Factual error: In the end when our two heroes try to deactivate the atomic bomb, they manage to take away a little piece of explosive, so that the bomb will not do a nuclear explosion, only a conventional one. The problem with plutonium-bombs is that plutonium itself is extremely toxic when pulverised and dissolved into air. And an explosion would surely pulverise the bomb and all people (especially our two heroes being only some metres away) in the city would eventually die because of intoxication...
Continuity mistake: In the subtitles for foreign speaking characters, they can't make up their mind for the spelling of the main bomber: it appears as 'Ducsan' and 'Dusan'.
Plot hole: When she checks the mails on the AOL account: Why are all mails in English? They should be in German or Russian (Problem: they use an different alphabet, Cyrillic).
Continuity mistake: In the beginning of the film the Russian officer presses a code on the back of the train carriage to close the door - the red and green buttons are at the bottom of the panel. Slightly later on when the warheads are being stolen, he has to press the code again, this time the red and green buttons are on the top of the panel.
Factual error: Colonel Devoe wheel spins the Mercedes to create sparks to ignite the spilt fuel. This wouldn't be possible as the wheels were Alloys and not steel.
Factual error: Near the end of the movie, when the heroine is attempting to disable the nuclear aspect of the bomb, she spends a lot of time trying to remove one of the high explosive segments form the core, when simply cutting as many of the detonator wires as possible would seem to have accomplished the same thing. A nuclear detonation requires simultaneous detonation of all the explosive segments to cause the core to go critical. Even a small delay, caused by one or more segment not going off at precisely the right time would have resulted in only a non-nuclear explosion, which is what happened.
Factual error: The IFOR forces looking through the Bosnian's house have Polish badges on them, suggesting that they are indeed Polish, but the one who speaks has a heavy Slovakian accent.
Continuity mistake: When George Clooney jumps over the bridge after the van, he has a big cut on one side of his face, yet in another shot it is on the other side. Then it goes back to its original position.
Factual error: When the truck carrying the nukes is being tracked by a spy satellite we see a view of the vehicle that is meant to be from high up in the atmosphere. After the truck has left the convoy and is moving along a road in a valley, the perspective of the passing countryside would suggest that the shot is taken from a low flying helicopter, certainly not a satellite.
Other mistake: The Digital logo on the laptop has been turned upside down especially for the film, since the logo would otherwise show upside down to the camera when the laptop is in use (most laptops are the same - the logo is the right way up to the user when the lid is shut).
Continuity mistake: In one scene the right upper cheek and temple area of George Clooney's face is seen with a large reddish purple scrape. That area is miraculously healed in the next scene, which takes place only a few hours later.
Continuity mistake: When George Clooney is fighting in the truck, there is blood on his left temple. Henceforth, when he is standing on the bridge, the injury is on his right temple.
Other mistake: At the beginning of the film, during roll call on the platform, soldiers being put to attention should be given the Russian "smirno" command. They are given American "ten-hut" instead.
Factual error: In a briefing room the branches of service are incorrectly lined up in incorrect order and should be Army, Marines Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard.
Other mistake: When Kelly asks Sgt. Beach how much time is left to track the truck, he says "45 minutes" but if you look at the screen showing how much time is left it is nearly two hours.
Visible crew/equipment: When George and Nicole are kneeling down beside a car with bullets and flames all around them, a reflection of a crew member pouring an accelerant on the ground is visible in the hubcap.
Continuity mistake: At one point during the big car chase the boot of George Clooney's car is opened by a collision. A couple of shots later it is closed.
Answer: Presumably they couldn't take the risk that removing the wire would stop that plate detonating, and/or were worried that there might be a failsafe to detect a wire being cut. Physically removing the charge seemed like the safer bet.
Jon Sandys ★