Continuity mistake: The soldiers takes off from the aircraft carrier in Boeing CH-46 helicopters. In the next scene they are flying towards the target and the helicopters are magically upgraded to the Boeing CH-47 model. The mistake is clearly seen when counting the landing gear on the two types. The CH-46 has a single front landing gear and the CH-47 has a double landing gear in the front.
Continuity mistake: Microphones are clearly visible in at least five scenes.
Continuity mistake: After the charity dinner, Meg Ryan and David Morse are having a fight in their kitchen. Note a missing drawer on the right hand side of the greenish cabinet. But at the end of the scene, when Morse leaves the room, the drawer is back where it belongs.
Continuity mistake: On the last hole of the match, Hagen's putt goes 5-6 feet by. However, on the next scene is shown making a 1 foot tap-in.
Continuity mistake: At one point late in the movie, Arlene McKinney is at the kitchen sink. If you look through the window it is daylight out. She then goes outside and it is night.
Continuity mistake: When Maya enters Peter's office for the first time, you can see that he had just written something on his laptop. While they talk, you can see the word-program on the computer screen: it shows one page. Cut to Maya, then back to Peter: it shows two pages. Another cut: one page. This happens two or three times throughout the scene. (00:29:30)
Continuity mistake: Gabriel writes in his letter that his friend was killed at Elizabethtown, but you can see that the letter actually states he was killed at Monmouth.
Continuity mistake: When Jasper and Kelley are racing their cars, just before Jasper hits Mables Table, the camera shows a shot of him in the car and he is turning the steering wheel right when he should be turning it left so that he could MISS the gas station, not go directly into it!
Continuity mistake: When the advocate announces to his mother that he intends to marry Malena she gets mad at him. When he runs down the walkway she throws first her stick after him, then her shoe, but if you look closely she is still wearing both her shoes. (00:51:00)
Continuity mistake: On the Pentagon the plot shows the USS John R Pierce intercepting the two Soviet ship but the marker on the plot says DD722 (it is upside down). DD722 was the USS Barton whilst the Pierce is correctly shown in the external shots as DD753. (01:12:25)
Continuity mistake: In the last scene Kiefer Sutherland throws his cigarette away and turns to walk to his car but when the camera angle changes he is still smoking it, when he reaches the car he throws the same cigarette away for the second time.
Continuity mistake: In the start of the film Matthew McConaughey is sitting on a porch at a wedding reception smoking a cigar, in one shot he has a stub left then in the next it's a new one. (00:12:20)
Continuity mistake: When Kate is eating the olives at the Christmas party it shows her with only one left. It then cuts back to Jack Campbell and when it cuts back to Kate she suddenly has two left on the toothpick.
Continuity mistake: Whenever they are supposedly in the United Nations building, there is an enormous window where we can see the Bank of Montreal and Canada Trust buildings in Toronto.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Lucy sang and won the $500 competition, when they are announcing she's the winner they show a far away picture, and Lucy has the money in her hand. Then they show a close up picture, and Lucy doesn't have the money - the announcer does, and then hands it to Lucy.
Continuity mistake: When Gwen is watching the soap opera Santa Gruz, together with Eddie, in the front shots of the TV screen, you see a video cassette on the top of the TV with the heading "SONY". But, in the side shots of the TV screen, you see that the same video cassette is turned. (00:58:45 - 00:59:45)
Continuity mistake: When Samuel Jackson is about to be shot by the two corrupt cops, the Vanessa Williams character comes up from behind and shoots the black one in the head and he falls down. Then, they show her talking, and the same black man's arm and partial shoulder are in the shot.
Continuity mistake: I don't think it's quite a mistake, but in almost every scene with Madonna, she has a mysterious shadow over her forehead. In full shots, no shadow, but when they cut to her close-up, there it is. It's more annoying than anything else (aside from her acting).
Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the movie, Mary Panton and Rowley Flint are in conversation. Whenever Rowley is talking, one sees a large pearl earring on Mary, but whenever she is seen answering him, she is not wearing an earring.
Continuity mistake: In the beginning of the movie there is a scene where Joan Allen is walking next to the President. If you look closely at her feet, she is wearing two different colored high heels.