Goofs for
Outbreak (1995) More at IMDbPro »

• Factual errors: There are no (naturally occurring) Capuchin monkeys in Africa.
  
  
• Factual errors: There are no (naturally occurring) pine cones in redwood forests.
  
  
• Continuity: While Casey is having the seizure in the hospital, Sam rips his shirt to allow the nurse more space to place ice on his body. In the next shot his shirt is pushed up, not ripped.
  
  

• Crew or equipment visible: During the helicopter chase, the shadow of the filming helicopter falls briefly on the rock face.
  
  
• Continuity: Near the end of the movie, the plane opens its rear door to drop the bomb. In one of the next shots the plane is shown with its rear door closed.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the beginning of the movie, as the camera passes through the various bio-threat labs, many doors are open to hallways and personnel not wearing masks, and one technician even removes her mask before leaving the lab.
  
  
• Factual errors: Right before Col. Daniels gets on the C-130 transport, he is talking to Brig. Gen. Ford. As the colonel is about to board the plane, the general salutes him first, which is incorrect military protocol. The lower-ranked officer always salutes first.
  
  
• Continuity: While arguing next to the cab, Keough has a statue under her arm, in the next shot it's gone.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Hospital HVAC Systems are supposed to be designed to not recirculate air from room to room. The ideal design is so that patients who walk in with broken arms do not walk out with other maladies. However, many hospital HVAC systems are not correctly maintained, and others are not correctly designed - some/many have exam rooms that share air. So when the virus in the movie mutates and is air born, it could be spread by the HVAC System especially in a community hospital that isn't geared up for contagious diseases. In fact, the Llassa fever virus was spread exactly this way in a major US east coast medical center. One person, a tech working on a non-patient floor, contracted the virus even though extreme containment procedures were thought to be in place - the HVAC system was assumed to be the pathway.
  
  
• Factual errors: Salt comments that their Loach (Hughes H-6) will go 400 miles without refueling. The Hughes H-6's real range is only 267 miles.
  
  
• Factual errors: Blue suits used in level 4 laboratories have a special air supply. The sound this makes inside the suit is so loud that you cannot hear other people. The people at the starting scene of the movie communicates none the less during the first scenes in the level 4 laboratory. Yellow suits are pressurized via a small motor inside it and a set of batteries, but the yellow suits show no sign of being inflated at all, and when helmets are moved no air rushes out.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: The civilians killed attempting to escape quarantine in the pick-up truck from the military Hummers, are clearly dummies on fire.
  
  
• Anachronisms: At the opening of the film, the setting is said to be "Zaire, 1967". The country was only called Zaire between 1971 and 1997. In 1967, the country was called the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was also the name it reverted to after 1997.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The H-6 only has a range of 267 miles. Looking at the direction as Daniels and Salt are flying the helicopter along the coast line, it is clear that they are flying south from Cedar Creek to San Francisco. Now, there are five Cedar Creeks north of San Francisco, the closest one located 180 miles northeast of San Francisco. This Cedar Creek is far from the coast though. The Cedar Creek that is closest to the coast is a whopping 323 miles away, so the flight to SFO and back plus standing in the air against the plane would never have worked without refueling. All of the Cedar Creeks are real creeks anyway, and uninhabited. When preparing for the way back to Cedar Creek Daniel mentions a town called Palisades between San Francisco and Cedar Creek. There is no such town.
  
  
• Factual errors: Maj. Gen. Donald McClintock has a Special Forces tab over the Special Forces patch on his right shoulder. This patch represents former overseas combat assignment. The tab is a service school qualification tab to be worn only on the left shoulder according to Army Regulation 670-1.
  
  
• Factual errors: Maj Salt flies the helicopter from the left seat. U.S. Army helicopters can be flown from either seat but can only be started from the right (pilot/command) seat as the engine starter controls are only accessible from the right side. Also, Maj Salt, being the pilot, would have sat in the right seat even though Col. Daniels outranked him.
  
  
• Continuity: When Salt looks out the window and notices the troops leaving town they are next to the MPH sign and marching down the street. When he looks out again, after about two minutes, the troops are still marching, but their position has not changed.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the scene where Col. Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman) enters a crewman's room aboard the Korean ship. The Korean flag is shown upside down.
  
  
• Factual errors: The large, canister-like bomb shown in the cargo hold of the plane is not a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb (MOAB). The real MOAB is longer and more slender, resembling a very large torpedo.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Keough is trying to interview Jimbo in the hospital ICU, he is clearly intubated. Intubated patients can not talk due to the fact that the intubation tube passes through their vocal cords.
  
  

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