Continuity mistake: When Harry's guide is captured by the British troops, they flog him. In the very next scene his back shows no evidence of him ever being whipped.
Revealing mistake: When the mayor's wife attempts suicide by stuffing herself with pills, she is lying behind a sofa, only her arm and the pill bottle being visible as she pours the contents into her mouth. In the next shot (a close-up), however, the crown of her head is visible, and it is evident that she pours the pills over the top of her head.
Factual error: The bird hovering near Manech's lighthouse is supposed to be an Albatross, but it's a Gannet.
Continuity mistake: Early in the film, Michael talks to Harry Boland on a boat. During this scene, a cigarette appears in Boland's mouth that was not in the previous shot. (00:40:40)
Factual error: The movie is set in Rwanda in 1994. At the start of the movie you see a billboard advert for MTN, a South African cellular service provider that was not available in Rwanda in 1994.
Other mistake: The exact same background shot of a Ventura bomber followed by two single-engine planes flying left to right is used three times during the film, twice at the beginning as they are planning the mission on the beach and then once at the end when the raid is over.
Factual error: Throughout the film the British infantry are armed with carbines. These were intended for issue to cavalry and are much shorter than the infantry issue Martini-Henry rifle.
Revealing mistake: When Michelle is binding Topper's hands to the bed you can see the cloth hiding her breasts. (00:30:30)
Revealing mistake: During the Little Bighorn massacre one of Custer's lieutenants turns to address Custer and is struck in the back with an arrow, and the thick pad or board is visible under the actor's shirt.
Continuity mistake: When they are all lined up for their medical inspection at the beginning of the film, the sun is coming up behind the hut casting a shadow in the front. When the Sargeant Major is then shown shouting from the hut, "I want this one (Bartlet) scrubbed with a yard broom." You can now see by the shadows that the sun is shinning directly at the hut. This would be impossible as there is only a few seconds between shots for this change to happen.
Visible crew/equipment: When the woman in the opening credits is taking off her clothes, she is about to take a blue shirt from her bag, but decided against it. As she does, you can see a crew member aimlessly wandering around in the bushes behind her. (00:01:40)
Continuity mistake: When James is eating at home alone, he flips his spoon into his water glass. In some shots it's leaning against the right side of the glass, and in other shots it's against the left side.
Factual error: John Wayne's squadron lands on Guadacanal as part of the "Cactus Air Force" in August 1942. However, they are flying F6F-3 Hellcats, which were not available, even to the Navy, until the middle of 1943. To top it off, they are painted in a late-war camouflage scheme with late-war markings.
Continuity mistake: In one scene when Hudson and Andrews enter the vestibule of her house, Rock can clearly be seen to have "mutton chop" sideburns. However, once inside the house, they're gone. When he goes back outside, they're back.
Continuity mistake: Saigo is told to empty out the chamberpot because it is full. But it is not full when he is taking it outside to empty it.
Continuity mistake: As the two look-outs get on the big wheel the thin guy with the ventriloquist's dummy sits on the right. But later in the film he is on the left.
Continuity mistake: In the third rendition of the story of what happened at Zhao, Nameless shows that his attack could have immense precision by throwing all the additional sticks in the air along with the white one. Not only does the white stick change trajectory during the scene changes, but at the end the additional sticks all seem to fly in from a barrel just out of sight instead of falling all around Nameless' sword.
Factual error: When the Marines strip off and run into the sea in the final scene, Doc takes off a pair of white socks that would be more appropriate for a final at Wimbledon. Not only are they white rather than khaki, they are virtually spotlessly clean which would be impossible after a week of fighting on the black sands of Iwo Jima.
Factual error: Sarah states that Namibia is on the Ivory Coast, while in fact, it is on the Skeleton Coast in southern Africa.
Other mistake: In the scene in which two Japanese Zero fighters bomb and strafe a PT base, shots of the attacking planes show them carrying no bombs. During the attack, they still drop around 20 bombs anyway, which is considerably more than the actual carrying capacity of the two planes.