Vantage Point (2008)
Goofs
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Character error (2) |
Continuity (18) |
Crew or equipment visible (1) |
Errors in geography (5) |
Factual errors (10) |
Plot holes (1) |
Revealing mistakes (11) |
Spoilers (6)
Character error
Ted Heinkin inaccurately places the city of Beirut in Darfur when informing President Ashton of the leader of the group suspected of threatening the President. Beirut is the capital city of Lebanon, and Darfur is a region in Sudan.
At a point, Phil McCullough says: "I know that sir, but we're looking for five people out of six million. We are trying." Salamanca, Spain, is a city of roughly 160,000 people.
Continuity
Each vantage point start with a digital time display that shows 12:00:00 PM. Each time, the clock on the building behind the stage, where the flags hang, reads 10:10 or 1:50.
As the cars are driving down the stairs, the front bumper of Taylor's police car is clearly crushed and hanging off, yet it's intact for the rest of the scene.
Each story takes place in the same time frame, but in aerial views of the plaza, the shadows cast by the buildings change throughout each "vantage" view.
Barnes gets into a blue Astra with distinctive alloy wheels. During the chase, when Barnes stops at a junction and looks left, the wheels have changed, which means he is driving a different car.
When Barnes is trying to communicate with the Secret Service Command Post, he speaks into his left hand, which should have a radio PTT palm microphone. In close-ups, his hand is clearly empty.
The amount of damage on Thomas Barnes's car changes throughout the chase scene.
When Kent Taylor is being shot at while driving, he is sitting on the right (through the windscreen). Just before he swerves into the concrete, before he realizes he is going to crash, he is on the left of the car (through the windscreen).
When Forest Whitaker runs across the pedestrian bridge, his camera is in his left hand. His hands are empty as he comes to a stop. When he raises his hand, the camera is in his right hand.
Several cars keep re-appearing during the chase scenes, including: a red Peugeot 306 sedan, a white Nissan Platina (which is not sold in Europe), an orange Opel Corsa, and a red Volkswagen Golf (Rabbit).
During Enrique's section, he escapes the police foot chase. After checking his pistol's magazine, he loads the pistol and cocks the hammer before confronting someone unseen. Later in the movie, from Howard Lewis' point of view, Enrique puts the un-cocked pistol in his rear waistband before stepping out to confront the unseen individual.
When the Secret Service grabbed Enrique, they took his badge. As Enrique was escorted away, Holden showed his badge. After the explosion, Enrique's badge was back on his belt.
When Anna bumps into Howard, her hair was pulled back but loose. When Howard carries her after the explosion, her hair was pulled back much tighter.
During the first scene of Barnes in the hotel room, his shirt goes from un-tucked to tucked in during his flashbacks.
Some national flags are visible during the aerial shot of the big explosion on the square. Although the shots are taken from the same angle, some of the flags change in different shots.
An 18-wheeler hits Tom's car on the passenger's side. In the next shot, the driver's side is damaged.
The first time at the Plaza, when Barnes is reviewing the footage, Taylor asks "You saw the shooter?" to which he replies, "No ... I saw a flash of light". The second time at the Plaza, when asked the same question, he just says "I saw a flash of light".
When Enrique is walking through the crowd the explosive bag hangs on his left shoulder, when he is at the security inspection the explosive bag is hanging on his right shoulder.
When Thomas Barns gets up from the explosion and assesses the situations after standing up his earphone has fallen out, yet when he remembers Kent Taylor saying "Find that shooter" and turns his head to the right..the Ear Piece is there, then it is gone again after he is looking at agent Ron Matthews coughing laying on the ground holding his stomach. Plus Ron's tie is on his right side under his arm, then suddenly over his shoulder when Barns is holding him. Then Barns runs to the GNN truck withe an ear piece in his ear, yet opens the door without one and talks to Rex Brooks with it there again.
Ron Matthews states Enrique's weapon is loaded while holding it with one hand, yet doesn't cock it or remove magazine until after he states the fact.
When Thomas Barns gets up from the explosion and assesses the situations after standing up his earphone has fallen out, yet when he remembers Kent Taylor saying "Find that shooter" and turns his head to the right..the Ear Piece is there, then it is gone again after he is looking at agent Ron Matthews coughing laying on the ground holding his stomach. Plus Ron's tie is on his right side under his arm, then suddenly over his shoulder when Barns is holding him. Then Barns runs to the GNN truck withe an ear piece in his ear, yet opens the door without one and talks to Rex Brooks with it there again.
Ron Matthews states Enrique's weapon is loaded while holding it with one hand, yet doesn't cock it or remove magazine until after he states the fact.
After being struck by a car during his section, Enrique gets up with an empty holster. Shortly thereafter he's armed.
Crew or equipment visible
At one point, right after the cars drive down the stairs, two brand tags are visible on the seat belts in Barnes' car mirror, which means a stunt driver is driving the car. During the rest of the chase, Barnes is not wearing a seat belt.
Errors in geography
Palm trees line the streets of Salamanca at several points. Salamanca, in northwestern Spain, has no palm trees.
Green and white VW Beetle taxis appear during shots of the multi-lane freeways. The taxis don't exist in Spain, but they're common in Mexico. Also, Salamanca has no freeways or overpasses.
The President's limo stops in front of a building with a statue of a man on a horse. The building is Mexico's National Museum of Art, located on Tacuba Street, in downtown Mexico City.
Thomas Barnes calls on his cell phone during the car chase, to make sure the team knows he is heading south. The shadows of the people in the street make it clear that he is heading north.
Chase scenes were through a city that was obviously much larger than that of place of Salamanca's size of approximately 160,000.
Factual errors
When the blue Astra crashes between two parked cars, and when it crashes into the truck, it was going fast enough that the front and side airbags should have deployed.
In the ending scene, the helicopter in the colours of "Marine 1", is a VH-72 Kestrel, a variant of the Agusta Westland Merlin. Although this variant of this helicopter was developed for use as U.S. presidential transport, the project was cancelled and the U.S. Marine Corps continue to use the VH-3D Sea King and VH-60H Whitehawk helicopters for presidential transport.
Towards the end of the movie, a stop sign says "ALTO". Stop signs in Spain say "STOP".
During the scenes on the multi-lane freeway, an "AU" (Autobuses Unidos) bus turns right near the overpass. AU is a Mexican transportation company that does not operate internationally.
The police cars and the blue Astra have Chevrolet badges on their grills. In Europe, they would have Opel badges (except in the UK, where they would have Vauxhall badges). GM owns Vauxhall, Opel, and Chevrolet.
Several North American vehicles appear in chase scenes, including Ford Escorts and Focuses (which are common in Spain). The emergency vehicles are Chevys and Freightliners, neither of which are sold in Europe (although some Chevy ambulances exist throughout Europe).
Spanish police agents, like Noriega, do not use the Beretta 92FS; Guardia Civil agents do (ex. the woman in the green uniform). In the movie, the Guardia Civil use another gun.
Incorrect translation into Spanish. When the suicide bomber is told, "You will make us proud," (from the subtitles in English) what the character actually says is, "You will make us our pride." (Nos hará nuestro orgullo.)
During Enrique's foot chase scene, he clearly puts a magazine into his pistol and then cocks the hammer. There is no way the firearm would fire because a round would need to be chambered by cycling the slide first.
When Forrest Whitaker is getting up after the explosion, his wristwatch says 4 though all the events occurred around Noon. He could have his watch set for the time back home since he left a message for his family when they wake up back in the US.
Plot holes
The Secret Service's job is to protect the President. They do not chase suspects in an assassination attempt or take the lead in the investigation, like they did in this movie. They would all stay with the President the entire time.
Revealing mistakes
During the long chase scene near the end, Agent Barnes shoots many more bullets than his gun can hold.
When the package under the stage explodes, everything (including Forrest Whittaker) is thrown back by the blast concussion. The flags above the stage barely move.
In the movie, the Seal of the President decals on the presidential limousines are behind the rear-passenger doors. In real life, the seals are on the rear-passenger doors.
Agent Barnes is on his cell phone when he steals the blue Astra from a Spaniard. As he gets in the car, the camera shows a clutch pedal and a gas pedal. Barnes shifts the car into first gear, talks on his phone, and drives for about 40 seconds without shifting out of first gear.
When Howard Lewis's tapes are watched, the scenes are too steady and the camera pans too slowly to have been recorded as shown with Howard running around, constantly moving the camera.
A bomb explodes in a lobby hotel, setting off the fire alarms, but the elevators still run. In most buildings the elevators stop when the fire alarm goes off.
When Howard films the scene around him, before the president is shot, a shot from behind reveals that the camcorder is switched off.
The acoustic tube earpieces used by the Secret Service agents in the movie are wrong. The real earpieces are a single, coiled tube worn behind the ear.
The extras (and some actors) speak with a Mexican accent, not a Spanish one. Castilian Spanish is dry and sharp and they pronounce "c" and "z" in a different way they pronounce the "s".
When president catches the elevator, the button lights up before he presses it.
At 7mins 31secs, the rings around the camera lens are brighter than the smoke cloud and become visible, mainly to the left side of the frame.
Spoilers
Character error
At the end of the movie, the broadcaster announces
that they have killed the lone assassin. However, the bottom of the screen reads, "Lone assassin arrested."
Continuity
The timing of the two explosions changes during Enrique's section. When he is led away by Secret Service, the agent handling Enrique is momentary distracted by the distant explosion at the hotel. Enrique punches the agent, and the podium explodes seconds after the first bomb. In every other portrayal, the first bomb explodes well before the one under the podium. Barnes and Taylor talk to Lewis, and Barnes reviews the video that Lewis shot while Taylor makes it to the 3rd floor of the plaza, in the time it took Enrique to throw a single punch.
Crew or equipment visible
When Kent Taylor finally crashes his car, several shots show a dummy in the front seat, wearing sunglasses. Taylor wasn't wearing sunglasses.
Factual errors
After he's shot in the shoulder and crashes his car, Taylor is dragged out onto the street. Although that happens only seconds after the gunshot and crash, the blood stains on his shirt - which should be fresh and red - are dried and brown.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs
After Javier dies, the camera zooms out on his body lying on the floor. If you look closely, you can see the upper part of his mouth twitch. Muscles can twitch for hours after death.
Plot holes
The terrorists almost get away with kidnapping the president. They have him unconscious in the back of an ambulance they are driving away in. However, they fail to get away with it because their leader (who is driving) swerves to avoid running hitting a little girl standing in the middle of the road, and in doing so flips the ambulance on its side. However, the movie overlooks the fact that an international terrorist group kidnapping the US President would probably not swerve (to the point of flipping their vehicle) to avoid running over a little girl. Also, when the ambulance flips, the president seems relatively unharmed, even though he was in the back and not even in a seat, whereas the terrorists, who were both wearing seat belts, die or bleed from the head (one of each).
