Goofs for
Spy Game (2001) More at IMDbPro »

• Factual errors: The USA has no embassy in Hong Kong. Embassies only exist in the capital of an independent nation, not in a colony. The U.S. has a consulate in Hong Kong. In the two live TV reports from Hong Kong the reporter correctly refers to the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong, even though he's standing in front of a building marked as "Embassy".
  
  
• Anachronisms: Late-1990s vintage computers and monitors appear in the scenes set in 1985 (the embassy in Beirut) and 1991 (the CIA headquarters).
  
  
• Anachronisms: While in Lebanon in 1985, Tom is wearing a style of San Diego Padres hat that did not exist until the early 1990s.
  
  

• Continuity: The film takes place in 1991. The trade confirmation form that Harker acquires shows Muir having liquidated his assets that day, and signed the form on "10/11/90". In a similar vein, the deed Muir receives from the C.I.A. director is dated "November 1990". Yet, a TV report refers to the "2nd Anniversary Berlin Wall" which supports the idea of the film taking place in 1991.
  
  
• Factual errors: The windows and walls at CIA headquarters are made to block radio transmissions; a cell-phone would not work inside.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The cellphone that Muir uses was not available in 1991 when the movie was set. First models in the Nokia 2100 series were available during the summer of 1994, many other 21xx models much later on in America.
  
  
• Anachronisms: By April 1975, the US air base at Danang had been evacuated
  
  
• Factual errors: Innumerable breaches of security procedure (failing to sign for classified documents, writing on pads of paper, using a non-GSA approved safe, not wearing ID tag, &c.)
  
  
• Anachronisms: The opening to "Baywatch" (1989) being watched by the businessmen shows a credit for Pamela Anderson. This scene takes place in 1991, and Anderson did not join the show's cast until 1992.
  
  
• Continuity: An RPG gunner is shown firing his weapon, but the rocket is obviously not loaded.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In 1985, there weren't any small satellite dishes in Lebanon.
  
  
• Anachronisms: GSM mobile phone panel antennas, not used in the '80s, can be clearly seen all around the roof of the building in West Berlin.
  
  
• Anachronisms: There's a huge Coca-Cola sign in the Beirut café in 1985, but Coca-Cola wasn't re-introduced to the Lebanese market until July 1990, after a 23 year absence.
  
  
• Factual errors: There are no American military bases in Penghu. All US military personnel were withdrawn from the Republic of China (including Penghu) after the US switched diplomatic recognition to mainland (Communist) China in 1979.
  
  
• Plot holes: China has enough experience with cholera that it would not require foreign aid personnel to help deal with it. In any event, it's highly implausible that a foreigner would be allowed into a Chinese prison without being adequately screened.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In addition to putting a non-existent US embassy into Hong Kong, the movie also places one in Berlin. In the 1980s the US Embassy to West Germany was in Bonn, not West Berlin (which was not strictly speaking part of West Germany).
  
  
• Errors in geography: The building used as CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, retains some of its native English "fire door - keep shut" door stickers.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The prison guards are speaking Cantonese instead of Mandarin, and the Chinese characters shown are traditional Chinese characters whereas in mainland China people use simplified Chinese characters.
  
  
• Continuity: Muir's breakfast switches around between different shots when Bishop gives him the flask.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Muir talks to Commander Wiley on the phone near the end of the film, a caption shown misspells Su Chou as "Su Cho".
  
  
• Continuity: When Muir and Bishop meet at the railway station in Berlin, behind Muir and his wife the same woman (an extra) gets off the train twice.
  
  
• Continuity: When Bishop is brought onto the helicopter two soldiers proceed to stand on the skid of the helicopter as it begins its takeoff. The soldiers disappear in the next shot, when the helicopters are several feet in the air.
  
  
• Plot holes: Operation "Dinner Out" takes place between 0700 and 0800 Eastern time. The assault on the prison takes place in the dark, aided by the power blackout, and by the time the team withdraws it has become daylight, indicating morning. 0700 in Washington would be 1900 in China... evening not morning.
  
  
• Factual errors: In car chase in the beginning of the movie, the two East German policemen are speaking German with a heavy East European accent. East German people do speak with a very characteristic accent (often subject of parodies and jokes) but these actors were clearly not from Germany. As the Berlin scenes were shot in Budapest, the appearance of Hungarian actors is the obvious source of this issue (cf. Cast).
  
  
• Errors in geography: UK "zig-zag" road markings when Muir is driving to the Langley offices.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In 1985 in the Beirut café, the song heard in the background is "Noor Eshams" by the Lebanese singer Pascal Mashalani, the song was released for the first time in 2000.
  
  
• Continuity: When Muir and Bishop meet after the failed attempt to free a man from East Germany, Bishop grabs the chair twice before sitting down.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Bishop chastises Muir on his views of Hadley's apparent neutrality, his mouth isn't moving.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Once Operation Dinner Out is accomplished, the pilot of the helicopter identifies himself over the radio with a Blackhawk ID. This is in line with Muir requesting "02 MH-60K" from Commander Wiley. Yet, the helicopters in use were not Blackhawks, but Hueys.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: Early in the movie when Muir is opening his safe to remove his files on Bishop (and we first get to see his Bahamas brochure) the numbers on the safe, the combination buttons, are upside-down.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Nathan Muir is approaching the exit of the CIA building, close to give his badge on his final day, he has already tipped off the press and he thinks Bishop is fine. But he sees on the TV screen a new "live report from Hong Kong" where the reporter says that Bishop was already dead. It is about 3pm in Langley when Muir is leaving, which makes it impossible to be daylight in Hong Kong... yet the live report from Hong Kong is clearly in daylight.
  
  
• Errors in geography: In the begining of the movie muir is traveling eastbound over the TR brigde into Washington D.C. If he were going to Langly he would be traveling west bound on I-66 and onto the GW parkway coming from Maryland.
  
  
• Factual errors: Bishop's hair is not USMC regulation length while in Germany.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: When the rescue helicopters are landing on the prison room, their is someone in the bottom right corner waving them in. I couldn't have been a guard because they were taken by surprise, and it couldn't have been a U.S. solid since none of the helicopters had landed yet.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The prison Su Cho seems to be a late edition. You can clearly see that Su Cho is dubbed over.
  
  
• Continuity: Although the story spans 16 years, nobody ages in the movie. Assuming Tom Bishop is 21 in Vietnam, he would be 37 in 1991, yet he doesn't age a day.
  
  
• Continuity: When the STASI are chasing Bishop in Berlin they deploy the blue-lights on the roof. The cord is going through the open car window. When they take it off after leaving the pub (after the chase) the cord is not going through the window.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The lat/long coordinates Muir types for the Dinner Out operation are 6 miles inland near Qinhuangdao near North Korea, about 1200 miles North of Hong Kong.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Harry Duncan counteroffers $282,000 to the Chinese General for shutting of the power, he actually said $2,820,000 in Chinese instead.
  
  
• Errors in geography: There is no Kaarachi in India - 'Karachi' is, in fact, the largest metropolis in the south of Pakistan, not India.
  
  
• Factual errors: Muir (Redford) tells the doctor in Beiruit that his parent's death was from 'CO2 asphyxiation' i.e. carbon dioxide. From the pictures and the presumed accidental cause of the death this should probably be CO asphyxiation, i.e. carbon MONoxide.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The San Diego Padres hat Tom Bishop is seen wearing in Beirut, in 1985, was not available until 1991.
  
  
• Continuity: Tom Bishop's hair is streaked with gray in the beginning of the film, when he is infiltrating Su Chou Prison. During the brief flashes of interrogation scenes throughout the movie, his hair is black. During the final rescue scene, his hair has streaks of gray in it again.
  
  

• Factual errors: SPOILER: The final scene when Bishop learns that the rescue operation is called "Dinner Out" is emotionally appealing, but not believable. Bishop is supposed to hear the voice of the helicopter pilot when the pilot is talking through the radio of his helmet to the base "We are inbound, operation Dinner Out accomplished". Bishop has no helmet, and the helicopter is flying with the rear doors open. There is no way he could have hear the pilot, who was not facing him, so he could not even read his lips. The noise of the helicopter would prevent him from hearing the pilot who was talking to his microphone in a normal voice.
  
  

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