Continuity mistake: In the first scene in the Omega Sector debriefing room, after Francis leaves, the people in the background change too quickly between shots. Most noticeable, the man standing next the seated woman at the computer is gone and a woman from nowhere is in his place.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Harry discovers Helen is having an affair and he's walking across the road. Between the wide and close up shots his wedding ring appears in the close up shots and disappears in the wide shots.
Continuity mistake: When Simon pees himself, Albert's hat keeps changing the way it's tucked on his head in every single angle until he gets to the van. Watch for the right side of his temple and cheek. (01:14:25)
Continuity mistake: Harry leaves the pack of cigarettes 15 cm away from the sink, in the close-up it's right next to it. (00:39:40)
Continuity mistake: When Harry dances the Tango with Juno there's a wide shot of the place, in the immediate close-up two guards appear out of nowhere behind Harry.
Continuity mistake: The position of the champagne bottle holder and the next chair changes between shots. When Michelle enters the room and the camera is placed in the bedroom, the bottle holder stands between (and somewhat behind) the chair and the window wall. When Michelle approaches the table (camera is now Michelle) the chair is between the bottle holder and the window wall. Later, at the end of the scene this changes again, depending on where the camera is. (01:19:50)
Continuity mistake: After Juno Skinner has killed her limo driver, the limo speeds out of control. There are two champagne glasses in the cup holders next to Juno, but both glasses disappear and reappear between shots while Juno and Helen are fighting each other. With the limo speeding across the bridge, it doesn't make sense that Juno's gun stays on the roof for a while. The gun should have slid off the roof when the limo banged into the guard rails. It doesn't fall off until after the limo has passed through the flaming truck wreck.
Continuity mistake: During the scene when Arnold is taking off in the harrier jet, the pilots hide behind a squad car. One pilot is holding his sunglasses. It switches angles and he no longer has sunglasses on. Then his hand moves and they appear as if they had fallen off and he was grabbing them. A few frames later they disappear again. If you look closely, it was obvious they were CGI'd in during editing.
Continuity mistake: When Salim Abu Aziz rides through the hotel kitchen, his bike leaves a noticeable tyre mark on the floor. But when Harry enters the kitchen on his horse, the tyre mark on the floor is gone and covered with a carpet. (00:36:15)
Continuity mistake: When Harry, Helen and Juno are in the private jet, the amount of lipstick smear on his face changes between shots.
Continuity mistake: After the Swiss scene, Harry, Albert and Faisil are in the office. Albert talks about the Chinese woman and the dozens screens behind are broadcasting news reports. When they walk away, a mere frame later, the images on the screens surrounding are completely different, now broadcasting satellite images and computer texts. (00:21:35)
Other mistake: Harry commandeers one of the AV8-A's to go to save his daughter, and makes a clumsy vertical takeoff (where he bumps the police cars, etc). The reality is that, besides the deafening noise, the AV8-A generates a strong down wash when it takes off vertically which would have blown all the people on the bridge (and even some of the cars) in all directions. A few seconds later there is a cut to a real AV8-A vertical takeoff over water where we can see the effect of a real down wash on the water's surface. (02:02:20)
Other mistake: When Harry fires the Harrier's Sidewinder missile with the lead terrorist attached to it, he has to switch on the "master arm switch". That switch would have already have been enabled in order to fire the Harrier's gun.
Audio problem: Harry and Gib pull over to the side of the road, and Harry yells "Give me the goddamn page!" and smashes the SUV window. Harry yells this line during a shot transition, and in the end of the first shot ("Give me-") his mouth isn't moving, yet in the next shot ("-the goddamn page!") his mouth IS moving. (00:57:05)
Revealing mistake: In the scene at the beginning of the film where Faisal is in the van and decrypting the files, he says "Yeah, I got your password," and then the camera swings down to show his fingers on the keyboard, pressing repeatedly on the same set of keys and looking rather unrealistic. (00:07:30)
Revealing mistake: When Arnold is riding his horse through the hotel fountain, you can see that the scene had been rehearsed shortly before by evidence of water splashed on the concrete support pillars before the horse ever runs by them. (00:37:10)
Chosen answer: He didn't really. Harry just knew he was heading up. He pressed the top floor to get the elevator moving and kept an eye on him on the way up. If the terrorist's elevator suddenly stops, Harry can press the button for that floor to stop his elevator.
XIII