Goofs for
The Rock (1996)

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• Miscellaneous: The monitor loudspeakers used at the tribute band concert are not covered with a metal grille, making them extremely fragile e.g. when stepped on (which is likely to happen a lot with a heavy rock band). Almost all speaker enclosures have some sort of protection for the woofer(s).
  
  
• Factual errors: VX is a nerve agent and does not melt skin.
  
  
• Factual errors: VX in liquid form, as presumably shown in the film by the small balls containing the substance, does not take effect immediately. After absorption through the skin and/or mucous membranes, it takes approx 1 to 2 hours before visible nerve agent symptoms begin to show. However, if a person is exposed to the aerosol form of VX, effects are immediate. In either case, the symptoms of VX poisoning resemble more of a full-body seizure than a bubbling/melting of the skin. Atropine must only be injected into the heart when poisoning by the aerosolized version occurs. Otherwise, the atropine is injected into the thigh.
  
  

• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Before Goodspeed injects himself with the antidote, he activates the spring-loaded needle of the auto-injector, then manually forces the needle into his chest. Auto-injectors are designed to be placed it directly against the skin, so when activated, it propels the needle directly into the body. What he does in the film makes no sense, especially considering the amount of force a chest injection through clothing would require, and the fact that he's been weakened by nerve agent exposure.
  
  
• Factual errors: No antidote injection could possibly prevent something from melting one's skin.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Mason and Goodspeed fall from the cart and then the marines come down along the track, we can clearly see the rope attached to the first marine from certain angles.
  
  
• Continuity: During the standoff between Hummel, Maj. Baxter, Capts. Frye and Darrow, and Gunnery Sgt. Crispe, when Mason and Goodspeed are looking through the slot, Capt. Frye only has a 9mm handgun: however, once the shooting started, Capt. Frye shot at Mason and Goodspeed with an M-4 assault rifle.
  
  
• Continuity: When Mason is opening the cell by throwing the rope, he pulls one handle down, then a few seconds later when he pulls down the second one the first is up.
  
  
• Factual errors: VX nerve agent is an oily liquid that is amber in color not green as in the movie.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: While Agent Goodspeed is describing the horrible effects of VX gas, the part where he says "it melts your skin off" does not match his mouth movements, and sounds different than the rest of the audio (since real VX gas does not melt skin (see above), it was probably added to make VX gas seem scarier to the audience).
  
  
• Factual errors: The scientists outside the gas chamber shout at the men inside to inject themselves "before your suits melt." Atropine is toxic if taken when exposure to a nerve agent has not actually taken place - taking it before the suits have melted would incapacitate the agents. Furthermore, anyone who had been injected with atropine (whether before or after nerve agent exposure) would be in no fit state to either defuse a bomb or, as Goodspeed does at the end of the film, get up and run outside to light the flares.
  
  
• Continuity: The windshield of the Hummer after smashing through the water bottle truck.
  
  
• Plot holes: Mason was sent to THE ROCK in 1962, for retrieving the microfilm that contains information regarding the 1963 Kennedy assassination.
  
  
• Continuity: The windshield of the Ferrari after crashing into the parking meters.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Ferrari crashes through the parking meters, the indicator lights on the bumper have disappeared (presumably as this car is a mock up), but in the next shot of the Ferrari from the front, the lights have reappeared.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the chase, when Goodspeed crashes the Ferrari into the parking meters, several dozen coins spill out, including a good number of pennies. Modern San Francisco parking meters do not accept pennies (and have not in decades).
  
  
• Continuity: When the Hummer crashes into the meter-maid vehicle, it skids and goes sideways. In the next shot, it is still pointed straight down the street.
  
  
• Continuity: In the helicopter on the way to Alcatraz, Lt. Shepard quickly loses the headset he is seen to be putting on.
  
  
• Continuity: Mason and Stanley dry off too quickly after sheltering underwater from the firebombs.
  
  
• Continuity: Mason and Goodspeed peer through a slot in the wall that is open when Goodspeed looks at it, but closed when he motions for Mason to look.
  
  
• Continuity: The plane which rolls out of the hanger is a two seater F/A-18 Hornet, yet all aircraft in the flight squadron are single seaters.
  
  
• Factual errors: The aircraft used to drop the thermite plasma are F/A-18s, which are normally US Navy jets, but they have US Air Force markings as do the pilots flying them. The Air Force flies F-16s.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Goodspeed is talking to his girlfriend about his day at work, he plucks the open A string on his guitar and the pitch bends slightly up. On guitars with a hardtail bridge, it's impossible to do such note bends on open strings, without touching the tuning keys or pulling the whole neck backwards.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: It appears that Goodspeed leaps to catch the rolling VX in his right hand, catches it in his left, then has it in his right again, but close examination reveals he quickly pushes the ball from one hand to the other.
  
  
• Continuity: The number of F-18s headed toward Alcatraz varies between four, five and six.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Mason has been imprisoned for the past 30 years yet when he escapes he knows how to work a cell phone (reasonable, since it's not hard) and modern scuba gear (which hasn't changed all that much).
  
  
• Plot holes: At the end Goodspeed puts a glass sphere in the pocket on his chest. We do not see any measures taken to prevent it from breaking. But in the fight afterward we clearly see Goodspeed land on his chest. The same glass later breaks quite easily in the mouth of the terrorist.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Supporting cables visible on the first camera shot of Goodspeed being blown into the sea.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: During the final shootout after the soldiers mutiny against Hummel, you can see Hummel make a dive behind a wall. As he does this, you can see in the lower half of the screen the small blue corner of a mat that was used. Note that this is only visible in the normal TV format and can't be seen in the wide-screen format.
  
  
• Factual errors: The AH-1 Cobra gunships used in the infiltration scene are not Marine helicopters, but rather the Army model. The Marine version is an updated model with twin jet engine propulsion turbines, the Army model used in the infiltration scene still uses a single jet turbine to turn the rotors. This can be seen by observing the single exhaust port instead of the twin exhaust on the marine model. During a Navy S.E.A.L. incursion marine helicopters would escort the transport helicopter, not Army Cobras as depicted in the film.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Godspeed crashes the Ferrari, the airbag inflates and he has to shoot it out to escape the car. Airbags inflate and then deflate automatically, you do not have to puncture them to deflate them.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Cameras are visible on the roads at several points during the car chase (Mason's Hummer can be seen to drive over one as it collides with the vehicles by the telegraph pole).
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: During the car chase, Mason runs the Hummer into a telephone pole, knocking it over. Subsequently, two of the FBI chase vehicles flip over (one tries to cut his wheel too hard to avoid it and the other runs into a parked car). The driver of both cars is the same man.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the chase scene with the Hummer, one of the cars that flips, clearly showing the explosives-holding special effects canister under the car, still smoking.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the cable car is knocked off its tracks, slides down the hill and explodes, you can see the road behind and there are no tracks coming down the hill.
  
  
• Continuity: The old lady seen crossing in front of the crashing trolley is also a passenger on the same trolley.
  
  
• Continuity: While talking to his daughter in the Palace of Fine Arts, Mason's tie changes.
  
  
• Continuity: The tether rope on the morgue cart disappears and reappears.
  
  
• Continuity: The same extras (most notably the man with a large white beard) can be seen standing both on the left and on the right of the Ferrari when it breaks the storefront window.
  
  
• Continuity: The tour guide's socks are up/down between shots in the prison.
  
  
• Continuity: The disguised Marine that shoots the two guards inside the weapons depot is wearing gloves. Later, when he drops the VX gas canister, he's not wearing them. Although it's possible that he took them off, even if he did, he's shown wearing them a second later (when Major Baxter yells "Evac!"). Then it shows him banging on the door without them on.
  
  
• Continuity: After Goodspeed and Mason have been captured, and it shows the words "52 minutes to deadline", that would make it 11:08 in the morning. When they launch the first rocket, the sun is really far down in the west, making it appear to be about 7:30 p.m., not 12 midday. When Hummel aborts it, it's blue sky. When Goodspeed launches the green flares, the sky changes from sunset to midday to sunset in about ten seconds. When he is rescued by the FBI, it's almost dark, about 9 p.m. But in reality, according to the deadline, it's only about 1 p.m. at most.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the tram crushes the Ferrari, the alloy wheels that come apart from the car are not Ferrari alloys (showing this is another mock up car and not a real Ferrari). These mock alloys can also be seen resting on the ground when Goodspeed turns to observe the crushed Ferrari.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Goodspeed is firing his pistol from the mine carts, sometimes his gun has a muzzle flash when it fires and sometimes not.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At several points in the movie, the Marines are firing M4s; sometimes they eject cartridges, but when you see a closepup of the captain firing at Goodspeed and Mason, there are no cartridges being ejected from the weapon.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Goodspeed first commandeers the Ferrari, it's clear that he isn't familiar with Ferrari's gated shifter system in the F-355. He shifts into 3rd gear and promptly lays rubber. Though the 355 has ample power to start in 3rd gear, the smoky burnout had to have been accomplished in 1st.
  
  
• Continuity: When Goodspeed gets in the Ferrari and closes the door, you can see that it's the door of the real F-355. Later when the tram destroys the car, the door is that of the stunt vehicle and, understandably, not of the real Ferrari.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Rubber tires are visible underneath the trolley as it crashes into the SUV.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the first missile is launched towards Oakland, there is concern about it striking a stadium where a football game is being played. West Coast games have a 1pm start time for TV purposes, and generally do not open the gates until 12:15pm. If noon is the deadline, then no-one other then the players, stadium employees, and TV crews would be at the stadium. Yet when the stadium, (presumed to be the Oakland Coliseum) the night lights are on, and the stadium appears full. The night lights would not yet be on.
  
  
• Factual errors: When General Hummel is on the telephone he says Oh-Hundred Hours for midnight. A soldier would not say oh for zero. A soldier would state zero, because they have been drilled since boot that oh is a letter, zero is a number.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The launched missile is said to be launched toward a football game in Oakland. However, the next shot shows the missile flying over Candlestick Park in San Francisco, not the Oakland Colliseum. In fact, the missile is clearly shown grazing trees on top of Bayview Hill.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the missile is launched, the radar operator states that the missile is headed toward Oakland. This is backed up by the map showing the missile's path from Alcatraz southeast in the direction of Oakland and the football game. However, when the missile clears the hill and the stadium comes into view, it is obvious that this is Candlestick Park in San Francisco and not the Oakland Coliseum.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Goodspeed lives in Washington D.C., but When he calls Carla, you can clearly see out of the apartment widow that it is the skyline of downtown Los Angeles.
  
  
• Factual errors: When infiltrating Alcatraz, the SEALs are not diving with SCUBA equipment, but with modern Rebreathers, (hard to be sure what type, possibly Draegers). Anyhow, very different, very technical, and requiring considerable training for even a very experienced Scuba instructor. No way Mason could just put it on and use it after 30 years in jail.
  
  
• Factual errors: According to the movie Atropine should be injected directly into one's heart to neutralize the effects of VX poison gas. When Goodspeed injects himself with the Atropine he injects the needle in a spot too low to be his heart. It is more like he was injecting it into his stomach.
  
  
• Factual errors: Atropine does not have to be injected into the heart to be effective. It is usually injected into the thigh.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Womack first receives a telephone call from Hummel, he turns to his secretary and says "call the San Francisco office... it's seems like Alcatraz has just been reopened (19mins 40secs into the film)." The very next shot is an aerial view of the pentagon. The lights are on at the pentagon, but there is some daylight - indicating that it is either very early in the morning or later afternoon/early evening. However, the text on the screen then says "PENTAGON 11:58." Now this is impossible. At 11.58, it is either pitch black or full daylight.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When the Ferrari finally is destroyed, it appears that it is simply a shell sitting over a chassis. The shell seems to almost jump off the chassis upon impact, indicating that it wasn't bolted in as it should be.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: General Hummel and his men are Marines. When the Marines are encouraging General Hummel to command the launch, one Marine tells Hummel "C'mon General, let's be all we can be." This is the Army's tag line, not the Marines', which is "the few and the proud." However, he could have just been saying something to try and motivate the general into launching the missile.
  
  
• Continuity: During the shower room scene, Major Baxter who is on the immediate right of the General is seen carrying an M16A2 rifle. A few frames later his weapon magically transforms into a Colt Commando. A frame later his weapon transforms back into an M16A2. The final frame shows him holding his Colt Commando.
  
  
• Continuity: After Mason talks to his daughter, Wolmac Steps forward and starts to moan about Damages to San Francisco, his jacket changes position over his injured shoulder. He lifts his arm in a motion to show how he's been injured and his jacket slides off his shoulder. When the camera cuts back to him his jacket is normal again.
  
  
• Factual errors: The text on the launch control computer's display is clearly projected onto the face of one of Hummel's marines. CRT or LCD displays do not project an image onto the user.
  
  
• Factual errors: Throughout the movie, the Marines refer to each other as soldiers. A real Marine would never call himself or another Marine a "soldier".
  
  
• Factual errors: As the Marines are patrolling, they continuously charge their weapons. While on patrol, it would be assumed that they would already have a round in the chamber. As a result, charging the weapon again would not only be unnecessary, but it would cause the weapon to eject a perfectly good round.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Goodspeed is riding the dirt bike, on a up close shot of Goodspeed on the phone. You clearly see the front tire of the dirt bike is not moving.
  
  
• Factual errors: As the F/A-18s roll out of the hanger, the markings under the canopy say U.S. Air Force, but if you look just above the wings you can still see the VFMA markings indicating this is a U.S. Marine Corps jet.
  
  
• Continuity: When Goodspeed is talking to Captain Darrow in the lighthouse, Darrow drops his gun while taunting Goodspeed. When asked if he likes Elton John's 'Rocket Man' you can see him holding his gun when he responds.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: While on approach to Alcatraz the FA/18 Hornets can be seen with no weapons load-out making it impossible to have dropped thermite plasma on the island.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Goodspeed is talking to Isherwood on the cell phone while riding the motorcycle, on long shots it can be easily seen that it is *not* Nicolas Cage riding the motorcycle.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: In the scene in which Goodspeed shoots the marine in the cart, the slide of his handgun obviously pulls back against the ejection port which would prevent the pistol from firing.
  
  
• Factual errors: Right before the Marines betray General Hummel, Captain Darrow refers to Gunnery Sergeant Crisp simply as "Sergeant". NCO's and SNCO's in the Marine Corps are always referred to by their full rank, i.e, "Gunnery Sergeant", never simply "Sergeant". No real Marine would ever make this error.
  
  
• Factual errors: In a shot at the Naval Weapons Depot, a bald marine with a goatee rises from a squatting stance holding two dart pistols, turns, and tranquilizes a pair of guards. Marines are not allowed to have facial hair below the corner of their lip.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the shower room scene, when they find "a live one" who dies a moment later, Hummel closes the man's eyes yet you see his right eye flinch slightly at Hummel's touch. Needless to say, dead men don't flinch.
  
  
• Factual errors: The F/A-18's flying towards Alcatraz clearly have no weapons mounted on them.
  
  
• Continuity: After the trolley car destroys his Ferrari, Goodspeed steals a dirt bike. When he knocks the rider off, the rider falls to the left side of the bike. However, in the next scene he is on the ground to the right of the bike.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the Pentagon scene, they say that VX was made to be resistant to napalm. However VX is destroyed in the heat of napalm.
  
  
• Factual errors: It is quoted multiple times that the characters should take atropine to stop the VX from harming them. In reality, one would take atropine while following up with a shot of diazepam (both in the thigh in auto-injectors, as said above). The atropine blocks the production of a certain bodily receptor, while the diazepam creates new ones.
  
  
• Factual errors: In this film, VX gas rockets are stolen from the U.S. military. Richard Nixon ordered a moratorium on production of gas weapons, and in 1974 The United States at long last became a signatory to the Geneva Arms Protocol of 1928, prohibiting production, storage, and use of gas weapons.
  
  
• Factual errors: There isn't one MOS in the USMC that wears a beret, yet Captains Frye and Darrow are both wearing them throughout the movie.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Ferrari airbag deploys too late and too slowly. Further, it is over-sized.
  
  
• Continuity: When Shephard picks up Mason's bag on the helicopter, he is wearing his headset. However, when the shot changes to a closeup while he describes the gear inside, the headset is gone.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): One of Hummel's marines, the one operating the intrusion sensors, has a hair "knob" on the top of his head partially hidden by his headset. This is something no U.S. military member would have, much less a marine.
  
  

• Errors in geography: SPOILER: When Goodspeed is driving away from the church in Fort Walton, mountains can clearly be seen on the horizon. Fort Walton is supposedly located in Kansas; there is no Fort Walton, but there is a town called Walton, which is about 7 miles from Newton. While indeed it is a common misconception that Kansas is flat as a pancake (disproved, for example, by the Smoky Hills and the Saline River Valley), no terrain near the real Walton can match what appears on-screen. This is because the scene was filmed in Ventura, California.
  
  
• Factual errors: SPOILER: When Goodspeed and Mason are walking through the sewers after the SEAL team was wiped out, Goodspeed gets tough with Mason and pulls out his handgun, racking the slide back and chambering a round. Later on, Mason gives him his handgun back and Goodspeed then racks the slide back again looking tough. In actuality there should have been a perfectly good round that would have ejected.
  
  

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