Goofs

When the Ryan family are preparing breakfast, Paddy O'Neill is giving a TV interview. As the family watch this on the larger TV, the portable TV behind Sally is paused with just the image of Paddy and on cue the portable begins to play the scene. As the camera pans the room in the wider shot, the portable is again paused and then begins to play the same scene of Paddy.

Just before he is shot, Jimmy O'Reardon is naked on the bed. As he is being shot, a blanket suddenly covers the lower half of his body. When he falls backwards onto the bed, the blanket also moves as if it is attached with some sort of adhesive.

While the Ryan's are escaping from the attic, Sally slips and rolls down the roof, and Jack catches her. In the next scene, it shows her slipping down the roof a second time from a different angle and Jack catching her again.

Jack Ryan is obviously rescued from the raging water following the boat crash, but the clothing that he was wearing the entire evening is completely dry when shown huddling with his family shortly thereafter.

The two cars accompanying each prison van are identical early-1990s model Vauxhall Cavaliers, yet the wrecked burnt out car to the rear of the prison van after Sean Miller had been freed is an early-1980s Rover.

While it is true that the average British police officer does not carry a firearm, there is no way that a convicted high-profile IRA terrorist would be escorted without an armed guard.

Jack Ryan is awarded the Knight Commander of the [Royal] Victorian Order, which is only available to British Citizens. The Central Intelligence Agency only recruits US Citizens. Jack could not therefore be knighted by the British. In the book however, an exception was made because he saved a member of the Royal Family, but this is not mentioned in the film, and in reality is something not even the Queen can do. The Queen may award the KCVO to a someone who is not a British subject (the KCVO is awarded by the personal gift of the Sovereign) but it is only honorary.

Since it would in fact be honorary, Ryan could not - and would not - be addressed as "Sir John". He would simply be addressed as Dr. Ryan. Honorary recipients of the KCVO may use the "KCVO" post-nominal, but may never be addressed as "Sir", which is an honour reserved for British subjects only.

The reporters and their news vans at the hospital are camped on top of the "H" symbol on the hospital helipad. Hospital security would never allow this, as the helipad must be kept completely clear in anticipation of future inbound emergency flights.

When the police are running to the IRA kidnapping attempt whistles are heard. Police haven't whistled for assistance since the middle of the 20th Century, and tend to use modern items like radios nowadays.

When the helicopters are approaching the Libya camp, they both have all lights switched on. During the "fence-in" procedure, every unnecessary light is extinguished to reduce visibility. Furthermore, the SAS soldiers tabbing in do so on a dune ridge, sticking out like sore thumbs. Normal procedure is to stay in ravines or other depressed areas.

It is believed that the home alarm system Jack had installed went out through the phone lines. The security system Jack had installed was a top-of-the-line ADT system which had its own power supply and phone line, since the security personnel already knew that a power loss or a cut phone line would be the same as a tripped alarm.

When the film shows the men running at the Naval Academy, they are wearing Navy sweatshirts, but the very last word they shout in the song is "Marine Corps." This would not be incorrect as up to 1/6 of United States Naval Academy graduates receive commissions as 2nd Lieutenants in the United States Marine Corps.

The terrorists were not killed in the attack on the training camp because they had already left for their mission to kill Lord Holmes in America, the mission Quilley asked to just prior to the attack.

Jack Ryan could not have avoided the assassin by jumping behind a car because that particular street near the U.S. Naval Academy does not allow parking.

It's possible at the time this film takes place, parking has been allowed even if just for a special occasion or on a temporary basis.

Establishing shots place the action at the start of the movie around Buckingham Palace in central London, but in reality it was shot at the Royal Naval College at Greenwich in Southeast London. Canary Wharf Tower can clearly be seen in one shot.

The shots of Buckingham Palace are meant to convey to those not familiar with London that this is where the action is taking place; it's a common technique used in movies (showing the Golden Gate Bridge for a film being set in San Francisco, the Statue of Liberty for New York City, etc.).

In the night-vision-goggle scenes in the Ryan home, the windows are extremely bright, indicating that it is brighter outside than inside. NVGs only amplify available light, so at night they would still be darker than the walls. This shows that the scenes were filmed when it was daylight outside and then simply tinted green.

As the terrorists rappel down the cliff, you see one of the ropes at the base of the cliff extending away from the cliff and almost parallel to the ground. There is someone on the other end of this rope on "belay." This is a safety procedure when rappelling and requires an extra person to perform this task. There were no such extra terrorists available at this time.

In the night-vision-goggle scenes in the Ryan home, the fire in the fireplace was subdued, not bright. This shows that the scenes simply tinted green, rather than filmed using light-amplification optics.

Towards the end when the terrorists are about to attack the Ryan's house in Maryland they have killed the DSS guards and Maryland State Troopers. A close up of one lying supposedly dead on the ground shows the "dead" guard's eyelids fluttering heavily in an obviousl effort to keep his eyes closed.

When the SAS squad attacks the Libya camp the satellite shows us a heat-sensitive view of the action. But when the SAS troops fire their weapons, the satellite does not show any muzzle flashes.

When Sally is shown lying in the hospital bed, all the monitoring devices are off.

Why did the terrorist in disguise in gym clothes wait so long to kill Dr. Ryan when he was only a few feet away by the newspaper dispenser? Even though there was a guard right there, the terrorist still could have accomplished his mission. Instead, he waited too long until Dr. Ryan was there and took evasive action.

Jack and Cathy would have found out the sex of the baby in person at a joint sonogram visit to Cathy's ObGyn, not over the phone.

In the basement when they confronted the traitor Jack and Robby would have each taken a gun, one from the traitor (that had the silencer) and one from the dead agent. Also, it would have been impossible for the traitor to enter the premises wearing a pistol with silencer.

The UZI machine pistols the terrorists use in the house attack towards the end, have no silencers fitted, but still make the sound of a silenced weapon.

When Sean is arriving at the African training camp he enters a tent. Helicopter rotor blades can be heard still spinning at a high rate, but when you see the helicopter from the tent the helicopter blades are barely spinning.

The band playing toward the beginning of the film showed drums playing out of sync with the music being played.

When Sally slips down the roof and Jack catches her, the wire connecting Harrison Ford to the chimney is visible behind him.

Sean Miller is transferred from a prison in Southwark (in London) to the high security unit on the Isle of Wight. This would involve a land journey of 50 miles to the southwest, then a ferry across the Solent. However, the ambush is depicted as occurring at the Middlesbrough moving bridge, 200 miles north of London; and in later dialogue it's said to have been in Kent near the Channel, which would be southeast of London and at least 70 miles from the Isle of Wight ferry routes.

From the very rough water and distant horizon, the Ryan home appears to be on a very large body of water or even the ocean. When Cathy and Sally drive home from Sally's school, Cathy takes Route 50 West out of Annapolis. There is no such large body of water west of Annapolis.

Dennis Cooley runs out of his bookshop in the Burlington Arcade and into a tube station at Aldwych, a mile away.

Cathy Ryan is driving a 1991 Porsche 911, which has airbags, yet they did not deploy when they crashed into the barrier on the freeway to make it look more dramatic. Also, Cathy was braking heavily when they ran into the barrels of water at barely twenty miles per hour, so it is not believable that she and her daughter would have had such serious injuries.

The police would not have opened the door of the prison van, as reinforcements were on their way.

There is no explanation as to how the terrorists were not killed in the attack on the training camp.

Evidently Ryan's home phone number is in the phone book, because Miller phones Ryan to taunt him. Yet even though Miller is at large, and he and his gang just tried to kill Ryan and his family, the authorities never think of preparing to trace his call in case he phones Ryan (or, for that matter, to change Ryan's number to prevent Miller from harassing his family).

In the CIA brainstorming, Marty says that Jimmy Reardon was killed with a "double-tap" to the head. Yet although Reardon was shot twice, he was killed by a single shot to the forehead, and then shot again once he was lying on his back on the bed.

Just before Dr Kathy Ryan enters a sterile surgical suite to perform microscopic surgery a nurse ties her surgical mask for her and then pats her on both shoulders while she's wearing a sterile surgical gown. Surgeons never put on sterile gown and gloves until they are already inside the surgical suite.

During Sean Miller's trial, his defense barrister asserts that Jack shot one of the gunmen three times at point-blank range, but after arming himself, Jack was never close enough to take such a shot at any of them.

When Jack is giving his briefing using the monitor showing where the terrorist camps are, after identifying the first two, he says, "These seven we're not so sure about". The grouping he directly points to has eight camps, not seven.