Corrected entry: During the scene where General Devereaux is giving his speech after Marshal Law has been started, the camera is showing different parts of the city during Devereaux's speech. Despite that the speech starts and ends during daylight hours, one of the shots shows Devereaux giving the speech on the JumboTron in Times Square at night.
Corrected entry: In the scene where the government leaders are discussing whether or not to deploy the Army to New York, Bruce Willis, as the general, rattles off an assortment of military units and vehicles available. He ends by saying something about every soldier carrying an M-16 A-1 assault rifle. The active Army has not used the A-1 for many years, they switched to the A-2 in the late 80's or early 90's. A general should know this.
Correction: Actually, there's no real reason he would (at his rank, that's a very mundane detail), and if he did know, in heated discussion, there's every reason to believe it possible that he'd revert to 'A1' out of old habit. And speaking to non-service persons, the difference would be insignificant, so that even if he realized a moment later that he'd mis-spoke, he'd have no reason to think anyone else caught it. Or if they did, that they'd care. Ultimately, a character error, not a movie mistake.
Corrected entry: When Samir tells Annette Benning about his brother who blew himself up in an Israeli movie theater, he said the brother was told by a sheik that suicide bombers get "70 virgins in paradise". According to Islamic hadiths (not the Quran directly) the number of virgins awarded those who die fighting for Islam is 72. An Islamic fundamentalist leader like the terrorist sheik would know this fact well.
Correction: True, but Samir is not the Sheik, and he may have gotten his facts wrong. Or he simply followed a human tendency to round off numbers to the nearest 10.
Correction: Nothing indicates that the many short shots shown during the speech are real-time snapshots taken as the speech is given. They are all moments occuring before, during and after the speech, showing the inital effects of the arrival of the troops. The night shot is simply showing a relatively quiet Times Square, where the screen is showing a rebroadcast of the speech (or perhaps a newcast that featured a small portion of the speech). There's no crowd gathered watching the screen, suggesting it's already old news when seen here. Only one or two pedestrians appear to even be watching it. Oh- and it's not the Sony Jumbotron. It's a Panasonic.
johnrosa