Factual error: In the scene at the beginning of the movie as the 3 youths walk up the street, you can see current MA license plates, although the action should have taken place many years earlier. (00:01:30 - 00:05:50)
Factual error: When Harry is confronting the bank robber and the robber says he has to know if Harry had any shots left, Harry cocks the hammer which rotates the cylinder. If you watch closely when he pulls the trigger the cylinder rotates again. This can happen only when the trigger is pulled in double action mode (hammer down). (00:14:00)
Factual error: Angela Bennett finds the Praetorian's IP while using the PC in the Cathedral's bank: it's 23.75.345.200 - they want us to believe that this is an IP, but no IP can contain numbers greater than 255. [Common practice, like fake phone numbers, but still worth noticing].
Factual error: In the scene depicting life on Baker Street (after the "Sherlock Holmes" title), a horse-drawn carriage races through the streets of London. The only problem is, the carriage is driving on the right side of the road with others passing on the left. In England, carriages would be driving on the left. (00:07:05)
Factual error: When Charles Bronson is making a telephone call on a pay phone, a 1971 or like vintage Mustang is parked within view...out of place for the time the film is supposed to take place. There are other similar auto related mistakes, mixing thirties cars with late models in traffic scenes.
Factual error: When the Betty Doll takes off, there is a rapid fire selection of different shots of how the craze is impacting the nation. During the baseball scene, the shot starts with a L.A. Dodger (Eric Karros) hitting a pitch from a New York Mets pitcher (appears to be John Franco). The shot changes to that of the baseball going into the stands... in Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs.
Factual error: When Gantz fires Nolte's gun at Nolte, he fires 8 bullets out of a six shooter. (00:18:45)
Factual error: In the final race, they are able to slow down and stop two extremely powerful machines, travelling at well over 100 miles per hour, on a dirt road, in a very short distance. In reality, they would have gone through the wooden arch over the road, through the white fence, and ended up halfway up the hill in the background, amongst the horses.
Factual error: The very first shot of the movie takes place in Chandler, Arizona. However, the mountains seen in the distance, over the hills, are the Sandia Mountains which are in New Mexico, near Albuquerque. (00:01:00)
Factual error: Near the end of the film Butch is complaining about the living conditions they have to endure - jungles, swamps, snakes, night work - and Sundance sarcastically retorts "Bitch, bitch, bitch!" In 1908 the term meant just what it literally means: "Female dog." It did not adopt its current meaning of "complain" until much later. At the time the film is set - outside the context of "female dog" - it was considered to be a serious obscenity, and it would not have been used to describe something as ordinary as someone moaning about his living conditions.
Factual error: In the penitentiary, the guards should be wearing a United States flag patch since it is a federal penitentiary, not the Texas flag patch. (00:08:45)
Suggested correction: Paul Crewe was arrested by local police and not charged with a Federal crime, therefore he would have been incarcerated in a State Prison, not a Federal Penitentiary.
But the prison is named Allenville Federal Penitentiary so they should be wearing American flag patches and not state patches.
If he was arrested in California by local cops, why would he be incarcerated in a Texas State Prison and not a California State Prison?
He was arrested by locals but under Federal probation for shaving points. He went to Federal prison for probation violation.
He violated his federal probation. He would have been initially charged by the local district attorney, but the feds would also charge him due to the probation violation, and the local charges would be dropped.
Factual error: During the custody hearing, the Maryland flag in the courtroom is upside down. The rule for a Maryland flag is "black and gold, top of the pole," this flag has the red symbol at the top.
Factual error: We see Jason Statham walking into a shop in 1971 which has a Visa/Barclaycard logo on the door. Only problem with that is that the name Visa wasn't brought in until 1977.
Factual error: In the scene where Shaw is talking to a goon while fixing his car he states the simplest things cause the most problems while holding a spark plug. We know this can't be right as Brian concludes the car is a turbo diesel like a Le Mans car, which would actually use a glow plug and not a spark plug. (00:19:50)
Suggested correction: That's exactly the problem that Shaw is referring to, a member of his team installed the incorrect plug which caused a problem, i.e. a Spark Plug and not a Glow Plug (a simple thing, causing the problem), along with the 'good' being simple minded and causing the rest of Shaw's team a problem.
The glow plug isn't what causes combustion in a diesel like how a sparkplug does for gas. The wiring harness for a spark plug vs a glow plug is completely different and they aren't interchangeable. You can't just accidentally put a spark plug in a diesel, it doesn't work like that.
Factual error: If you pay attention to the backgrounds of the scene where Frank is in the airport and when Frank is being arrested as he walks from the church, you can see two cars pass by which weren't produced until at least 2000.
Factual error: The scene where Nightfox steals the Faberge Egg is all wrong. A laser security system must have a photoelectric receptor at the other side to detect if somebody pass between the two devices. As shown in the film, the laser beams points everywhere, so the system can't work and somebody could cross a beam without starting the alarm. Even if it was some weird system based on measuring distance it wouldn't work - if the laser hits the floor at an angle it won't bounce back to the source, it will reflect towards the ceiling.
Factual error: In the warehouse scene with the wooden crates with maple leaves, even though a correction has been submitted saying a maple leaf was valid, the real mistake is the type of maple leaf used. The film shows a modern graphic style of leaf that did not come into use until the 1960s and appeared on the new Canadian flag in 1965. In the time of Capone, the maple leaves used to depict things Canadian looked like actual maple leaves and not like a stylized graphic.
Factual error: When the air hose on the truck is severed, the brakes release. In reality, on an air-braking system, if the air hose is severed, the brakes lock on as a safety measure.
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.
Factual error: As the two fast boats start heading up river towards the finale shootout, one boat has its navigation lights reversed. It has a red light on the starboard/right side, and a green light on the port/left side. It should be the other way around. (The lights on the other boat are correct.)