At the beginning of the movie the arrested soldier has his uniform on when being escorted out of the room, but outdoors through undone coat only his shirt is visible.
When Sgt Gallagher frees himself from the basement post, he unlocks the handcuff on his left wrist and gets up with the handcuff on his right wrist locked and dangling. Seconds later he walks from the post to the bed, tossing the completely unlocked handcuffs on the floor.
Near the beginning of the movie during the shootout, Sgt. Gallagher shoots out the back window of the getaway car, yet in the next scene, the window is intact.
When Gallagher grasps Whitacre at the station, he holds his coat in different ways depending on camera shot.
When Gallagher enters the utility room after shooting Boyette, the shot of Boyette shows him with his left arm extended away from his body with a couple of fingers outstretched. When Gallagher crouches down toward the body, Boyette's left arm is closer to his head and all of his fingers are curled up.
The majority of U.S. military personnel have haircuts/hairstyles that would never be considered acceptable by any uniformed branch of the armed forces.
When the President and the Soviet leader are introduced at the Chicago gathering, the Soviet leader is identified as the "General Secretary of the Soviet Union." His correct title is General Secretary of the Communist Party.
The assassinated Brigadier General (in the beginning of the movie) is out of uniform. His haircut is too long and his rank insignia is only for battle dress and is placed in the wrong position. General officers are require to wear their stars in the middle of the epaulet. This distinguishes them from the other officers who are required to wear their insignia on the outside
edge of the epaulet.
Toward the beginning of the movie, the Brig. General steps outside of the summit without his cover on. Military personnel are always "covered" (wearing a hat) while outdoors.
Reni Santoni is credited as a Chicago Police Lieutenant, but just before he arrests Gallagher, the rank on his cap piece is clearly that of "Captain."
When they shoot Henke, the patsy, and leave a rifle across his lap.
That rifle would not have the fired cartridges fired missing from the magazine. Nor would it have the correct rifling pattern on the bullets or the correct firing pin and ejector marks on the casings. They'd also have to police the spent casings to put with Henke, which can be hard to find since auto-loading rifles can fling them quite far.
The Steyr AUG used has a quick change barrel, it would be easy to pull the barrel from the assassin's rifle and place it in the patsy's rifle. Same with the magazine, so it would show the correct number of fired cartridges missing. Only the ejector and firing pin markings would be different.
That's a lot work, so it would have just been easier to use the rifle Henke touched and then replace it later so it had his prints on it.
Sgt. Gallagher and Thomas Boyette are attacked in the Airport restroom, Sgt. Gallagher flinches before getting hit on the head from behind.
At the end of the assassination scene early in the movie, the dead officer blinks.
About 41 minutes into the movie, a computer starts beeping because of an unauthorized access attempt. A closeup of the computer shows that records for a Thomas Boyette was accessed. The top of the screen shows "personnel" spelled correctly but on the line above Boyette's name, it's spelled PERSONNELL.
When the assassin is assembling his Steyr AUG rifle he slots in the proprietary translucent plastic magazine. It is clearly empty, there are no rounds in it. No doubt for safety reasons but in real life that is an unloaded weapon.
After driving backwards through the gate, Gallagher bumps onto the wall in the back and he has no room to make a turn. However, in next shot he takes a turn. Moreover, there is no damage visible on the rear bumper.
Near the beginning of the film when the Polizei van appears it is a U.S. spec VW with the rear side marker lights, lights not installed on Euro-market vehicles. It also is a higher trim level (deluxe bumpers and front spoiler) than would be used by the German police.
At the beginning of the film, the manner in which the coffin of the deceased soldier is placed in the waiting vehicle is hardly in a respectful manner associated with such an event.
Toward the start of the movie, right after the shooting of the general in his car, as the assassins start driving off, while Gene Hackman and his soldiers are shooting at them, you can plainly see the camera and two operators next to the car for about 12 frames.
During the wreath ceremony a shadow of the camera is cast on the coat of the security chief.
Towards the end of the film, the Russian/US leaders appear at an event at the University of Chicago. The University is correctly identified by the reporter, as is the fact that Enrico Fermi achieved the first self-sustaining reaction at the University.
However, the reporter states that the leaders are meeting at the exact spot of this achievement, but the ceremony is clearly taking place in front of Lorado Taft's "Fountain of Time."
Fermi's experiments took place under the old Stagg field, which was located two blocks north of the "Fountain" monument used in the film.
The Regenstein Library now stands on the location on the sit of the self-sustaining reaction.