Corrected entry: It is repeated several times throughout the movie that if you come into contact with the chemicals, inject the atropine into your heart. In real life, that would kill you. If you are exposed to a chem agent, you would place an injector about the size of a paint marker against your thigh and press a button on the back of it, which would extend the needle and inject the atropine. If you injected yourself without having been exposed, as Goodspeed was instructed to do in the bomb room in the beginning of the movie, that would kill you too.
Corrected entry: In the scene where all of the men are being taken by helicopter to Alcatraz, a soldier hands Goodspeed a syringe and says something along the lines of 'if you come in contact with the chemical, inject this into your heart.' If Mason was sitting with the men on the helicopter, why was he so surprised when Goodspeed stops him in the tunnel and tells him that the terrorists have chemical weapons. Was he not paying attention on the helicopter?
Correction: He is not surprised that they have chemicals, he is surprised that they have missiles aimed at San Francisco (where his daughter lives).
Corrected entry: Near the beginning Goodspeed tells his girlfriend to come to San Francisco but changes his mind once he finds out what's really going on. Instead of having the FBI simply pick her up. Why not send her back home on the next flight out? He works for the Feds, how hard could that have been to arrange?
Correction: If FBI agents just packed her off home she might have started asking awkward questions in a public setting (the airport). The FBI didn't want to risk alarming the rest of the population.
Corrected entry: Data on John Mason in FBI database doesn't show his name when Stanley Goodspeed's colleague searches in it [just a string of X's], in order to hide his identity [as remarked by FBI director Womack]. However, there is a full name and address of nearest relative [his daughter Jade]which is would make him easy to identify in any case.
Correction: It was not easy to find. It took a trained FBI researcher who knew what he was looking for to find it.
Corrected entry: When the General is killed, there is a shot of him flying back. During this shot, there are drops of blood visible on the camera lens.
Correction: The blood on the lens is not a mistake. It is not uncomon for things to get splattered on the screen, such as water, mud, or in this case blood. It is done to make you feel more a part of the action.
Corrected entry: In the boiler room where Mason goes under the flames. How is it possible that these flames still work after all these years that alcatraz has been closed?
Correction: Alcatraz is now a tourist attraction. People visit and still work there, so it makes sense for the boiler room to be in operation.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Goodspeed is riding a kid's motorcycle he just stole, he calls an FBI man to get Mason's daughter's address. After getting the address, we see him pull up in front of the daughter's house. This scene takes place in San Francisco. If Goodspeed lives and works in the Washington D.C. area, how does he find his way to the house so quickly and without getting lost?
Correction: This is not a mistake. It does not say how much time elaspses between the two scenes and because of time constraints in films it is not necessary to show his travels to the house.
Corrected entry: During the chase scene, Mason is called by the car's angry owner saying "You stole my Hummer". Mason replies : "I'm only borrowing your *Humvee*". How did Mason know what the abbreviation of "Hummer" was if he was so out of touch with present day ?
Correction: He was in prison not on another planet, the men talk in prison and they have TV, books and magazines to keep up with the outside world.
Corrected entry: When the Marines are making their way to Alcatraz in their minisub for a brief moment you are shown a computer screen on the sub. It shows really cool 3D animation. In the next shot you can see all the screens on the sub, but there's only radar-like screens. The 3D animation is gone.
Correction: They are not Marines but a SEAL team and there are multi-function screens, so this is possible.
Corrected entry: In the end, when the F/A-18s are heading for Alcatraz, the lead pilot says their speed is 450 knots, then as they are getting closer, he says increasing speed to 500 knots. If they are in such a hurry, why aren't they going as fast as possible? The F/A-18 has a top speed of approx mach 1.7, so 450/500 knots is nothing.
Correction: Because they'd overfly Alcatraz in about a tenth of a second. Slowing from 2000kmh to a speed where they could bomb the island would take a long time - time they don't have.
Corrected entry: In the scene right after Nic Cage's Ferarri is destroyed, the guy on the dirt bike is talking to him. If you listen closely you can tell the bike isn't on or else you would hear the engine idling which is quite obvious on a dirt bike.
Correction: You can indeed hear the engine idling. It's just been 'quieted' so that you can hear the actors' speech.
Corrected entry: After the first rocket is launched, Cpt. Frye says 'let's be all we can be'. That was the Army slogan. No Marine would say that. (01:45:05)
Correction: He is probably mocking since "The Few, The Proud" wouldn't really fit in right here.
Corrected entry: When director Womack is explaining that Mason is in prison for stealing microfilm with top-secret files on it, and again at the end of the film when Goodspeed is looking at the microfilm, it is mentioned that the John F Kennedy assasination files are on the microfilm. Alcatraz closed in April of 1963 and JFK was not assasinated until November of 1963, so this information could not possibly have been on the microfilm.
Correction: Although, if they had already decided who was going to assasinate JFK before he was shot, then the name may have been listed.
Corrected entry: In the shower room scene when Hummel is about to close the eyelids of one the dead FBI team. The dead man's eyelid twitches just before Hummel touches it. That's strange as the man is meant to be dead.
Correction: Many body parts twitch in the first minutes after death, as proved later with the twitching leg.
Corrected entry: When the group first enters Alcatraz, Sean Connery says that he memorised the pattern of fire flashes so he could roll under the boiler, but when he gets to the other side, he simply opens the door to the outside. When he originally escaped from Alcatraz, why didn't he use the door instead of trying to roll under the boiler?
Correction: In the days when Alcatraz was active, that door was guarded.
Corrected entry: In the meeting when Hummel speaks with the FBI, Whitehouse staff, etc, the time is said to be 11:58pm. Hummel then says "You have 40 hours until noon, day after tomorrow." That would only be 36 hours.
Correction: That is correct because they are in San Fransisco, not Washington D.C.
Corrected entry: Having removed the nerve gas from the final rocket, and then discharged said rocket in order to take out the marine who is trying to kill him, why does Goodspeed still need to retrieve the guidance chip from the gas canister? The purpose of the chip is to guide the rocket, and as there is no longer a rocket to guide.
Correction: He's fired that particular rocket, yes, but there are still numerous other rockets located around the island, lacking only a guidance chip to be fireable. He needs to get the final chip to prevent anyone from taking it, putting into one of the other rockets, and launching an attack.
Corrected entry: Of course, in real life, VX is not stored in little glass spheres. As you can see in the movie, that's just plain stupid.
Correction: The Vx was contained in metal canisters, inside a mushy thin coating for protection, but also for the gas to burn away as the rocket exploded.
Corrected entry: When the two Marine captains first report to General Hummel on Alcatraz, they salute him, and he returns their salute. One of the captains and the general are uncovered (that is, they aren't wearing hats, or "covers"), and the other captain is wearing a black beret. All are outdoors. When in full uniform, Marines 1) never go outdoors uncovered, 2) never salute uncovered, and 3) do not wear berets of any sort. The Army does all of these, but the Marine Corps never has.
Correction: They have stolen nerve gas, taken Alcatraz and about to hold a city hostage. The general gets saluted because his men respect him. They are not worried about uniforms, or other regulations at this point. They are also not even in Marine uniform. They are in urban camou. They would be wearing woodland BDU's or "digiflauge" to be in uniform.
They made up their uniforms as they are a rogue group, to be distinguishable. However, the saluting indoors without covers (hats) is extremely unlikely as they have a strong Marine ethos, as well as just plain force of habit. This is done in the movie for dramatic effect, by people unaware of naval etiquette.
Corrected entry: When Captains Fry and Darrow are advising General Hummel to launch the rocket, Captain Fry says "Let's be all we can be." This was the slogan for the United States Army, but repeatedly throughout the film the men are called Marines which are the United States Navy.
Correction: He's just making a statement. He's not saying he's in the Army.
A Marine would still never use the Army's slogan.
Correction: Atropine, one antidote of VX gas can be administered directly in heart if the contact with the gas is severe because it will not be circulated quickly enough if injected elsewhere. See: http://neon.chemistry.ox.ac.uk/mom/vx/VX.htm.