Factual error: Chris Kyle did not make Chief after his first deployment. He made Chief during his fourth deployment.
Other mistake: After the shoot out at night the American forces are faced with a group of hostile locals, and the team are told to pull out and get in the vehicles. As they drive off we see a back shot of them sitting on the back of the one of the vehicles, but on the right hand side you can see a backpack and part of an American soldier, did they just leave him? (01:12:50)
Factual error: When Taya is watching TV and sees the first of the Twin Towers get hit by the suicide plane, she calls to Chris and they watch it together. Chris was born in 1974 and it states he enlisted at 30 which would've been 2004. The bar scene where Taya and Chris meet was after he completed his BUDS training and sniper school. Which, if was timeline accurate would have been 2004 or 2005. Therefore they could not have watched the events of 9/11/01 unfold together on TV because the wouldn't have known each other yet.
Suggested correction: Chris Kyle joined the Navy in 1999. Not 2004. His book American Sniper does say he was at Taya's house on 9/11. He was summoned back to the base and got caught speeding. Luckily the officer decided to not ticket him.
Continuity mistake: When the two Humvees are leaving, they get intercepted by a green Renault 12 which they shoot up and ram. The Humvee after hitting the Renault then hits a wall and suffers damage. After the Humvees come to a halt some moments later, the wall damaged Humvee is now pristine again.
Continuity mistake: When Taya is nursing their baby, Chris takes the baby from her and Taya zips up her jacket. In the next shot, her jacket is not zipped anymore. (01:16:25)
Revealing mistake: When Chris and a companion are on a rooftop in the midst of clothes lines with sheets hanging to dry, all the sheets have creases indicating they had been recently unfolded or removed from original packaging before being hung on the lines.
Visible crew/equipment: After the first deployment ends, Kyle is meeting his wife on a runway and they hug. Just as they are doing this, the shadow of the camera operator is visible on them, as the sun is at the cameraman's back.
Factual error: In the first scene when Kyle is doing over-watch for dismounted infantry, an Iraqi is shot and his body falls from the rooftop, startling a soldier. The report is heard first, the a hiss of the incoming shot. It was cool that they tried to make the hiss, but it should have been first, as the bullet is supersonic, and arrives before the report of the gun is heard. Pretty egregious error for a sniper film.
Other mistake: Chris Kyle states age "30" when entering Seals, around the turn of the century - but he is only 39 years old when he is murdered in 2013.
Revealing mistake: About 3/4 through the movie, Bradley Cooper and his wife are talking in a bedroom or nursery. He takes his daughter and holds her - the baby is clearly fake.
Character mistake: When Chris joins the Marine unit they are going to breach a door. Chris removes his shooting hand from his weapon to signal the breacher. He would have used his support hand.
Factual error: When Chris Kyle talks to his wife from Iraq over the phone as she exits the hospital, it appears to be roughly the same time of day in Iraq and in Texas as the scene cuts between shots of Kyle and his wife. Given the time difference, if it were 12 noon in Iraq as Kyle is speaking, it would be 5 AM in Texas as Kyle's wife is speaking. The similar time of day is simply not possible.
Factual error: Throughout the training (sniper) and other times during the movie, shooters react like the rifle has a heavy kick, which they don't.
Continuity mistake: While Chris is waiting for his baby girl to finish being breast-fed, he talks to his wife and puts heaps of stuffed animals, including the really big one that he won, for his then girlfriend/later wife, into the cot. When he puts the baby down into the cot, there's not a stuffed animal to be seen.
Continuity mistake: When Chris visits Biggles in the hospital, he reaches out to shake Biggles' hand with his right hand, but then in the next shot, his hands have switched. (01:29:50)
Other mistake: When Chris Kyle is celebrating his daughters Birthday party at the end of the movie he comes from inside the house and out to the back yard, While he is talking to his wife and watching a dog play with his son, after a minute it looks as if the dog is attacking his son and he gets up to stop the dog. As he gets up you can see that his pants are wet and that he has grass stains on his knees from the previous takes. During the actual scene he is on his knees with a belt to stop the dog when his wife yells at him to stop.
Factual error: The ranger is wearing an airborne tab above his 2nd Batt patch. They do not wear the airborne tab, rather they just wear jump wings. (01:39:38)
Character mistake: While watching the events of 9/11, the broadcaster notes that the "south tower is collapsing" while footage of the North tower's later collapse is showing. The south tower fell first, 29 minutes prior to the north tower. (00:22:25)
Continuity mistake: When Chris and family move to Texas, Chris takes one tall box off the ute and into the house, but once in the house there are two boxes, not just one.
