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)
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)
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)
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)
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.
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.
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)
Continuity mistake: During the briefing on the hood of the car, after the regatta, both Mulqueen and McMurphy change positions at the cut from wide to closeup. Mulqueen is at the side of the car in the wide shot with his arms crossed, then leaning against the car with his hands on the hood in the close up. McMurphy is about a foot behind Preston in the wide to right beside him in the closeup then back again. Also Koslova lights her cigarette twice during the scene. (01:08:20)
Continuity mistake: When The Jackal points the large weapon at Lemont after the first test fire, you can see some smoke still coming out of the barrel from shots showing Lemont's face. But in reverse angles of The Jackal, the smoke is gone. (00:58:25)
Continuity mistake: When Declan visits Isabella, the tide changes from high to low. (00:35:05 - 00:37:20)
Continuity mistake: At the end, when Richard Gere is following Bruce Willis in a crowded subway station, we see Gere from behind as he passes by an old lady. Then, we see it from the front, and he passes by the same lady again. (01:45:30)
Continuity mistake: When The Jackal approaches Koslova after shooting her, his rifle is loose in his right hand. After he pushes her to the ground we cut to Koslova and the assassin is holding the rifle with both of his hands. (01:25:25)
Continuity mistake: When the Jackal is sailing over the Great Lake, he sees the coast guard and puts his hat on. In the shot where he is putting it on, there is only one boat behind him with a yellow sail. It cuts to the coast guard then back to the Jackal, and now there are 6 boats behind him, none with a yellow sail, and the sun is no longer visibly behind him reflecting off the water. The director stated that this happened because the shot where he puts the hat on was a reshoot. The shot with the 6 boats behind him was filmed in Lake Michigan, whereas the other shot was done in the Atlantic Ocean. (01:07:30)
Continuity mistake: When the Jackal is using the mirror in the shop window to look at the guys watching him, just before he turns to look at it as he's checking his glasses, you can see a man walk up to the car in the reflection. It then cuts to closer angle with the mirror blurry for a split second before coming back into focus. And now there's nobody beside the car yet in the reflection until two people walk up to it. (00:47:00)
Continuity mistake: Koslova is asleep on a couch just before Declan is going for his razor and finds the gun in the drawer. The close up shot shows her in one position with her hands on a book, but then it jump cuts to further away to show Declan walking up. Now suddenly her hands are not on top of each other, the book is sticking out less, her hair is further down over her face, her jacket is covering more of her arm and legs, and her position on the pillow is slightly different. (00:43:25)
Continuity mistake: As the FBI and Koslova are walking away from Declan at the prison grounds, they are walking almost in line with each other with Preston in the front, Witherspoon in the back, and then Koslova and the other guy between them. But when it cuts to them stopping to turn around in response to what Declan says, they are suddenly almost standing shoulder to shoulder with each other. (00:27:30)
Continuity mistake: When the Russian officer tells Preston that they need to conduct the interrogation efficiently and then walks away, you can see Preston contemplating what he means looking awkwardly. He's looking almost straight ahead with his head slightly turned to his left. The camera then cuts to by his shoulder before he turns to Witherspoon and suddenly he's now got his head turned fully to the left watching the Russians leave the room. (00:13:25)
