Revealing mistake: When Sean shoots at Dennis the Bookseller's feet, puffs of sand do not erupt from the ground.
Patriot Games (1992)
1 revealing mistake - chronological order
Directed by: Phillip Noyce
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Harrison Ford, Sean Bean, Richard Harris, James Earl Jones, Anne Archer, Patrick Bergin
Continuity mistake: In the final fight scene with Harrison Ford, the bad guy's hair grows longer then shorter then longer from shot to shot.
Trivia: As Harrison Ford leaves the naval academy he hesitates and stares across at his would-be assassin, who is hanging around suspiciously on the opposite side of the street. The street name sign under which the man is standing reads 'Hanover Street'. Hanover Street was the first film in which Harrison Ford played the leading role.
Question: Near the end, during the dinner party at the Ryan house, how did Jack figure out that Lord Holmes' assistant, Watkins, was the IRA informant? He seemed to put it together very suddenly.
Answer: The guests seemed fine, but Jack realised the power was intentionally cut since the boathouse light was working. Maybe he saw the external powerlines were still intact and thus deduced the power was shut down from inside the house. Going toward the basement, he sees Watkins coming from the direction of the basement shortly after the power went out and this made Watkins the prime suspect of the power outage. Ryan may have also known about the existence of an informant in the Royal entourage due to his extensive study of the prior attack situation. Finally, it may have been inappropriate for Watkins to have a gun since he was not a bodyguard. Seeing the blood, the dead guard and the power switch off confirmed Jack's suspicions which led him to shoot Watkins to get more info.
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Answer: Because, while everyone was scared and running for safety, he was the only one cool and calm. Plus, everyone was together, he was the only one alone and appeared out of nowhere.