The Bourne Identity (2002)

◄ The Bourne Identity (2002)

Anachronisms

Bourne's Russian passport says that the place of issue was Moscow (spelt wrongly, as discussed elsewhere) in 'USSR'. By 2003 that would have been 'Russia'.
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Audio/visual unsynchronised

After the assassin breaks through the window into Jason's apartment, he empties his submachine gun in three bursts. When the magazine is empty, you can hear "click click click click click click click". In reality, when the weapon is out of ammunition, there would be one click only as the weapon is a Micro Galil and fires from a closed bolt with no bolt hold-open device.
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In the scene where the assassins are coming up after Bourne has talked to his boss you see the third assassin inserting a new magazine into his rifle. However, the sound heard as he inserts the magazine is that of a round being chambered. Additionally, right before he is shot by Bourne as Bourne falls, he is heard to chamber another round (this would in actuality be correct at that point, as he hadn't chambered a round initially, only loaded a magazine.)
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Character error

When Jason nearly falls off the ledge, it is clearly a stunt double as the double has curly/shaggy hair while Damon's hair is short.
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The wanted poster put together by Nikki (written in German) in Paris has grammatical and spelling errors all over it (ie. "Verhaftungsantrag" instead of the correct "Haftbefehl").
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The two police officers who wake up Jason on the park bench in Zurich speak standard German with a strong Swiss German accent. They would have talked to Jason in Swiss German before perhaps switching to German once they realized that he was not Swiss.
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When Bourne and Marie are about to abandon her car in the garage, Bourne says he'll wipe down the car (of fingerprints) but by then it is clear that it is known who they are so wiping the car clean would be a waste of time, something Bourne wold know better than to do.
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Continuity

A coating of snow reappears on the fire escape at the consulate between shots.
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When Jason is hanging from the fire escape at the consulate he looks down to see where to put his feet on the narrow ledge. There are already two shoe prints in the snow right where he places his feet.
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After Jason shoots the gas tank, the Professor's view of the farm is obstructed by thick black smoke. When we see the tank from Jason's point of view, the smoke is white, relatively sparse and can easily be seen through.
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Just before the car chase, we see a police car pull up behind the Mini. When the chase starts, the police car is gone.
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When Jason is telling Marie about his situation in the cafe on the highway, the red bag is on Jason's right next to the aisle. In mid-sentence the camera switches to a long shot and the bag has jumped to Jason's left and is flush against the wall. When the camera moves back, the bag is back to its original place.
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When Jason is being pursued through the American consulate the red duffel bag changes from his right to left shoulder and back several times.
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When Bourne steps onto the hand railing of the fire escape, the railing is swinging loosely and is clearly not attached to the wall of the bank. Then there is a close-up shot of the railing breaking loose from the wall.
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When Jason drops the red bag from the fire escape, it hits a lamp on its way down. When Jason looks down, the lamp swings but comes to a stop. In a later shot, the lamp is still swinging.
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When Bourne is on the fire escape at the consulate and he drops the red bag, there is a car parked beside the building. In the next shot, we only see the bag. The car has vanished. Then as he swings onto the ledge, the car is back. Then as he climbs down the wall, the car has disappeared.
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When Jason is climbing down the wall at the consulate, he starts to move around the corner to his right and the lamp is below him. But in the next shot, as he is finishing the same move, the lamp is beside him.
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At the consulate, Jason steps up onto the railing with his left foot to reach the roof. In the next shot he is using his right foot.
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When Jason has his hand identified in the Bank in Zurich, he removes his hand from the panel and it is approved. In the next shot, his hand is back on the panel.
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When Marie and Jason are in the car on the way to France and she asks him, "What kind of person pays $20,000 to get a ride to France?" Jason's hand changes position between shots.
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When Jason opens the safety deposit box in the Gemeinschaft Bank in Zurich, the contents are spread evenly around the tray, with the heavy gun on the left. But the box had just been carried upright (by the handle) and set down on the table, so that the contents should all be in a heap on the right-hand side.
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Right before Wombosi gets shot, he is coming down the stairs wearing a turtle neck and carrying a jacket in his left hand. The instant he gets shot, he is wearing the jacket, and falls down the stairs with it on.
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Right before Wombosi gets shot, he is coming down the stairs followed by his bodyguard. But at the moment Womosi is shot there is nobody behind him.
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When Jason finds the hidden items in the safety deposit box there are two green passports on top with the top one being from Brazil. At this time his hands are empty. He is then shown reacting to a noise and turning around with a green passport in his hands. When he reaches back into the box, the passports are still in the same order.
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When Jason opens the safety deposit box, there is a watch that indicates its 5:00 in the upper tray. When he goes to remove the upper tray the watch has disappeared.
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The center of the steering wheel has a "Cooper" badge when Jason and Maria are parked in front of Paris train station, but during chase scenes the wheel read "Mini" then changes to "Cooper" again.
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When the professor is driving to kill Wombosi, two people are visible in the car when seen from the front, yet only the professor is supposed to be inside the car.
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When Jason Bourne is calling the numbers from Kane's bill, he is dressed in his black coat and grey sweater, except for one shot where he is wearing clothes from the first scenes in Paris.
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In the shot right after Marie agrees to drive Jason to Paris, Jason is wearing the clothes from the Paris apartment scenes. For the rest of the ride to Paris he is wearing the tan sweater.
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During the car chase, the Mini's windscreen is cracked as they smash into the phone booth. The windscreen damage disappears and reappears in subsequent shots.
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When Jason first wakes up on the fishing boat, and confronts the fisherman, he is holding the ID tag removed from his hip. His left hand holding the tag is clean/bloody/clean between shots.
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When Conklin is reviewing the videotape of Bourne's escape, he takes off his glasses twice without having had time to put them back on again.
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Towards the end of the chase scene, when the police motorcycle is traveling parallel to the Mini Cooper, its headlight is on/off between shots.
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When Jason first picks up the pen in the Paris apartment he puts the cap on the top, but in the next shot the cap is gone. Later, the cap reappears and disappears.
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After the assassin jumps out of the window at the Paris apartment, Jason tells Marie to get her shoes. We do not see Marie leave the room but in a subsequent shot she has the shoes in hand.
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Close-ups of Marie holding the papers from the assassin's bag (when she examines the contents of the bag at the apartment and then in the car at the train station), the nails on the hands are long with clear polish, but Marie's nails are short with multi-colored dark polish.
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At the consulate, while Jason ascends the stairs, there is a shot in which feet are visible at the top of the final flight of stairs. The next shot shows Jason from the front, and there is no one around.
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While Jason is clinging on the side of the consulate wall under the catwalk, he looks down at the bag on the sidewalk after the Marines close the door. When we see the bag from Jason's point of view, we can see the catwalk railing in the bottom of the shot indicating the camera is standing on the catwalk and not from the wall below it.
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When Jason drops the red bag off the fire escape, it bounces once on the ground revealing an impact crater in the snow. When he retrieves it, there is no impact crater.
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In the consulate, we first see a Marine Corps SSgt handing out weapons from the armory to the Marine security force before pursuing Bourne. When we next see him he is equipped with a Heckler & Koch MP5K submachine gun. When the same SSgt then opens the catwalk door to look around for Bourne, he is shown carrying a Colt M-16 rifle.
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When Jason finds his passport in the safety deposit box, it shows his address in French postal code 75005. When he catches the assassin in his house, they find instructions telling the assassin where to find Jason's house, and the sheet lists his house in French postal code 75006.
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When Jason shoots at the killer in the field (near the farmhouse) the second time, the killer throws his gun far away with his right hand (the gun flies out of the left side of the screen). But afterwards Jason picks it up from the ground right behind the killer's back.
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When Marie is approaching the hotel to get the records on Kane, her scarf is knotted in one way. It is then knotted a different way when she is in the hotel and a third way when she leaves.
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When sitting in the car outside the train station we see someone walk to the right in the background pulling a blue suitcase wearing blue jeans and a khaki top. When we cut back to the same view a few seconds later the same man is walking past again to the right.
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After an exterior shot of CIA headquarters showing that it is winter outside, Conklin is later shown in the headquarters wearing a short-sleeve summer dress shirt.
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When Wombosi is being shot through the window, glass is clearly breaking out from the lower part of the window. When we see through the Professor's scope the bullet holes are at the upper part of the window.
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Just before Wombosi is shot, there are bright white curtains covering most of the window. When he is shot, they disappear completely.
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From the first viewing of Eamon's farmhouse through The Professor's rifle's viewfinder until the time that Eamon, his children, and Marie drive away, the red Jeep Cherokee alternates between pointing in towards the property (as when Eamon arrived) and pointing away (as when they are leaving). This happens not just once, but twice, although the car would not have been moved by anyone at all while they were sleeping overnight.
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When Jason is in the bathroom with Marie cutting her hair, he finishes with her having long bangs that tuck behind her ears. The next scene when she wakes up, her bangs are short.
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Conklin removes his coat on the Pont Neuf as a signal for Jason to call. In the close-up, he removes his raincoat, but his suit jacket is still on underneath. However, in the long shot, both coats are removed exposing his dress shirt.
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During the close quarter fight at the consulate, the cap falls from the Marine's head three times: when Jason twists and locks his arm, when he parries his baton and finally when Jason pushes him back.
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When Jason is talking to Marie in the car about giving herself up to cops, some cops approach the car. In the following chase scene Jason backs up his Mini and nearly hits the front part of the bus. Then a police cars takes the place between his Mini and the bus. In the following shot however you can see absolutely no cars or buses behind the cop. In the scene after this one the bus is on its place again.
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At the consulate sequence in Zürich, when Jason escapes via the fire escape platform by going under it and clinging to the side of the building, he basically clears most of the previously undisturbed snow off the platform. However, when the marine arrives moments later, the platform is again covered with undisturbed snow as it was before Jason arrived at the platform.
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In the scene where Jason and Marie and making out, the tattoo on her back switches from her right shoulder blade to her left, between shots.
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The bullet holes in Jason's back change positions between shots.
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When Castel is activated, and random images of him in action are shown, there is a picture of The Professor (Clive Owen) with his suppressed SIG sniper rifle cut into the mix.
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When the professor is driving the BMW at night, the only lit exterior lamps are the daytime running lamps (high beam bulbs running on low voltage). However, when we see the interior of the vehicle in the next shot, the orange dashboard lights are illuminated, which would only occur if the car's parking or headlamps were turned fully on.
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The Professor (Clive Owen) has a Walther P5C pistol in his carry bag. When he drops this in the snow, it becomes a Czech CZ-100.
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When Marie is about to leave the farmhouse with Eamon, the waiting red vehicle has both doors open on the right side. However, when she finally decides to get in, only the back right door is open for her. The front door is closed.
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At the beginning of the mini car chase, just after Jason performs a J-turn and speeds off down the road, he brakes for the corner and his left brake light is out. In all subsequent shots both brake lights work.
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At the CIA briefing on Wombosi's shakedown Abbott's seat is occupied by a different man. In the next shot that man is gone and Abbott is sitting in the seat.
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Jason goes into the train station and puts the red bag in a locker and leaves without the key. He never returns to the locker, but the red bag is back as is the money.
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The BMW used by The Professor can be seen earlier in the film, used as an "extra" during the car chase through Paris. During the same chase, another car, a BMW 735 is seen parked and unoccupied during the same chase when a couple of pedestrians leap onto the bonnet to avoid Bourne and Marie in the Mini; 30 seconds later, this same car is seen driving along the side of the Seine prior to being involved in an accident with a police motorcyclist and another vehicle, sustaining substantial damage. Just over a minute later, the same car is seen, undamaged, braking to let Bourne and a police car out of a side street.
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While recovering on the fishing boat and in the Zurich scenes, Bourne is wearing a sweater with holes on the back that match the locations of his bullet wounds. But when the boat captain cut the wet suit off to administer first aid, Bourne was not wearing a sweater beneath it.
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When Marie and Jason are driving to Paris it is obviously in the dead of winter. When they arrive in Paris and Marie awakens Jason to give him breakfast, the trees in the background are leafed out and are completely green. The morning arrival scene in Paris was obviously filmed at an entirely different time of year. The subsequent scene of Marie and Jason driving to Jason's apartment shows the trees bare again.
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The windscreen of the Mini is cracked after crashing into the glass door of the telephone booth during the car chase. When Jason and Marie park the Mini, and when the police discover it, the windscreen is not cracked.
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When Marie is explaining to Eamon what she and Jason are doing at the farmhouse the lights seen in the window behind Jason turn off and on between scenes.
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When Bourne first meets Marie he throws her a $10,000 bundle of notes. In one shot they get ruffled and in the next they are all perfectly straight again.
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In the fight scene in Jason's apartment, the assassin removes the pen that Jason has jammed into his hand, when he attacks Jason again, the pen is clearly scene being held by Jason.
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When Jason parks the Mini in the underground car park, there's a wall to the right of the car. A few scenes later when the police find the car, there's a covered car to the right of the mini and no wall in sight.
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When sitting in the car in Paris, just before the car chase, Marie's fingernails go from being shorter and multi-colored to long and having no polish in a matter of seconds.
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At the beginning of the movie, the man on the boat cuts open Bourne's wetsuit. A few shots later, it is clearly just pulled down.
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Crew or equipment visible

When Eamon is running away with Marie and his kids, the camera passes behind the car and a crewmember is reflected in the trunk.
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Crew pulling dolly reflected in a car window as Bourne walks to the consulate.
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Errors in geography

The tram in Zurich which nearly hit Jason is correctly labeled with signs from the Zurich tram line 10. But the vehicle itself is definitely not from Zurich. It has also the wrong track width (Zurich has a track width of 1000 mm). It is obvious that the Zurich scenes are recorded in Prague.
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When Jason and Marie are driving from Zurich to Paris, they can be seen on a country road next to a railroad track with high mountains in the background. While it is true that between Zurich and Basel, the railroad track is at some points next to the road, they would certainly not have taken a country road. There are highways directly leading from Zurich via Basel to Paris. Furthermore, there are no mountains that high anywhere near the route they are taking. The only mountains that could possibly be seen by them is the Jura, which is no higher than 1720 meters. The mountains shown are however clearly supposed to be the Alps.
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The train station Jason is shown when he arrives with the TGV, probably supposed to be Zurich, is none of the stations he would have come gotten off the TGV, which would be Lyon or Geneva.
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Factual errors

The names on his Russian passport are written both in Cyrillic and Latin letters. In Cyrillic they say "Lshtshfum, Ashef" (which is a total nonsense - it is matching Russian letters from buttons on English keyboard), and in Latin letters it is "Kiniaev, Foma". (In the sequel 'The Bourne Supremacy', his Russian passport correctly has "Kiniaev, Foma" in both scripts.)
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Bourne arranges to meet his boss on the bridge at 5:30pm. From the farmhouse decorations we know it's around Christmas time. At 5:30pm in Paris in mid-winter it would be almost, if not completely, dark.
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When they enter the train station in Paris it is midday. On the screen you can see trains listed for 5pm - impossible at this busy train station at that time of day.
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When Jason is briefing Marie, before she goes into the hotel lobby, he asks her what the number for the payphone is. She responds, "616-2468" (a 7 digit number). In Paris, pay phones and fixed phones have number 01XXXXXXXX (10 digits), usually given in pairs.
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It is supposed to be winter in Paris, but one evening shot showing a view of Paris has the sound of crickets.
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Throughout the film we can hear Blue Jays calling. The movie is set in Europe but Blue Jays have never been recorded on this side of the Atlantic.
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When Bourne is in the bank in Zurich and opens his Canadian passport the validity shows as being from April 1993 until April 2003, a period of 10 years. However Canadian passports, unlike other countries, are valid for only 5 years. The end of the validity should be April 1998.
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One of the musical score songs is entitled 'On Bridge No. 9', referring to Bourne and Conklin on Pont Neuf in Paris. While 'neuf' is 'nine' in French, it is also the masculine singular for 'new', which is the case here. Pont Neuf is actually the 'New Bridge' in Paris, not 'Bridge No. 9".
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At the end of the film when Ward Abbott is testifying on Capitol Hill about the CIA's programs, there are Washington, DC city flags behind the panel to which Abbott is speaking. Although the event is taking place in Washington, there would never be city flags displayed at a Federal or Congressional proceeding, only USA flags.
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When fleeing from Paris, they stop by an Aral tank station, but there is none in France. This is most likely to be a German shot.
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The Russian passport is written in Russian and French, but refers to the "USSR". In French it should be written as "URSS"
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Right before Wombosi is assassinated by the Professor, a flag is displayed on the wall as he walks with his assistant. Wombosi is supposed to be Nigerian, but the flag more closely resembles that of Kenya.
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When the Washington computer is activating agents in various cities, the display misspells Mannheim as "Manheim".
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When Bourne goes to the consulate in Switzerland, they show a large number of Marines chasing after him. In reality the Swiss embassy has fewer than 6 Marines.
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Miscellaneous

When you play the US DVD with subtitles it will say "Talking German" when Jason talks in the mirror on the boat. Actually this is not German but Dutch.
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When Jason and Maria drive from the US consulate in Zurich (filmed in Prague), through the side window a large concentration of cheap and old Eastern European cars (including GDR's plastic vehicle Trabant) can be seen parked by the pavement. Possible in Prague, impossible in Zurich.
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Incorrectly regarded as goofs

The Russian passport in Jason's deposit box reads "Moscou" instead of "Moscow." Russian passports use English as a second language, therefore the use of the French spelling "Moscou" is an error, even for passports issued in Paris.
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Plot holes

Though rushing to close the Treadstone office in under 3 hours, they shred documents one page at a time.
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Revealing mistakes

There is no snow at all on any surface higher than the second floor of the consulate, except for the sill Bourne is climbing on, and the fire escape.
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During the car chase, when the yellow van tips over, a large lever used to flip the vehicle is clearly visible on its underside.
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When Jason is climbing down the wall of the building, after escaping from the bank security, when the ledge/fire escape falls, it is obvious a stunt double is used when Jason is hanging from the wall.
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At the beginning of the movie, when the Italian sailors drop Jason off, we see him walking away on the port. A car passes by, and he apparently vanishes. You can see him running behind it, and his feet show on the reflection beneath it.
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When Treadstone activates its assassins, and the Professor is shown teaching how to play piano, he checks his phone, and the message text is shaking as he closes the phone, indicating that the text originally was not displayed by the phone, but it was digitally added later.
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When the assassins receive their messages on their cell phones the first one receives the message on a Motorola phone which - as other phones also - isn't able to display the short message in the way as shown with light letters in small dark bars. The message clearly looks like a computer overlay.
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Spoilers

The goofs below may give away important plot points.

Continuity

Just before Wombosi is shot, he is walking down the stairs with his coat in his hand and a gun in the other. When the bullets come through the window and he is hit he is wearing his coat.
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Crew or equipment visible

(At 1:28:50) In the field behind Eamon's farmhouse, as Bourne shoots the Professor for the second time, a crew member can be seen running through the trees on the hill over Bourne's right shoulder.
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Incorrectly regarded as goofs

Of course you can still see Jason after he "disappears" at the wharf if you look hard enough - he's a secret agent, not a magician.
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