Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Most Blatant Continuity Errors

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Posted by Richard Greco (Member # 2032) on 01-05-2004, 10:06 AM:

I know of a few.

What are the most blatant errors that you have seen in a film?

One that I can remember is in Batman at the scene where he is in the alley calling the car. He has the remote in his hand holding it up to his mouth, in the next shot of him, it is down at his waist, and the 3rd shot, it is back at his mouth again.

I also found one in Cheaper By The Dozen. The scene is when Steve Martin goes into Charlie's room to talk about him breaking curfew the night before. We see Charlies legs uncovered, in the next shot of Charlie, they are covered up and the top blanket is in a different spot.

Posted by Mike Williams (Member # 1140) on 01-05-2004, 12:39 PM:

Check out this website. If you are into movie continuity errors, this site keeps a database of them.

Move Mistakes Website

Posted by Clint Koch (Member # 1179) on 01-05-2004, 03:18 PM:

Can't remember the name of the movie but when I was about ten I saw a cowboy movie, set in the 1800's, and in one seen you can clearly see an airplane fly over.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 01-05-2004, 03:22 PM:

One of my faves is in High Plains Drifter.

There's a scene where Clint is teaching the townspeople to defend themselves from the criminals who are approaching the town. They have put dummies on wagons and are driving them around the town while the menfolk are taking target practice from the rooftops. Clint is standing on the boardwalk drinking a beer.

In the first closeup shot of Clint, his beer mug is about half full. He takes a drink. Cut away to the townspeople taking pot-shots at the dummies. When the camera cuts back to Clint, his beer mug is full again, even though he's taken several drinks from it.

Clint is SO COOL that his beer glass automagically refills itself! [Smile]

Posted by Shane Hoffmann (Member # 1620) on 01-05-2004, 05:04 PM:

In MADE, the same thing happens with the glasses on the flight to New York. Vince Vaughn and John Favreau are talking and one of the glasses goes from full to half empty to full again. Also, sometimes there were three glasses and sometimes there were four. The scar on Favreau's forehead is slanted at different angles throughout the movie.

Sometimes, you just have to hope that no one notices these little things when it's not in the budget to reshoot the scenes.

In El Mariachi, there are scenes when Azul, one of the bad guys, is wearing his leather vest, then isn't, then is again. When the Mariachi walks into town he buys a coconut from a guy who sells them. They forgot to film him paying for it. Robert Rodriguez said that they would just have to make something up about the coconuts being free as a voice over. He was so stingy with the amount of film he used that he refused to reshoot anything. It seemed to work out alright for him though...

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 01-05-2004, 06:05 PM:

It's sometimes fun to spot errors but then again there's a part of me that thinks, at least when they are minor like a shirt button open or closed between master shot and closeup, etc, hey, we know it's a movie...they're not perfect...big deal.

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 01-05-2004, 07:54 PM:

In Paycheck when they show time going backwards, the red scarf is in the wrong spot in the order sequence. [Smile]

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 01-05-2004, 08:16 PM:

One good one was in Diamonds are Forever, when Bond drives down the alley on one side of the car, he comes out of the alley on the other side.

Posted by Tom Holland (Member # 1254) on 01-05-2004, 08:34 PM:

Hey Mike... if you watch that DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER car scene closely, mid-way through Bond's alley drive there is yet another flip (we assume an unseen ramp has does it) that makes the car flip on its other tires, and so the Mustang does come out properly. The editor at Pinewood did his best to fix the error that the Vegas-based second-unit crew had made.

One of my favorite continuity errors is in Hitchcock's VERTIGO. When Jimmy Stewart has his talk with his old pal in the gentleman's club... the ice cubes in Jimmy's drink on the table appear and disappear depending on the camera angle! This is surprising given Hitchcock's attention to detail. BTW, this error was pointed out on Bob Harris' audio track on the VERTIGO DVD. Bob restored the film and probably had to watch that scene a thousand times.

--Tom.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 01-05-2004, 09:21 PM:

Hey Tom yeah that sounds right, I must have been blocking that part out. I was going on memory from the documentary on the disc.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-05-2004, 10:26 PM:

Here`s one I couldn`t figure out why or how it happened: In "Pearl Harbor", in the scene where Mr Afleck says goodbye to Miss Beckinsale outside the hotel, the badges of his uniform have different colors in some of his close-up shots.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 01-05-2004, 11:40 PM:

Ah but that whole movie was a mistake.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 01-06-2004, 06:37 PM:

What Steve said earlier. There are many of these "movie mistakes" websites that list as errors, things that are simply borne of the movie-making process.

Posted by Daniel Wright (Member # 1983) on 01-06-2004, 06:52 PM:

Also in Pearl Harbor when Ben Afflak is in England and crashes his plane it is day time out. When he swims to the surface it is dark. I guess he must have been under water for a long time.

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 01-06-2004, 07:34 PM:

Mr. Deeds (2003 remake).
Oh where to begin...
When Sandler is listening to his buddy pretending to be sick the pepsi cup and paper plate in his buddy's hand change into a beer mug and a different plate between shots.

Later when he's walking down the street with the two gentlemen from his uncle's company he's carrying three pizzas. The first he offloads to the old lady's the last he gives to Crazy Eyes. The second one is gone between the two shots...Perhaps to heaven?
As Crazy Eyes is eating his oreos and french fries pizza the oreo on the slize changes position and the bite taken out of the slice changes dramatically.
Oh, and while they're walking Chuck Cedar says "we just need a few days to dot the T's and cross the I's."
...Have any of you ever dotted a t? I hear it's fun [Wink]

Goofs are goofs, but I just think they're fun to look for.

Posted by John Lasher (Member # 968) on 01-06-2004, 07:46 PM:

One of my favorite "Incorrectly regarded as a continuity error" actually comes from Plan 9 from Outer Space.

***Spoilers???***
In an early scene in the film, two of the characters listen to a recorded transmission from the aliens, and it is mentioned a few times in the scene that a "Dictorometer" or translating computer was needed which would "break down any language into our own".

Later in the movie when the earth people go inside the flying saucer it would seem as though the aliens have suddenly learned to speak English, which would be an error in script continuity. BUT if you've been paying attention, in a scene which comes just moments before, the male alien instructs the female alien to "turn on the dictorometer so we'll be able to communicate".

Plan 9 is actually downright excellent compared to some movies I've seen lately.