Goofs for
Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

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• Factual errors: The "police radio" in McClane's NYPD car (and a few other official vehicles in the film) was actually a ham radio. It was an ADI model AR-147 FM transceiver. It was tuned to 144.330 MHz which is an amateur radio frequency in the two meter band. Except for extraordinary emergencies, that band is not used for law enforcement communication.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Right before McClane reaches the door of the 18-wheeler, the shadow of a camera can be seen on the side of the truck.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After McClane shoots the driver of the truck, it sounds like the truck is shifting a gear up. Since the driver has been shot, there would be no one to shift gears. Furthermore, immediately after McClane gets in, it's shifting up again, although McClane is not yet driving the truck.
  
  

• Factual errors: F-35B for Marines Corps won't be in service before 2012.
  
  
• Factual errors: F-35: While seeing some HUD shots it's definitely stated that the MASTER-ARM is set switched to SIM, which means the F-35 could never fire a single missile or bullet.
  
  
• Continuity: During the car chase, McClane's rig's left front end receives major damage when crashing into the smaller cars. In the next shot, the front bumper and the rest of the rig has no damage.
  
  
• Factual errors: As McClane is driving the rig during the chase at the end, the truck gets tilted to the starboard side-wheels. In the next shot McClane is shown turning the steering wheel rapidly to the left. Doing so would have caused the rig to completely fall over to the right. Instead, the truck drops back on its all wheels, which would have only happened should John have turned the steering wheel to the right.
  
  
• Factual errors: After the hackers reroute the gas lines, an error message pops up on the screen that reads "CONNECTION FAILD" instead of "failed"
  
  
• Factual errors: The frequency seen programmed into the NYPD unmarked cruiser police radio is 144.33 mhz. That frequency is assigned by the FCC to ham radio operators.
  
  
• Continuity: During the initial scene with Lucy after she climbs out of her "boyfriend's" car, her ponytail repeatedly switches from being draped across her shoulder, to hanging down behind her head.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The aerial shots at the end of the movie are supposed to be of the Baltimore area. Mountains are clearly visible in the background. There are no mountains within visual distance of Baltimore.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In a still-shot of McClane and Farrell driving along on the highway, it is evident that the shot was sped up to look as if they were going fast, and it is noticeable that their flashers were on as the car passes the camera (also note the long line of traffic behind the car).
  
  
• Errors in geography: Los Angeles' Central Library building and Dorothy Chandler Pavilion are visible in the background of scenes set in Washington, D.C. Various other structures, including the metro, bus, and their stations, are clearly not Washington, D.C. Also, there is a height restriction on structures in D.C. but it is obvious that many buildings shown are taller than anything in the district.
  
  
• Errors in geography: There are no toll booths, tunnel or otherwise, in DC.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the final scene, there is a company name on the building in the background. As the credits begin, the camera switches to an overhead/distance shot and the name on the building disappears.
  
  
• Continuity: When McClane and Farrell first walk into the police station, Farrell's ear is dripping with blood and down his neck, when they walk out, his ear is completely clean. When they jump to the next scene, the blood has reappeared.
  
  
• Errors in geography: In a series of moving aerial shots supposedly depicting areas on the east coast during a night-time power outage, there is a brief shot of downtown San Jose. This is either an error in using stock video of power outages, or an intentional nod to the city some call the Capital of Silicon Valley and the center of the computer industry.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When McClane and Ferrell are shown driving to West Virginia in the stolen BMW, the interior of the car is quiet, as if all the windows are rolled up, but the passenger rear window is clearly shown to have been smashed to gain entry (and smashing of the window was a plot point), meaning the wind noise from driving on a freeway would have been substantial and would have made conversation difficult.
  
  
• Continuity: After they have run over the fire hydrant, the car is visibly wet. It remains wet in close-up scenes, however, when in the scenes that are shot from a further distance, the car is completely dry. When the shot is zoomed in, the car is once again wet. This happens over several frames.
  
  
• Factual errors: Unlike the Washington of the film, yellow taxis are quite uncommon in the DC metropolitan area.
  
  
• Factual errors: The CB radio frequency is 66.6 but CB radio is in the 27MHz frequency. 66.6 would be in the broadcast TV portion of the spectrum.
  
  
• Continuity: When McClane is driving the cyberterrorists' semi, you can see that the driver's side front tire has been damaged. Later the same tire is shown and it is not damaged.
  
  
• Continuity: When McClane is driving the semi, you can see him hit the same black Mercedes Benz twice.
  
  
• Continuity: When McClane and Farrell leave Baltimore for Woodlawn, the sky is changing to dawn. When they arrive at Woodlawn, the sky is pitch dark again.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Before the scene in the toll booth, while John is driving through what should be Washington, D.C., the landmark skyscraper Aon Center in Los Angeles can clearly be seen.
  
  
• Errors in geography: While driving through D.C., McClane, Farrell, and Johnson turn onto 14th Street, shown as a narrow street that ends in a 'T' intersection and represented on the bad guys' screens as running East/West. In reality, 14th Street is much wider, runs North/South, and is continuous except at Walter Reed Medical Center, which is nowhere near where the car would be traveling through the city.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the scene after the natural gas blows up the Middleton plant when Matt's giving up on 'winning,' his words don't match his mouth. Also, the same shot is used 3 times during his dialogue.
  
  
• Continuity: Bullet holes on the windshield vanish and reappear during the car chase/tunnel sequence.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When McClane gets into the 18 wheeler after throwing the driver out, a freeway sign can be seen out the front window marked 118 West. This freeway is in California, not Maryland.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the scene with the truck and fighter jet, a California state highway sign is briefly visible.
  
  
• Factual errors: Driving over fire hydrants in Washington DC would not cause water to spray out. The valves are located beneath the ground in areas where freezing temperatures are common.
  
  
• Factual errors: F-35: When the aircraft is firing its cannon, two muzzle flashes are shown (one under each wing), when it is equipped with only one gun (a GAU-12 25mm Gatling).
  
  
• Continuity: When McClane is looking at his reflection in the window of a shop, a line of blood coming down by the inside of his right eye disappears between shots.
  
  
• Factual errors: Downloading 500 Terabyte of data via USB connection would take at least 100 days, but in the film it takes less than 2 days. 500 Terabyte would also be nowhere near enough to store the country's financial data.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene where McClane and Farrell are driving to the power plant, the same background shot is used for each car window, noticeable by the building on top of the hill.
  
  
• Continuity: Near the end of the tunnel scene, McClane can be seen approaching a police cruiser which has a rooftop emergency light partially smashed up. Then, as he leaves the scene in the cruiser, the rooftop lights are completely in tact.
  
  
• Errors in geography: During the scene where McClane is driving the rig and being chased by the fighter jet, several shots of the Vincent Thomas Bridge are visible, which is in San Pedro, CA.
  
  
• Factual errors: In addition to the F35 jets only having 1 on board cannon, the on board cannon is only available in the F35A variant of the jet. This variant is the Conventional Take Off and Landing variant of the F35, and would not be capable of deploying it's turbofan and hovering as it was seen to do in the film. The Short Take Off and Vertical Landing variant of the F35 can be fitted with a cannon but this would be mounted on one of the external wing hard points.
  
  
• Continuity: When the FBI are flying to the rescue at the end of the movie, they clearly state they are fifteen minutes out and then the camera pans to a shot of them with dockyards in the background. Firstly they are heading to the dockyards and secondly when we return to them later they are still flying over the same dockyards in the same direction.
  
  
• Errors in geography: There is no Middleton, WV. Also, when Matt and McClane watch the power go out from the power station, the view that is shown is not a view of any city in West Virginia. No cities in the state are that big or that flat. (The "Welcome" sign, however, is completely accurate as of 2007.)
  
  
• Continuity: Bowman is told that all air traffic has been grounded by one of the agents. When the blackout occurs, there is a screen-shot of an airport, in the background there is a commercial plane taking off.
  
  
• Continuity: Farrell's hair is all over his forehead or thrown behind, depending on the close or long shot, just before he and McClane fly out of power station.
  
  
• Continuity: The two cuts on the back of John's head are inconsistent. Sometimes they are longer, shorter, horizontal or slightly vertical. Sometimes they are also more to the back of his head and end up switching slightly to the side.
  
  
• Factual errors: As the terrorists take over and shut down the DC area's information infrastructure, one screen shows the MTA (Maryland Transit Authority)'s logo with a map of the Washington, DC, Metro subway system. The WMATA, not the MTA, oversees the Metro.
  
  
• Factual errors: F-35's are only able to hover for 90 secs max. After that they run out of fuel to land safely.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the very first scene with Matthew, if you freeze frame the screen of his computer you can see the entire chat conversation he has with War10ck, which takes place about a minute later.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the energy grid begins to go down, Canadian cities are unaffected, however, Canada and the United States share the same energy grid.
  
  
• Continuity: When McClane and Farrel are being taken from the FBI to DHS, the two cars are directed onto a closed and deserted street (i.e. with no other traffic). However, a shot from the lead car (when the driver is on the radio to Agent Johnson) shows traffic moving outside the window.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the scene where the BMW 5 series is broken into, the car makes a beeping sound when started. The sound that is emitted does not come from this particular model, rather the smaller, cheaper 3 series which relies on an independent buzzer. The more expensive 5 series makes a different sound due to the fact that the car gives all its indications via the car's on-board computer and color display (iDrive) and audible beeps and warnings via the sound system.
  
  
• Factual errors: Before Thomas Gabriel deletes John's 401K, the file on the computer states that his 401K was inactive and withdrawn in 2004.
  
  
• Factual errors: When trying to break into the BMW 5 series, the window is smashed open and the door unlocked from the inside. This is impossible as all current BMWs are 'deadlocked' from both the outside AND inside when locked using the key. Therefore in this case, there is no way to open a door without a key, even from the inside.
  
  
• Factual errors: The BMW 5 series that is stolen has a security system (you can tell by the red light sticking out of the rear-view mirror) which means the car would have detected the smashed window and the motion of the people inside. As a result, the alarm would have sounded and the authorities been notified (due to the apparent existence of BMW assist feature in the car)
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At the end of the 18 wheeler chase, John walks by one of the cars which is upside down, and it has no drive shaft.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When John enters the cooling tunnel, a brief shot of the bad guy shows that the writing on the pipe behind is reversed, as a mirror image.
  
  
• Continuity: When McClane first gets into the 18-wheeler, the controls for an Autoshift transmission are clearly visible, yet later on when he is under attack by the jet, he is shown shifting through the gears.
  
  
• Factual errors: While the bad guys may have been able to identify the IP Address that someone was using, the name of the user does not come up. The best they could do is identify the ISP the IP Range is registered to.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the part where Farrell and Mclane try to start the BMW 5-series, Farrell asks the BMW SOS operator to start the car remotely. BMW's SOS service cannot do this in reality.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the scenes where an IP address is traced to reveal a person's name, the IPs displayed for these traces (172.16.55.103 and 10.252.27.112) both belong to IANA private network IPv4 address space reservations. Realistically, IP addresses in this range do not exist on the Internet, as they are reserved for internal network use only. An attacker would need to be on the same local-area network as the victim for a reserved address to be returned in a trace, but this scenario would obviate the usefulness of such a trace in determining the geographical location of the victim. Further, IP traces alone do not reveal personal information such as user names; such a deduction as portrayed in the film is entirely unrealistic. This may have been done intentionally by the filmmaker to avoid giving out IP addresses that could be reached via the Internet. It would be similar to why phone numbers used in TV and movies almost always have a "555" local prefix, so that the information in the movie can't be used to harass someone or cause other mischief.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the scene where the antagonists trace Lucy's cell phone to call her, the display depicts her SIM card number as "270A486FC78". In reality, none of the serial numbers used to uniquely identify a SIM card to a cell network are alphanumeric; they contain numerical digits only. This may have been done intentionally by the filmmaker to avoid inadvertently giving actual SIM card codes. It would be similar to why phone numbers used in TV and movies almost always have a "555" local prefix, so that the information in the movie can't be used to harass someone or cause other mischief.
  
  
• Continuity: Around 1:51:30 in the movie, we see a frontal shot of the semi ramming into the rear end of an older model BMW 7 Series, with an older model 5 Series in front. The camera then switches to the front and the vehicle shown being hit is an older model Mercedes Benz sedan (The same one used in a scene just a few minutes before. The license plate of the Benz ends in a 9 for both scenes).
  
  
• Factual errors: In the scene where chaos ensues on Wall Street, the quote boards say NASDAQ, but the stock symbols have no more than three letters. All NASDAQ stocks contain four or more letters.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Thomas Gabriel pulls up McClane's police record, it makes no mention of his time as an LA Cop (in Die Hard 2 (1990) he explains he has switched to the LAPD to be with his wife).
  
  
• Factual errors: When Thomas Gabriel pulls up McClane's police record, the record displays McClane's social security number as only containing 8 digits. This may have been done intentionally by the filmmaker to avoid the possibility of giving out someone's real Social Security Numeber. It would be similar to why phone numbers used in TV and movies almost always have a "555" local prefix, so that the information in the movie can't be used to harass someone or cause other mischief.
  
  
• Continuity: While McClane is driving the big-rig, traffic lights are clearly working even though the entire East Coast is blacked out.
  
  
• Continuity: Before McClane starts fighting Mai, she tries to take her gun that is on the desk right beside the computer. In a previous shot, the gun can be clearly seen under a couple of cables. When she tries to reach for it, the cables are gone.
  
  
• Factual errors: While Thomas Gabriel is reviewing and deleting McClane's 401K account, the ‘Total’ lines on the account columns are mathematically incorrect, until the balances are reduced to $0.00.
  
  
• Factual errors: The IP address that is displayed when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is being connected to remotely is 192.24.647.90. The third number is not possible within the rules of IPv4 addressing, as it is larger than an octet (8 bits/0-255) can represent. This may have been done intentionally by the filmmaker to avoid giving out a valid IP address. It would be similar to why phone numbers used in TV and movies almost always have a "555" local prefix, so that the information in the movie can't be used to harass someone or cause other mischief.
  
  
• Continuity: Rand leaves Gabriel to go look for McClane and kill him. Later we see Rand finding McClane in the cooling room. But in between these two scenes we see Gabriel talking to McClane on the radio and slapping his daughter, and Rand is in the background, leaning against a wall. This editing mistake means Rand leaves to go look for McClane, comes back to Gabriel and waits, then goes to look for McClane again.
  
  
• Factual errors: The vehicles John and Farrell are traveling in when they are ambushed in Washington are marked "FBI Police". As they are vehicles used by the federal government, they should have US Government license plates, not Washington DC plates as shown.
  
  

• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: In the shot just after Mai kicks McClane out of the window you can see light reflecting from the wires attached to the stunt double. The hands even seem to grasp those wires.
  
  
• Factual errors: SPOILER: Interstate 695 (I-695) around Baltimore is a single-level road, not a double-decker. The F-35 would have had a wide-open shot at McClane in the truck.
  
  
• Continuity: SPOILER: The blood on McClane's face is different between short and long shots after he jumps from the moving car.
  
  
• Continuity: SPOILER: In the scene in DC, after the dump truck crashes into the cab next to McClane and Farrell, they flee on foot. In an overhead shot that follows, you can clearly see McClane getting out of the car, like he did when the scene began.
  
  
• Errors in geography: SPOILER: In the scene where McClane is following the bad guys in a 18-wheeler, you can see palm trees in the background, although the scene is set outside Baltimore.
  
  
• Factual errors: SPOILER: During the tunnel scene, after the bad guys turn off the lights, not a single one of the cars have daytime running lights on, nor do any of those sporting automatic systems have their lights turn on.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: When McClane and Farrell go to steal the BMW, the car's OnStar-type system is functioning, even though the country's communication infrastructure has been attacked at this point.
  
  
• Continuity: SPOILER: During the elevator scene when one of Mia's henchmen shoots through the rear window of the SUV we can see thousands of glass shards on and splintered on the back of the rear seat. However, when McClane proceeds to climbing out the rear after it was safe, the backs of the rear seats were perfectly clean, without a single piece of glass.
  
  
• Continuity: SPOILER: When Rend jumps out of the helicopter as it is struck by the car, he lands on the street below with his headgear off of his head. However, when he stands up in the next shot, his headgear is on his head and he then proceeds to remove it.
  
  
• Continuity: SPOILER: When Matt Farrell and Lucy McClane are tied up in the control room near the end of the film, a lamp is visible in the background during close-up shots of Matt. This lamp is ON during close-up shots, but then turns OFF whenever there is a wide shot of Matt.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: When McClane has just slid down the broken highway after jumping off the plane, the burning car on the right side of the screen clearly has no back seat; the frame is visible and the inside of the car has been stripped completely bare.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: SPOILER: When Gabriel deletes McClane's 401k and offers to clear his debts in return for shooting Matthew, the audio is clearly unsynchronized from lip movement when McClane responds and calls Gabriel a jerkoff. This remark was obviously dubbed over something more profane when the film was edited down.
  
  
• Factual errors: SPOILER: In the F-35 shooting truck scene, the plane gets a stone in its turbofan. This should not even have gotten into the engine as the F-35 has a protective cover over the turbofan intake.
  
  
• Errors in geography: SPOILER: At the end of the movie, the warehouse that Gabriel goes to is near Baltimore, yet when the military takes control of the warehouse, a DC firefighter is seen entering the roped-off area. DC firefighters would not have jurisdiction in or around Baltimore, and therefore would have no reason to be there, unless to aid the Baltimore firefighters (and since there was no fire, no need for them).
  
  

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