Continuity mistake: Early in the film, Jack shoots Harry through the left thigh (taking the hostage out of the equation). At the police awards ceremony, Harry is using a cane on his right side and his limp favors his right leg. After the ceremony, in the bar, when Harry gets drunk and starts to leave, he's using his cane on the left side and his limp favors his left leg.
Continuity mistake: When Jack tries to get on the bus on the highway, he hits the door window and breaks it with his elbow. Later, when he finally catches up with the bus and gets on from the moving car, the door window is intact. Several times later it is visible, no break. Then later, when the bus is on the freeway, the glass is shown broken again, but in a different pattern. (00:33:40)
Continuity mistake: In one scene where Dennis Hopper is holding the phone with one hand, he very obvious snaps with the other one just a little bit off camera. The hand holding the phone has all of the fingers, but the off-camera one is missing a thumb. How can you snap without a thumb?
Continuity mistake: At the airport the black sign on the side of the bus disappears for one shot. (01:09:00)
Continuity mistake: Just after the bus driver has been unloaded and Helen tries to get off, Annie shouts "No Helen" at which point Jack turns around and grabs her shoulder to stop her. The shot switches to Dennis Hopper watching TV and then back to the bus where Jack is no longer even close to Helen when the bomb detonates. (00:56:45)
Continuity mistake: When Dennis Hopper psyches the police chief out by making him think he's on the third floor, the elevator clicks one too many times. The camera shows the numbers: "5, click, 4, click" then it switches to the police chief, during which time you hear another click. It then switches back to the numbers: "3, click." Shouldn't it be on floor 2? (00:20:50)
Continuity mistake: When Jack shoots Harry, the door (to the garage) behind Payne has a deadbolt lock right above the door's finger plate, but just before the door blows up that deadbolt lock has vanished. (00:22:35)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Jack goes and answers the phone after the bus exploded, if you look at the reflection on the phone, it shows the explosion right behind the phone, but the bus is actually down the road maybe half block. (00:27:50)
Continuity mistake: When they run onto the roof near the start, there's another trooper behind Harry running onto the roof (only visible in widescreen - in 4:3 it looks like a weird reflection). In the following shot of Keanu Reeves you can see the reflections of Harry and the other guy on the plastic covering the scaffolding. We're led to believe that Harry and Jack should be the only ones up there, as everyone else has a job to do. Aside from those two shots, this third trooper disappears once they start hooking the crane up. (00:11:30)
Continuity mistake: Just before the first bus explodes, Jack leaves the cafe and puts his coffee cup onto the top of his car. When he runs back to his car, the coffee cup is different as well as in a different position. (00:26:25)
Continuity mistake: When Jack and Harry are on the top of the building at the start, Jack climbs up a ladder and proceeds to walk along to the crane. In one shot he moves the big gun round to his back, and in the following shot the big gun is still in front of him. (00:11:55)
Continuity mistake: After Keanu commandeers the civilian's car, breaks off the door and jumps to the bus the civilian loses control and heads for the water barrels in front of the divider. Right before he hits you can already see water all over his windshield. (00:38:20)
Continuity mistake: In the last 20 minutes of the movie when Howard Payne is on the train and offers Jack some money, Howard opens the money bag and gets sprayed with purple paint. When Howard climbs on top of the train to fight Jack, all of the paint is gone.
Continuity mistake: When the elevator free falls and the floor opens, all the shots from below, with or without the woman falling through the hole, show the elevator is empty. (00:13:50 - 00:13:55)
Continuity mistake: Travis shoots Harry in the leg, and Harry is slumped against the wall next to the doorway. When Payne sets off the bomb, Harry is now no longer near the door, and is halfway down the corridor. Not enough time had passed between shots for this to have occurred. (00:22:20)
Suggested correction: Harry drops to floor by door 1 on the right-hand side of the corridor facing the parking lot. We then get a 2-3 second shot of Jack shrugging and shouting "Freeze" at Howard. Howard is then seen staring at Jack in disbelief at the thought of him shooting a hostage. We then see Howard (still in the initial 3 seconds) walk into the parking lot and Jack run towards the door. As Howard is going through the door the shot changes to Jack and in this shot you can see Harry shuffling down the corridor.
Continuity mistake: When the subway carriage bursts out into the street, Annie's handcuffs slide off the broken pole and in slow motion you can see the pole is shorter than all others. Besides, all the other poles in the carriage are intact. (01:49:15)
Continuity mistake: After waving his LAPD badge at Sam and trying to warn him of the bomb on the bus, Jack places it at his side. But in the following shot Jack has instantly got the badge in his hand again, waving it in the air just like before. (00:37:00)
Continuity mistake: After Jack wounds Harry's leg, Payne makes his escape to the parking garage. Watch as a garbage can appears from nowhere on the left hand side of the door frame in the shot where Payne starts laughing maniacally. (00:22:40)
Continuity mistake: The bus hits many cars in the movie, yet there is virtually no damage sustained by the bus throughout.
Continuity mistake: When Annie drives onto the shoulder, after Jack has come out from investigating the bomb underneath, the bus crashes into a car on a tow truck. In the first shot the tow truck is well inside the white line on the road and it looks like it's half on the grass as well. In the following shot when the bus hits the car, the tow truck has moved to its left and is now on the white line on the road. (00:44:35)
