoculars. We then switch to the binocular view of the podium, but the shot is not given a darkened tint - it looks as if he is looking through the binoculars without the sunglasses. When we switch back to the first view of his face, however, the sunglasses are back in place.

Continuity: As the FBI and Richard Gere rush to the hospital to save the First Lady they are flying in a helicopter. You see a shot of the helicopter flying over buildings then it cuts to dialogue inside then back to the landscape shot. However in the first shot the helicopter carries the number "28" on the side. When it cuts back after the dialogue it has "29" on the side of it.

Continuity: When a Marine helicopter deposits Sidney Poitier atop one of these skyscrapers, his trouser leg rides up and you can clearly see the stuntman (his back is turned to us) has a pale white leg.

Continuity: Near the end of the movie, the Jackal tries to kill the first lady in Washington. This is where the hospital opening takes place. When he flees into the subway station, the name it has is indeed of a station in Washington (Capitol Heights), the subway-cars however are from the Montreal subway system (which ride around on rubber tyres).

Continuity: Near the end of the film, when Bruce Willis is trying to escape into the Metro station, he swipes his fare card through the turnstile reader upside down - you can see the magnetic strip is visible above the slot.

Factual error: Richard Gere chases Bruce Willis into the Capitol Heights Metro station, and the final showdown occurs at Metro Center - 9 stations and over 7 miles away. Hardly plausible.

Revealing: In the scene towards the end, where Declan has chased the Jackal back onto the subway platform, and has just followed on himself, behind him you see a man (possibly a cop) running to get out of the way of the guns, but just before going out of shot, he stops running and just casually 'strolls' to the edge of the set (some kind of small booth or shop on the platform).