When Crown walks in front of the delivery truck, the shot from the cab clearly shows that a car is stopped 9 feet in front of the truck. So, why was the delivery truck traveling so fast to begin with? Then, in the long shot after the driver moves on, he accelerates at a high rate, as if there was no car stopped in front of him. If there is a traffic-jam, the car would not have traveled far at all during that time.
When Thomas steals the Monet in the first theft, he puts the painting with wooden canvas stretcher into his briefcase and folds it closed. When he opens the briefcase later, the canvas stretcher is not broken. When Thomas "folds" the painting into the briefcase in the first theft he takes it out of the briefcase at his home. He then places it on the hidden shelf with rigid sides. If it had been folded in the briefcase the painting's backside frame would have been broken as well as the painting itself would have cracked. And he didn't have time to fix the canvas or the frame if it had been folded. Naturally it would splinter being folded into the briefcase with it on but it all looks likes one continuous motion.
During the glider scenes, there's one point where Crown motions for Banning to look to her left but both actors seem to turn their heads to their right. Actually, because of the size constraints of the cockpit, all the interior shots were filmed using a mirror with the camera mounted at an angle. Since the camera sees a mirror image, the actors look to their left out of natural instinct, but appear to look to their right.
Catherine's health drink during breakfast appears on the table only 3/4 full. When she drinks it, the drink is almost to the top of the glass.
When breakfast is served, Catherine's health drink starts as being dark green when served and then becomes a mint green when she drinks it.
When Banning has taken Crown's keys, and her people are making duplicates, a close-up is shown on the machine cutting the duplicate key. They are gliding the head across the grooves to cut the slug into the same shape. This is how many keys are duplicated, but not the Medeco high-security model that is shown in the movie. The Medecos are cut one groove at a time, because each groove can be angled in one of three positions.
Any museum displaying a painting worth "a hundred million bucks" would never allow food to be present in the room, nor would it be displayed under a sky light. Even though Crown is an apparent benefactor to the museum a proctor would still hold to the rules and forbid him to eat in the room. The sky light would allow in UV light which over time would damage anything displayed in the room.
Crown serves "Krug Grande Cuvee 1981". However, Grande Cuvee
is a non-vintage blend so this is an oxymoron.
In the film the painting stolen by Mr. Crown: "San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk " by Monet, is said to be the first impressionistic painting in the world. But according to Wikipedia the first painting is "Impression, soleil levant", also by Monet, which gave name to "Impressionism".
The movie implies Mr. Crown bends/folds the painting to close his briefcase, the director cuts away right before the folding. When Mr. Crown reveals the painting in his home it clearly shows a solid wood frame that is not damaged.
Mr. Crown incorrectly quotes the Leonard Cohen song 'The Stranger Song' - he says "It's sad to see another tired man lay down his hand and quit the holy game of poker" when the actual words are "You hate to watch another tired man lay down his hand like he was giving up the holy game of poker". It is well within the realms of possibility that the character was just paraphrasing the song, he is established as an art expert not a musical expert.
When they realized from the security cameras that someone (Mr. Crown) hid a "third leg" under the bench in front of the stolen painting, it's quite unlikely that the detective and/or security staff did not wind the tape back far enough to see who put it there. The scene would reveal that person who hide briefcase also speak with some proctor (when Crown talk with Bobby, how he like only his haystacks). After quick confrontation with proctors who have duty in that time and place, Bobby would definitely able to identified Crown from that scene on the tape, even under thermal imaging it's impossible to make out people's features. Moreover Crown would be identified from other security cameras (from entrance), that he strolled into the museum with briefcase, but left museum without.
Crown could have easily placed the briefcase in position before the new surveillance equipment was installed (the day before). Looking back through the old footage would have required getting the tapes back and the old equipment accessed to watch it (not so easily done). Additionally, he would just have likely kept his features hidden while doing so, so going back through any footage would have been fruitless.
Crown could have easily placed the briefcase in position before the new surveillance equipment was installed (the day before). Looking back through the old footage would have required getting the tapes back and the old equipment accessed to watch it (not so easily done). Additionally, he would just have likely kept his features hidden while doing so, so going back through any footage would have been fruitless.
On the day of the original art museum theft, they say it is a very hot day. Yet they then show the streets of New York where several people are wearing overcoats.
In the sailing scene, Crown is winding a winch, which clearly has no line on it. This is evident by the empty self-tailing jaws on the top.
When Catherine is drinking from the Pepsi Can - it is clearly empty for the duration of the scene from beginning to end.
Early in the movie in the conference room, the man on the left slowly unwraps a cigar, pulls out a match and waits for Crown to sign the closing documents. As Crown begins signing, the man strikes the match and begins lighting his cigar and tosses the matches to the 3rd man. In the subsequent shot however the cigar is clearly not lit.
When Catherine's team breaks into Crown's residence, they use a stopwatch to know how much time has gone by while they disable the alarm. When they go in the door, the stopwatch starts. The holder calls out at ten seconds, but 17 seconds have actually gone by. Between the call of "ten" and nineteen (which should have taken nine seconds) nineteen more seconds have actually run off.
At 12:55 the Monet painting "Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son" is shown as the painting almost touched by the young girl visiting the museum. This painting is not in the Metropolitan Museum in NYC but is in National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.
Catherine Banning, whilst picking holes in the investigating detectives theory, says that "the thieves prepared a load, conservatively, 1,000 lbs of paintings and 800lbs of men that we know about in a chopper with a 600lbs useful load", suggesting that this could never happen.The chopper is then correctly described as a Sikorsky S-76. However, there are four men on the job in total (800lbs), plus the load which is stated to weigh the equivalent of five men (1,000lbs). Add the helicopter pilot and you have the equivalent weight therefore of 10 men. Yet the S76 is a 12 man helicopter so should easily cope with this much weight. Catherine's figure refers to the baggage compartment capacity. They'd simply put the pictures inside the aircraft with the passengers.
The team of agents that inspect Crown's house emerge from a truck that displays the false company name "Aladdin Cleaning Services". However, the company name is misspelled on the agents' jackets, reading "Alladin".
Catherine Banning is from Lima, Ohio. Thomas Crown mispronounces the name as LEE-ma. It's actually LIE-ma.
The scene where hundreds of men in bowler-hats cause confusion, carrying with them copies of a painting depicting a business man with an apple obstructing his face, Michael McCann incorrectly calls the painting the Man in the Bowler Hat, a painting by René Magritte. The painting is in-fact The Son of Man, a similar painting by the same artist.
After she interviews one of the museum thieves, Rene Russo's character says they are Romanian, but early on in the movie when they break out of the horse statue, they begin speaking Polish to each other.