The Sum of All Fears

Plot hole: When the President of the United States attends a public gathering (such as the SuperBowl) the level of security is extremely high. So why wasn't Mason's delivery on the day of the game checked for explosive devices?

Plot hole: The bomb is found by Bedouin in the Golan (north of Israel). However, it was dropped in the Negev desert (south of Israel). How the bomb managed to move itself 500km is not clear. And Bedouin don't live in the Golan.

Plot hole: The Bedouin who found the unexploded nuke in the desert was supposedly dying of radiation poisoning when Clark questioned him. All he did was dig it out and load it in a truck, while all the shields were in place. If it was emitting THAT much radiation, the 3 scientists who spent DAYS refurbishing it for Dressler would have been made too sick by the radiation to finish the job.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The person who found the bomb can be seen in the 'bomb pit' putting his hand under the bomb's damaged shielding. At which point he says "it's still warm." It's reasonable to assume that he touched the radioactive material, leading to poisoning.

More for The Sum of All Fears

Mistakes

Factual error: A force of Russian Tu-22 Backfire bombers attacks the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) by sneaking in under the ship's radar. This is all well and good except that carriers usually don't use their own radar, they have Airborne Early Warning aircraft (E-2 Hawkeye's) that can see much further and not give away the carrier's position (let alone the F-14s which would be patrolling too) not to mention the fleet of destroyers other ships guarding the carrier. The whole point is, the US Navy practiced and planned for such a "carrier versus Backfire" battle for years. I guess in the interest of furthering the plot Hollywood has to ignore the immense measures the USN takes to protect those multi-billion dollar assets, not to mention the 5000+ sailors that man them.

More mistakes in The Sum of All Fears

Quotes

President Fowler: Order the planes to stand down, take us to DEFCON-3... and will somebody ask Mr. Ryan if I can use the phone now?

More quotes from The Sum of All Fears

Trivia

Trivia: When Bill Cabot meets John Clark at the airport in the rain, it was Liev Schreiber's idea to have Clark waiting without an umbrella.

More trivia for The Sum of All Fears

Questions

Question: Now i don't know much about missiles and such, but in the scene where the Israeli fighter jet is carrying the nuclear warhead, and is then shot down, well wouldn't the bomb blast that destroyed the plane also detonate the nuke attached as well? correct if i am wrong.

Answer: Nope. A nuclear detonation requires a highly specific sequence of events to occur within the bomb - an explosion nearby wouldn't come close to producing those conditions. The construction of a nuclear bomb requires components to be placed in a highly specific configuration - damage to the bomb would disrupt that configuration and make it effectively impossible for the bomb to go off.

Tailkinker ★

More questions & answers from The Sum of All Fears

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.