Revealing mistake: At the beginning of the film when a Judge is thrown out of the airplane, you can see a parachute is attached to him.
Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where the headmaster's furniture is outside, the shadow of the camera can be seen. As the camera moves into a high-angle shot, the shadow grows bigger.
Continuity mistake: When Luis Cali is strapping Billy Tepper in the office, he is standing in front of the desk, while Billy is standing on the opposite side. Billy is facing him (while bending forward), so the strapping marks on Billy's back should be vertical, from head to butt, or at least diagonal. But later when the guys are cleaning the wounds, the marks are horizontal.
Suggested correction: We never see a close up of his hand or what direction it's facing. Purely speculation.
Continuity mistake: When the lead terrorist wakes up the morning after his father is murdered in prison, he discovers that the power has been cut to the school. Shortly after that, when the boys enter the restroom, you can see that the lights above the mirror and on the ceiling are lit. It may be possible for SOME lights to be working on battery power (like the ones above the mirror), but it's not likely that all of them would be battery backed up.
Continuity mistake: When Sean Astin escapes though the large culvert there is only a small stream of water running though, when he returns a few minutes later the stream is much wider and deeper.
Continuity mistake: When the school is standing on the lawn after putting the professor's office there Sean Austin has a banana peel in his hand, in the next shot it is gone, and then it is back again.
Other mistake: When the police first arrive at the school, one of the terrorists appears to fire a .50 caliber machine gun at the front of the squad car, causing minimal damage. If that were true, the entire car would have been torn to shreads. I was in the US Army, and have fired the M2 .50 caliber machine gun. The rounds for one of these are big and heavy; they can shoot down aircraft, or destroy armor plated vehicles.
Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where the character played by Sean Astin sneaks out of the school compound, after he goes out the window he dashes behind a car. A ferny pad is visible in the shot. A ferny pad is a blue fire resistant blanket that comes in handy on set and was probably placed there to keep the actor off the bare ground. (00:59:40)
Plot hole: When the military says they're going in, they ask how Billy got off campus through a pipe. Earlier when Billy goes through the pipe he's immediately met by two soldiers in ghillie suits. You mean to tell me the soldiers that meet Billy wouldn't know how to get through a pipe? The military is incompetent in this film but come on.
Revealing mistake: When all the students are let out of the school at the end of the film, Billy is shown different times approaching his friends from behind.
Other mistake: When a cop is shot in the chest, the bullet hits him more than a second after the gun is fired. It should've been almost instant.
Continuity mistake: When the military movies in to take back the school there is a wide shot of two helicopters on the ground with soldiers running out of them, the next shot shows many of those soldiers approaching the outer wall of the school ready to scale the wall with ladders. When the film goes back to the wide shot of the helicopters none of the soldiers or the ladders they were using can be seen against the wall.
Visible crew/equipment: During one of the final shots, the camera is panning around the main characters as they acknowledge Sean Astin and are celebrating. Two times during this shot, the camera shadow is visible on the bottom of the screen as is the head of it's operator.
Plot hole: After Cali's father is killed the decision is made to cut power to the school so he or his men don't find out about his father. But if power was cut to the school then what is powering all the machinery in the kitchen that's providing food for 90 students?
Visible crew/equipment: When Dean Edward and Dr. Robert Gould are standing in the middle of Gould's office items after they were placed outside, the camera's shadow can be seen on the back of the chair as it's slowly moving to the left facing the two.
Continuity mistake: Joey gets killed, and the boys are holding back Billy. There's an issue here though. The scars from his lashings on his back that we saw moments earlier have disappeared.
Factual error: The U.S. army would never intervene in a hostage situation on American soil. Legally they're never be deployed for any reason on U.S. soil unless invaded by a foreign military. The F.B.I, S.W.A.T, state and local police agencies could have easily dealt with the events at the school.
Suggested correction: They could have been National Guard forces, called out by the Governor. However, the federal Insurrection act of 1807 does allow for The President to Federalize National Guard Troops and also call the US armed forces into service. This act has been invoked many times, the last by President George H.W. Bush in response to the 1992 L.A. Riots.
But the chances of the president deploying any type of military faction whether it be state or our military would be slim to none. Local agencies could have easily dealt with this.
Suggested correction: With the exception of a few scholarship students, the prep school students were the sons of the elite - wealthy and powerful, or "privileged" (e.g, bankers, major corporate heads, contractors, governors and even the Mafia). Even if they weren't part of the military-industrial complex, they make (and use) the rules to suit themselves. As the saying goes, rules were made to be broken. Also, loopholes can be found that enable re-interpretation and re-application to allow the use of the military.
And the heavily armed terrorists could be viewed as the functional equivalent of a foreign military, thereby justifying the use of the U.S. army.
Yep. Just like when the Army (eventually) responded to the insurrection at the Capitol in DC. As the first correction says, the rich and powerful do what they want and justify it later. Realistically, the audience would find it believable and doesn't care about the legal issues. This IS a valid legal mistake, but just barely a movie mistake.
