Factual error: At the beginning of the film, Nick gazes up at the Roosevelt Hotel. The camera pans up and we can count the number of floors - 18. Yet, during the film, Nick is purported to be on the 21st floor.
Factual error: In the beginning scene in the locker room, Taylor brings up his Glock and calls it the "Glock 19", however a shot shows the pistol's trademarks, displaying it as a Glock 22.
Factual error: When the bridges are blown up, some of the bridges are suspension bridges, but the bridge only fails at the point of the explosion. The main horizontal supports are severed, but large portions of the bridge remain magically aloft. The nature of suspension bridges means the remaining vertical cables and road deck would fail as well, resulting in the loss of the bridge between the two main pillar supports.
Factual error: Bryan tells Kim to go to the US Embassy if he doesn't return in 5 minutes, and enters "US Embassy" into the GPS. Later there is a chase scene that ends at a building with "United States Embassy" on the signage. This is impossible unless they drove about 6 hours to Ankara, the capital city. Istanbul has only a US Consulate (albeit a very impressive one).
Factual error: When Reacher sees Sandy's body being loaded into the coroner's van, he's able to see her face. In reality, a dead body is zipped into a leak proof body bag for transport. And that body is put in the bag and zipped up WHERE THEY DIED, not in the van or somewhere else. Specifically, this was a murder scene and any evidence and DNA would have been secured on the body by the body bag.
Factual error: At the beginning of the film you see the car coming around a bend and see a double yellow line in the center of the road. White center lines were used as early as 1917 but weren't widely used until the early 50s and center yellow wasn't mandated until 1971.
Factual error: When Ranger takes Stephanie to buy a gun, the one she gets is a 5-shooter, but in the scene where she is firing it at the gun range by herself she shoots it 12 times without reloading. Later, in the scene where she shoots Jimmy Alpha, she fires it 7 times without reloading.
Factual error: The station under Cape Town stadium do not exist. Although the first tram line was from Cape Town to Green Point (the stadium's location) it was discontinued just before world war 2.
Factual error: When Bradley Cooper is leaving the Police Station in the 1990's, he is being watched by Ray Liotta by the street. You can see a silver 2010 Hyundai Sonata drive right past them, a model that doesn't get built for another decade. There's also a GMC cargo van parked across the street that looks like it was built after 2009. (01:23:20)
Factual error: The same car registration is used on several cars throughout the film.
Factual error: Kuklinski is looking at a newspaper which is dated January 3rd 1983, and the text reads that Roy DeMeo was found dead the previous day. In actuality, Roy DeMeo died on January 10th 1983. (01:22:55)
Factual error: Bruce Willis says he has a 'Remington 86 tactical shotgun'. There is no such model, he probably meant the 870.
Factual error: We see the mob boss at the start shoot a man from inside the SUV with a shotgun. However, the windscreen doesn't get affected in any way. A shotgun blast in a confined space has a spray and would have hit the glass. (00:02:30)