Goofs for
Die Hard 2 (1990)

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• Continuity: When a black terrorist reaches down for a "present" it is a white hand grabbing the box.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Pacific Bell phones and maps of Los Angeles in Dulles Airport (serving Washington D.C.)
  
  
• Errors in geography: After McLane's airport shootout with the mercenaries, Lorenzo accuses him of violating five District of Columbia regulations. Dulles Airport is actually in Loudon County, Va., about 25 miles West of Washington D.C.
  
  

• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Colonel Stuart's men pretending to be a Public Utility Crew arriving at the church wear DWP Uniforms from Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
  
  
• Plot holes: Airport runways do not have manholes. Additionally, any manhole cover which could be lifted by one person would easily be crushed by a plane.
  
  
• Continuity: Thornberg occasionally talks into the wrong end of the skyphone in the toilet.
  
  
• Factual errors: While normal practice would have been to use an internal plug to get automatic rifles firing blanks to cycle, which would make the weapon explode when shifting to live ammo, Stewart's team could have devised another mechanism. Nevertheless, any mechanism would have to be removed and the movie answer is merely to switch magazines which couldn't possibly work.
  
  
• Factual errors: While somewhere over Ohio we are told the pilot has just been given information by Dulles Tower. An en-route commercial jetliner at cruising altitude over Ohio would be communicating with Cleveland Center, not Dulles or any other airport control tower.
  
  
• Continuity: Blood on Grant's face when fighting with McClane.
  
  
• Continuity: Samantha Coleman is listed as Samantha Copeland in the credits.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When a construction/painting scaffold falls over onto a terrorist killing him, it is obviously a dummy.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the planes land on the fire trail we see a line of them coming in. If they were that close together, especially under the blizzard-like conditions depicted, they would all crash into each other on the runway; there simply isn't enough time between landings for all of them to taxi out of the landing path.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In our world, Glock pistols do have non-metallic parts, however no porcelain is used in manufacture. Also, it would be impossible for one to pass through an airport metal detector since the barrel itself is made of steel and the pistols would be useless without bullets. However, the "made-up" gun that McClane mentions clearly exists in the Die Hard world and has all the properties described.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): McClane says the Glock 7 is made in Germany. Glock is actually an Austrian firm.
  
  
• Continuity: As General Esperanza's plane is landing. McClane gets up to the runway via a ladder. As he is approaching the ladder we see the base of the ladder is up a step. However an overhead shot of McClane reaching the ladder shows it to be in a large pool of water.
  
  
• Continuity: Esperanza's plane runs over the manhole grate on the runway just as McClane extricates himself. However in the wide shot, the tire tracks in the snow clearly miss the grate.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When John McClane enters the airport for the first time and shakes the snow off his jacket you can clearly see that it is sunny outside the doors he enters and you can even see green trees.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Obvious stunt double for the black terrorist in the fight with McClane in the luggage room.
  
  
• Continuity: During the fight in the luggage room with the black terrorist, John McClane strikes him with a golf club. When he wants to strike him a second time he swings the club over his left shoulder. But just before he strikes, the camera viewpoint changes and you see him (or actually his stunt double) swinging the golf club over his right shoulder.
  
  
• Continuity: During the scene when McClane, the Army commander and the Police Chief are arguing outside in the blizzard, the amount of snowfall on the Police Chief's jacket keeps changing. The first time the camera shows him, there's a lot of snow on him. The camera flips away, and then back, and his jacket is cleared of snow. The camera flips away and back again, and this time there's snow on his jacket again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the luggage room, when McClane sprays the can at the black terrorist, the other terrorist shoots the can, blowing it up. It then shows another take of McClane dropping the can, but it is now fully intact!
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In a shot of Esperanza's plane coming in, there are legs visible on the top of the screen
  
  
• Continuity: The model used for the destruction of General Esperanza's plane is missing the door. It should be between the first two windows.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When John blows up Colonel Stewart's plane, the pilots see the flame and use it as a guide to land. The fire from the earlier crash couldn't be used the same way because they were too high at the time to see it. (Were clouds involved?)
  
  
• Continuity: As McClane is fighting with the sentry guard outside the church, they knock over some trashcans, which appear upright in the next shot. They appear knocked over, again, later on in the fight.
  
  
• Continuity: During the shoot-out in the baggage area, one terrorist signals another to go up the conveyer. The climbing terrorist has a crew cut when he sets off, but when he's climbing up, his hair is long.
  
  
• Continuity: When Marvin is explaining to McClane where the annex skywalk is, he circles the location with his right hand, but the close-up shows a left hand (with the arm wearing McClane's sweater).
  
  
• Continuity: When McClane sends the fax with the fingerprints, the page is sent upside down. When Powell receives the fax the page is turned right side up. Faxes are received in the same orientation as they are sent.
  
  
• Continuity: On the military plane, Esperanza's cigar is clearly lit and smoking before his guard lights it.
  
  
• Factual errors: The running lights of the NEA flight are reversed. The port wing should show a red light, the starboard a green.
  
  
• Factual errors: Colonel Stewart refers to Esperanza's plane, FM1, using military phonetic letters (foxtrot michael one). The military phonetic for M is always "mike", never "michael".
  
  
• Continuity: When McClane is in the tunnel under the runway, the manhole cover is lit from above. It is night outside, and the light from the landing lights wouldn't shine directly down the manhole. Furthermore, in shots of the manhole from the runway, it is lit from beneath, not above.
  
  
• Continuity: When Trudeau addresses the aircraft before their communications are cut, the Fuji Air plane shown is a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar. The next time it's seen, during the end credits, it's a Boeing 747. Furthermore, it would make more sense for the Fuji Air plane to be a 747, because in real life, a Tristar could never fly nonstop to Dulles Airport from anywhere in Japan.
  
  
• Factual errors: Runways referenced in the movie for Washington Dulles International (IAD) are 15, 10, 29, 25L and 25R. In reality, IAD has only these 6 runways: 1L-19R, 1R-19L, and 12-30.
  
  
• Continuity: In several shots in which McClane is fighting first Grant then Stewart on the wing of the plane as it taxis down the runway, the engine is barely turning, obviously not powered on.
  
  
• Continuity: At the end, when the truck with Major Grant's men arrives at the hangar, the gate opens, people inside are running and walking around with pipes, wheels and a small truck passes, just like an ordinary working day.
  
  
• Factual errors: Trudeau says that he will "expedite" landings when the tower comes back on-line. In air traffic control parlance, expedite is a reserved word, only to be used to notify an aircraft that prompt compliance is required to avoid the development of a dangerous situation.
  
  
• Errors in geography: If you look closely at the flight boards when the flight times are being changed to "Delayed", in the second scene of the flight board close-up, Auckland is misspelled as Aukland. Also, no current commercial jetliner can fly Auckland-Dulles nonstop (8603 miles).
  
  
• Factual errors: It is impossible to fax fingerprints and have them readable at the other end.
  
  
• Factual errors: It is impossible for the terrorists to have changed the Instrument Landing System (ILS) 200 feet lower to make the Windsor aircraft crash. ILS is a fixed system of radio signals and would be impossible to just enter a code into a computer to make the aircraft think that it's 200 feet higher than it actually is. The position of the ground and runway never changes, nor needs to be changed, so an ILS that can have the glide slope altered is inherently unsafe. Furthermore, the aircraft itself would have an altimeter so the pilots would know their altitude.
  
  
• Factual errors: As you look in the L-1011 of Northeast (Holly's plane), there is a Boeing 747-200 panel in it, so there are four throttles in the plane, but L-1011's have only three engines.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: During the scene with McClane in the tower talking to the Air Traffic Controller and the Police Chief, there is an obvious overdub in TV versions with a completely separate voice and obvious audio/visual mismatch.
  
  
• Continuity: During the shootout at the church and subsequent snowmobile chase - the weather conditions alternate between snowy/windy and totally calm.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Holly stands at the door of the plane for 20 seconds, with passengers waiting to get out behind her. When you evacuate a plane you get everybody out as quickly as possible.
  
  
• Continuity: The first time Samantha Coleman's helicopter is shown, the side reads "Night-Time News." The second time, there is no hyphen.
  
  
• Errors in geography: There is a general "V" shape to the Dulles Airport property. However, the area between the two legs of the "V" do not have public access. There is no church located in this area that would have cabling for the airport running underneath it.
  
  
• Factual errors: The baseball style hand grenades used to blow up the military transport with McClane on board have a fuse burn of about 5-7 seconds before detonation. From the moment the first one is thrown (releasing the spoon and igniting the fuse) to the explosion, 37 seconds elapse. While it's possible that the mercenaries may have put extended fuses in the grenades, why would they, as McClane’s escape illustrates exactly why a short burning fuse is desirable?
  
  
• Factual errors: A 747 does not have a fuel dump valve in the pylon (engine mount). Any fuel dump is controlled from the cockpit and fuel is ejected from nozzles on the trailing edge of the wing, one on each wing just inboard of the aileron.
  
  
• Factual errors: The NEA aircraft Holly is in is a tri-star L10-11/DC-10 type of aircraft. Towards the end of the movie there is a shot with Holly and the stewardess. In the background there is a shot of stairs going up stairs towards the flight deck. These type of airplanes do not have stairs. Only in the 747 in the 1990's.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Reagan National Airport and Dulles International (IAD) are only 27 miles apart. However, Baltimore/Washington International (BWI) is still only 57 miles from Dulles by road, 46 from one to the other directly. In the movie, we are informed that National has closed due to weather conditions, but BWI is never mentioned, even though it was dedicated in 1950 and acquired by the State of Maryland in 1972. If the planes low on fuel could circle for 90 minutes, they could have easily been redirected to BWI.
  
  
• Factual errors: Cool-looking explosions seen when planes crash are caused by fuel, of which flight Windsor 114 had precious little. With hardly any fuel, a more realistic crash would've seen a much smaller fire, possibly with much less lethal consequences.
  
  
• Factual errors: When McClane shows Trudeau and Lorenzo the printout detailing Sgt. Oswald Cochrane's military service, Afghanistan is misspelled "Afganistan".
  
  
• Factual errors: The military record faxed to McClane lists specific missions and fingerprints. Military records, especially record briefs used for law enforcement purposes do not specify individual missions, only dates and locations of unit assignments. Fingerprints are maintained seperately. Furthermore, if the soldier had been part of a "Counterterrorist team" as depicted, his record would have been in the Department of the Army's Special Roster (DASR) and would not have been made available to law enforcement agencies without a lengthy disclosure process.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Throughout the entire movie, Lorenzo and everyone else refer to him as Captain. He also wears Captains bars on his lapels. Near the end, when he is assembling the rest of his men, he says on the P.A. "this is Chief Lorenzo". Chief and Captain are two different ranks for police officers.
  
  
• Continuity: When John falls off the 747's wing and tumbles towards the camera, there are no trails in the snow after the 747. The 18 wheels should make 10 trails when the aircraft goes along a straight line. The only trails seen are the trails from the car filming the scene.
  
  
• Factual errors: Large parts of the plot are based on the idea that the airport tower is unable to contact the planes in order to warn them after the terrorists cut the connection. In fact, there would have been several ways to contact those aircraft. Any air band transceiver would do; and at an airport they are around in hundreds, literally.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the food court scene when terrorists are syncing their watches, the watches are shown as Tag Heuer Chronographs which use a mechanical movement. When syncing the watches in the film they make a digital "beep" which would only be produced by a digital quartz watch. The watches shown would have had no internal electronics and could not possibly have made this sound.
  
  

• Continuity: SPOILER: At the end of the film we can see Holly's plane, just before the old lady shouts at Thornburg. The "NEA" letters can clearly be seen washed out at the upper half and another caption becomes visible. The next time we see it from a different angle, when Marvin arrives, and the upper half is just fresh white painted.
  
  
• Factual errors: SPOILER: Aviation jet fuel is nearly impossible to ignite externally simply with a lighter or with a blowtorch focused directly onto it, even under optimum conditions. So it is highly unlikely that John McClane could have gotten the stream of aviation fuel to light and thus destroy the 747, killing the terrorists inside. On the incredibly remote chance that the fuel did light, the stream of fuel would burn far too slowly to ever catch up to a 747 traveling at take off speed (roughly 155 knots or 180 mph).
  
  

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