When Banning drives Asher to Marine One in London, the car is shot up, and the entire passenger side of the car is covered in bullet holes. In the next scene, as they arrive at Marine One, most of the bullet holes have disappeared.
When Banning and Jacobs brief the president, Banning's face has considerable stubble. When he exits the Oval Office a few moments later, he's clean-shaven.
When the helicopter has crashed and the President and Agent Banning are standing outside, Agent Banning removes his radio and earpiece and throws them to the ground. Magically, the earpiece is back in the next scene.
The President' call sign is 'Southpaw' (a baseball term for a left handed thrower) and several times it is pointed out that the President is left handed. When Eckhart/President shoots a terrorist for the first time, the pistol is in his right hand. Later in the movie, as Eckhart/Asher continue to use weapons, it is in the right handed mode.
When Mike is fighting 3 terrorists after the lights come back on, the 3rd terrorist is holding and firing an assault rifle, but in the next cut when the terrorist is gunned down he's holding a sub-machine gun.
In the movie, the two helicopters accompanying Marine One are called Marine Two and Marine Three. In real life, Marine One is the call sign of any US Marine Corps aircraft the President is traveling in, and Marine Two is the call sign of any US Marine Corps aircraft carrying the Vice President; there is no Marine Three, as it has never been formally determined what the US's third-highest (after President and Vice-President) political office is.
The chief of the Metropolitan Police is introduced as "Chief Inspector," and introduces himself with that rank. Chief Inspector is the the fourth-lowest rank in the police force; seven ranks are above that level. The chief's title should be "Commissioner". The uniform depicts the correct insignia on its epaulets.
London does not have air raid sirens. The national network of air raid sirens in Britain was dismantled in 1993.
During the short scene that shows all the security preparations around London for the funeral, F/A-18 Hornets fly overhead. The UK does not have those planes. Currently, the Royal Air Force uses Typhoon FGR4 and Tornado GR4, and soon the Lightning II (F-35 in the US) will be added. Foreign aircraft would not provide such air cover for that kind of event.
When Marine One lands in England, the president is shown exiting the aircraft while the helicopter's blades are still spinning. The president and his entourage are not permitted to enter or exit the aircraft with the blades in motion, not under any circumstances.
Air Force One landed at Heathrow Airport until 2008. It caused such delay and inconvenience that the reception point was moved to Stansted.
The guards at Buckingham Palace are from a regiment that works together on a permanent basis meaning that any stranger would be easily spotted. Additionally, before going out on guard, the men are inspected and the officer would know that the infiltrators were not part of his unit.
However, there is no evidence that the men were not authorised to be there. Their infiltration of the unit would appear to be deeper than just showing up on the day.
However, there is no evidence that the men were not authorised to be there. Their infiltration of the unit would appear to be deeper than just showing up on the day.
London Underground has its own electricity supply and would be unaffected by London's electricity grid being shut down. However, there is no evidence that the terrorists don't also knock this out, in the same way that they knock out communication by blowing up BT Tower and the like.
The U.S. Government Situation Room doesn't look anything like the one in the first film. This is because the Situation Room in that film was in the Pentagon. The crisis room in this film is presumably in the White House.
It may not seem consistent that Sultan would end up losing both his legs, due to a drone hitting the palace (where he was having his wedding). But it appears he would have quick time to hide under something protective, where the rubble crushed his exposed legs.
Despite multiple major bombings close by, when the presidential motorcade attempts to get away, some shots show people walking around as if nothing had happened.
The horizontal stabilizer on the UH-60 Blackhawk deflects down at low air speeds so the rotor downwash doesn't push down too much, pushing the tail down at low speeds. In all of the low speed and hover scenes, the three Marine One UH-60 helicopters have horizontal stabilizers fixed in the horizontal position, which means they are all CG helicopters.
When the president steps off of Marine One as he lands in London, the Marine guard saluting him is standing with his feet slightly apart, not in the heels-together position of attention. No Marine assigned to a presidential detail would make a mistake like this.
When the agent confirms Barkawi's location, he sends a message without entering a number or choosing a contact. "Type person's name or number" is visible on the top of the phone screen.
About 38 minutes, the three US Presidential helicopters are flying at an extremely low altitude, approximately 1,000 feet. In a normal situation, the standard elevation is 4,000 feet, and this is anything but normal. They would be flying at probably twice that altitude to prevent any shoulder-fired weapon to possibly damage them.
At approximately 00:10:10 into the movie, when the scene cuts to the black and yellow Metropolitan Police helicopter hovering over London, the footage is played in reverse. You can see all the vehicles on the bridge driving backwards, and steam from a rooftop vent flowing back into the building.
The "air raid" sirens that sound in London are American single tone civil defense siren, not the two tone sirens used in Britain until the end of the Cold War.
At 42:22, a totally different helicopter is shown. The shape of the downed helicopter resembles the body and design of an SH-3 Sea King, not that of a VH-60 White Hawk.
In the last shot, when the Vice President is talking on TV, there is a shot of Banning's MacBook laptop and the email app isn't enabled. Next, the shot has moved to delete the email via the email app.
During the closing credits, the group of 11x Additional Production Assistants is misspelled as Assistant's.
Mike Banning's wife watches the events in London from her home in the U.S.. The power outlets in their home are European, not the blade type used in the U.S.
The beginning of the movie mentions a terrorist attack on a hotel in the Philippines, but the footage shown is from the 2002 Bali bombings. The Indonesian flag is clearly visible.
Mike says they need to get underground, then walks the president well over a mile above ground to get to Charing Cross Station. Marble Arch, Bond Street, Green Park and Piccadilly stations are significantly closer to the crash site in the northeast corner of Hyde Park. Walking to Charing Cross took them close to the U.S. Embassy, which Mike said they should avoid, and towards the area where the initial attacks occurred.
President Asher and Banning enter a Tube station to escape pursuers. It's labeled Charing Cross Station, but it's actually Moorgate.
Each member of the President's cabinet gets on-screen text in the movie, identifying them and their position. Melissa Leo is identified as "Secretary of Defence", with the British spelling of the word. The American spelling is "Defense."
When Banning tells the MI6 agent, Jacqueline "Jax" Marshall, to leave the safe house to find out who the mole is, he could have instructed President Asher to go with her, since she had no trouble getting to safety.
From the moment the President was in danger, not one military aircraft was mobilized to intercept them. Even after they reach the MI6 safe house, there is little effort to extract them.
An English reporter announcing the death of the Prime Minister would typically say "post mortem" rather than "autopsy", and he would use the English, not American, pronunciation of "scheduled".
President Asher says the UK is America's "oldest and strongest ally". It may be the strongest, but it's not the oldest. The first treaty signed by the USA was a friendship treaty with Morocco, which is the US's oldest ally. The Netherlands has one of the longest-standing diplomatic relationships with the United States, and was the first country to recognise the US after it declared independence in 1776. In addition, France became America's ally almost immediately after America declared independence from Great Britain. The alliance was formalized by a treaty signed in early 1778. Once the US won independence from Great Britain, the two countries clashed again in 1812, then had various territorial and trade disputes throughout the 19th century. The United States and the United Kingdom became true allies during World War I.
The Scottish SAS leader introduces himself to Banning as "Captain". Later, Banning addresses him as "Lieutenant".
The so-called terrorists were said to be Pakistani, but the accents were wrong and many of the cultural details were incorrect. For instance, women and men wouldn't be dancing together at the wedding wearing saris. That's an Indian thing, not Pakistani.