Continuity mistake: In the scene on the ferry, when Williams and Pacino are talking, in the shots showing Williams, Pacino is facing the center of the ferry frequently, while immediately afterward in the shots showing Pacino, he is facing Williams again.
Insomnia (2002)
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Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Robin Williams, Al Pacino, Hilary Swank, Martin Donovan, Oliver 'Ole' Zemen
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Insomnia is a thriller about a 17 year-old girl who was murdered in Alaska by a popular writer and whose killer is pursued by a questionable cop. Atmospheric and with good performances by Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank. Watch this.
More mistakes in Insomnia
Ellie Burr: A good cop can't sleep because he's missing a piece of the puzzle. And a bad cop can't sleep because his conscience won't let him.
Trivia: Al Pacino's character is named Will Dormer; Dorm is the latin root for 'sleep'.
More questions & answers from Insomnia
Answer: Plot device to make Ellie look like a super sleuth remembering Dormer even carries a backup. When Hap and Dugger were comparing guns Hap says he and Dormer both carry S&W .45s. This makes the 9mm casing Ellie found a complete mystery to everyone else. So why the switch? Dormer's primary might be empty, but this is the first time Dormer shoots and all the characters act like there are only two shots fired in the fog, so for it to be empty he would have to be terribly sloppy. If he's so bad he forgot to load his gun it's equally likely he left the safety on. Maybe Dormer is just so used to being a dirty cop he instinctively uses the backup whenever possible to create an alibi. Ultimately, there is no explanation for this in the film, and if blink you don't even see the switch and are very confused when the 9mm casing shows up in the first place, if Nightmute carries.40, and Dormer .45, then 9mm has no place at all.
In the Netflix version with subtitles, when Dormer fires his primary weapon, the subtitle says "gun clicks." Dormer briefly looks at his gun and then pulls his secondary weapon. Nolan may have intended this to be ambiguous so the viewer doesn't know whether it was an accident or intentional (Nolan would never leave a "mistake" in the final edit - in fact, in interviews, he said he watched the movie at least a hundred times while editing), but the subtitles seem to put this debate to rest.