Revealing mistake: The fire engine often shows up on the scene without any hose in the hosebed (on back of the truck).
Backdraft (1991)
1 revealing mistake
Directed by: Ron Howard
Starring: Robert De Niro, Donald Sutherland, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Scott Glenn, William Baldwin
Other mistake: When the firefighter is fighting with the arsonist, the gas line is disconnected from the fireplace. Just before the dramatic explosion, the gas line ignites. This is incorrect because the fire would have started from the outlet to the gas (from ignition source to fuel source).
John 'Axe' Adcox: Your Dad died saving my life and these people were killing firemen for money.
Question: The guy who took the picture of Brian as a kid - was he an opportunist who sold the photo to the magazine? I have a hard time imagining they would be prescient enough to know to send one of their own photographers to the scene of the fire.
Answer: Local photographer could have been monitoring emergency calls. A fire is a big visual, and the photo sold to a wire service or Life directly.