Live Free or Die Hard (2007) - 86 mistakes

Audio problem: Just as McClane and Farrell are about to leave the Eastern Power Hub, Farrell goes on a long rant and his mouth does not match the words he is saying.

Revealing: When McClane goes into the icy room in the power station, look at the pipe to the side of him: it's in shot a few seconds and you can see that the writing on the pipe is reversed, revealing that in the editing room, the shot was flipped.

Factual error: During the chase with the semi, McClane is shown struggling to keep the truck under control with the freeway collapsing/blowing up all around him. He is shown making a left turn on a ramp, and the truck going up on 9 wheels, almost rolling. The shot cuts back to McClane steering left to to try to control the truck. If he were to steer left, as depicted, he would be guaranteed to roll the truck. If he was trying to get the wheels back down, he'd have to steer into the roll, or right, to bring it back on the wheels. At the end of the shot, you can actually see the stuntman brings the wheels down with a short right turn of the steering wheel. The similar entry in corrections is right, the person making the correction is wrong. During 15 years of driving a semi, I had a very similar situation with the truck almost rolling. I had to steer into the roll to bring the truck back on the wheels, not away from it, as the film showed McClane doing.

Continuity: When McClane first brings Farrell to the Cyber division, McClane has a cut over his eyebrow that he gets from a fight scene later in the film. [This mistake is pointed out in the DVD audio commentary: this scene was filmed after said fight scene was completed. Still a mistake, though.]

Continuity: John throws Matt to the floor when Matt is first being shot at. John lays on Matt to protect him and you can see that John's legs are off to Matt's left and are lying flat on the floor. The scene cuts to a view that's from behind their feet and now John's legs are no longer flat on the floor, his lower body is turned and he is lying on his right hip.

Factual error: In the street scenes of Washington, DC, the cabs are Yellow Cabs. DC does not have a yellow cab system, but rather "gypsy" cabs that come in all colors. There are actually very few yellow-colored taxi cabs.

Other: Where does the fire in the gas pipes come from? Even though a lot of gas - and thereby pressure - is directed towards the power station, why do they blow up under ground far away from the power station?

Continuity: When John and Mai are fighting at Woodlawn, John tosses Mai up against a glass board. Her pony tail has come undone and her hair is a big mess. You see Mai from the back as she gets up to come after John. Her hair is now neatly combed and back in a pony tail. But as she begins to fight, her hair is once again undone and messy.

Continuity: John's face is all bloody after he rolls from the car and "kills a helicopter with a car". The blood on his face constantly changes during the shots. Sometimes there is blood all over his face, sometimes there is quite a bit less. Sometimes he has blood streaming from the cut on his nose, sometimes there is nothing on his nose. The blood changes back and forth, so it's not just him wiping the blood away from his face (and his hands are by his sides during all the shots).

Factual error: When McClane drives the SUV into the elevator shaft, you can see where the windshield has been "smashed out". There are wavy clean breaks along the perimeter of the lucite used as the glass. In reality, a windshield would shatter but still hold together in one sheet. It's impossible for it to break cleanly like shown in the scene.

Factual error: Just after the F35 shoots most of the top off of the cab and the back of the semi truck McClane is driving, there is a camera shot that pulls back from the front of the truck that shows large 1-foot diameter holes in the top of the engine compartment. The first problem is that the plane's bullets came from the side, not the top (not down through the engine hood) and the second problem is that the engine shouldn't still be running with multiple 1-foot holes shot into/through it - yet the truck continues to climb the incline.

Continuity: In the scene when Bruce Willis is driving the police car up the ramp to blow up the helicopter, the guy jumps out. As he jumps out he has got headphones on, but when he lands on the car they fall off. The next scene it shows him taking them off.

Continuity: Near the end of the film FBI operatives rappel down from helicopters for speed and immediately enter the warehouse where John McClane and friends are. Almost immediately Bowman appears and vouches for the three left alive in the building. He got there very quickly considering his helicopter was still in the air when the operatives were landing.

Continuity: When McClane and Farrell are fired upon during the escort to DHS, Agent Johnson is killed and slumps against the steering wheel. In the next shot he is alive, looking back through the car's rear windshield, and jolts forward with the car's impact with the car in front of them.

Continuity: In the scene after the power plant explodes and Farrell is giving his "What is the point?" speech, his hair changes several times between shots, from hanging down in front of his face to being swept to one side.

Factual error: At the end of the movie the CIA helicopters are flying from DC to Baltimore. We see them over a wide stretch of water. Then there is a long sequence with McClane, and when we get back to the helicopters they are still over water. When you fly from DC to Baltimore you do not cross a long stretch of water.

Factual error: The sound of an airbag detonating is very loud, even more so with two detonating at the same time, quite a bit louder than what was depicted onscreen.

Continuity: When the truck crashes into the pillar that McClane and Matt are hiding behind in the tunnel, we see a large portion of the pillar fall off from the left side. However, when McClane gets up to drive the police car, the pillar is in perfect shape.

Audio problem: During the final chase scene when McClane takes control of the semi truck, you can hear the truck continuing to shift gears even though McClane is not completely in the driver's seat and nowhere close to the clutch or shifter.

Continuity: At the end of the scene where Bruce Willis's own car is involved with a crash between a dustcart and taxi you can see his driver's door opening during the aerial shot after he has left the location.

Continuity: During the shootout at Matt's apartment John scrambles away from the refrigerator and pulls himself around the corner. The view is from behind John and his chest is facing the corner as he pulls himself around it. The scene jumps to a view from in front of John, yet he's somehow already turned himself around so his back is to the corner (this makes for an easier transition to using the corner as cover, but it messes up the continuity). He couldn't have done this since he was still in the process of pulling himself around the corner.

Continuity: When McClane knocks the fridge over so it's on its side near the start, his head is above the top (side) of the fridge. Camera cuts and it is well below the top (side) of the fridge.

Continuity: In the semi truck that John is driving towards the end of the film, one scene shows the truck has a automatic gear box control box, in another he is changing gears on a manual shift. 2 different trucks.

Continuity: During the final chase, the right front tire of the Freight liner is flat at one point after hitting a number of parked vehicles. The next shot showing the front of the truck shows the tire is fine.

Continuity: At the start of the chase between the HAZ-MAT van and the semi truck, McClane hits a couple of cars and seriously damages the front drivers corner of the truck. In later shots, the damage has gone.

Continuity: In the traffic jam in the beginning of the film (right after all the lights have changed to green), the car next to McClane's is black/dark. But a few seconds later when you see it from a helicopter, it has changed to white.

Continuity: During the final truck chase through Baltimore, several traffic lights are seen with lights in them. But all the power was off.

Continuity: McClane's head wounds move around throughout the movie. Especially the two red spots on the left side of his head change colour a lot.

Plot hole: When in the tunnel, McClane gets back into the cop car and leaves Farrell, he drives very quickly. After the helicopter blows up, it is only a few seconds before Farrell finds McClane. Even running at his top speed, Farrell could not have reached McClane's position so quickly.

Plot hole: Since they took down the telephone network, it would have been impossible for Justin Long's character to even be speaking to the emergency response woman for the car, much less send a signal to start the car up.

Continuity: During the traffic jam scene, when the truck crashes against the taxi, the view inside McClane's car shows the taxi colliding against the car, dragging it away violently. From the aerial angle, the taxi doesn't touch McClane's car at all.

Factual error: The "police" radios shown in the police cars are actually amateur band radios on an amateur band frequency.

Audio problem: After the terrorist in the helicopter opens fire on John and Matthew, a policeman yells something about backup into his radio. What he's saying doesn't match up with his mouth.

Visible crew/equipment: The scene John and Matt were in the middle of an alley, with Matt using the mobile to locate the power hub, the crew can be seen from the reflection from the glass behind Matt.

Continuity: At Woodlawn, after McClane takes Russo out and taunts Gabriel over the radio, Gabriel sends Rand after him, saying, "Kill this guy, and I'll give you Mai's share." But four minutes later, when Gabriel has Lucy talk to McClane on the radio, Rand can be seen standing casually against the wall behind him, even though he already left. (Timecodes from unrated edition.)

Continuity: When McClane is on the phone to Boeman about Thomas Gabriel, the blood on McClane's hand is constantly changing.

Revealing: Just after the F-35 explodes there is a shot of the flames receding up the ramp McClane slid down. Also in this shot, Rubble goes uphill, showing the shot was reversed.

Continuity: When talking to AV-81 Gabriel's microphone has a wire round it. The position of the wire changes instantly.

Audio problem: When McClane and Ferrel are confronted at Woodlawn by the bad guy, the bad guy says "You, fix it." When he does, his mouth doesn't move for "You."

Continuity: Throughout the film, the injury to Ferrel's ear constantly changes severity.

Continuity: When confronted at Woodlawn, the bad guy is looking at McClane or Ferrel depending on the angle.

Continuity: When the one bad guy has got McClane near the start in the alleyway, there is one shot where the bad guy is facing the other way. He goes forwards feet first for one quick shot then goes backwards to hit the dumpster.

Continuity: Just after the explosion at the power centre, Ferrel's hair changes from messy to neat when he says "Win? When did we start winning?"

Continuity: When McClane and Farrel are talking about what Farrel would do next if it was his fire sale, McClane and Farrel move closer together instantly.

Continuity: When John and Lucy are having an argument at the start of the film, Lucy's hair is over her shoulder or not over her shoulder, depending on the shot.

Continuity: When the 4x4 drops in the lift shaft, Ferrel is stood by the side of the door. Then as he says "Did you see that!?" he has changed position instantly. Then he's back to the position he was in before.

Continuity: When Running to the car after the apartment shootout, Farrel gets in the car and McClane is not around by the car as we can see the car. However when Farrel shuts his door, McClane is already in the car. In the previous shot we could see McClane behind Farrel.

Continuity: When in the traffic jam, just before the first accidents, the background doesn't move in the shots of Ferral, but it does, and quite fast, in the shots of McClane.

Continuity: When you see all the power going off, you see the same clip being used twice. The power goes off, it shows the airport and hospital, then it shows the power going off in the same place again.

Continuity: When McClane is strangling Mia, the way he holds the cable constantly changes.

Continuity: McClane rips the airbag out and tosses it on the road. When they drive away, the airbag has gone.

Other: At the end Ferral is in the ambulance and talking to McClane. When doing so his hair is perfectly clean. After being through what he and McClane have been through in the last 24 hours, it's extremely unlikely his hair would be that clean.

Continuity: When he's talking to Ferral about a fire sale and what would be next, the cuts on McClane's face are constantly changing.

Audio problem: When McClane is walking through Woodlawn and talking to Gabriel over the radio, his mouth doesn't match what is being said.

Continuity: When in the tunnel after blowing up the helicopter, John has got blood all over his face. However the amount of blood and the position of the blood keeps changing.

Visible crew/equipment: Just as McClane jumps down the cab of the semi, there is a quick shot where the camera shadow is visible on the semi.

Revealing: In the tunnel, as John does the 180 handbrake turn, if you look on the floor you will see skid marks exactly where he performs the 180 turn. Clearly from previous takes.

Audio problem: When McClane and Ferral arrive at Woodlawn, Ferral says something about the cooling towers being on the lower floors. As he does, his mouth doesn't move at all. Granted his mouth is blocked for most of it, but you can see a bit of his mouth at points and it's not moving.

Audio problem: When at the Warlock's place, McClane says something along the lines of, "What're you guys talking about?" When he does, his lips are out of sync with the audio.

Continuity: When McClane tells Matt to get ready to run when in the apartment, McClane's position changes instantly.

Continuity: When the hacker pulls up the F-35s schematic, it is shown with 10 missiles outline in red, 3 on each wing, and 4 internally. When the F-35 is shown on screen, it has no weapons mounted on the wings.

Continuity: When McClane and Rand fight in Woodlawn, Rand falls down through two sets of blades rotating at high speed. Once he goes through them, the blades appear to be slowing, but at the next shot, not one second later, the blades are rotating at full speed again.

Revealing: When the bomb explodes in Farrell's apartment, you can see the man in the room who gets blown against the wall is a dummy.

Factual error: In several chase scenes that take place in Washington DC McLane and Farrell are driving around the city with buildings that are at least 40 to 50 stories tall. This is impossible as the Height of Buildings Act of 1910 prevents any building being any higher than 20ft more than the width of the street the said building sits on. The buildings seen in the chases are much too tall for this city to actually be Washington DC.

Continuity: The hacker slaps McClane's daughter moving her head to the right, hair messy around her face. The immediate angle from the hacker's point of view shows her head tilted to the opposite direction, with her hair perfectly brushed.

Continuity: In the scene where McClane rebuffs Ferrell for thinking it would be cool to do the firesale, you can see pipes for firehoses right behind McClane. When the shot changes to a long alley shot, the pipes are a good ten feet away, but when it reverts back to a closeup, the pipes are back to right behind McClane.

Continuity: In one scene we see the map of the power grid of Eastern Sector shutting down. All sectors are red. A few scenes later we are in Warlock's basement. He has the same map on one of his screens, but there some sectors are red and some are green.

Audio problem: When Gabriel is starting to move out with the large truck, you hear the sounds from the truck tires but the tires aren't moving.

Factual error: In the scene where McClane jumps off the fighter jet he slides down at 100+ feet of highway concrete but when he reached the bottom his jeans are not torn in any new places. Any fabric rubbed against concrete for any significant distance would be shredded or (if conditions were perfect) at least frayed.

Continuity: In the semi chase scene when Bruce takes control of the truck he initially shoots twice through the door and you see two 'bullet holes'. When the cut to the cab the driver is shot 5 more times. After Bruce throws out the driver and closes the door you only see the two original 'bullet holes'. There should be about seven of them.

Deliberate "mistake": When John crashes the car against the elevator room, the cables he and the woman hold on to are clean, when they should be greasy - thus allowing for them to hold safely.

Continuity: When McClane is driving the police down the ramp to the tunnel so he can elude the helicopter, the car's windshield doesn't have any bullet holes or cracks in it, even though it did just a few seconds earlier.

Factual error: McClane carrys a Sig Sauer P220, which has an 8 round single stack magazine. In the first shoot scene in the apartment, he reloads twice and then fires over 12 rounds blindly around the corner.

Continuity: After Mai kicks McClane out the window at the power hub, there is a shot of her turning and walking away. This is obviously a reused shot of when she walked away from beating up McClane only a minute or so earlier - the most obvious sign is that her hair is perfect, and then when it cuts to her grabbing Matthew, her hair is messy again.

Continuity: In the scene where the semi driven by McClane is chased by the F35, the semi hits multiple vehicles causing it to damage. The driver side headlights are smashed and the bumber and fender are almost scraping the ground. In the next shot, headlights, bumber and fender are fine.

Factual error: When McClane "kills" the helicopter with the police car, as shown in the film, the car runs up the toll booth like a ramp and smashes into the helicopter. However, if you look, though the slab on the side is ramp-shaped, it is about 2 feet off the ground, so realistically, the car just should have smashed into the booth rather than shoot over it.

Other: If the natural gas could be rerouted to McClane's position at the national grids control center, there are two major problems. The gas would not self-ignite on it's way there as pictured and secondly, the sheer momentum of that massive amount of gas in those long pipes would cause a massive leak at the endpoint. However, after the first (relatively small considering the total energy in all the gas) explosion everything goes back to normal without one giant amount of gas erupting.

Other: The hackers cause a massive traffic jam by manipulating the street lights. Yet, only minutes later, the streets are conveniently empty when McClane is being chased by the chopper. Sure, one or two streets were secured by police, but the chase scene goes through many more streets.

Continuity: While McClane is taking control of the Freight liner during the final chase, he jumps onto the driver's steps, and we see the driver's side window is closed, he shoots the driver and whips the door open, and the window is now open. He climbs into the truck and slams the door, and the window is once again closed. There was obviously no time for the window to be opened and closed during the fight.

Audio problem: As McClane attempts to escape from the car in the lift shaft, a henchman shoots at him. As McClane hides between the seats, he cries, "Motherf**ker!" However, McClane's lips aren't moving. ('Unrated'/'Ultimate Action Edition' version only).

Continuity: When John and Matt are in the patrol cars and Gabriel has them rerouted to a blocked road, there are no cars on the road besides the patrol cars, but throughout the scene when the camera cuts you can see traffic moving smoothly along with them.

Factual error: The F-35 JSF is shown having 2 guns coming from the side of the intakes and can fire for a long time. The M61A2 Vulcan Cannon on the JSF is above the left air intake and can only fire for 4.8 seconds before it runs out of ammo.

Continuity: At the very end when McClane is talking to Farrell, he has three steri-strips over his left eye, but when he goes back to his daughter he only has two.

Revealing: Airbags are made out of a super strong fabric material with heavy weaving. There's no way McClane would be able to tear it. You can see the texture difference between McClane's fake airbag and the real passenger side airbag.

Audio problem: Why does the whole city make a 'whooom' noise when the power turns off? And each block makes exactly the same sound.

Factual error: Where the film shows the power going out on the Eastern seaboard of the US, it shows the lights going out at an airport. At the airport the tail of an aircraft with the Air New Zealand logo on it is seen. Air New Zealand does not fly to any airport on the Eastern seaboard of the USA.