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Liam Neeson, January Jones, and Diane Kruger in Unknown (2011)

Goofs

Unknown

Edit

Continuity

After Liz puts the USB drive into Professor Bressler's computer she completely closes the zipper of the computer bag. However, in the next shot of the bag, it is partially open, revealing the USB drive.
The registration number of the taxi Neeson and Kruger use in the chase scene is identical to the one of the taxi previously crashed into the river.
After awakening from his coma, Dr. Martin leaves the clinic with a band-aid on his forehead, covering a nasty cut from the accident. We see him then taking the band-aid off. In the following shots, the cut disappears and appears again on his forehead several times.
When Gina breaks out the cab's rear window water pours in. However, in the preceding shots from inside the cab is shown as completely filled already.
When Gina steals the cab at the airport, she has to back off to a different road, and we can see that the Mercedes has only one backup light working (the right one). However, a few minutes later, when she is ramming the van in the parking garage, she backs off, and both of the backup lights are working perfectly.

Factual errors

After Dr. Harris is pulled from the river and the EMTs are working on him they use a defibrillator on him to attempt to revive him. This is totally inaccurate, as he is covered in water, lying in water, and the EMTs are standing/kneeling in water while using a powerful electrical current. Had this been real then not only would the current have passed through Dr. Harris's entire body but the bodies of the EMTs working on him. Something that anyone familiar with the use of a defibrillator well knows hence the warning "clear" called when ever it is used.
When Harris asks the hotel security head to contact the US Embassy, he is told it is Thanksgiving and the Embassy would be closed till Monday. This is nonsense as all major embassies have duty officer(s). In real life, Harris would have been able to contact the Embassy and have his identity confirmed through passport and social security records.
When Liz types in the passwords, they are visible in plain text. Passwords are almost always encrypted and what should have been seen are either dots or asterisks.
The Saudi prince is named 'Shada' which is not an Arabian name for men nor is it for women. The name has no meaning at all in the Arabic language. There is, however, a feminine name close to it, which is (Shatha).
When Martin is rolled off the MRI scanner by the assassin, he is put onto a gurney with metal rails and the nurse has a pair of scissors in her top pocket, both of which would have been pulled into the strong magnetic field of the scanner.

Revealing mistakes

When Harris' wife is inputting the passwords the word "accepted" is shown before she has finished typing the password.
During the car chase scene, we hear engines revving and cars flying through streets at break-neck speeds. In one shot, Harris is glancing at the speedometer and we see a shot of the dashboard with the speedometer climbing above 60. However, this being Berlin, the speedometer would be in km/h, hence 60 is actually a leisurely urban-appropriate speed.
When Dr Harris is looking at the Canadian passports, the given name is in the surname spot and their surnames are located in the given name spot.
(at around 1h 33 mins) The display at the security office shows a warning in German that "The computer is not fully protected" by McAfee.

Miscellaneous

When Dr. Harris awakens from the comma in the hospital, the German doctor asks him about his wife (in English): "Does she have a cell phone?". Europeans don't use the word "cell phone" but instead they use the word "mobile" and it would come natural to him to find the first word accessible to translate to English (In German mobile phone=Handy)
In the film, there are several instances of the "OZ" graffiti. But OZ, who was killed in 2014 while spraying tags, wasn't active in Berlin, but in Hamburg. Also, while the OZ tag in the movie looks similar, the 'dot' wasn't inside the 'O', but at the right hand side near the 'Z'. But it can't be ruled out, that someone 'bited' (copied) his style, although in a wrong manner.

Anachronisms

When Harris is in following Liz and gets a text message from Gina, the date in the message is 29-03-2010 but when right before it cuts back to him we see the date on the phone is actually 26-11-2011.
The passport inspection scene at the airport shows that the film is set in November 2010. The entire film shows German Police cars as being green-silver in color and Police uniforms as green-beige. However, in 2010 the State Police of Berlin had started switching the color of uniforms to blue and the color of Police cars to silver-blue. Due to the amount of Police officers/cars involved in the story, at least some should have had the new color scheme.

Audio/visual unsynchronised

After the pickup at the airport, the taxi driver is speaking, apparently on the phone. According to the closed captioning, this is described as "cab driver speaking German". The driver is actually speaking Turkish.

Crew or equipment visible

When Martin Harris receives the phone number noted on a piece of paper from the nurse, and when he checks it again inside the phone booth, the hands holding the paper are clearly not Liam Neeson's hands (size and nail shape rather different at these close-ups from the scenes with Neeson's face and hands together at the same frame).

Errors in geography

When Gina phones up Martin Harris to warn him of Martin B turning up to the exhibition, she can't get through to him on the phone but the operator message received is in English when the film is set in Berlin and it therefore should have been in German.
When Martin Harris and wife take a taxi from the airport to the Adlon Hotel, you see the Soviet War Memorial, then they pass the Victory Column towards West. This is near the Tiergarten. However, they are traveling a direction away from the hotel. The hotel is behind them. After they passed the Victory Column you see the Brandenburger Tor. However, the Brandenburger Tor is to the East of the Victory Column and the Soviet War Memorial is between Victory Column and Brandenburger Tor.
When Martin Harris is going back to the airport, he takes a cab from Adlon Kempinski in the middle of the city. Tegel, the airport, is in the north-west. And somehow they end up on the bridge by Warschauer Strasse, which is way out east.
When Martin is being chased for the first time, he enters the U-Bahn at Voltastrasse, but while in the station, the U-Bahn signs say Platz der Luftbrucke.

Plot holes

When the German police confirm that Harris and his wife entered the country, they would also have security footage of the immigration checkpoint that would have confirmed Harris's story.

Character error

Jurgen tells Harris that Stasi agents were taught that an innocent man always stuck to his version of truth while a liar reformulated his ideas. Actually, Stasi doctrine taught the exact opposite: a liar has invented a pre-programmed version of the facts and cannot change it, while someone innocent knows how to reformulate his speech and does it.
When Gina speaks English she does it with a strong Bosnian accent. When she speaks German she has no such accent at all.
When Dr. Harris and Gina are observing the fake passports of Mr. and Mrs. Carmichael, the handwriting signature of "Mrs. Carmichael" says "Carmicheal".
When Jürgen checked the Biotech Summit website, Professor Bressler was announced as Proffessor Bressler.

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Liam Neeson, January Jones, and Diane Kruger in Unknown (2011)
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