Factual error: Just before Declan and the Jackal start shooting at each other in the subway tunnel, one of the trains starts coming from the opposite direction and begins passing Declan. This train continues to pass him at full speed for a full 35-40 seconds while they shoot it out. Subway trains are not nearly long enough for that. Also, during this time another train comes from behind him and he has to get between them and hold onto the light for a few seconds while they pass. But the second train then passes first while the first one passes fully about 2 seconds after the second one came... and it got there first, by about 15-20 seconds. Subway lines are about the same length as each other as well. But the first one was way longer and way wrong. (01:49:30 - 01:50:05)
Continuity mistake: When the Jackal shoots Lamont, only the lower arm is shot off. Then we cut to the Jackal, who says 'I told you it was off', and when we cut back to Lamont, the arm is cut way up at the shoulder. (01:00:30)
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the movie, the Jackal tries to kill the first lady in Washington. This is where the hospital opening takes place. When he flees into the subway station, the name it has is indeed of a station in Washington (Capitol Heights), the subway-cars however are from the Montreal subway system (which ride around on rubber tyres). (01:45:10 - 01:47:55)
Revealing mistake: Near the end of the film, when Bruce Willis is trying to escape into the Metro station, he swipes his fare card through the turnstile reader upside down - you can see the magnetic strip is visible above the slot. It still works anyway. (01:45:30)
Factual error: When Bruce Willis is giving the address to wire the money in Montreal, he gives the postal code GIH 876. The postal code format alternates between letters and numbers (ex. H9B 1R6). (00:18:11)
Factual error: Richard Gere chases Bruce Willis into the Capitol Heights Metro station, and the final showdown occurs at Metro Center - 9 stations and over 7 miles away. Hardly plausible. (01:48:20 - 01:50:20)
Continuity mistake: When The Jackal comes out of the subway tunnel and steps onto the platform, he shoots a subway cop coming towards him. The cop falls backwards with his head pointing away from the subway tracks. In the next shot, the camera is in front of The Jackal and we can see the cop in the background with his head pointing towards the tracks now. A couple of shots later, Declan comes out of the same tunnel and checks the cop to see if he's alive, and the cop's body is back to its original position with the head pointing away from the tracks again. (01:50:15)
Continuity mistake: As the FBI and Richard Gere rush to the hospital to save the First Lady they are flying in a helicopter. You see a shot of the helicopter flying over buildings then it cuts to dialogue inside then back to the landscape shot. However in the first shot the helicopter carries the number "28" on the side. When it cuts back after the dialogue it has "29" on the side of it. (01:36:35 - 01:40:00)
Visible crew/equipment: After Bruce shoots Lemont with the big gun, you can see the crew's reflection in his sunglasses as he's rubbing his ear. (01:01:20)
Continuity mistake: When Bruce Willis turns the big gun on Lemont, the ammo feed belt falls out. The next time you see the weapon the ammo feed belt has been placed back in. (00:58:20)
Factual error: In the scene where the Jackal is sailing in the "Mackinac Regatta" toward Chicago, the direction seems to be wrong. I believe that race is from Chicago to Mackinac. Also, all the boats are shown flying spinnakers, which makes a colorful scene, but which would require a very unusual north wind since the boats are headed south into Chicago. (01:07:05 - 01:17:15)
Continuity mistake: Before the Jackal attempts to assassinate the First Lady, the Chairperson calls the Surgeon General to the podium. In the shot from behind as he shakes her hand then walks up, you can see to the right there is the shadow of him and the podium, with no other shadows visible around him or near him. But then it cuts to a wide angle from in front in the crowd and the shadows are all different, with some even now behind him from the building. (01:36:25)
Plot hole: Part of the reason that the Jackal killed Lemont, asides from him being very annoying and money grubbing, was the fact that he wasn't going to give up the blueprints and plans for the device he made for him. Made a big deal about how he had to turn it over, and he tricked Lemont into going out into the testing ground with him so he could kill him. Then in the next couple scenes, the FBI is investigating Lemont's warehouse after they find Lemont's body, and Delcan finds the plans for the device Lemont bluilt for Jackal. This makes no sense. The Jackal was so adamant about getting those plans back, and even killed Lemont over it, it's just baffling to think that he would not have returned to the warehouse to get them after disposing of Lemont. Not doing so lets the FBI find it exactly as shown in the film. The Jackal is show to be very intelligent and has been doing this line of work for 20 years. And as Declan says, he's not inclined to make mistakes... Especially a mistake like that. (01:02:35)
Revealing mistake: In the first meeting with the Director of the FBI, you can see some of the latex is peeling off the Russian Major's burn, just over the right eyebrow there's a small flap of it. (00:13:15)
Continuity mistake: When Bruce Willis is driving his car to the abandoned warehouse to get the "gun" to commit the assassination on the first lady, the vehicle does not have a license plate... You can see that it is missing, plain as day... In the next scene, he pulls a switch, removing a once non-existent plate and replacing it with another. (00:45:50 - 00:49:15)
Suggested correction: These scenes take place at least half a day apart. The shot where he has no licence plate is during mid day. There is then an unknown time laps to night time after he's left that area and hanging out at a restaurant eating. There is plenty of time between these moments for him to have stopped and attached a licence plate to his van. Reasons for this happening are never shown or stated but it's not unreasonable to think that he could have removed the plates to go to one location and then added plates to go somewhere else in one of his ways of masking his movements. In fact, when he's going into the parking garage to spray off the paint on his van, he even changes out his licence plate at that point showing that he has multiple. This is just speculation but there's enough backing that this can not be considered a definitive mistake.
Factual error: The Jackal attempts to assassinate the First Lady just outside the Capitol Heights Metro station, which is in Maryland - yet all the police are DC Metro. (01:36:00)
Continuity mistake: Toward the end of the movie, the assassin (Willis) fatally shoots the female Russian agent (Venora). As Willis is advising Venora that she will die within twenty minutes, he draws a picture on her cheek with her own blood (a grim pictogram of a love heart). When Gere arrives on the scene a few minutes later, there is no sign of blood anywhere on Venora's face. Obviously, the authorities would not have washed away such a vital clue. Neither would emergency personnel have transferred the victim from the floor where she was lying, onto the living room couch; rather, they would have put her on the ambulance stretcher. (01:26:00 - 01:27:15)
Suggested correction: There is several minutes taking place between these two shots, and Koslova is alive during that time. She was on the floor when the Jackal draws it on her face, and then when Declan is with her, she's on the couch. It is likely that the paramedics moved her to the couch, or she may have moved herself. We don't know how much time lapsed between her conversation with The Jackal and when the medical team arrived. It's very probable that she wiped it off herself. She had blood on her face drawn in a picture by a sadistic killer she hates that just killed two of her friends and is now leaving her to a slow painful death. If I were in that situation and that guy drew a heart on my face with my own blood, I'd wipe it off too. You can still see a faint bit of red on her cheek where it was.
Revealing mistake: In the scene towards the end, where Declan has chased the Jackal back onto the subway platform, and has just followed on himself, behind him you see a man (possibly a cop) running to get out of the way of the guns, but just before going out of shot, he stops running and just casually 'strolls' to the edge of the set (some kind of small booth or shop on the platform). (01:50:55)
Suggested correction: This doesn't really reveal any mistake. I see the guy he runs into it and then slows down as he looks back. There's not really much else place to go and he just saw that Declan wasn't shooting any of them, that the previous guy, The Jackal, was the one shooting the cop. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with how this man acted as he went into that booth.
I watched the scene and he's running out of fear along with everyone else and the just stops running, as if he thinks he's off camera, and the starts to walk, but he never turns around. Everyone else is ducking if they're not running. It would not be a natural reaction in that situation, especially since people were still screaming.
Continuity mistake: At the marina, around the time the kids burn the firecrackers, the Russian Major is smoking a cigarette. In one shot it's slightly bent, then in the next it's straight. (01:08:40)
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the film, as Willis is about to shoot the First Lady, we see a close up of him wearing sunglasses (part of his cop disguise) and looking through his binoculars. We then switch to the binocular view of the podium, but the shot is not given a darkened tint - it looks as if he is looking through the binoculars without the sunglasses. When we switch back to the first view of his face, however, the sunglasses are back in place. (01:36:10)
