Corrected entry: During the scene where the dock worker gets the message that "The day has arrived" the date on his laptop says November 19th, 2002. When he receives the bomb he takes it to the Superbowl, which takes place at the end of January or the beginning of February.
Corrected entry: There's been some timeline juggling, but there's still an error after all the mental acrobatics. This film is set before the other three films, even though it's in modern times. However, if the events of Sum of All Fears were supposed to have taken place before Clear and Present Danger, then how come Jack Ryan met John Clark for the first time in Clear and Present Danger yet they work together in Sum of All Fears, which is technically before it?
Correction: I agree with your thinking, however if you watch the special features on the DVD, they explain that this movie is not meant to be a prequel or sequel but they are totally re-inventing the Jack Ryan series. Yes I was disappointed too.
Corrected entry: Jack is talking to his cell-phone after the explosion. I would like to see the phone mast that would stand a nuclear explosion.
Correction: It's a stretch, but it's remotely possible that CIA people are equipped with satellite phones.
Corrected entry: This movie comes after "The Hunt for Red October", "Patriot Games", and "Clear and Present Danger", yet in this movie Jack Ryan is just getting engaged to the woman he was already married to (and had kids with) in prior movies (and books).
Correction: Purely a plot device to fit in with Ben Affleck playing Jack Ryan, much like the TV show "Smallville" being set in the present day, despite the films showing him landing on earth in the 50s.
Corrected entry: When Ryan and Clark are flying to Russia to look for those missing scientists, Clark shows Ryan some satellite pictures of the remote area where they suspect the scientists to be located. The day old photo shows activity in the area but the most recent one doesn't. They then discover that the bomb is headed for the U.S. and Ryan phones the CIA to warn them, But the bomb is already there! How did the bad guys manage to get the bomb from that remote location in Russia to a freighter and sail it to the U.S. in one DAY! This is something that should have taken weeks, which would have given Ryan plenty of time to get home and prevent the attack.
Correction: When flying back to the US, Dillon tells Jack that the crate was flown from Kiev International to the Canary Islands ten days before, then put on a freighter headed to Baltimore, so it easily could have gotten there in time. The fact the camp went quiet in the last day or so doesn't mean the crate only left in the last day, just that by a day ago it must have gone. And Ryan shows the photos to Clark, not Clark showing them to Ryan.
Corrected entry: When Ryan finishes talking with Spinnaker before he goes to the docks, he leaves the car he borrows and heads out through the flames. In the background, you can see a stunt coordinator waiting to guide him through the flames. He waits, then follows him off the screen.
Correction: While the man may actually be a stunt coordinator, the man's presence and actions are not inconsistent with the film. We see Ryan pass three other people in this scene, and that this fourth man turns and follows Ryan may be him seeking to help the injured running man (Ryan), or him thinking maybe this guy knows how to get out of there. There is nothing visible about the man to show it is a film crew member.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Senior Russian officials are entering the underground base of operations, the president is told that American nuclear submarines are pulling out of Norfolk and Kings Bay armed with Trident D3 weapons. This is a mistake for two reasons: a) I speak Russian and I heard them say Trident D5, not D3 and b) American nuke subs are no longer armed with D3 missiles, they have mostly D5's, some have C4's. Also, I'm pretty sure D3's aren't considered first strike weapons, whereas D5's are. (01:32:35)
Correction: A mistake on the part of the advisor, not being clear on his facts, not necessarily a movie mistake.
Corrected entry: Why does Clark find it necessary to cut the Ukrainian fence at all? When the guards discover the hole, we can see that Clark began the cut nearly a foot from the top of the fence. In fact, it is barely 8 feet high - with no barbed wire and a smooth bar at the top. Climbing over it (as opposed to cutting it) would have prevented the guards from detecting his presence. Maybe this is why they don't trust him with an email account.
Correction: A character's mistake is not a movie mistake.
Corrected entry: About an hour into the movie, when Ryan meets Clark after he is ambushed by the two Ukrainian officers, there are a number of mistakes. For one thing, the officers are not speaking Ukrainian, but pure Russian. Secondly, Clark asks Ryan to tell them to take their shoes off - but we've already seen that Clark knows Russian, when he talked to Spassky's mother. Why doesn't he tell them himself? After that scene, he remarks to Ryan, "You know Ukrainian?"... however Ryan too, just like the "Ukrainian" officers, was speaking Russian. (01:00:30)
Correction: Considering that Ukraine was once part of the Soviet Union, it's not all that surprising that a majority of the Ukraine speaks Russian. I worked with two girls from Ukraine, and they both spoke Russian AND Ukrainian.
Correction: I work with a Ukrainian who is fluent in both Ukrainian and Russian, and showed her this scene. She said the Ukrainian guards were speaking pure Ukrainian, but Affleck/Ryan spoke Russian back to them, not any Ukrainian.
Corrected entry: After the bomb goes off, Ryan uses the radio in the helicopter, but anyone knows that a Nuclear bomb's EMP (electromagnetic pulse) would have fried anything with an electronic circuit within the blast radius.
Correction: EMP only occurs as a result of a high-altitude blast.
EMP always accompanies a nuclear blast. The altitude of the blast will determine how widespread the effect will be.
An EMP always accompanies a nuclear blast, but the size of the EMP depends on the weapon's design, and where the blast occurs. This blast was at ground level, or even been slightly below ground level, minimizing the EMP effect at distance. Additionally, if the helicopter was a government craft, such as owned by the CIA, the electronics may have been shielded specifically to prevent damage from EMP attacks.
Correction: When he received the e-mail, the bomb had yet to be made and delivered to the US, so presumably, they were just letting him know that the plan was in action, not that it was to happen the next day or week.