Goofs for
S.W.A.T. (2003) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: After Hondo and McCabe's session at the SWAT training grounds, McCabe removes his sunglasses, yet they reappear on his head in the next shot.
  
  
• Continuity: When Gamble takes Alex and his fellow commandos down into the subway, the SWAT team reports into the radio that they went into the Pershing Square Metro Entrance at 7th & Hope. The Pershing Square station is at 5th & Hill Street. Also, a sign on the wall clearly states "Wilshire/Western" which is not near downtown LA were 7th & Hope is located. They also order the next station on the line to be closed. They say it is "7th & Figueroa Station" which would be correct if they were at Pershing Square, but not if the train is heading east. Eastbound trains would arrive at the Civic Center and/or Union Station stops depending how far they've gone. The trucks are seen arriving with the Wiltern theatre prominently behind them, which would make it the Wilshire/Normandie station (which *is* the next station after/before Wilshire/Western depending which direction you are going, but not near downtown).
  
  
• Continuity: When Gamble slams Street backwards into the change room mirror, breaking the mirror, pieces of glass can be seen in Street's hair. In the next shot, the glass is gone.
  
  

• Continuity: When Hondo and Fuller are going over who to induct into S.W.A.T., Fullers' American flag pin constantly changes positions.
  
  
• Continuity: TJ uses the brownish sedan with the license plate 2PCE058 to stop Montel from escaping in a police car during the bus escape sequence. During the crash, different angles show only the two cars crashing, a third car involved, then again a shot with clearly only the two original cars. Damage to the brownish car varies accordingly.
  
  
• Continuity: The same brownish car with 2PCE058 is seen later in the motorcade scene, undamaged. Although it is not explicitly stated how much time passed between Montel's capture and the transfer date, considering how desperate the LAPD is to get Montel out quickly, a repair of the car would not have been possible.
  
  
• Factual errors: Federal Prison Guards are wearing Department of Corrections Patches, which resemble those of California, where the Bureau of Federal Prisons would be in jurisdiction.
  
  
• Continuity: When Hondo and Street assault the stationary subway train, there's a bright light shining on Street as he climbs the train, but Hondo's gun (and subsequently his torch) are pointed towards the ground.
  
  
• Continuity: When they are escorting Alex into the secured area at LAPD we see the bandage on Street's ear from when Alex sliced him with a piece of glass. But in the shot inside of the jail, the bandage is missing.
  
  
• Continuity: When Alex is being stopped by the two motorcycle police officers, one of the motorcycle headlights is alternately on/off between shots.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the prisoners are being loaded aboard the L.A. Sheriff's Department bus, a deputy is seen shackling a prisoner's leg to a seat support. In reality, prisoners are never secured to any non-movable item. This is a safety issue.
  
  
• Continuity: Street's hairstyle changes when he's driving Hondo around to look for a new SWAT crew.
  
  
• Factual errors: An L.A. Times front page is featured, with a police corruption story in the first two columns under the "COLUMN ONE" header. In reality, "COLUMN ONE" stories are always exactly one column wide, and are features/human interest, not hard news.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The flex cuffs the female hostage on the plane is wearing are not tied tight enough to restrain her hands, she can easily remove them at any time (probably to avoid any injuries or bruising).
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the training montage in the Kill House, there is an overhead shot of one of the characters tossing a flashbang grenade into one of the rooms. The explosion and smoke cloud, however, can clearly be seen to originate not from the actual grenade, but from a previously laid FX charge almost a foot away.
  
  
• Continuity: In the close-up of Street and Deke chasing the man in Lakers' purple, Street is right behind Deke. In the next shot, Street is a good 5 to 10 feet behind Deke.
  
  
• Continuity: In the last scene where the team receives the call up for the 211 at the Diamond Mart, Street puts on the headset for his radio on twice.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the shoot-off at the SWAT training range, T.J.'s M1911 pistol jams in the open position but he keeps squeezing the trigger and the gunfire is heard as if he was still shooting.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Chris Sanchez gets out of her car and runs to a wounded Officer Boxer, some of the camera crew's bodies and faces are reflected in her car door and window for a moment.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When McCabe and Gamble illegally transport Alex Montel at night alongside a car of his henchmen, the camera pans from right to left between the two moving cars. The shadow of the crane (or "cherry picker") needed to for such a moving shot is clearly visible along the sidewalk.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In the final scene outside the S.W.A.T. van from the outside, the camera crew is reflected on the black paint and in the window as the shot tilts up.
  
  
• Continuity: When the private jet is slowing to a stop after landing on the 6th Street bridge, in one shot, the flaps can be seen fully extended. A few seconds later, as the jet stops, the flaps are fully retracted. Generally, flaps on a jet do not retract that rapidly.
  
  
• Continuity: During the final action scenes in the film, Gamble is meant to be wearing black gloves but several times when he uses the hostage and has the fight with Jim he is not wearing them.
  
  
• Factual errors: Dispatch claims the Hawthorne airport beacon is on "after closing hours". Beacons are always turned on after sunset or when visibility is below three miles.
  
  
• Continuity: When Street slides down the rope from the 6th Street Bridge in pursuit of Gamble, he is wearing protective gloves. As he lands/falls onto the rail car at the bottom of the rope, his hands are bare.
  
  
• Continuity: When Street and Sanchez go to the bar after celebrating at the diner, Sanchez takes her jacket off. In the next shot she is wearing it again, and in the shot after that she takes it off again.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Alex Montel gets pulled over for a burned out taillight, he is driving a late-model Cadillac DeVille. This model car has LED taillights which do not burn out. The chances of this happening are very, very slim.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the "Polish" gunman standoff Hondo mentions that they have been called in on their day off, Sunday. LAPD Metro D-Platoon SWAT has 60 full-time officers who work on rotating shifts, thus removing the need to call in six officers on their day off for a routine job and earn them overtime and recall to duty penalty rates of pay etc.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Street is going to "blow" the lock off the sewer gate, you can see the cable pulling the gate off the hinges.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: While in the training mission through the simulation, the flash release mechanism is clearly seen when the flash grenade is tossed.
  
  
• Continuity: While the team is going over the airplane simulation they are originally using a black rope. Nearing the top the rope is white and only the section tying off the harness is black. A slight change in camera angle and the rope is black again.
  
  
• Continuity: The female police officer in the last sequence inside the SWAT vehicle has a silver ring on her right thumb as she views a photograph of her daughter. In the following shot as she places the photo into her shirt, the ring is missing.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the final fight Gamble is supposedly killed by having his head run over by a moving train, but in the after shot no blood is present around his body, and the body itself shows no signs of deformation that the train would with no doubt create.
  
  
• Factual errors: At the scene where Hondo's team were called on a Sunday and where they were about to breach the rear wall of the house, an old lady with a dog was walking by the area and they were escorted off by another SWAT officer. This could not have happened since the SWAT had already secured the perimeter of the house and no civilian can get to the house that close.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the jet is slowing down to a stop on the bridge, the two trucks have their 4 way marker lights on blinking. As the jet is approaching, you can see they are blinking several times faster than they were previously, or will be immediately following the jet stopping. This shows that the film was sped up in order to create the dramatic effect of the jet supposedly approaching at a higher rate of speed.
  
  
• Factual errors: The scene where the helicopter is shot down with a sniper rifle shows the sniper targeting the rotor mechanism, and firing an accurate shot into it. However, the wind generated from the rotors would interfere with the flight path of the bullet, making the shot very inaccurate.
  
  
• Continuity: The scene where the helicopter is shot down with a sniper rifle, shows one of the helicopters rotors flying off and sticking in the area of the stair-well, however when it returns to the same camera angle, the rotor is gone but the hole is there.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Street and Gamble fast rope in to the bank in the opening scene, you can clearly see lines from the ropes and footprints from a previous take.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the Learjet has set down on the bridge, and is finishing its roll out, chains that drive the main wheels to make the plane move under its 'own power' can be seen on the jet. As the plane is then turned around, the chains are gone.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: Deacon Kay's last name is misspelled "Kaye" on the tag on the back of his tactical uniform.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Fuller is giving details of Alex Montel's escape to the press, he states that the attackers used AK-47s. The weapons used were a Tec-DC9 and a silenced pistol.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Hondo and Street are talking in the garage, Street says: "Fuller will never sign off on it". Hondo replies "You let me deal with that paper-pushing PUNK". He originally said "prick" and was just dubbed over.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the scene when Hodno is talking to Officer Burress about joining the S.W.A.T., there is a shot of the two talking with a mirror in between them. If you look at the mirror, then you can clearly see a large group of people staring at the characters, who are obviously bystanders watching the scene being filmed.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the jet on the 6th bridge is stationary as part of the pre-take off check the pilot selects gear down which obviously would have been done before the aircraft landed.
  
  
• Continuity: During the escape scene, different officers contradict each others orders. T.J. tells Montel to "put his hands on his head" yet a second later Boxer tells him "hands up". All the while, others are shouting for Montel to "get on the ground".
  
  
• Continuity: When Montel is captured after his escape attempt, he is being cuffed face down in the street yet when we see it on the news, it now shows him laying on the sidewalk, by Alex Trebek's star. He's then immediately moved to what appears to be a dark-colored transport vehicle. Its logical that he would have been moved from the original 'middle of the street' take-down position to be held until the transport vehicle arrived. But when the vehicle arrives at the station, its gold-colored, and being driven by Sanchez, who was standing on the curb when Montel was loaded.
  
  
• Continuity: When Deacon Kay chases the suspect towards the Crown Victoria he's wearing black shoes, when he runs over it his foot lands on the roof and he's wearing tennis shoes.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When T.J. McCabe runs the shooting course with Hondo, the first knockdown target doesn't fall. If you look between his left shoulder and the post, you clearly see a round hit the first target and knock it down as he aims at the second.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): While in the gun locker, Street is talking to another character about Mormons not being able to eat fast food. This is not true.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Boxer is being lifted on to the top of the plane during the trial exercise, the pulling of the rope by the other two team members does not line up with Boxer being hoisted upward.
  
  
• Continuity: When Gamble and Street are fighting in the train yard beside the bridge, engines/tugs are seen multiple times. First marshalling tug (#3077, with a rotating beacon) can be seen just after Street frees himself (it hoots 3 times). As Street is following Gambles tracks, he crosses over between engine #1201 and a tank car. As he hops off, you briefly see the tug #3077 again, coming towards him (duplicate frames from before?) Then as they fight in the boxcar, you see #1201 go past behind them, and finally once more, its pulling the line of cars that Gamble is killed by.
  
  

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