Revealing mistake: When John Cusack is driving the actress, there is a shot looking over his right shoulder at the dashboard. The speedometer reads 0 mph. (00:08:15)
Revealing mistake: When Ed is driving the limo at the beginning of the movie, the gearshift is in the park position.
Revealing mistake: When the guests open up the freezer containing the dead hotel clerk, it falls towards the camera, i.e. the viewer. Right before it changes to the reaction shot of all the guests, the corpse blinks. (00:52:50)
Continuity mistake: When Ed walks into the hotel's reception, he goes to pick up the boy and puts him in the green chair to the right of the screen, then when the camera cuts back to him after the hotel manager's line, he is doing the very same actions. (00:10:25)
Plot hole: When the innkeeper is asked by the rich ex-actress to give her the key to a nice room, he gives her a key telling her that eight is cozy and the key has an 8 on it as well. But a few minutes later, when this woman is about to be murdered, she leaves her room (holding her mobile phone) and the door has a 9 on it. How can a key to the room 8 open the door of the room 9? [Still a mistake, but there's an explanation. In the DVD extras you can see a deleted scene in which she changes rooms because she wasn't happy with 8.]
Continuity mistake: In the first minute or so of the first scene, the doctor, played by Alfred Molina, is writing notes about his patient. He writes the word evil. The movie shows ev connected as in a lazy type of cursive from the left side of the doctors hand, then switches to a view from the right of his hand. The ev is now unconnected written in non-cursive writing. (00:02:30)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the movie, when Paris is singing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" to her "client", she licks whipped cream off of a finger on her left hand. When the reverse angle is shown, she's licking a finger on her right hand.
Continuity mistake: When the kid's mother puts her hand against the glass and steps back, she gets hit by the car and just AFTER she is hit, the brakes are applied. Then when they switch to when Ed is driving the lady, he slams the brakes on BEFORE she is hit, as if he saw her first. (00:07:40 - 00:08:50)
Revealing mistake: Near the end of the film when we see Rhodes shoot Larry in the chest, you can see an outline of something underneath his vest, very obviously a device/squib simulating being shot in the chest. (01:15:15)
Continuity mistake: When the actress has been killed, and they walk around outside, they are getting all soaked. But when they catch the convict, all of the people are dry, and so are their clothes, even though there's quite a long walk in the rain from the motel to this building.
Audio problem: When Paris goes to get her money from the hotel room and runs into Ed, in one shot Paris is talking, then it changes to Ed's face and Paris is still talking, but her mouth isn't moving. (00:45:55)
Continuity mistake: Near the beginning of the film when the actress is killed, watch closely in one shot you can see she is holding her mobile phone in her right hand then in the following shot when she turns around and screams she is now holding it in her left hand. (00:27:10)
Revealing mistake: When John Cusack notices Timmy's mom is dead, you can see her still breathing. (01:01:35)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film when the Limo hits the woman in the following shot she can be seen flat on the ground with her legs down. When the man crawls up to her, her legs are to the side. (00:07:25)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film when the stepfather is changing the wheel after the blow out, in one shot he is tightening the wheel nuts but in the next shot he is undoing them. (00:07:05)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning, just after Ed has hit the woman, he gets out to help and the husband is lying down next to her. When he says to Ed, "What have you done," his left hand is on Ed's jacket then puts it down to his wife, but in the next shot it is back tugging on Ed's jacket. (00:08:50)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film when we see Paris driving her car. She reaches back to get the lighter out of her bag, and when the bag flips open, the background to the left of the screen changes in an instant from being flat sanded ground to palm trees. (00:06:30)
Continuity mistake: In the middle of the film just after Ed walks outside after taking photos of the dead husband, he calls Rhodes, then spots Larry across the way. Watch closely in one shot, we see Ed pass Rhodes, and in the very next shot he is some distance from Rhodes having just passed him in the previous shot. (00:49:55)
Factual error: The prisoner is described as carrying an "Axis IV Dissociative Disorder"; that is complete nonsense - dissociative disorders are placed on Axis I in psychiatric diagnoses (Axis I is clinically treatable disorders; Axis II is mental retardation/personality disorders; Axis III is concomitant health problems (e.g., hypertension, diabetes mellitus, CABG, etc.); Axis IV is a list of psychosocial stressors and their severity (e.g., "Moderate - Health problems, financial problems"); Axis V is the GAF score (Global Assessment of Function, scored from 0 - 100). *Any* clinical professional with psychiatric experience would put dissociative disorder on Axis I except for the psychiatrist in the film, who apparently doesn't know any better. (00:54:00)
Continuity mistake: When Ed breaks the limo window with a crowbar to get the phone from the actress, Ed runs and picks it up in his left hand, but in the next shot it is in his right. Also, when he smashes the window, there is a small piece of glass at the top and a very jagged bit left at the bottom from Ed's POV, when it cuts to inside the limo they are gone. He also reaches inside the car twice. (00:09:25)
Answer: The motel isn't real, and neither are any of the characters in its proximity. They are all aspects of Malcolm's personalities that are being killed off one by one in order to make sure his true murderous personality is vanquished. As such, the session by which Malcolm is being forced to do all this is designed so that all the personalities are stuck within the same place with no chance of leaving, which explains the bad storm, the road obstruction, etc.
Phaneron ★