Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the film, Tom Skerritt is on the same aircraft carrier as the fighter jets, but right after the jets bomb the enemy soldiers, Tom Skerritt arrives in a helicopter. There is no way that a helicopter is just as fast as an F-18 fighter jet.
Continuity mistake: The 2 fighter aircraft that took off from the carrier were unarmed. Later shots showed the planes armed to the teeth.
Factual error: The SEAL team communicates with the commander on the ship with a man pack VHF/UHF radio. Not only does the radio man not erect the antenna but it would not be possible to communicate with the ship using this type of radio because it is a "line of sight" radio designed for ground to air communication. The commander on the ship uses a satellite phone to respond, it is not possible to use this type of radio to communicate with a satellite phone. Also, the Lieutenant doesn't use the push to talk button on the side of the microphone and uses the radio more like a telephone, the equipment simply doesn't work that way. The time is from the director's extended cut.
Revealing mistake: When Dr. Kendricks closes the eyes of the dead woman, you can see on woman's neck, that she is still breathing.
Factual error: During the movie Tom Skerritt is seen talking to the SEAL team from the carrier's flight deck. That's impossible; command & control operations are being performed from the inside of the ship. Besides, roar on the flight deck would be so loud making it impossible to hear each other.
Factual error: The optical red dot sight on Bruce Willis' M16 rifle is mounted back to front and would be useless.
Audio problem: Towards the beginning (in the night) the doctor is giving a young baby a shot. When she gives it to her it go to the girl's face (whose eyes are covered) and her mouth is closed when you can hear her crying.
Factual error: At the end of the movie when Willis calls in the F-18s for an air strike we see them engage the rebels by firing a couple of AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles at the ground. This is wrong because an AIM-120 is a air to air missile only. The warhead on the missile is only a few pounds and doesn't produce the cluster munitions like effect that they show. It would have made more sense if the 18s would have dropped a couple of CBU's (Cluster Bomb Units) instead.
Audio problem: In the final shoot-out with the Nigerian rebels, Bruce Willis inserts a new magazine into his rifle. When he attempts to slap it into place, he completely misses it but we still hear the sound effect for him hitting the bottom of the magazine.
Continuity mistake: In the overhead scene of the first village, after the rebels had slaughtered all the remaining people, all the people strewn across the street are completely clean, no gunshot wounds, no blood, no gore or anything. Also in the same scene, the people that stayed behind (exceptions being the two nuns and the priest) had been so severely injured that they were unable to walk, so how did they miraculously heal themselves after they were attacked?
Continuity mistake: In one of the scenes with Tom Skerritt talking to Bruce Willis, take a look at Tom's watch. It starts out at about 4pm, then 4:35, then 4:20.
Continuity mistake: When the team does the high altitude jump, the plane is shown from the left side. The next scene is a night vision shot from the perspective of a jumper and it is no longer the same aircraft, most apparent in the tail section.
Continuity mistake: If you watch the air support coming in to bomb the enemy troops from the time they take off to the time they leave, their load out varies a number of times. Watch as they approach for their bombing run - the weapons switch from white finned missiles to yellow-tipped green bombs and back before being fired.
Factual error: At the very beginning of the movie, when the reporter is describing events in Nigeria, the 'footage' shows Kine 3 & 4, a movie house in Harare, Zimbabwe during the riots of 1996.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the scene where Bruce Willis discovers the identity of the president's son and says to Dr. Kendricks .. "I wonder what it takes to earn your trust", Dr. Kendricks puts her right hand on the son's shoulder. In the next shot, it's her left hand.