Goofs

After they escape captivity, Lyn and Bob chase down Mahmud in the pickup truck. In shots from inside the truck, Mahmud is running in the middle of the road, only veering off at the last moment. All other shots show him running on the side of the road.

During the gun fight at the gas station, the black security van is shot in the windshield. The bullet holes disappear in subsequent shots.

Just before Lyn Cassady hits the rock with the car, Bob Wilton is not wearing his seat belt right. When the impact occurs and the camera pans to Bob, a seat belt holds him in place.

A helicopter approaches Bob and Lyn as they drink water from the puddle in the desert. When Bob turns over onto his back, his face and mouth are completely dry.

When Bob awakens in the desert, and runs from the car looking for Lyn, footsteps in the sand show at least one previous take. In the preceding scene, when Bob scans the same area (prior to running from the car), the sand has no footprints.

Only a general court-martial can give a dishonorable discharge, and only to enlisted personnel. Commissioned officers receive a dismissal from the service, which carries the same penalties and social stigma associated with a dishonorable discharge.

When Bob reads The New Earth Army Manual, he identifies "Lao Tze Tung" as one of the great imagineers. It should be either Lao Tze, or Mao Tze Tung.

At one point, the New Earth Army is asked to help find General Manuel Noriega. He briefly sought refuge in the Vatican Embassy after the invasion of Panama, but U.S. forces knew he was there. Noriega was never in hiding.

Ft. Bragg isn't a training post, but every scene shows troops marching in formation across parade fields.

Hooper repeatedly describes the desert base as a "Psyops" base. A career SF NCO would definitely know better, especially if he were stationed at Ft. Bragg, home of both SF and PSYOP. In the US Army, psychological operations are called "PSYOP," with no "s" on the end. PSYOP trainees learn this from day one.

When Bob and Lyn are driving near the beginning of the film, they pass a sign that says "Baghdad" in English, with the Arabic spelling underneath. The Arabic is written left to right in the film, but Arabic reads right to left.

After stopping the goat's heart the first time, the video monitor shows the goat laying on its side, still breathing.

Jeff Bridges is trying not to laugh when the agent tells him that Angela Lansbury didn't know where Noriega was.

In the 1980 Ft. Bragg scene, portraits of President Reagan and Defense Secretary Weinberger are hanging on the wall. Reagan was elected in 1980, but took office in 1981, and appointed Weinberger soon after.

The two songs used in the dancing scene at Ft Bragg in 1980 (by Billy Idol and Billy Squier) were both released at least two years later.

Norm Pendleton shoots at his fellow soldiers on the courtyard at Ft. Bragg. After each shot, a shell casing drops on the tarmac. During the last shot, Norm stands on a grass patch, where the falling casing would not make a sound.

After Bob wakes up by the sand dune and sees the goat, an ear plug is clearly visible in his right ear as he gets up.

There is a scene of young hippies running down a hill covered by green grass supposedly in Stockton, California. This is an error because the topology of Stockton, California is very level, and there are no hills, let alone with grassy slopes.

When Brigadier General Dean Hopgood is introduced, his uniform shows two stars, indicating a Major General. A Brigadier General has one star.

At the gas station in Iraq, the characters speak Egyptian Arabic, not Iraqi Arabic.