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Mistakes

The suits worn by dangerous disease researchers would definitely never tear if the hose was pulled. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

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Outbreak (1995) - 10 corrections

Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, starring Donald Sutherland, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman, Rene Russo (add more)

Genres: Drama, Sci-fi, Thriller

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.

Mistakes
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In the scenes where Daniels and Salt are flying together in the helicopter, the pilot, Salt, would be in the right seat. Although it is possible to fly from the left seat, almost always the pilot in command of a helicopter will sit on the right side because it is easier to fly from there. [It is tradition that the pilot flies from the left hand seat, the controls are identical on both seats and it is not easier to fly from the right hand seat.]
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At one point in the film a Hummer pulls up quickly outside the main hospital. So quickly in fact it bumps into an old lady in the crowd knocking her flying. [Not a mistake, as this can happen in real life. Unintentional in the movie, perhaps, but still possible.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall
Near the beginning of the movie, when the man who smuggled the monkey out of US Customs is flying on the airplane, he is approached by a young boy dressed in a cowboy outfit complete with two toy guns. I know it's obvious the guns are only toys but FAA regulations at the time (both real world and for the time frame of the movie, which are about the same) prohibited toy, simulated and/or fake guns from carry-on. [Before 9/11, airline security was taken much less seriously than it is today. It's quite possible that the child's parent was able to persuade security that the toys were harmless and/or that depriving the child of the toys would result in tantrums that would not be appreciated by the other passengers or crew.]
Edit Corrected by Phoenix
The Asian who first came in contact with the monkey died on the ship. But the ship, the Tai Kuk, had just departed to sea the day that Sam visited. The man who had the monkey would have been the first to die, before Jimbo. If he had died then, why did the ship's crew still have his dead body on the ship, if they'd already been to port? [They are transporting the body home to his family for burial.]
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The character Salt is a Major, and was only in his mid-20s or so. On average it takes around 12 years to make the rank of Major (and after a minimum of 4 years of college), which means that Salt would have had to enter the military when he was around 12 or 13, obviously not possible. It would have been far more believable if Salt had been a Second or First Lieutenant. [On average, yes, it takes 12 years. AVERAGE. That means some people ARE fast-tracked and promoted very quickly. Others, more slowly.]
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In the scene where Cuba Gooding Jr. and Dustin Hoffman are in the helicopter and Dustin is about to jump onto the Japanese freighter, Cuba's character goes out of his way to say that there's no place to land the helicopter and Dustin will have to jump onto the freighter. Cuba says he's got plenty of fuel to wait while Dustin checks out the freighter. Dustin reluctantly makes the leap, landing on a lifeboat. Dustin looks around, finds the pic of the monkey and the scene ends. Next we see Cuba and Dustin landing the chopper at the news station. How did Dustin get back on the chopper? [Before Dustin jumps onto the boat he asks how he's going to get back up. Cuba then replies for him to have the boat crew clear him a space to land the chopper.]
Edit Corrected by wolfchild
When the truckload of citizens is trying to flee the town, and the helicopter is chasing after them, it fires a missile, and the truck is consumed by the ensuing fireball. However, if you look at the driver and his passenger as the truck is blowing up, you can see them frozen into position - they're obviously dummies. [the reason that they look like dummies is the fact that the helicopter shot them with it's machine gun before firing the missile. If you watch closely, you can see bullet holes appear in the windshield, killing the passengers, before the missile is fired to blow up the truck. You can also hear the shots fired from the helicopter.]
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When they stole the helicopter and Donald Sutherland is following them, he says he's chasing helicopter number 1350. Later when they take off to try to stop 'Sandman' (with the bomb), watch closely near the rotor blades of the helicopter. It will show 1360. [Actually, if you pause the DVD, the number will show very cleary to be 1350 - the number that everyone has been using.]
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After stealing a helicopter and flying it all around the West coast, never running out of fuel, when they somehow find the original infected monkey and try to capture it Cuba Gooding Jr. somehow happens to have a large tranquilliser gun with him that apparently appeared by magic. [Cuba mentions at one point when Dustin Hoffman asks if they're low on fuel that the Loach can go over 400 miles without refueling. The total area they flew over wasn't that big. Also, they went off with the intention of finding the host...chances are they came armed with the tranq gun.]
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Why do they make such a dramatic deal about the virus being airborne especially with Hoffman looking at the camera and saying it's airborne? We know it's airborne by the fact that people caught it in the movie theatre. You would think people from the CDC who would have handled cases like this would know that if it isn't transmitted through fluid or blood than it has to be in the air. [Actually, if you recall the movie theater scene, the lab worker who spread the disease coughs, and you can see the spray of saliva (animated and followed for effect) touch several other moviegoers, and even land in one woman's mouth as she turns and laughs. Also, as he stumbles to the snack counter, it's obvious how many people he touches as he fights through the crowd. That means it could still be spread by bodily fluid at that point. Also, Dustin Hoffman wasn't IN the movie theater so had no idea how many people that man could have directly touched, and how many THEY'D touched, etc.]
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