My Movie Mistakes
Despite Hollywood's best efforts, almost all movies, even the biggest budget films, sneak through production and editing and onto the big screen with problems. Not story problems, mind you, but errors with filming and editing that go far beyond any fictional storytelling. Some glitches are not easily visible to the casual observer, while some of them are nearly so obvious it makes you wonder if the post-production crew was asleep at the wheel.
This is my list of movie goofs of my own finding that I have contributed to MovieMistakes.com. That isn't to say that others haven't spotted any of these particular mistakes as well, but these glitches had not been listed on said website prior to my submitting them. And by the same token, there are many mistakes I have spotted which have already documented by others.
Please note not all of the goofs listed here are currently on MovieMistakes.com. At least two of them have been disputed by others and removed from the current list. The current entries are usually posted ver batim as I have written them here, but Jon Sandys occasionally takes the liberty of rewording them before posting on his website.
Continuity error - things changing/moving between shots.
Factual error - historical/geographical mistakes.
Visible crew or equipment - crew members and cameras appearing where they shouldn't.
Plot hole - events or character decisions which benefit the plot despite making no sense.
Revealing mistake - seeing special effects equipment or how certain effects are achieved.
Audio problem - anything sound related.
Deliberate 'mistake' - a deliberate choice by the filmmaker which results in a mistake.
Other - any other kind of mistake.
Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)
Continuity: Sgt. Roenick's facial hair changes throughout the movie. Most of the time it is seen as a scruffy moustache and goatee, several days worth of growth. But in the scene where he tells the prisoners the precinct is under attack by rogue cops, he is practically clean-shaven. And during the scene in the forest, he is sporting a five-o'clock shadow instead of the usual goatee.
Other: There are several problems with lighting and time sequence during the nighttime forest scene at the end of the movie. The tall trees are backlit by a very bright light, obviously studio lamps for they are much too bright to be natural moonlight. And when they emerge from the dark forest five minutes later, it is daylight and the sun is already several hours over the horizon.
Continuity: During the outdoor scenes throughout the movie, and most noticeably during the forest scenes, condensation from the actors' breaths appears almost randomly. Sometimes their breaths can clearly be seen in the cold air, and other times not at all.
Revealing: When Roenick and the others emerge from the underground sewer, he uses one hand to effortlessly push aside the manhole cover. Large manhole covers weigh several hundred pounds and don't budge quite as easily.
Other: Anna hot-wires the truck so she and Alex can go get help. As they are driving away, tire tracks from the camera vehicle in front of the truck are visible in the snow.
Revealing: The snowfall during the forest scene is very fake-looking. Snowflakes change size and brightness randomly, and twirl around in the air in a very unnatural pattern. Looking more like fireflies than snowflakes, these are obviously CGI effects.
A Bronx Tale
Continuity: In the scene near the end of the film where C is alone at Sonny's funeral and Joe Pesci walks in, the rosary beads on the dead body's hands change position several times.
Caddyshack
Continuity: At the dinner party, when Spaulding gulps down some half-finished drinks left on a table, his unknotted bow-tie is hanging on the left side of his neck. He nearly gags on the last drink and quickly exits the room. In the next shot, outside the restaurant, his unknotted bow-tie is hanging on the right side of his neck.
Revealing: During the opening credits, the gopher is tunneling under the turf and plowing it up as he goes. In one of these shots, the path the gopher will take can be seen before he even gets there. The darker special-effects grass that the underground "gopher" will tear up is clearly obvious.
Audio Problem: When Al Czervik pays the band leader to play something hot, they stop playing slow music and a disco song starts up. The disco song is obviously the original studio recording and not the clubhouse band. The female vocal accompaniments from the recording can be heard, but there were no female vocalists with the clubhouse band.
Casino Royale
Revealing: Mata is kidnapped and taken to Casino Royale in a flying saucer, which then releases a small hovercraft to bring her inside the island cave. Once inside the cave, the hovercraft leaves the water and goes up a ramp, at which point a tow cable can be clearly seen pulling the hovercraft up the ramp and onto the landing platform. [1:45:25]
Cast Away
Continuity: When we first see Chuck washed up on the island in daylight, as he gains consciousness and awakens inside the life raft, he is clean shaven. A moment later when he is walking down the beach collecting the FedEx boxes, he has grown a full day's worth of beard stubble.
The Day After Tomorrow
Continuity: When the wall of water is about to slam into New York, a city bus driver is stuck in traffic in the pouring rain. As he is listening to the weather report on the radio, he looks in his rear-view mirror to see the wall of water coming up behind him. There is not one drop of rain obscuring the view between the outside mirror and the window.
The Dukes of Hazzard
Continuity: After the boys run five miles to the Boar's Nest, the sweat stains on Bo's blue t-shirt start disappearing and reappearing. When Bo gives a beer to Billy Prickett, his shirt is dry in one shot, and then again has a wet sweat stain in the next. The shirt goes through other various stages of sweatiness throughout the Boar's Nest scene. [0:09:30]
Falling Down
Continuity: When Michael Douglas abandons his car in the traffic jam, the window had been rolled down just a few inches before the handle broke. A moment later, when Robert Duvall is helping the cop push the car off the road, the window is rolled down all the way.
Continuity: After the struggle between D-Fens and the Korean storeowner, a box of raisin bran and a box of maxi-pads can be seen lined up on the bottom shelf. D-Fens then whacks the shelf with the baseball bat, causing the two boxes to become angled and askew. The storeowner says, "take the money," and in the next shot the boxes are properly lined up again.
Continuity: When D-Fens meets with the two gang members, watch the gangsters positions as they stop walking. They are standing close to each other as one of them says, "I'm not laughing". The other says, "I'm not either," and they are suddenly standing about six feet apart from each other in the next shot, even though the dialogue overlaps the shots.
Fantastic Voyage
Revealing: During the miniaturization process after Phase I, the sub has been reduced to coin-size at best. As the techs are beginning Phase II, they roll wheeled equipment by the tiny sub. There is a close-up of the sub pilot looking eye-level with the equipment wheel axle, and a tech's ankle is slightly below the pilot's eye-level. This is an impossible perspective: for the pilot to be eye-level with the wheel axle, the sub would have to be more like a foot in diameter and not coin-size.
Fletch
Continuity: During the scene where the cops grab Gummy under the boardwalk, the left passenger window of the cop car is rolled up as they open the door. After they put Gummy in the car, close the door and drive off, the left passenger window is still rolled up. Fletch grabs a rock and throws it at the cop car. Look closely at the shot where the rear window shatters - the left passenger window is now rolled down.
Fun with Dick and Jane
Continuity: When Jack McCallister climbs into the helicopter and closes the door, his jacket was unzipped. A split second later in the next shot when he salutes Dick and the helicopter takes off, his jacket is zipped up, his seat harness is fastened, and he is wearing hearing protection. One might argue that he zipped up and buckled up between shots that we didn't see, but there was no break in the audio track between the two shots. (0:16:30)
Halloween
Visible crew/equipment: During the opening sequence, the scene is shot in first-person point-of-view from the young Michael Myers. As he walks through the house, the shadow of the camera can be seen several times. After he picks up the knife in the kitchen, the camera's shadow is visible on the door frame leading into the dining room. It can be seen again just before he turns to go upstairs.
Hamburger Hill
Continuity: Near the beginning of the film, the soldiers are filling sand bags with mud. Beletsky, whose hands and forearms are covered in wet mud, puts down his sandbag and takes out a photo of his girlfriend. In the next closeup shot of him holding the photo, his hands are suddenly clean and dry.
The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
Continuity: When the family leaves the gas station to take the dirt road shortcut, the sun is casting long shadows as if it were approaching sunset. A few moments later, after the tires get blown out, the shadows are very short as if the sun were almost directly overhead. The inconsistency of the sunlight's shadows continues throughout the entire first part of the movie until the first nightfall scene.
The Incredibles
Factual Error: When Mirage is explaining the Omnidroid 9000 to Mr. Incredible, the keyboard in front of the holographic monitor is slightly out of whack. The row of QWERTY keys is too far to the right, with Q being between 2 and S. This is probably OK for cartoon characters to hunt and peck, but a real touch-typist would have a very difficult time with this arrangement.
The Jerk
Continuity: When Navin is at the gas station and is being shot at by the sniper, take a look at the arrangement of the oil cans on the rack behind him. One of the cans in the middle of the rack changes color from pink to purple between shots.
Jurassic Park
Plothole: At the beginning of the film, after the workers have moved the velociraptor cage, Joffrey the Gatekeeper climbs atop to remove the gate. How in the world could one man lift up that heavy steel gate, which must have weighed at least a thousand pounds? There are no counterbalances or other mechanisms that might have assisted lifting the gate. And why didn't it fall back down into place when Joffrey fell?
The Long Kiss Goodnight
Continuity: When Geena Davis is ice-skating with her daughter, she takes off her right glove to hold the girl's hand and help her up. The glove is still off when she says "3 2 1, Go!" but when the camera changes point-of-view in the next shot, the glove is somehow back on her hand again.
Liar Liar
Continuity: During Max's birthday party near the beginning of the film, Audrey takes the cake out of the box and places it on the kitchen counter, and then puts birthday candles on the cake. In the next shot, the cake is sitting on a glass plate that wasn't there before.
The Man with the Golden Gun
Visible crew/equipment: During the car chase scene where Bond is driving the red AMC, Sheriff J.W. Pepper says, "The nearest bridge is two miles back." Look at the rear window and you'll see the elbow of a crewmember on the roof of the car appear into view.
Visible crew/equipment: James Bond is backing up the red AMC preparing to jump the wooden bridge. Sheriff J.W. Pepper says, "What the hell you doing now, boy?" and then you can see a studio light and a crewmember in the reflection of the right rear passenger window.
Napoleon Dynamite
Continuity: When Napoleon starts his dance skit near the end of the movie, his t-shirt is tucked into his pants. Shortly into the skit, the shirt comes loose in the back and on one side. A few seconds later, the shirt is once again completely tucked in. This happens several times throughout the scene. [1:22:25]
Continuity: At the beginning of the film Napoleon is drawing a unicorn in his notebook, coloring in what appears to be a flatulation cloud behind the unicorn's posterior. When Napoleon is called up to the front of the class, just before he closes his notebook we see the drawing again but this time the cloud has vanished. [0:05:15]
Neighbors
Visible crew/equipment: When Vic and Ramona are driving away after Earl gives them his car, the reflection of a studio light is clearly visible in the car's left rear window. [1:22:30]
Trivia: Near the end of the film, John Belushi is watching TV and a commercial for Spruce Hill Funeral Home is playing. The voice narrating the commercial is that of the film's co-star Dan Aykroyd. [1:25:10]
Pet Sematary
Continuity: When Ellie falls off the tire swing at the beginning of the film, the tire shown in the first shot of her on the ground is not the same one that was tied to the tree. It is a whitewall tire with brand new tread, and the rope is nowhere to be seen in this shot. A moment later when her parents run over, the older worn-down tire with the rope tied around it reappears. [00:05:10]
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Continuity: When Owen arrives at the hotel to meet Neal and Del to drive them to the train station, Owen is wearing gloves on both hands. As he introduces himself and shakes their hands, Owen's right hand is now bare even though there wasn't enough time to remove the glove.
Porky's
Continuity: When Timmy cleans out his gym locker, he took only two items from the locker, stuffing them in the basket haphazardly. In the next shot when he is at the counter returning them to the phys ed coach, the basket is now full of at least six different items, all neatly folded. [0:52:45]
Pulp Fiction
Continuity: When Winston Wolfe and Raquel are getting in his car to leave Monster Joe's, there is a flatbed truck and a sedan parked behind a yellow beetle across the street. In the next shot as they are speeding off, the flatbed and sedan have somehow changed into a pickup truck and a van.
Rambo: First Blood
Visible crew/equipment: At the beginning of the movie, Sheriff Teasle escorts Rambo to the outskirts of town. As the sheriff drives off, the boom mike is visible in the reflection of the car's right rear passenger window.
Continuity: When Rambo is being pursued through the forest and comes upon the cliff edge, the water at the bottom of the gorge changes direction of flow several times. It is first seen as flowing left to right, from Rambo's point of view. The very next shot shows the water flowing right to left. It reverses direction twice more in subsequent shots.
Rambo: First Blood Part II
Continuity: In the POW camp, Co Bao is discovered by a guard who points a handgun at her. Rambo shoots an arrow into the guard's forehead, who then falls back against a tree with his cap down low over his eyes. In the next shot his cap is much higher on his head, and the arrow is pointing at a different angle. How could his cap have moved up that far with the arrow holding it to his forehead? For that matter, how could the arrow have moved when it was firmly embedded in the guard's skull?
Other: Near the beginning of the film, the airplane that will fly Rambo into the jungle is being refueled and prepared for takeoff. Ericson shines his flashlight into one of the jet exhaust ports to inspect it, an impossible task since the jet engines have already been started. Not even Rambo would be able to stand behind a jet exhaust without getting blown over or burnt to a crisp.
Revealing: Towards the end of the movie, when Rambo is setting everything afire with his exploding arrows, an enemy soldier stumbles through a patch of tall burning grass. As he falls to the ground covered in flames, the fireproof mittens the stuntman is wearing are clearly visible.
Return of the Jedi
Trivia: Luke Skywalker has an AM/FM-cassette deck mounted in the cockpit of his X-Wing fighter. It can be seen as he's flying away from Tatooine after destroying Jabba's barge, in the shot just before he says "That's right, Artoo, we're going to the Dagobah system." [0:37:25]
The Shawshank Redemption
Visible crew/equipment: During the scene where Sgt Hadley nearly throws Andy off the plate factory roof, the reflection of a boom mike is briefly visible in the shiny brim of Hadley's hat.
The Shining
Continuity: As Danny is writing 'redrum' on the bathroom door, the lampshade on the nightstand light is askew. A moment later, when Jack is knocking down the door with the axe, the lampshade has somehow straightened itself out.
Silver Streak
Continuity: At the beginning of the film, when Ned Beatty is hitting on Jill Clayburgh in the bar car, the drink in her glass refills itself from half-full to nearly full without the help of the bartender. [00:06:35]
Spider-Man
Continuity: When Peter is talking with Mary Jane outside the diner where she works, watch the positioning of the shadows in the background. As the camera shoots from Peter's point-of-view, the sun is casting shadows up the street. When the shots change to MJ's point-of-view, the shadows are pointing down the street, as if the sun had just moved ahead several hours.
Spider-Man 2
Continuity: When Dr. Octopus is robbing the bank, NYPD squad car 4619 arrives on the scene. However, squad car 4619 was badly damaged during the pizza delivery car chase earlier in the movie - an awfully quick fix.
The Stand
Revealing: When Harold Lauder crashes his motorcycle through the guardrail on the mountain road, the stuntman is ejected from the bike before the actual crash.
Plothole: When Harold and Nadine are riding their motorcycles through the mountain road on the way to Las Vegas, Harold has two red saddlebags on the rear sides of his motorcycle. When he crashes through the guardrail, Harold is seen flying through the air a great distance before hitting the ground, and tumbling down the cliff before stopping. His crashed bike stayed up on the cliff. Fifteen minutes later in the film, we re-visit Harold's crash scene, and he crawls a few yards to one of his saddlebags. For that saddlebag to have landed in the same spot where Harold finally stopped tumbling, we would have almost certainly seen it flying through the air along with Harold's body. One might argue that saddlebag appeared there by other means (eg "The Walkin' Dude put it there") but there is nothing in the screenplay to support any such theories.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Revealing: When Spock announces "Gracie is pregnant," Gillian slams on the brakes and stops her truck. Look at the convex mirror on the passenger side next to Kirk. Despite the fact that there are joggers and other things moving in the background, there is no movement in the mirror. At that angle the viewer should have seen lots of movement in the convex mirror, a revealing sign that the background was blue-screened.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Audio Problem: When Kirk and McCoy enter the underground penal colony, Kirk is confronted by a large beast speaking an alien language. Watch McCoy's mouth when he says, "He's definitely on about something, Jim." His mouth doesn't start moving until the camera shot changes halfway through the sentence.
Star Trek: Generations
Continuity: When Kirk and Soran are fighting on top of the launching structure, Soran falls down the side of the cliff but stops his fall by grabbing a rope hanging from the structure. A moment later the rope loosens and Soran drops fifty feet or so before the rope pulls taught and he stops again. But despite having just dropped fifty feet, he is back at the same place on the cliff before the rope loosened the first time.
Star Trek: Insurrection
Continuity: Near the end of the film, Picard is climbing a structure inside the Son'a collector ship with his weapon slung over his right shoulder. But as he stops climbing and steps off the structure, the strap of his weapon has somehow moved over to his left shoulder.
Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith
Continuity: After the crash landing on Corsucant, Anakin, Kenobi, and Palpatine take a shuttle to the Jedi Council. In the first shot as the shuttle is landing, all shadows are parallel with the edge of the landing area. In the next shot when the shuttle doors open, all shadows have shifted 45-degrees clockwise.
Suicide Kings
Revealing: During the flashback scene where Max is describing the night of the kidnapping, the rainfall at the marina is obviously fake. The "rain" is being blown at an odd angle from an off-camera fan, and the surface of the water is practically still with no raindrops.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Continuity: Immediately after the Terminator shoots the gate guard at the mental institute, there is blood on the guard shack wall. A few seconds later, the blood has vanished.
Continuity: In the scene where the T-1000 has copied Janelle and is talking on the phone in her kitchen, there are two plastic water bottles on top of the refrigerator. A moment later after the T-1000 changes back into its policeman form, one of the water bottles has disappeared and the other has moved.
Continuity: When the Terminator pulls John off the dirt bike during the drainage ditch chase, the dirt bike falls onto its left side and the gas tank is about to be crushed by the tow truck. The next shot from another angle shows the dirt bike laying on its right side, with the rear tire the first thing to be crushed under the truck.
Visible crew/equipment: [Special Edition only] Shortly after the Terminator shoots up the police cars outside Cyberdyne, the SWAT team enters the building through the front glass doors. When the shot changes from outside the building to inside, the camera dolly and cameraman are visible in the reflection on the glass doors and windows.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Continuity: When the TX runs a red light in the stolen Lexus, a cop stopped at the red light does a one-eighty to begin pursuit. When the TX pulls over, the license plate on the cop's squad car is not the same as when it was stopped at the red light.
Titanic
Continuity: The steel deck fittings at the bow of the ship change shape. During the flying sequence, the fitting nearest Rose's right foot changes from a curvy shape to a flat angled shape.
War Games
Plot hole: At the beginning, the missile silo launch officers are changing shifts. Both of the officers going off duty exit the control room before either of the two relieving officers enter, thus leaving the watch stations completely unmanned for ten seconds or more, not very likely for a strategic nuclear military facility.
20000 Leagues Under the Sea
Audio Problem: During the "Whale of a Tail" scene, there are several instances when Kirk Douglas' hands are away from the guitar strings, to ring the bell or twirl the guitar, yet the sound of the guitar strumming continues without missing a beat.
The 40 Year Old Virgin
Continuity: During the scene where the guys are playing poker, the clasp on Jay's necklace keeps moving around. It can be seen down next to the cross pendant, up almost behind his neck, and various positions in between, moving randomly from shot to shot. [0:13:20]
Revealing: When Andy crashes through the billboard, pieces of drywall and chalky dust can be seen all over the place. Real billboards aren't made from drywall, which doesn't last long in the rain. Also, if you freeze-frame just before he crashes through the second side of the billboard, you can see where the drywall was scored or pre-cut to facilitate the stuntman's breaking through. [2:01:25]
Click the underlined movie titles above to jump to that film at MovieMistakes.
Visit MovieMistakes.com for thousands of Hollywood blunders and goof-ups.
|
|
Updated 9/04/06
|