Trivia: Despite looking massive and complex, the "wall of fire" traveling down the streets during the initial attack was actually an incredibly simple effect to accomplish. The crew would build models of the streets, mount cameras to them, then simply turn the model 90° so they'd be vertical. They would then set off pyrotechnic charges at the base of the vertical model, and the fire would naturally flow upwards through the model buildings. But from the perspective of the mounted cameras, this created the illusion of the fire moving horizontally.
Trivia: Spoilers: When Russell sacrifices himself and drives his plane into the laser, pay attention to the laser exploding in the first shot. It's actually cleverly reused footage of the Empire State Building exploding from the initial attack scene earlier in the film. The image has just been flipped vertically and augmented with some extra fire/explosions to mask the details of the building. But if you look very closely, you can totally tell.
Answer: This is indeed a mistake. The character is played by Bill Smitrovich and is listed as playing Captain Watson, but in the briefing scene he is wearing collar insignia for a Lt. Colonel.
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