Corrected entry: McCauley discusses moving to New Zealand with Eady, but with his criminal record, he would never get a tourist visa, let alone an immigrant visa.
Corrected entry: In the opening robbery, killing the third guard made no sense. Even if they didn't kill anyone, they'd still already committed a serious crime, that would result in lengthy prison time if caught. It makes no sense that they have no problem leaving witnesses when they're guilty of armed robbery, but don't want to when they're guilty of murder. If they didn't kill the third guard, their chances of getting caught would've been the same as if they didn't kill anyone.
Correction: Leaving an eyewitness for an armored car heist is certainly risky, but leaving an eyewitness for an execution style double homicide is totally different. California had the death penalty at the time this film was set.
Corrected entry: Pacino arrives at various crime scenes throughout the movie, and gets let through the police tape by a patrol cop without him having to flash his badge. Maybe they've been made aware of Pacino's imminent arrival. When De Niro is running away into the airfield near the end of the movie, and Pacino giving chase, he grabs a shotgun out of a cops arms as he runs, simply saying "Gimme that shotgun." To this the cop just answers "Yes, Sir." The patrol cars have only just arrived at the hotel after the Waingro shooting, so how would one of those cops know who the guy grabbing his shotgun was?
Correction: The LAPD does not have so many members that none of the cops in the force would ever recognize each other by sight. Consider also that Vincent, as a police lieutenant with many years on the force, and known to spend nearly all of his time at work, would probably be fairly well known within the LAPD. Many characters frequently greet him by name without him introducing himself. They recognize him; why shouldn't the cop with the shotgun, or the one by the police tape?
Corrected entry: In the armoured car robbery scene, when the explosive charge is fired, the windshields of the row of nearby cars all explode but none of the car alarms go off.
Correction: This shouldn't be listed as a mistake. The cars in this scene are in a used car lot. The window stickers show they are late 80's and early 90's used cars. Most of them didn't have alarms and even if they did, they would've been removed or disabled prior to putting the cars up for sale. Of course, I can't prove that they didn't have alarms, but the author of this comment can't prove that they did.
Corrected entry: During the final robbery scene, Al Pacino is armed with a Belgian FNC (Fabrique Nationale Carbine) - a rifle not used by any law enforcement agency in the U.S. (01:46:45)
Correction: It's not officially issued, but officers are allowed a certain amount of preference. If they feel more comfortable with a certain type of weapon, and they pay for it themselves, and it performs the same function for whatever given operation, they'll usually be allowed to use it. You'll notice many police officers carry .45 or sometimes .357 handguns instead of the standard 9mm issue models.
Corrected entry: When Waingro kills the prostitute at the hotel, the girl he kills is a fair-skinned African American, but when Vincent Hanna is called out to the crime scene, the dead girl under the sheet is a darker skinned African American with braided hair, obviously not the same person. (00:54:45 - 00:58:10)
Correction: The coroner at the scene mentions there were a series of murders with the same MO, and would probably find evidence of "the same guy" in this girl. The different girls were shown to show the first girl wasn't Waingro's only victim.
Why on earth would they show a different dead girl right after the murder of this young prostitute in the hotel room? That makes no sense whatsoever. They obviously didn't bother to have continuity to the scene by showing the alive girl in the bedroom scene to be dead.
They are intentionally two different girls. Kai Soremekun is credited as "prostitute" and Rainelle Saunders is credited as "dead hooker." The scene is meant to show he's a serial killer, not a continuity mistake.
Thank you! The explanation above, about another victim being shown to show how many other victims Waingro had killed, is so ridiculously inaccurate it shouldn't have even been published. Makes absolutely NO sense whatsoever.
Corrected entry: In the scene when Pacino and partner rush into Henry Rollins' apartment and they have a brief struggle, Pacino grabs him by the head and throws him throw a glass window. If you watch closely, the window spiderwebs a split second before Rollins even touches it. (02:01:30)
Correction: Actually, Rollins' butt is bigger than you might think. It hits the 'glass' before the rest of him, causing it to shatter. His head tilting back throws off your perception, making you assume his head hit first.
Corrected entry: The shot of the guards in the back of the armored truck shows them getting slammed by Cherrito's rig from the wrong side. When shown from inside, assuming you are looking toward the front of the armored truck (you can see the door leading to the cab, as well as the window positions), the impact comes from the passenger's side. When the scene is shown from outside the truck, the impact is obviously on the driver's side.
Correction: The assumption is wrong. You are looking rearward, and here's how to tell: The guard is thrown onto what appears to be a low, steel shelf unit at the wall to our left (which will shortly be their new 'floor'). A few shots later, as the shaped charge is placed on the rear door, we see the opposite interior view (looking forward) as the guards pull themelves up with that shelf unit which is now on the right. After the blast and the guards are removed, Kilmer retrieves the loot and exits past the same shelf unit, now on our left again.meaning the roll-over view was looking rearward. No error.
Corrected entry: When Vincent is in the hospital waiting area with his Justine, as he hugs her you can see his watch at 1:00AM. Then he gets a page and runs down the stairs to leave. The big clock on the wall says 9:00 as he runs by it.
Correction: Hard as I looked, I can't tell what his watch says, even when we're much closer to it (as he grabs his wife while doctors work on Justine (02:24:19 on the 2-disc SE version)) but assuming you really can, the answer is easy: the clock on the wall by the stairs doesn't work.
Corrected entry: At the end when there is gunfire in the streets, Robert De Niro's sunglasses appear on and off his face a few times, but he clearly has no time to put them there.
Correction: If this is referring to the shoot-out outside the bank, at no time is De Niro seen without the glasses.
Corrected entry: DeNiro and Kilmer were at least ten yards from the bank entrance and on their way to the getaway car when spotted by Detective Casals who was driving up to the bank. Al Pacino then gives the order to park the car and walk up to the bank. Almost 1 minute later, DeNiro and Kilmer are still walking to the getaway car. Tom Sizemore made it from the bank entrance to the getaway car in 22 seconds. Deniro took at least 55 seconds, and Kilmer took at least 1:15 to walk the same distance (30-35 meters max). Kilmer also no more than 5 meters behind DeNiro when they walked out of the bank.
Correction: The scene with Pacino dosnt necesarily show that it takes place in real time, it most likely takes place a minute or so before they start exiting the bank. He probably knows that it would be really awkward for both of them to try to get in the car, seeing how both of them have huge bags of money on their back, and assault rifles under their clothes, which would leave them pretty defensless as they tried to fumble their way into the car. Plus, if you watch closely, you can see that Kilmer starts to hang back a little bit once he gets about halfway to the car. Obviously, he's the last man to enter the car, so he's the one designated to look out for trouble. We see thats the case as he's looking out for police, and spots them in an instant when they show up.
Corrected entry: When Vincent is closing in on Neil near the climax of the film, they're on foot at the end of a runway at LAX. The powerful microwave and infrared transmitters on the ground at the end of a runway can seriously injure and kill very quickly - many people have been maimed or killed by sneaking onto commercial runways. Both Vincent and Neil should have been affected.
Correction: Its hard to say they would have been killed or injured by the transmitters. Certainly they run across the landing areas but it's for a few short seconds. I would think there would be safety devices for incidents in which people may run across the runway or for airport crew to safely cross in case they needed to get onto the landing strip. Fire crews and emergency teams would also be highly exposed if the transmitters were as lethal as that. Length of exposure is the main factor, and they're not standing in their path for long at all.
Corrected entry: During the drive-in shootout, while the driver of the white pickup is trying to make a getaway, Tom Sizemore shoots into the truck several times with a Benelli M3 12 gauge shotgun. The Benelli M3 is a semi-automatic shotgun, requiring no pumping between shots to eject the spent shells. But Tom Sizemore is seen pumping the shotgun to eject the empties. This is probably due to the fact that blank rounds were used during the scene, which don't have enough power to cycle the action automatically, thus requiring manual pumping.
Correction: The Benelli M3 can be switched between manual or auto-pump (hence the large hand-fitting grip to pump with). Sizemore played a macho type of guy, so obviously feels that manual pumping is required.
Corrected entry: There is a scene in which Pacino's character and another break down the door to Henry Rollins' character's apartment. The ensuing scuffle shows Pacino wrestling with Rollins. The problem is the double used for Pacino is blonde. You have to look closely and quickly cause it goes by fast - but the double appears to be about 25 years old too...
Correction: The double used for Pacino is not blonde. His hair is black but it is obvious he is a stunt double. The double breaks the door, enters the apartment, struggles with Hugh Benny, falls, then the other policeman hits Hugh Benny and then Al Pacino reappears and continues the fight.
Corrected entry: In the scene where De Niro is waiting inside a station wagon at the drive-in movie, a white Dodge Ram pulls into the lot with money for the stolen bonds. De Niro told Van Zandt to send only one person. As the Dodge drives towards De Niro, it passes the snack stand where Val Kilmer is perched upon armed with a high power rifle. As the scene progresses, the second man in the bed slowly gets out to shoot De Niro. If you look closely at the tailgate of the truck, you will see it is one of those rubber net air gates which you can see through. As the truck passed by the snack stand, how could Val Kilmer have missed the second man in the bed of the truck?
Correction: Look at the wide shot of the drive-in when the truck enters. The driver doesn't "pass by" the snack stand, but rather takes a very roundabout direction to get to Neil's car. You can see that only the right side of the truck (and, as it pulls up alongside Neil's car, the nose of the truck) would be visible to someone on the roof; the truck bed itself is not visible from that low angle because the truck is too far away.
Corrected entry: After the big LA shootout, as the fat guy tries to escape, he falls in a fountain. When he next picks up the young girl as a hostage, his suit is completely dry. When dead on the ground, it is wet again.
Correction: Cheritto's suit doesn't show water very well, but even so you can see that his pantlegs and the lapels of his suit jacket are several shades darker after his unintentional dip. They do not once shift back to the light gray that they were before he fell.
Corrected entry: The millions they stole, even in $100 bills, would be too bulky to fit in the duffel bags they ran off with.
Correction: Think again. A million dollars in $100 bills will fit rather neatly into a pile 8" by 6" by 13", or a 5' attache case (see http://www.cockeyed.com/inside/million/million.html for a demonstration). Roughly four million could therefore fit easily into each duffel bag, and there are three duffel bags, one each carried by Neil, Chris and Michael - totalling approximately twelve million as per Kelso's estimate.
Corrected entry: When Vincent Hannah (Al Pacino) and his men are to arrest the lover of Val Kilmer's wife, this guy, shot several times alternately with Al Pacino, has his tie done in quite different ways, althought he never touches it.
Correction: If this is referring to Alan Marciano, his tie is cinched neatly around his neck when Hanna bursts into the office. After Vincent grabs him by the neck and throws him face down on the desk, then yanks him back into his seat, the tie is naturally skewed to one side. It remains skewed to the side for the remainder of the scene.
Corrected entry: When Val Kilmer is arguing with his wife about his gambling problem, he throws his keys into a picture frame on the top of a cabinet. Then Kilmer hops over a rail, yells at her, runs out of the house, and drives off. He never stops to retrieve his keys.
Correction: It's not the keys he throws, it's something which he picks up from the table.
Corrected entry: In the shootout scene in the streets of downtown L.A., the driver of the getaway car is killed when shot in the head by a single bullet. In the shot prior to this event, the bullet hole in the windshield appears prior to the shot being fired.
Correction: We never see the driver get shot. The camera angel is from behind De Niro, blood gets sprayed on the windshield and the guy falls onto the steering wheel.
Correction: Neil would've used fake IDs and passports. You can see Jon Voight handing him the documents near the end.