Visible crew/equipment: A few shots after the White House and chopper are destroyed, when a light colored car lifts up from the bottom left to top left of the screen, the roll cannon is visible under the car, between the front tires. (00:52:10)
Visible crew/equipment: A couple of shots after Jasmine grabs Dylan from the car, the rears of a red car and white car are shown tossed up from a front shot. Next shot from behind, the same two cars are shown tossed up again where we can see the flat belt system between the four tires and the mechanical arm at work doing the flipping. (00:53:40)
Continuity mistake: In the motorhome, when Troy tells Russell that he feels sick, as the RV pulls over in the wideshot the back window curtain is open, but closed in other shots. (00:55:00)
Revealing mistake: The following take place in F/A-18s. After Jimmy says, "I got you covered, big daddy," there is a close-up of his gloved hand as his thumb presses the launch button. Later, when President Whitmore fires his last missile (with negative impact) there is a close-up as his thumb presses the launch button, and then a minute later there is a close-up of Russell's hand as he presses the launch button (resulting in launch failure). The last two close-ups are the very same shot as shown earlier, only the last two shots are flipped the other way. (00:57:25 - 02:04:00)
Continuity mistake: When Captain Hiller begins his attack with the rest of his crew from El Toro, when we see the room where the General and the President are, a man says "Missiles have been fired", it shows on their screen a countdown of "metres to target". It does a countdown of 5000 to 4000 twice, and 4000 to 3000 twice. Also, when we next see the countdown before the missiles hit the shield, the last number is 49m, then the following shot of this number it says 107m. (00:57:50)
Continuity mistake: When Jimmy and Steven climb into the F/A-18 cockpits, there are various stickers on the backs of their seats which completely differ when they are airborne. (00:58:20)
Revealing mistake: When Will Smith and the other jets are flying into the ship and are firing their missiles there is a cloud in the background that doesn't move. You can tell it's a background set piece. (00:58:20)
Continuity mistake: Just after Steven and Jimmy board the Hornets, aboard Air Force One, General Grey receives a call from Norad and when the crewman hands the General the phone he sits down, but next close-up he is still standing. (00:58:35)
Audio problem: When the Knights deploy their missiles with no results, we see in close-ups as they respond that Steven is Knight 1, Jimmy is Knight 7, and another Marine is Knight 3. After Steven says, "Knight 1. Sweet Luck. Echo, Fox 2," we see a close-up of Knight 3 and hear his voice (not Jimmy's) say, "Knight 7, Fox 2", though he is in fact Knight 3, and Jimmy is Knight 7. (01:00:45)
Factual error: When Steven Hiller is flying through the canyon he says "Hope you got an air bag" and pulls a lever to deploy the braking chute on his FA-18. The chute is then detached and lands onto the attacking alien craft. FA-18's don't have a braking chute, they rely on using an arrestor hook for carrier landings and a dorsal airbrake when landing on a runway. (01:00:50)
Continuity mistake: Close to the middle of the film when Steven Hiller and his wingman Jimmy are running from the smaller alien aircrafts, Jimmy says, "I think I'll try something", and in this shot we can see Jimmy's fighter jet go up, and in the following shot, we see it go up again. (01:00:50)
Continuity mistake: In the middle of the film just before Steven Hiller crashes his fighter jet into the canyon, he looks at his fuel reserve, and if you watch closely the fuel reserve numbers just keep repeating themselves. (01:02:10)
Continuity mistake: When Captain Hiller ejects from the F/A-18 he is clearly strapped into his seat, but when he lands the seat is nowhere to be seen - it's not on the ground and he's not sitting on it. Then shortly afterward it instantly appears near him. (01:05:35)
Continuity mistake: When Captain Hiller is dragging the unconscious alien across the desert, the sky alternates between overcast and perfectly sunny depending on if it's a close up or far off view of Hiller. (01:07:30)
Revealing mistake: In the exterior shot of Air Force One and its accompanying jets in the air, just before the shot of David getting nauseous aboard Air Force One, something suddenly comes up along the entire bottom edge of the screen. This is only visible on fullscreen DVD. (01:08:10)
Suggested correction: That is another jet guarding Air Force One.
Continuity mistake: In the middle of the film when the President is in Area 51 looking at the alien aircraft, there is a shot from the back and you can see that the General is not standing really close to the doctor, in the following shot from the front he is standing side by side with the doctor. (01:14:10)
Continuity mistake: When President Whitmore and the rest get to Area 51, you see David Levinson in the background. Right before they go through the doors, he has a sunglasses clip over his glasses. As they start walking down the ramp, they are still on, but right after the glass doors open, you can see for a second or two the clip is off the glasses. Then when they go for a close up of Levinson, you can see him take the clip off. (01:14:55)
Factual error: El Toro base is shown being at the end of a long desert road. El Toro is in the middle of completely developed cities in Orange County. The desert is about 50 miles away over a few mountain ranges. (01:17:50)
Continuity mistake: When David and Dr. Okun are inside the alien aircraft having a look around, it cuts to a front view of them, and if you look to the right two other scientists walk in. The scientist with the mustache and beard stops and looks, and the other walks a bit further and peaks over, then in the following shot you can see this action again. (Special Edition.) (01:18:20)
Continuity mistake: When Dr. Okun and David are inside of the alien ship, and Dr. Okun shows him the scrolling green lines on the console he says that they don't know what they are. David says it's the same thing as their countdown signal and they always move together. Yet when Steven is flying their ship through the mothership, the lines go horizontal, spread apart, and even turn blue in some parts. (01:21:00)
