Goofs

When Ronnie Cox's character is shot by Capt. Shaun, he appears to be hit in the left side of his neck. Later, he is holding his left shoulder. When he is phoning in for the helicopters to lay down the smoke, a soldier is shown applying a bandage to his right arm. By the very end, there is no sign of any gunshot injury or bandage.

When Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn get into a fight after their altercation in the senior lounge, three railings from the stair banister are clearly knocked out. At the end, when the two speak, the railings are back in place again.

Shaving cream on Brian's face appears and disappears between shots.

When the cadets are helping the young ladies out of their cars at the main gate, a station wagon is seen pulling up twice and lets the same girls twice.

As the trucks approach the stop light, we hear the front truck stall out and see the occupants in the cab react to it. However, when it cuts to a close-up, they're sitting casually and then suddenly realize the engine isn't running.

When all the adult staffers of Bunker Hill Academy are loaded onto the bus, a Captain and a few other uniformed soldiers are shown. Bache's statement that the Cadet Major is only outranked by the commanding general, then, is untrue. Active military personnel outrank ANY cadet in a K-12 military academy. These people are retirees and not active duty personnel.

When taking inventory of the armory, the man counting the weapons states they are ".45 millimeter caliber 1911's." M1911 pistols are .45 caliber, meaning the bore is .45 inches in diameter, and not the metric measurement of 45 millimeters (a significantly larger measurement, to the point where they would be classed as artillery, rather than small arms). In countries which issued the M1911 (or copies), and to whom the Metric system was common, the cartridge was referred to as 11.43x23mm.

When the cadets are watching M*A*S*H in the lounge, the opening sequence is on the screen, but the music is the closing music.

At morning formation, reveille was the bugle call proper for that formation. However, the long tradition of respect for when the flag is raised, the proper bugle call is "To the Colors."

During the commencement parade one of the cadets in Company C is wearing sunglasses. This would not be allowed, unless they were required for medical reasons.

When Cadet Major Mooreland is arguing with his father, he appears to yell "Capt. Shaun! Escort my escort!", which seems to be a mistake in his lines; however, this was exactly intended to be said. The sub-titles clarify Moore actually says "Escort my-", about to say "father", but then stops himself out of disgust for how his father is acting and then says "Escort the Sergeant off the base". In the yelling and rapid talking, this can easily sound like "escort my escort".

General Bache, discussing the quality of honor, says it is "burglar proof, fool proof, weather proof, 100 proof." A drinking man like Bache would more likely have referred to it as "200 proof," since 100 proof alcohol is, by definition, half water.

Most of the non-firing M-16 rifles used were replicas made in Japan by the Model Gun Company. This is easy to identify when the Forward Assist mechanism is in view on the right side of the weapon, as it is a tacked-on hump parallel to the upper receiver in such a way that it could not possibly function.

Most military schools follow a standard system where seniors are cadet officers, juniors the NCOs, Sophomores Cadet Corporals, and Freshman as Cadet Privates or Recruits. Therefore, when Moreland becomes Cadet Major, he should actually be a junior with a cadet sergeant rank, assuming his position for the next year as a senior. Instead, he is already a Cadet Captain meaning he is in the same class as the outgoing Cadet Major which makes the change of command make little sense.

All cadet ranks at US military schools are preceded by the word "Cadet", i.e. Cadet Private, Cadet Sergeant, Cadet Captain, and so on. When a senior adult speaks to any cadet, the standard address is simply "Cadet". It is improper to call a Cadet *only* by their cadet rank, such as calling Moreland "Major" since this is an actual military rank which he does not hold. Moreland should be referred to as "Cadet Major" or simply "Cadet".

When the cadets are confronted by the townies after one of the trucks stalls, as the cadets are racing back to the second truck, a wheel chock can be seen in front of the forward wheel of the rear axles on the right hand side of the truck.

When the characters use an Army Saber to salute, they all fail to do it correctly except Sean Penn while on horseback. It is a two-step maneuver. On the preparatory command of "PRE_SENT," the saber is brought to a position approximately four inches from the soldier's nose so that the tip of the saber is six inches from the vertical. The soldier is looking at the flat side of blade at the top of the hilt and the blade is either straight up or slightly tilted forward. The actors do this part correctly. What they fail to do is at the command of execution "ARMS," the right hand is lowered with the flat of the blade upward, the thumb extended on the left side of the grip and the tip of the saber about six inches from the marching surface and pointed at the ground. Assuming the actors received the same instructor at Valley Forge Academy, they must have all been taught this way. It is not, however, in accordance with Army Regulation FM 22-5, now called FM 3-21.5.

Right after Bache has announced that Bunker Hill will be closing, Moreland is seen coming down a hallway. To Moreland's right is a Maryland flag, which is clearly UPSIDE DOWN! Military personnel would know how display flags, both national and state, and would NOT make the mistake of displaying ANY of them UPSIDE DOWN.