Continuity mistake: When Nyah and Ethan are in bed in Spain, the lights reflected off Ethan's face and of the bed covers change between shots.
Plot hole: In the first night that Nyah is in Ambrose's house she meets with Ethan outside the house and they talk for about 1 1/2 min. Then we find out "Ethan" was really Ambrose with one of those "high-tech" masks. My question...After being in bed with both, how come Nyah didn't recognise Ambrose is about 5 inches taller than Ethan?
Plot hole: The virus ravaged Nyah is making her way to a cliff to kill herself when Ethan sends his buddies to save her. There is no way that the flight to her location would have taken that long unless John Polson decided to take Ving Rhames for a guided tour of the Sydney skyline first just in case he missed any of it. It's just a couple of minutes flight time for a helicopter at full throttle.
Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where Nyah and Ethan have a race with a Porsche and an Audi-TT, at the end after the camera shows Nyah's feet you see both cars from front. Now on the right side of the screen you see the shadow of the filming helicopter.
Continuity mistake: When Ethan finishes showing Nyah the pictures of the aeroplane crash so she can see what kind of man Ambrose is, she puts out a candle with her hand. Then when they show her from the front, it's lit again, from the side it's out, then lit from the front, AGAIN!
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Nyah is walking up towards Ambrose's house, the wind is playing havoc with Nyah's hair and scarf. Throughout the scene, there are several shots of her where there is no wind, her hair is not moving and the scarf is perfectly placed (most noticeably when she steps off the boat onto the walkway).
Continuity mistake: In the rock climbing scene, just after Hunt does his flying jump, he falls, slides down a smooth rock face and grabs a hold at the last minute to stop him plummeting to his death. When he pulls back up, and over he grabs a hand hold on the smooth surface which wasn't there before. If you know what you are looking for, you will also see that it is a bolt on hold which has been attached to the rock face.
Plot hole: While Tom Cruise is entering the inoculation chamber at BioCyte lab, he is shown entering through a airlock. While he does this, both doors can be seen open. Doesn't this defeat the purpose of having an airlock?
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the final fight scene, Tom Cruise has some blood coming out of his nose... That blood disappears and returns several times during that scene, and it's visible with all those close ups of him.
Visible crew/equipment: At the end, when Tom Cruise throws the knife at Dougray Scott's feet, there is a quick succession of shots consisting of the two in a fistfight. In one of the quick shots, as Tom Cruise is debating throwing the knife, then charges instead, there is a distinct black shape at the bottom right side of the screen that belongs to neither Cruise or Scott. The shoulder of a crewman who got a little too close, perhaps?
Continuity mistake: At the beginning when Ethan is getting briefed of his mission with the sunglasses, his point of view shot through the glasses shows the landscape moving across from right to left, yet on the shots looking at him he isn't turning around or moving his head at all.
Factual error: When Luther is in the helicopter in the final scene on his way to Nyah he says 'distance 2K' when he is over central Sydney. Nyah is at the coast, which is approximately 15 km from Sydney center.
Continuity mistake: The 747 that crashes in the beginning of the movie has a fictitious airline name painted on the fuselage; but the dialogue uses a different name.
Continuity mistake: When Tom Cruise is in the final fight scene with Dougray Scott, he performs a 'spinning jump kick'. When he lands, he is shown landing with his right foot in one shot, his left foot in the next one, and back to his right foot in the final shot.
Continuity mistake: At the racetrack when the girl has the binoculars up and talking to Tom Cruise her hair is behind her ear, then down, then behind her ear again.
Factual error: The portrait of Semana Santa (Eastern) celebrations in Sevilla are absurd. Weird wooden constructions on fire (I guess it refers to Fallas, a celebration from Valencia and Alicante, around 400 miles away, in a tradition in which people burn cheap satirical and arty polystyrene sculptures with the arrival of Spring). Repetitive satanic hymns, fantasy castles, ritual drums, fireplaces and candles everywhere, effigies on sticks on flames, traditional clothes from somewhere in Central America mixed with San Fermín outfits and flutes (from Pamplona, over 600 miles away), frantic dances and women throwing flower petals over the crowd. I only miss some bulls dancing around in flamenco clothes while drinking sangría. The equivalent would be to portray a US festival in which Mickey Mouse rides a horse wearing a scary pumpkin mask while being carried by a leprechaun watching fireworks.
Factual error: The aeroplane at the beginning of the film is a 747-400. You can tell because the wings had winglets when they showed the exterior view. Well, a 747-400 only has a two man cockpit, there is no "sideways flying" flight engineer like in the movie.
Factual error: The car chase between Ethan and Nyah is supposed to take place in Spain involving Spanish cars (plate's colour and the way numbers and letters are represented follows the Spanish code), but a real Spanish plate should have numbers and letters displayed as follows '1234 ABC' or 'AB- 1234-AB'.
Continuity mistake: When Ethan makes the spectacular leap during the rock climbing scene, you see him land vertically, as in he landed in a standing position, clinging to a rock safely, yet when it immediately cuts to another angle, he is already sliding down to the edge.
Continuity mistake: When Nyah and Ethan are in the tub at the mansion, one shot shows Nyah with the heels of her feet up, then it switches to where they're facing the bottom of the tub.
Answer: Ethan did not want her to kill herself. Giving her a gun would allow her to do so.