Mr Jiang repeatedly gets Colonel Rhodes rank wrong, Calling him General Rhodes at least twice.
When Kevin Scott and Mr. Jiang are lying on the hilltop, overlooking the prison camp, they have a verbal exchange as to whether the choppers are actually coming. The camera shifts back-and forth several times between Scott and Jiang. During the course of this dialogue, however, Jiang is - without
ever changing his position - shown alternately holding a recoilless rifle, or a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher.
When the man are buying weapons in the catacombs under the night club, they negotiate a price for a coffin load of weapons and explosives, etc., but in the following scene, the weapons are in a completely different coffin. (The first coffin has squared ends with a hinged lid, but the second has beveled ends and a lid that lifts off.)
When Gene Hackman's character arrives to pick up the weapons and the police officer tells him that the guns will be confiscated, during two shots we see the truck driving off behind him.
The film begins in Vietnam in 1972. In several scenes the term LRRP (pronounced "lurp"), which stands for Long Range Recon Patrol, is used for Rhodes missing son's unit, including a LRRP tab above his unit patch in his shadow box. In 1969 all LRRP companies, which were attached to all major Army divisions in Vietnam, were re-designated and called Ranger Companies. These companies were tasked with recon patrol for the larger division they were assigned to.
The helicopters used in the opening scene, in South Vietnam in 1972 are incorrect for the aircraft type. The US Military never deployed Bell 212 (Military UH1N) helicopters there. The correct type for that year would be Bell 205 (UH1D or H) models. The error can be easily spotted by the twin engine configuration the Model 212 has as opposed to the single enginged 205.
When the smuggler Jiang (Kwan Hi Lim) introduces his daughters to the group while they are cleaning weapons and prepping the mission, he addresses Colonel Rhodes (Gene Hackman) as "General Rhodes".
During the helicopter training scenes, the actors are always seen in the right side pilot seat, whereas in each shot where the underneath of the helicopter can be seen, there is a pilot in the left seat with their feet on the pedals and no feet visible on the right side pedals.
While in the destroyed village, Johnson explains that Ypres is a town in France where mustard gas was used for the first time by the Germans. Ypres is actually in neighboring Belgium.
Mountains are shown around Galveston, Texas. Galveston is on an island and there are no mountains around the Texas coastline.
Col. Rhodes claims to find Sailor in the Houston jail. When he visits him the jail is adjacent to the Los Angeles River.
When Colonel Rhodes first meets with Blaster at the BMX track Blaster calls him "Mr. Rhodes". Given Blaster's relationship with his team commander Lieutenant Frank Rhodes he would know that Frank's father was a Marine colonel, and being an ex-military man himself he would address Frank's father as "Colonel Rhodes."