Goofs for
Con Air (1997) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: Vince Larkin's and Duncan Malloy's arms and sunglasses when watching the car fall out of the sky.
  
  
• Factual errors: Most fire trucks, especially ladder trucks, cannot pump water and drive at the same time, as the power from the motor is disengaged from the transmission/driveshaft and diverted to the pump gearing.
  
  
• Continuity: Diamond Dog's hat spins around during a brief cut away.
  
  

• Continuity: When Bishop tries to restrain Pinball, her hat has fallen off, yet it reappears, disappears, and reappears on her head.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Diamond Dog gets the small arsenal out from the belly of the plane, he opens a box of shotguns. He pulls them out and throws them to nearby cons, but when the camera switches to the cons, they are catching assault rifles, not shotguns, because he's opened the second box as well.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Duncan Malloy's car hits the ground, a cable holding the front left tire is visible.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When the plane is crashing at the Las Vegas strip the casinos that the plane hits / passes are all in wrong order. The plane passes the Stratosphere and is heading south on the strip. It then hits the guitar for the Hard Rock Hotel, which is not even on the strip, but is several blocks east and much further south. Then they show the Circus Circus sign, which is after the Stratosphere. A few clips later as the plane is about to touch down it passes the white wooden roller coaster of the Boardwalk Casino. The casino is on the wrong side of the plane if it is flying south, and the Boardwalk casino is miles south of The Sands, where the plane finally stops. The next exterior shot shows the Barbary Coast and it is in the correct place south of Circus Circus and to the correct side of the southbound plane. Other shots show the Mirage and the Sands being mixed up and the plane finally ends at the front door of The Sands (which is no longer in existence).
  
  
• Continuity: When the plane crashes onto the strip and heads for the casino it passes a white Corvette. When the plane stops, the same white Corvette is there again.
  
  
• Continuity: When the plane is headed to crash at the Las Vegas strip, the sky shows that it is sunset or dusk. About two cuts later, the sky is pitch black.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Diamond Dog and another con look similar to some people, leading to apparent continuity errors.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Cameron Poe takes the photograph of his daughter back from Guard Falson. A while later, Cameron shakes him and demands the photograph. But he didn't really want the photograph; this was a cover for planting the tape.
  
  
• Factual errors: The C-123 aircraft does not have lower compartments as depicted in the movie.
  
  
• Factual errors: Towards the end of the movie, when the C-123 is over Las Vegas, it hits a neon guitar and separates a portion of the wing. With the amount of the wing that is sheared off, and the fact that the engine on the same wing isn't running, the aircraft would not be able to level out and would not fly - it would drop onto the broken wing and crash on its side.
  
  
• Continuity: Just before Poe meets Larkin, he is surrounded by people with guns. He holds his hands out and away from him as a gesture of surrendering. His arms are back down at his sides for the close-ups, but are out and away from him again during other shots.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When the plane in supposed to be over Fresno, we see that it is actually over the intersection of State Street and North Temple Street in downtown Salt Lake City.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the beginning, as the film mentions the accomplishments of the US Army Rangers, most of the stock footage from Desert Storm is of US Army Special Forces (Green Berets) and US Marines, not of Rangers.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the plane is tied to the cement post and is being shot at by Cyrus, there is a frame that clearly shows the hook detached from the rope. It is barely visible in real time, but if viewed frame by frame, it is evident. This same rope attaches itself to Malloy's car seconds later and lifts it into the air.
  
  
• Continuity: When the plane lands in Carson City, it is met by guards wearing "Dept. of Prisons" jackets and a bus painted with "Bureau of Prisons" in the side.
  
  
• Continuity: At the desert airfield when Poe and Larkin meet next to the drug baron's private jet, we see one of the bad guys looking out of the cockpit of the aircraft at them. The window he looks out of in close-up is clearly a Gates/Bombardier Lear jet cockpit window, but the aircraft is a Rockwell Sabreliner.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Larkin is driving the car at high speeds to the airfield, he is supposed to be driving along the straight road, yet we can see from the shadow circling round him and the sun moving when he is on the phone, that he is driving round in circles.
  
  
• Continuity: The gear stick in the car when Larkin is driving the car to the airfield.
  
  
• Continuity: When Larkin is running to a building when the plane is landing at Lerner Air Field, his sunglasses are on. But an instant later when he opens the door and goes into the building, his sun glasses are off.
  
  
• Continuity: When DEA Agent Sims is holding Pinball as a human shield, his arm is around/not around his neck between shots
  
  
• Continuity: Cyrus orders dead DEA agent Sims' prison clothes to be put on guard Falzon, but there is no way they would fit the much taller and heavier guard. In fact when we see him being taken from the plane, they are actually quite loose on him. Furthermore, Cyrus shot Sims in the chest (where the heart is). An area where a bullet hole will be clearly visible for people to see. So, it should have been easier for the other guards to find out that these were not real prisoners.
  
  
• Continuity: When DEA Agent Willie Sims is shot on the plane, the blood on his lips moves three times.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The whole band Lynard Skynard did not die in a plane crash. Although their plane did crash, only three members of the band were killed along with three other passengers. The other seven members of the band escaped with injuries.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Prior to accidentally killing the drunk, Poe is outside of the bar, with a "BAR" sign visible. Alabama prohibits using the word "bar". It would be a "club", "place", or just about anything else, but never a bar.
  
  
• Continuity: When Larkin runs into the hangar in search of a plane or chopper, Malloy's Corvette is visible behind him through the open gate, covered with a blue tarp. Once Larkin is out and considers using the Corvette, the tarp is gone.
  
  
• Continuity: More than one Corvette was used for all the shots - there were at least two different model years. The rear shots show a 1966 without back-up lights in the panel, and a 1967 which do have the back-up lights.
  
  
• Continuity: Towards the very end of the movie, you see the stuffed bunny being washed down a gutter drain. Poe grabs it and you can see that it is wet, yet when he gives it to his daughter, it is dry.
  
  
• Factual errors: The pilot of the Cobra attack helicopter is aiming at the C-123K. We can see him putting the target box on the plane's port engine. However, external shots of the helicopter show there are only non-guided missiles fitted on it.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Cobra helicopters are armed with M197 20mm rotary cannons, but when they are firing into the back of the C-123K, the cannon barrels are not rotating.
  
  
• Continuity: We see Larkin put his sunglasses up to his eyes twice in consecutive shots as the DEA helicopters take off to shoot down the plane.
  
  
• Factual errors: The only airport in Carson City is incapable of landing a C-123K, as even the unloaded weight of the aircraft exceeds the airport's published load limits.
  
  
• Continuity: In several scenes we see Swamp Thing steering the plane with the control wheel while the plane is on the ground. You actually steer a plane with pedals at the pilot's feet when the plane is on the ground, not with the control wheel.
  
  
• Factual errors: Baby O states that if he doesn't get his insulin within two hours, he would die; however, this is not how diabetes works and is a common misconception in movies and TV. Unless Baby O's glucose levels are incredibly high (which is highly unlikely, as it is obvious he has [up to that point] been controlling his levels) he would be able to go for months on end before having such serious health problems. Far more dangerous is for a diabetic to take insulin when his glucose levels are low.
  
  
• Continuity: When Garland Greene removes the doll from the little girl's tea party, in the close up of the doll's head, he clearly uses his right hand to lift the doll, but when he sits down, he is holding it with his left hand.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When Poe and Larken chase the fire truck they end up in a tunnel that appears to be near Las Vegas Blvd. The only tunnel in the city is a bypass to the airport that connects to the 215 Freeway which didn't even exist until 1998.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Repeated several times through the movie, you can see the camera and light screens reflected - this is mainly present during the closeups of the actors in the police/military helicopters.
  
  
• Factual errors: The "transponder" removed from the Con Air aircraft is actually just a remote control head as evidenced by the large, multi-contact connector on the back of it. Even if it were the transponder, it would not operate on a single lantern battery, nor would it operate without an antenna. Having two operating transponders in an aircraft (the Grand Canyon Tours aircraft) would result in a collision alarm at Air Traffic Control since the radar would see two aircraft in the same place.
  
  
• Continuity: At the end of the movie, towards the end of the fight between Cyrus and Poe, Cameron clearly handcuffs Cyrus to the fire truck's ladder; the ladder then begins to rise (which it couldn't do while in motion anyway), hurling Cyrus through the overpass. As his body leaves the ladder the framework is intact yet as his body comes out the opposite side the handcuff - one end still on his wrist - is no longer around anything even though it is obviously still closed.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Corvette is being pulled behind the C-123 the rope is clearly visible until the car passes through the control tower. At that point we're supposed to think the car has come lose somehow causing it to fall to the ground. However, just before the car hits the ground and definitely afterwards the rope is again clearly visible.
  
  
• Continuity: When Malloy first arrives in the movie, you can see that his Corvette does not have a front license plate, only a rear plate. Later, when Larkin leaves in the Corvette for Lerner Air Field, you can read the CA97 sticker number G5935Z45 on the rear license plate on the Corvette. After Malloy's Corvette crashes through the control tower and lands on the ground, the car bounces and you can see the rear license plate still in good condition and firmly attached to the rear of the car. Malloy then picks up a license plate along the side the car. Since he had no front plate, it is obviously the rear plate with the same sticker number G5935Z45, seriously bent up with scratches and the word "California" ground off of the plate.
  
  
• Factual errors: If Poe was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the State Of Alabama, he would be sentenced to serve his sentence in a Alabama State Penitentiary, not in a Federal Penitentiary.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the plane lands in Carson City for the transfer of prisoners, the waiting guards have "Department of Prisons" across their backs while the bus that transported the prisoners says, "Bureau of Prisons". A government entity would use either "Department" or "Bureau" but never both to identify itself.
  
  
• Continuity: When Cyrus finishes reading Poe's letter, he pulls the stuffed bunny out of his back pocket and points his pistol at it. He is holding both his pistol and the letter in his right hand. When he says, "Make a move and the bunny gets it", the letter he was holding disappears.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The prisoner transport plane is only overseen by the U.S. Marshal Service, not run by it, so on board it would make sense that all guards all wear California Department of Corrections uniforms.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In prison Poe reads aloud one of Casey's letters recounting her unhappy first day at school and why she doesn't want to go back. The vocabulary in her letter seems unusually advanced for a child who has barely started formal education, but it would only make sense that a child's letter to father in jail would have been written by her mother with the child's input.
  
  
• Continuity: When the three agents first see the airplane dragging Malloy's Corvette in the air the plane is a good ways away from them yet after while the Corvette hits a building and is released from the plane and lands next to the three agents. The plane would of had to do an impossible turn and fly back toward the agents. It is does not show the plane turning at all, it was taking off and was trying to gain altitude.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Baby-O can't get off the plane in Carson City because only white convicts are expected. When the men are prepped to get off the plane we see two black men among them. However, only the three dead prisoners that were being replaced needed to be white. There were still three more (making six all together) whose race was not specified.
  
  

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