Goofs

When the cop pulls over the mob's limo, he parks his motorcycle parallel to the vehicle, but in the next shot it is parked perpendicular to the limo.

During the hijacking sequence, Insp. Callahan is eating a hamburger at San Francisco International airport. When he walks out of the terminal to board the hijacked plane, he's at the Oakland International Airport across the bay.

When Callahan is in the car with Lieutenant Briggs after they pick up the bomb they drive by the 76 service station three times in about 30 seconds.

In Harry's car, when Briggs says, "Let me have your gun," they're on a two-lane city street. When Harry hands it over, a few seconds later, they're on a four- or six-lane divided highway. In the next shot they're back on a city street. After Briggs says, "Now the shells," they seem to be entering that same divided highway. But the next shot is on another city street. (Incidentally, the reason we see a Union 76 gas-station sign appear twice behind Harry is that the same reaction shot of him is being used twice.)

When Callahan jumps onto the hood of Palancio's car after the police raid, he is facing the rear of the car, grabbing the hood near the windshield. A few seconds later, he is seen sprawled across the hood, facing the front of the car, and then seconds later he is back in his original position.

When Davis kills the Mob Boss in his apartment and kills McCoy in the garage, he can be seen putting a silencer on his .357 revolver. Once the silencer is attached, the shots he fires are very quiet. It is impossible to silence that type of revolver as most of the sound would still escape from the gap that is always present between the barrel and the cylinder.

Flight attendants are standing in the aisle and walking around while the plane is accelerating for take-off.

Firing a handgun, especially a .357 magnum, in an enclosed space such a corridor of an aircraft carrier is literally deafening. After firing multiple shots it is extremely doubtful if anyone could then hear a motorcycle starting two decks above.

When shooting on the combat pistol range, none of the shooters or bystanders are wearing hearing protection and only two shooters are wearing eye protection. This is a violation of the most basic and standard safety rules on a police shooting range. This is an obvious oversight because Harry and the "rookies" are wearing the proper protection in the earlier scene when they first meet at the indoor range.

To avoid setting off the mailbox bomb, Harry unscrews the frame rather than opening the door, guessing that the latter is booby trapped.

However, if the triggering wires are attached to the door then it does not matter which method of removal he chooses, as the door is attached to the frame and both come off at the same time.

When Davis shoots Charlie McCoy in the parking garage, he uses a .357 magnum, and kills him with a close-range head shot. A red splotch appears on Charlie's forehead, with no blow-back. In reality, a huge section of his head would have been blown off, along with most of his brains, covering the wall behind him. This is a big mistake for a film that portrayed most of its gun violence very realistically.

This is not something that could be accurately portrayed given the limitations of special effects technology of the day.

There is no way that a bomb with a timer would detonate when the intended victim (Harry) is close enough to get blown up.

The mailbox bomb in Harry's mailbox is a VOD (victim operated device). The bomb trigger is attached to the mailbox door, and designed to detonate when the door is opened, just as what happens to Harry's partner. The bomb also has a stopwatch timer, designed to detonate at a specific time. The person who planted the bomb had no way to know when Harry would be near the bomb, that is the reason why the primary trigger is the door switch.

Callahan corrects Briggs's claim that none of the people whom Briggs's "death squad" murdered were innocent, by mentioning that Charlie McCoy was the only innocent victim. For some reason Callahan forgot about the innocent bystanders who were slaughtered at the mobster's pool party and the naked boy and girl who were killed in Guzman's hotel room.

Callahan never said that McCoy was the only innocent person killed, he merely offered McCoy as an example to refute Briggs's claim. Moreover, it's possible Callahan did not consider people cavorting with known mobsters and doing cocaine to be "innocent".

When Davis is assassinating Guzman and his associates, he fires six shots during the hit and never reloads. He then shoots McCoy twice in the parking garage. In reality, McCoy would have been able to draw his gun and shoot Davis or capture him since Davis' gun would have been empty.

Davis kills Guzman and his associates in the penthouse suite of the building, and McCoy in the parking garage which is located at ground level. There would have been plenty of time for Davis to reload his revolver on the way down, regardless of whether he took the stairs or the elevator.

Lt. Briggs parks his car next to a fire hydrant when picking Harry up at his apartment (Perhaps a subtle hint by the film makers attempting to show Brigg's true colors).

Police officers are permitted to park their vehicles wherever they wish, even next to fire hydrants. Even "good guy" cops have been known to do this.

During the "try knocking on the door" dialogue, a trolley can be seen passing by on the street outside. One of the trolley patrons waves directly at the camera, obviously aware that a film was being shot.

Early in the film when the cop shoots the people at the pool party a girl in the pool gets shot. Presumably hours later as a body bag is being carried away from the scene a red cloudy patch of "blood" can be seen in the pool. It is highly unlikely that the blood would not disperse in the water after all of the time that elapsed and water movement that would have occurred.

In the first three killings (before Davis is revealed as one of the killers), the motorcycle cop's voice doesn't match any of the four members of the "vigilante" group. And in a brief moment where part of the man's face is shown, some gray hair is visible, which none of the vigilantes appear to have.

A metal ramp is seen bolted to the front bumper of the 1972 Ford Galaxie sedan (Lt. Briggs' unmarked unit) when it rams Officer Grimes' motorcycle head on.

Prior to the pimp shooting, a circular discoloration is visible on the actor's neck, exactly where he is about to be shot.

In the final credits, Callahan is misspelled "Calahan" and DiGiorgio is misspelled "DiGorgio".

After Harry is thrown off the hood of Palancio's car the car windshield runs into the arm of some sort of building equipment, killing Palancio. The arm clearly misses the driver. The dummy in the driver's seat is quite apparent.

After Callahan removes the bomb from his own mailbox the hanging door remains wired to something in the box, even though he has removed the only thing it should have been attached to.

When the aircraft is taxiing, the Captain (left seat pilot) steers the aircraft using a tiller, meaning Harry would have had to be steering the plane. When he tells the first officer to get the aircraft in "takeoff" position, it would be impossible unless Harry knew this.

Just after Harry gets word there's trouble in the airport, we hear a female voice over the public address system: "American Airlines Flight 557, Electra II Flagship, nonstop for Washington, now boarding at Gate 5." American Airlines stopped using Electra IIs in 1969. In fact, the full-size Lockheed Electra II turboprop had virtually disappeared from all U.S. airlines by the time of "Magnum Force."

When Harry is killing the hijackers on the plane, he has left his .44 magnum behind to disguise himself as a pilot, and is using a smaller revolver, probably a .38, but when he shoots, the gun makes the loud characteristic .44 magnum report. In the 2001 DVD version of this film, the audio has been re-designed, and the resulting gunshots from the .38 sound different from Callahan's .44 Magnum.

As the motorcycle cop is getting ready to attack the pool party, he is seen loading and cocking the submachine gun - the sound is a click-clack of racking the bolt back and forth but the weapon, a Smith & Wesson M76, fires from and open bolt (meaning there'd only be one click, the sound of pulling the bolt back into firing position). As a side note, the blank rounds in the magazine are visible for a brief instant as it's inserted in the gun.

After Harry tries Davis' gun at the shooting competition, he is heard to say to Davis, "Not bad, I seem to have lost the last one" but the movement of his lips clearly indicates that he actually said "the first one".

After Harry discovers that there's a bomb in his mailbox, he goes upstairs to his room and pulls out his Smith & Wesson. He then puts it on top of his chest of drawers and searches for a screwdriver. Finding the screwdriver, he picks up his gun to leave, and puts his thumb on the hammer. The sound of a Model 29 uncocking is heard, but Harry doesn't actually uncock it because it was never cocked.

After the second killing at the swimming pool, after the vigilante cop is done sweeping with his machine gun, a crew member is left clearly standing by the bushes in the left background.

Crew member is seen moving around after the swimming pool massacre.

Just before the car explodes with the time bomb Callahan put in there, you can clearly see wires at the rear of the car.

Reflected in the glass in the shooting practice room.

During the shootout at Palancio's hideout, a gangmember attempts to escape in a Ford sedan - Harry fires a shot at the driver and the car crashes into the office building/hideout. Just before the car crashes through the wall, a large object can be seen in the back seat, covered with a black cloth, which is the camera for the POV shot as the car smashes through the wall.

As Briggs and Callahan are driving after Briggs pulls a gun on Callahan, the background behind the two actors repeatedly changes from I-280 to the now demolished Embarcadero Freeway.

The pool massacre actually takes place in Marin County, which the movie tries to pass off as somewhere within the jurisdiction of the San Francisco Police Department.

When the death squad reveals themselves to Callahan in his garage all he has to do is play along as he has no idea if they plan to kill him or not. Since Callahan is portrayed up to that point as being a shrewd police officer and had suggested to his partner what might happen that he would not have done so makes no sense.

Reflected in the front windscreen of the pimp's car after being pulled over by Officer Sweet.

When Harry walks up to the limousine in which Ricca and his men have been murdered, he puts his hands on the car's door sill and partially rolled-down window, contaminating an active crime scene which is still under investigation. No veteran homicide detective would do this.

Walter, the CSI, tells Harry, when he is looking at the pimp's car, that the shooter "emptied the entire magazine" into the body. However, in the previous scene Walter has already identified the bullets as coming from a 357 Magnum. The 357 is a revolver and therefore does not use magazines.

During the press conference right after the pool massacre, one of the media camera assistant trips and just plays dead. You see him on the left "helping" the camera man, adjusting the lens on the camera and then he trips and just plays possum.

When Callahan enters the indoor shooting range and approaches the four motorcycle cops using the range, he has his heavy-duty over-the-ears hearing protectors. Yet, he neglects to put on his hearing protection, even while standing near the officer who is shooting. Clearly, the shots seemingly being fired are not real shots at all, or are very weak blanks, or Callahan would have donned his hearing protectors.

During the hijack sequence, while the hijacker is searching the briefcase Callahan brought on board, the actor playing him momentarily glances at the camera.