Revealing mistake: In scene at the brothel, with the senator and the dead prostitute, the supposedly dead body is breathing in the last shot of her, just after Tom Hagen says "it'll be as if she never existed". (01:15:30)
Factual error: The scene in which the Beechcraft Baron hits the Boeing 747 in flight plumbs new depths in cinematic absurdity. Assuming both aircraft are at their normal cruising speeds - they appear to be - and the Beechcraft has half a fuel load left, it will hit with the same energy as 7,700 kgs of TNT. The Beechcraft Baron weighed 3,200 kg and the two aircraft would have a closing speed of something like 700 kmh. Even a glancing blow would tear the entire front half of the 747 to bits - there would be virtually nothing of the fuselage left intact all the way back to the wings, and the film shows the two aircraft on course for a head on collision.
Revealing mistake: Watch carefully as the statue falls on the bartender. It barely touches his chest and rests on his left thigh. As the bartender slumps dead you can see a wide open gap between his whole upper body and the statue. Even if it crushed his thigh it would not have killed him so quickly. When the bartender slumps down the statue rocks freely as he brushes against it; obviously a styrofoam replica.
Continuity mistake: This film's set in the 50s, but the actors use 20 Austrian Schilling bank notes, which were only issued in the mid 1970s.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Thunderbolt and Lightfoot are in the car with the crazy driver. The car goes over the embankment and as it flips you can see a wheel break off. A short time later they both drive off in the same car, with the wheel attached again.
Factual error: Just before Walther Matthau meets Susan Sarandon for the first time in her dressing room in the movie theater, he passes a poster for "All Quiet On the Western Front" in the hall. "All Quiet On the Western Front" wasn't made until 1930 and this film is supposed to take place in 1928.
Continuity mistake: During the chase where Larry's Charger knocks a police car in the river, the '69 Charger becomes a '68 Charger in one shot, as seen from the front. The '68 has a different grille than the '69 models. (01:09:40)
Factual error: One of the main characters has a Harley Davidson. The movie is supposed to take place in the fifties. The Harley had an electric start primary cover which wasn't made by Harley until 1965.
Revealing mistake: When Crewe dumps the car in the river, you can see the wire attached to it that was used to pull it out of the water. Burt Reynolds mentions it on the DVD commentary.
Factual error: While the band's clothes and hairstyles are right for the era the film was set in (the sixties), the hair fashions and clothes of the extras, especially the audience and security men, are from when this film was made - the mid seventies. The crowd scenes were taken at contemporary David Essex concerts which explains the 70's fashions seen.
Factual error: In the Bosphorus scenes, as the ferry crosses from the Asian to the European side of Istanbul, in the distance large trucks can be seen speeding along the coastal road opposite. Well before their time.
Continuity mistake: When the girl is driving the truck, you can plainly see the front bumper get bent, but a few scenes later it is straight again.
Continuity mistake: When Hadrian jumps the mustang over the upturned car, the film slows down to show the jump in slow motion. When the car lands, it hits so hard the car spins around and ends up facing the cars it jumped. The scene is then repeated at normal speed, but just as the car would be shown spinning out, a shot of the car driving away from the accident is shown.
Visible crew/equipment: When Stuart Margolin closes the car's door at the airport after putting the going-away present in Charles Bronson's suitcase, the camera's shadow is seen in the door.
Revealing mistake: In the office tower after the quake there is a panic and workers rush down the stairs only to find them fallen away. After two women fall to their death a man is left hanging on a girder, but falls onto a giant piece of glass. Look at the top of the frame and you will see the airbag shooting our from under it.
Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where Herb Edelman is explaining to Richard Jordan exactly whom Robert Mitchum is going to see, a microphone can be seen at the bottom of the screen, just under the low coffee table.
Continuity mistake: When Eve is making a special treat and it starts on fire. She sprays a fire extinguisher onto it. It shows foam covering only one side of the food. Then, it shows the food again a few seconds later and it is completely covered. (01:01:50)
Factual error: Right after George Wilson kills himself with the revolver, the gun is seen falling into the fish pond in Gatsby's living room. Since Wilson shot himself in the head by placing the gun to the roof of his mouth, there is no possible way the gun could have flown so far away from his body, especially without getting bloody.
Factual error: The signalling board in the control tower animates Pelham 123's movements in such detail that the police can tell when it is moving and when it has stopped. Indeed the police deduce that the hijackers have abandoned the train from this. In reality this could not happen. Subway tracks are divided into variable length blocks typically hundreds of yards in length. The signalling boards are only able to show which block a train is in. The only way to tell if a train is moving is when it moves from one block to the next and the only way to estimate speed is by how quickly it occupies successive blocks. A slow-moving or stationary train are thus not able to be so easily distinguished from one another on the board.
Continuity mistake: When Julie is running up the stairs to catch up with Celine, in the shot where the camera is positioned at the bottom of the staircase, there are two people ahead of her walking down the steps. The camera then changes to a closer angle in front of her, and the two people walking down the stairs have disappeared. There is also one completely different man who has appeared on the steps. (00:09:25)
Suggested correction: What matters is how much of the small plane's kinetic energy was deposited in the 747's structure. A glancing blow would deliver less energy than a head-on collision, because it lessens the total time interval of the impact. Another important thing is if the small plane shattered or stayed largely in one piece during the collision. If it promptly shredded on impact, then each little fragment carried away its portion of the total energy. Smaller pieces of something as light as that plane would immediately get caught in the powerful airflow and be diverted around the 747.
Absolute rubbish. Airliners do not survive mid air collisions.