Goofs for
Shooter (2007/I) More at IMDbPro »

• Factual errors: The Stars and Stripes flag hanging vertically on the wall of the US military hangar is the wrong way round. The stars field should be on the upper left, not the upper right.
  
  
• Continuity: When the three men are torturing Memphis they shove water down his throat but when they pull it away the bottle is full.
  
  
• Continuity: When Swagger backs the car into the river, the trunk is open and you can see that there is no upholstery and it is empty. While in the car wash we see there are miscellaneous items and upholstery in the trunk.
  
  

• Continuity: At the start of the film when both snipers are first seen watching the road, a close shot shows Bob Lee's rifle bolt open, another shot shows it closed. When the order comes through to fire, Bob then loads the rifle.
  
  
• Factual errors: The pick up truck that Swagger stole has PA plates on it front and back. In PA there is only one plate on the vehicle, not two.
  
  
• Continuity: When Memphis is taken away in the van you can see he drops his phone in the middle of the sidewalk, in the next shot when the van is driving away it is on the curb.
  
  
• Continuity: When Memphis is in the computer room checking the VIN that Sarah gave him, he picks up the photo and begins to type in a string of numbers on the number pad. When the shot changes to the computer monitor the VIN being entered has no numbers it only shows LFMY. However the complete VIN of LFMYU70E4YUA65879 is already displayed in a grayed out window to the left.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene where Swagger advises Payne not to call his dog, you can see that there is no license plate on the front of the vehicle, however when Swagger comes out and takes a photo with his cell phone, it is magically there.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Medal of Honor comes in a wooden box, not a standard vinyl medal box.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene where Sarah fixes Swagger's bandage at the kitchen table, in the first several frames her front hair is held back by a clip, but suddenly the clip disappears and her hair is simply back behind her ears in the rest of the scene.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When they are in Lynchburg, Virginia; we see mountains that are not located in Virginia.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The pipeline shown at the beginning of the movie clearly shows "head pipes" on the support structures on either side of the pipeline. These prevent permafrost from melting from the frictional heating of flowing oil. Permafrost heaving is not a major concern of Ethiopian pipeline builders.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When the Crown Vic is backed into the river, various camera angles show a very flat topography which is consistent with Philadelphia. After the car is in the river, the first shot back toward the bridge clearly shows tall mountains in the background. No such mountains exist near Philadelphia.
  
  
• Errors in geography: While Swagger is in Baltimore he walks down the steps of Federal Hill. He enters a taxi cab on Battery Avenue that drives towards the Inner Harbor. Battery Avenue is a "one-way" street that goes in the opposite direction (away from the harbor).
  
  
• Continuity: The first shot Swagger makes, kills an enemy standing in the back of a truck. The man falls into the back of the truck. In the next shot, when the truck falls over, the dead man in the back suddenly disappeared.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When Swagger approaches the pickup he is about to steal, a large cable-stayed bridge is visible in the background. No such bridge is located anywhere near Philadelphia.
  
  
• Continuity: When Swagger is being chased by the cops, all of the cars chasing him have both front and rear plates to identify them. However when he goes down a hill and two cop cars are following him, the second car has a plate with a number on the front, the first car has a blank plate. The car would have a number on the front to identify the car, not just a blank plate.
  
  
• Factual errors: The car Swagger drives in the Chase scene has PA plates but with tag numbers in the style 9999 AAA. Pennsylvania plate numbers have three letters followed by four numbers, not vice versa.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the bathroom scene where Swagger creates the makeshift IV, you can clearly see the areas where make-up was used to cover Wahlberg's tattoos, one on each arm and around his neck.
  
  
• Continuity: As Nick Memphis is leaving the meeting with Sarah, he is shown putting on his suit coat twice.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When Swagger is being chased by police in the stolen FBI vehicle he makes a right off Front St. onto Girard Avenue heading south. When he glances in his rear view mirror, a McDonalds can be seen through the windshield in front of him. That McDonalds would only have been visible if he made a left onto Girard heading north.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the Pennsylvania scenes NO vehicles portrayed in the movie have the required Vehicle Inspection or Emission stickers on the lower left outside of the windshield.
  
  
• Continuity: Mountaintop scene where the supposed exchange is about to happen: the blue helicopter's rotor is alternately rotating / not rotating between shots.
  
  
• Factual errors: At the mountaintop exchange scene, not one of the actors seems to be effected by the considerable down-force caused by the still spinning rotor blades of the helicopter as they get out of it. Even Fenn's shoulder-length hair moves only slightly and the snow beneath their feet seems completely unperturbed by the wind caused by the helicopter. A helicopter touching down in a snowy location would cause a small blizzard and anyone getting out would at the very least be hunkered down and making some attempt to cover themselves from the wind and snow, rather than casually strolling along.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Fenn fires the senator's sidearm on the mountaintop, only 3 rounds are fired before the gun clicks empty and the slides goes back, meaning that either the senator had been busy with his gun earlier or he's in the habit of carrying around a barely loaded weapon.
  
  
• Factual errors: As Colonel Johnson leaves the Department of Justice conference room near the end of the movie, there is a US flag and a Washington, DC city flag (white with 3 red stars and 2 red stripes - based on the coat of arms of George Washington's family) in the hall. A Federal office building would not display the Washington, DC flag, only the American flag (and perhaps a Department of Justice flag).
  
  
• Factual errors: Swagger is referred to as being a "retired" Marine Sniper. In order to be retired, you must have 20 years of service in. He may have been Honorably Discharged, but is doubtfully "retired".
  
  
• Factual errors: In opening shots, film shows Camp Lemonier to be in Ethiopia, Camp Lemonier is located in Dijobuti.
  
  
• Errors in geography: At the time of the assassination, Swagger is in a warehouse at Front and Palmer streets, about 2 miles from the National Independance center at 5th and Market.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the opening action sequence of the movie, Swagger and his spotter, both in the Marine Corp, are both seen wearing US Army ACU uniforms under their ghille suits, while in actuality they should be wearing the USMC's own MARPAT digital style camo.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Before swagger is hit by a tractor trailer in the stolen FBI vehicle, he is seen speeding downhill towards the river. There are no such downhill roads leading to Delaware River in Philadelphia. The layout of land along the Delaware River is very flat.
  
  
• Continuity: All through the movie Bob is pulling the trigger with his right hand - 4:09, 6:40, 18:07, 109:37, 1:33:46. Yet in the glacier scene, his left hand is shown getting ready to pull the trigger 1:41:35.
  
  
• Continuity: In the glacier scene, when Sara takes her revenge on the henchman who broke into her house, she fires four rounds... wouldn't mean much if the weapon was only partially loaded, but in the close-up showing her emotional release immediately thereafter, the bolt is shown locked back which indicates an empty magazine. The scene *after* that close-up briefly shows the bolt in the normal position as though there are still rounds in the clip.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Colonel Johnson tosses Swagger the box and asks him if he recognizes it, he incorrectly calls it the "Congressional Medal of Honor". The medal is frequently, albeit incorrectly, called the "Congressional Medal of Honor", stemming from its award by the Department of Defense "in the name of Congress." It is correctly the "Medal of Honor".
  
  
• Factual errors: Not only is Camp Lemioner in Djibouti, it is a US Navy base. The opening scene would have you believe it is a US Army base in Ethiopia.
  
  
• Continuity: During the shooting scene at Michael Sandor's place, when the first agent breaks the door open and is eventually shot dead by Swagger, you can clearly see that outside it's raining heavily, while it's perfectly sunny throughout the rest of the scene.
  
  
• Continuity: Throughout the film Bob Lee Swagger switches between right and left handed shooting. Snipers only shoot on their preferred side as it is more accurate.
  
  
• Continuity: On top of the mountain when Fenn shoots the man who captured her, the gun is empty one scene and then the scene after that the gun is reloaded.
  
  
• Factual errors: At the beginning of the movie when the helicopter comes he switches to a Barrett M82 which is a semi-auto rifle but he is seen cycling the rifle by hand because the blanks being shot for filming did not produce enough pressure to work the action.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Towards the end of the movie it shows Memphis and Swagger standing on a bridge that is supposedly located outside of Bozeman, MT. (1) The terrain is not even close to that of the city of Bozeman (2) There are three interstate overpasses in the city of Bozeman, and again, the terrain does not match any of the corresponding overpasses.
  
  
• Continuity: In the car wash scene, Swagger is applying Quikclot to two wounds, one in the shoulder/pectoral area and one in the abdomen. Later, Fenn is cleaning the shoulder/pectoral wound, but there is no abdomen wound.
  
  
• Continuity: When Memphis is researching the shooting of the bishop, we see a printed version of Swagger's target on the bulletin board before Nick prints it out.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When FBI agent Memphis is referring to Swagger in his meeting with his boss he refers to Swagger as a "Force Recon Scout Sniper" when in the scene in in Fenn's house shows a picture of her former husband in uniform and he does not have Force Recon wings or a diver pin on his uniform.
  
  
• Continuity: When Johnson leaves the meeting with Swagger and the Attorney General, he is seen standing by the final chair of the table. After the AG is shown pictures by Memphis, the AG looks to Johnson and he is standing about half way down the table, not the end near Swagger.
  
  
• Continuity: When Memphis and Swagger are standing on the overpass in Bozeman, Montana, Memphis is asked on the cellphone if he was involved in the shootout in Virginia the night before. It would be impossible to drive from Virginia to Montana in less than a day.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: During the scene in which Wahlberg backs the car into the river, you can see a metal bar attached to the back bumper which was used to brace the impact of the car hitting the water, and to level out the car so it would sink evenly.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Swagger tests his rifle on the can of stew, the bullet is show striking the can from the bottom of the screen. But at such a long distance, the shot is more like a lob: the bullet would have passed (unseen) "up" the field of view and then dropped back down onto the target.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the archbishop is shot, the sound of the rifle shot is heard at the same time as the bullet strikes. Depending on the speed of the bullet, it would take at least several seconds for the sound to reach the target.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Nick Memphis is scanning through documents about Swagger, there is an article about Wimbledon Cup Winners. The photo shows Swagger and the caption reads "Winner of the Wimbledon Cup" Sgt. Major Bob Lee Swagger. This is incorrect as Swagger is a Gunnery Sergeant, not a Sergeant Major.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In Shooter (and also Die Hard 4) the US Flag is shown to have 15 stripes and the incorrect number of stars. (This is not just an "error", as the effort to make a flag is considerable.)
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the ranch scene just after the flashback to the helicopter gun-run, if you look carefully enough, you can see on Swagger's M4 Carbine, that the selector switch is on Semi-Automatic. But throughout the shootout, he fires on full-auto or in bursts.
  
  

• Factual errors: SPOILER: When Swagger is shot and uses Quickclot on himself. You DO NOT open Quickclot with your mouth - if even a small amount of it gets in your mouth it will cause a very large amount of pain and a massive case of cotton mouth. Also, you do not use it on anything other than arms or legs, putting it on your stomach or upper chest could cause even worse problems if it were to get anywhere near your lungs or stomach.
  
  
• Plot holes: SPOILER: Swagger is hired to predict where an assassin would shoot from, not to give real-time instructions on how to set up the shot. As far as he knows, he is not directing the aiming, so there is no reason for him to suddenly start offering advice on windage and elevation adjustments at the crucial moment - yet the bad guys' plan completely rests upon him spontaneously doing so.
  
  

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