Goofs for
Burn After Reading (2008) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: When Osbourne is getting demoted, a gold pen keeps appearing and disappearing on the desk.
  
  
• Continuity: When Linda and Chad are at the Russian Embassy, the video surveillance shot shows that it is May 1st, later it shows Harry looking at his cell phone with the date being 17/9/2008, September 17th, obviously 5 months later.
  
  
• Continuity: When Osbourne is getting demoted, he is behind a chair from one camera angle and in front of the chair from another angle.
  
  

• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The CIA Supervisor states that Venezuela does not have an extradition treaty with the US. Venezuela has had a bilateral extradition treaty with the US since 1923.
  
  
• Continuity: When Linda and Chad are at the Russian Embassy the picture behind Linda and Chad on the office wall is Boris Yeltsin's portrait, then in security camera shot, showing Chad and Linda waiting for Krapotkin, the portrait is of Vladimir Putin.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Osborne returns home after being served for divorce, he tries to enter his home with a car key not a house key.
  
  
• Continuity: When Harry is out running the sweat mark nearly covers the entire back of his shirt. When he walks into the house after his run the mark is much smaller.
  
  
• Factual errors: Chad and Sandy enjoy a Jamba Juice together. There are no Jamba Juice stores within 50 miles of Washington, DC.
  
  
• Errors in geography: On his 5.2 mile run, after crossing the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Harry runs north up a steep hill on 35th Street, and a black car passes him from behind. In reality, this street runs one-way in the opposite direction. Also, the car appears to continue straight through the intersection, but is then seen going east on Prospect Street; Harry watches it drive away while facing northwest, then turns and jogs away in the same direction the car went, passing the same tree that the car just passed.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Alan (Linda's first online date) claims on his profile that he's 45 years old. But his driver's license says he was born in 1960, and the film takes place in 2008.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Olive St. is depicted to be a one-way street, from the way the cars are parked. But the "SCHOOL ZONE" paint on the pavement faces the opposite direction to the supposed one-way traffic.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The MICR encoding line at the bottom of Ozzy's returned (NSF) check does not have the check number.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Mr. Krapotkin asks, about the CD, "PC or Mac"? Most data CD formats are readable by either type of computer, however the character could be asking in case the data is in a format readable only on one type of machine, e.g. a word processor package that exists only for the Mac.
  
  
• Continuity: In the final scene with Linda, in which she's being picked up by the CIA, an agent pulls alongside her on the right. In the second shot depicting him, the car is in the same spot, in a traffic lane (not parked), but the shifter is in the Park position.
  
  
• Continuity: After Osbourne has quit the agency, we see him on a sailboat motoring on the water. The scene changes to a closeup with his father and the sailboat is suddenly not moving through the water.
  
  
• Continuity: When Chad Feldheimer enters Coxes house the basement door is different between the outside view (door and side window) and inside view (no side window).
  
  
• Continuity: Before Chad Feldheimer goes over the wall to enter Coxes house you see a white building on the right. Once over the wall you see a red brick faced building.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Katie reports that it's 5.2 miles on the odometer from the Cox residence on Olive St. NW to West Potomac Park just off the Lincoln Memorial. It's actually no more than about two miles. This may be deliberate however. Harry often lies to try to impress his dates. Perhaps he had Katie go the long away around to the park so he could take the shortcut back that his about two miles, but implying that it is 5 miles to Katie.
  
  
• Continuity: After Katie Cox sees the damaged Mercedes, she enters her house and runs past the mirror where 2 lamps are missing.
  
  
• Factual errors: At the end of the film, when the CIA supervisor opens & closes a file marked "Top Secret", the file's cover-sheet is outlined in red. This is an error because the cover-sheet of all "Top Secret" classified files are outlined in orange. Red is saved for the cover-sheets of all classified files marked "Secret" and blue is used for the cover-sheets of all classified files marked "Confidential".
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the scene where Osbourne Cox receives his notice of insufficient funds, when he looks at the paper, it clearly says "We recently we received..." Clearly whoever typed up the paper was torn between using the word 'recently' or 'received', and, after deciding on one of them, forgot to remove the other.
  
  
• Continuity: The apparent time of year keeps changing, some scenes have "turned leaves" on the street, with colorful trees. Others scenes look to be in mid summer, with clear streets and sidewalks
  
  

• Continuity: SPOILER: When Harry is checking on Chad's body in the closet, in one shot he's pushing cloths with back of his hand and in the other shot he's doing it with his palm.
  
  
• Continuity: SPOILER: After the shooting, Harry picks his gun up in his right hand. As he stands up, he transfers it to his left hand. In the immediate reverse shot, he is still holding the gun in his right hand. Also, the position of his left hand (in a two-handed grip) changes between shots.
  
  

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