Revealing mistake: When they are chasing AHAB, he tells her to cross the bridge. She does but she turns left onto the bridge. She should have been turning right from the left side of the river. Very obvious mistake.
Plot hole: Via his bondesque band-aids, Vin Diesel disposes of all the bad guys' vehicles - except the one next to the boss and Yelena (very conveniently or he would have killed his main villain and his girlfriend). He races super-fast to his hideout with his super-fast bike, he is in SUCH a rush that he does not even park the bike but just jumps off it and lets it crash into a dumpster. In his room he has a 45 second conversation with Sova. Somehow Asia Argento in less than a minute not only caught up with him, who had already a huge head start and she was never seen even beginning any pursuit, but she also contacted 'the Ivans', from a separate organization, shows up with them and she was there early enough to even infer that XXX was in trouble, so she must have been even quicker than that to eavesdrop. (01:20:00)
Plot hole: You are locked in a room. On one end of the room, a thick vault door of solid steel. On the other end, a security glass double door with your evil boss cackling maniacally, the remote for the deadly chemical bomb in his hand. You have automatic weapons at your disposal. Which door are you gonna shoot in your desperate attempt to save your skin? Apparently, ALL the literal rocket scientists in this movie decided that shooting at some inches of stainless steel is a better option than trying and dent a couple mm of plexiglass, which would have stopped their traitorous employer from releasing the gas or killed him too. No human being would be this stupid. (01:15:15)
Continuity mistake: When Xander switches off the submarine by tearing off its HD, the flame of the rocket wildly varies in intensity and colors in each shot of the sequence. (01:51:00)
Continuity mistake: Harpoon in hand, Xander yells to his driver "There's a bridge" pointing at a railway bridge with characteristic metal archways. "Cross the bridge!" he orders, and they do cross a bridge that is blatantly different, with no metal structure. (01:46:20)
Continuity mistake: Asia Argento unties Xander with a knife she had strapped to her boots. In close-up, the boots are army-like with a dark olive color, but when she was sitting down, and even better when she later has to put her feet on the car pedals, she is sporting pointy camel-yellow boots. (01:35:30 - 01:45:40)
Continuity mistake: Some potato carts are blocking the road. We see the accident spot and there are several people by the carts taking care of the injured driver, with very few potatoes on the asphalt. When Yelena fires the rockets, no people are by the carts anymore, and as they drive through the flaming wreckage there are many more potatoes - of course since the cart just exploded, but they are all perfectly still and not burnt, not looking at all like they come from a cart that blew up in an inferno of flames a split second before. (01:44:20)
Continuity mistake: In close-up, Asia Argento's hand is in a different position on the GPS, more to the right, her thumb off the buttons. (01:43:25)
Continuity mistake: When Toby arrives to bring XXX his new modified car, as he drives it around the court you can notice a policeman appear all of a sudden in the shot with the close-up on the GTO on the grill; was nowhere to be seen before. (01:40:40)
Revealing mistake: When the cop that Xander drove insane gets wasted, the holes on the armchair don't match in timing nor pattern the ones in the door, and somehow the gun pierced the door, his body and the stuffed furniture without even producing entry wounds on his chest. (01:21:45)
Continuity mistake: When Milan Sova pulls a gun on Xander, in the wider angles his left hand rests on the inside of the armchair, by his thigh, while in the closer angles it is on top of the armrest. (01:21:20)
Continuity mistake: When Xander whips out the binoculars to look at the bad guys dressing up the submarine, his fingers are positioned differently on the device between shots. (01:13:10)
Factual error: Not only Xander is able to see perfectly through the wall with his X-ray binoculars; he even takes pictures, of a computer screen. That's some serious techno (il) logical miracle. Even better: he snaps these x-ray pictures also using a flash. (01:13:50)
Continuity mistake: Yorgi turns towards Yelena when it's time to admit her for the first time inside the secret basement and starts talking; At "Through this door..." his arms are down, but in the next shot when he finishes the sentence he's leaning on it with his left arm completely raised. (01:10:40)
Continuity mistake: Xander puts the first explosive on a bike. The backing of the bandage falls on top of the box he dropped on the ground, forming a curve. In the next shot the backing is gone. (01:09:50)
Other mistake: Kirili shoots the first time in the crowded square, people walk about as if nothing happened, give out leaflets and all that, nobody is even curious about the noise. (01:05:30)
Other mistake: During lunch, Yelena learns about Kirili waiting outside in sniper mode. As she speaks with Xander, his wristwatch says it's 12:35, but the restaurant's clock says it's 5 past noon. (01:03:15)
Continuity mistake: Xander just told Yelena that he's taking her to lunch. Cut to Yorgi's bed, with a random blonde asleep in it. Her hair is off her right shoulder, but in the following shot she's visible in the background, with hair covering that shoulder and part of her chest. (01:00:30)
Continuity mistake: In the wide shot with Asia Argento and Vin Diesel standing in the hall of the villa once he caught her tampering with the floor safe, the shadows are entirely different from a moment before, when she was on the floor operating the computer. (00:59:10 - 00:59:40)
Continuity mistake: The position of the Kodak camera Yelena is using with her laptop are inconsistent between shots, in particular when we see the 'transmitting' message; the camera looks perfectly aligned with the laptop and further back. (00:59:00)
Answer: Vin Diesel chose to reject the sequel as he was being offered three different franchises, based on XXX, The Fast and the Furious concept and the character of Riddick (from Pitch Black) - he presumably felt that he couldn't commit to them all. In the end, he chose to go with the Riddick films and reject the others. The sequel is called XXX for the simple reason that the character is still present - they've just recast the role.
Tailkinker ★