Goofs

When Bodhi shows Jonny the 'kidnap' tape in the back of the van, the monitor is a small, approx 5 inch portable device with dials down the right-hand side and the VCR underneath. However, when they exit the van and we can see inside, the monitor is now a normal 12 inch portable TV with no dials and the VCR appears to be on top of the TV.

Johnny gets his "57 Chevy" surfboard broken at Latigo beach during the fight with Warchild and his crew. Later in the movie when he remembers about the meeting with some new clients, he is carrying the same board in perfect condition.

During the final skydiving scene, Utah jumps from the plane without any goggles. During the dive, goggles can be visibly seen in certain shots while disappearing during close-ups.

After the foot chase Johnny hurts his knee and is later shown with it strapped and he is unable to stand properly on it. After the first skydive he gets into the back of a van in a crouching position, but shows no discomfort, despite not being able to stand on the knee only a few hours earlier.

Utah tackles Bodhi in the surf. However, as soon as the others run up, Bodhi appears dry.

Bell's Beach is a sand beach, not a shingle beach, There are no rocky outcrops near it nor are there tall pines growing on the shore. It is10.5 km (6.6 mi) from Torquay, not walking distance.

Bells Beach is in Victoria Australia at a latitude of about 38º. At the end of the movie, a news voice over mentions the Cyclone moving in over Bells Beach. While some might think that cyclones do not travel that far south, they have been known to be as close as 10º north of that latitude.

Utah is seen crossing a railway line at Torquay Bells Beach. No railway has ever been built to Torquay or Bells Beach.

A helicopter with police men lands on Bell's Beach. The wind speed is 150 km/h. Helicopters do not fly when weather conditions are like that.

The number plates on Johnny Utah's Land Rover at Torquay are not Victorian ones.

In the final skydiving scene of the film, Bodhi tells the pilot to climb to an altitude of 4,000ft to get his injured buddy, Roach, to a "safe jump altitude". The average free fall takes 50 to 60 seconds from roughly 13,000ft. 4,000 ft is still considered a safe jumping altitude but would require immediate deployment of the parachute, also known as a "hop and pop". It would take roughly 26 seconds to hit the ground from 4,000ft. 10 seconds for the first 1,000 ft and 5.5 seconds for every additional 1,000 ft. Of course, you would want to be under canopy by 1000 ft, reducing the free-fall time by another 5-6 seconds.

It's not impossible to communicate by voice during free-fall. It's extremely difficult to hear, but if you're close enough to the other skydiver, it's possible.

Just before Tyler interrupts Johnny Utah's introductory cover story, he says, "I went to law school - I got a football scholarship!" Law schools don't give football scholarships. However, one can get a scholarship for a pre-law degree, which could provide enough economic relief to make law school financially attainable.

As Utah knew Bodhi's name, he could have Bodhi's passport flagged, so when he attempts to enter another country, he would be arrested and held until the FBI can extradite him back to the United States. Of course, nothing would stop a resourceful man from obtaining a false passport. This was in the days before passports had chips.

Pappas gives Utah grief for emptying his clip and not shooting Bodhi to keep Bodhi from escaping; his comment is that it was impossible for Utah to shoot that many times and still miss Bodhi. While Pappas himself had demonstrated earlier in the film that he was a poor shot, Utah had recently received 100% marksmanship scores. Pappas was making a comment on Utah's skills, not his own.

Night surfing scenes obviously filmed during the day. The technique used is called "day for night" shooting where the scene is shot with a special lens filter to make it appear to have been shot at night.

FBI agent Harp tells Utah that "there are three dead people, one of them is a police officer, huh."

But when Harp pulls Utah over to see the off-duty police officer--lying on his back, with his chest bloodied from Bodhi's gunshot--the ODPO's head clearly moves to the right.

At the gas station, before Bodhi lights the getaway car on fire, he soaks the gas station attendant with gasoline from a gasoline hose and then tells him to go away. When the attendant is filmed running away he is completely dry.

During the fight scene at the burning gas station, when Johnny Utah jumps off the car into Bodhi it is clear that it is a stunt double.

The video footage of Rosie holding Tyler captive is very shaky, yet the camera is steady when he shows himself holding it in the mirror.

Utah skydives without goggles or other eye protection. As anyone who as ever ridden on a motorcycle can tell you, once you reach about 30 MPH and you do not have something to block the wind it becomes extremely difficult to see. This would have made it very difficult for him to track Bodhi and catch him.

After happening upon the bank robbery, Utah and Angelo take it entirely upon themselves to pursue the robbers, and ultimately fail to catch them. No pair of pistol-armed FBI agents would ever go after four heavily armed robbers alone, especially in a car chase on busy streets, without once radioing for backup. (See the 1986 FBI Miami shootout.)

When Tyler fires the shot at the pillow beside Utahs head after discovering his true identity I'm almost certain that shot would have blown his eardrum out or severely injured it..

Bunker yells, "Fuck you, pig!" after being shot by Utah, but his lips are not moving.

When the Ex-Presidents and Utah are on their way to the final bank robbery, the van's rear windows appear to be TV screens showing pre-recorded footage.

Near the end of the movie Johnny Utah walks across the road from a surf shop in Torquay to Bells Beach in pursuit of Bodhi. In reality Bells Beach is approximately a 7km drive from Torquay.

Utah made some serious mistakes throughout the film, was placed under arrest at the bank, and was responsible for Pappas being killed. Somehow he is still an FBI agent at the end of the film.

Though Johnny Utah suffered a severe knee injury playing football in college that prevented him from playing football again, he was able to pass the stringent FBI physical tests, surf and endure the landings from skydiving, yet jumping a short distance from a wall completely incapacitated him.

When at the gas station, Pappas is right behind the hijacked car and opens fire on the criminals through the back window. Even though he fires several times into the back of the vehicle at point-blank range, nobody is hit and there is no further damage inside the vehicle.

While Utah is at the FBI looking up Tyler's criminal record, one of the first entries on the computer is "Excessive Speed," which Utah (or Keanu Reeves) reads incorrectly as "Exhibition of Speed."

Tyler is described as Blue eyes but on screen they're seen as green.