Continuity mistake: When Julia gets email on her laptop in a Vienna hotel room, Tom walks up and looks at it. In this shot Julia taps quite hard on the keyboard then take her hands away from it, yet in the following shot her hands are still on the keyboard. (00:53:50)
Continuity mistake: When Tom and Julia are on the way to Vienna Tom changes seats to sit opposite Julia, and he puts his mug down with the mug's handle facing towards the plane's window. In the following shot the mug has turned around its handle is now facing Julia. (00:33:30)
Continuity mistake: When the Major and General are on top of the train just before they jump from one train to the other, the Major and General walk across the top and they pass one, maybe both, of the hijackers. When it cuts to another view, the hijackers are passing the Major and General again. (00:11:30)
Continuity mistake: When Tom points the gun at the bomber who is at the top of the stairs, his brother comes round the corner, and in the distance he is walking and creeping up to Tom and Julia, yet in the closeup he is running and waiving a gun not creeping up. Also when the bomber starts to shoot at Tom, Tom and Julia get under a grid of some kind, and when Julia drops her walkie talkie on the floor, its position changes between shots. (01:43:10)
Continuity mistake: When the Russian Major is talking to the other lower ranking soldier just outside the train, in one particular shot the soldier is looking directly at the Major. Then in the following shot he is looking down at his feet, and lifts his head up twice to look at the Major again. (00:04:15)
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.
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.
Continuity mistake: During the Vienna chase, the guys in the black cars are behind a red van, and the red van passes the side street where Tom pulled into, yet from Tom's POV it's passing again. (00:47:50)
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.
Continuity mistake: When George Clooney is waiting for permission to enter Russian airspace in the helicopter, you can see all three choppers hover about 2 meters above the ground, but in following scenes, they are at much greater heights. (01:06:50)
Continuity mistake: When Julia is first seen she is explaining the satellite images to a guy, and in one particular shot she holds the photograph near the bottom of it. Then in the following shot of the photo, her hand has moved up to the top of the photo. (00:18:25)
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 ★