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I just read the thread about the continuity error at the end of THE TERMINATOR, so I thought this would be a good topic of discussion. What are some of continuity errors that you have noticed in movies? Here are a few:

* THE GREAT ESCAPE - Donald Pleasence goes into the escape tunnel wearing colored socks (they are gray or blue . . . I can't remember). When he comes out at the other end of the tunnel, he is wearing white socks.

* THUNDERBALL - During a big underwater fight scene, James Bond's diving mask changes color from black to blue and then to black again.

* THE BREAKFAST CLUB - During the scene where the principal has a discussion with the janitor, there is a file cabinet with a card on the front of one of the drawers. It is one of those cards where you would write what is in the drawer (for example, if it were an alphabetical file cabinet, you might write "A to D"). In one shot, the card is tilted at an angle. In another shot, it is perfectly straight.

* ANIMAL HOUSE - Donald Sutherland writes "Satan" on the blackboard. When the camera changes angles, "Satan" is still written on the board, but in a slightly different place.

* HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP - There is a scene where one of the characters has blood on his shirt. When the camera changes angles, the blood stain is a different size and shape.

Okay . . . let's see how many others we can list.



Post Edited (07-08-03 11:50)

Mitchell - the smashed headlight that comes and goes.

An obscure Filipino Mad Max ripoff, called W, actually has a villain with a goatee that comes and goes.

There's the pretty obvious and well known one in "The Empire Strikes Back" when Han Solo is about to be frozen.  Close ups of his conversation with Leia show his vest on,  pulled back shots do not.

I've seen a lot, I just don't really remember them or think much about them.

I remember in "Time Runner" there were closeups and far away shots of Mark Hammil landing an airplane where the background in the close up shots didn't match the terrain in the pulled-back shots.

The ones that amuse me the most are not just shot to shot continutity errors but errors where the film was edited together slight out of order and characters act on events that haven't happened yet

Fearless Freep wrote:

> The ones that amuse me the most are not just shot to shot
> continutity errors but errors where the film was edited
> together slight out of order and characters act on events that
> haven't happened yet
>

That reminded me of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Chekov is burned in Vger's attack, and Ilia goes to his assistance. We cut over to a conversation between Kirk and his officers, in which we can clearly see the back of Ilia's bald head at her post behind him. Then we see Ilia leaving Chekov to return to her post.

Does anybody know if this was fixed in the Director's Edition? I might have to get it out and have a look.



Post Edited (07-08-03 13:40)

I also like when scenes are shot out of order and something that happens in shooting an earlier scene requires changes to the script that invalidates something that occurs later in the movie timeline that was already filmed.

Gorgo: The destroyer attack on Gorgo's mom. We see the bridge crew of the can that she sinks. Then later on, we see "Another " tin can attack....and the close up is of the same crew! They put the shots in out of sequance.
Also, the sequance is of a British destroyer doing the deed, but we see American blue jackets running for the bow gun turrets. Match the stock footage,lads!

Most films are shot out of order - exteriors on one day, interiors sometimes at a different location entirely, so continuity slips.

Beverly Hills Cop - Two gun men flee a house.  When they get outside, one is now wearing a shoulder holster.  After they leave the porch, the holster is gone.

Basket Case 2 - Duane comes down a flight of stairs that lead into a foyer, his love interest pulls him into the kitchen to talk, there his shirt magically changes from powder blue to biege.  When the scene ends, Duane exists the kitchen and his shirt returns to being powder blue.

Vampires - During the opening, when the team first arrives at the house, James Woods is not standing where Daniel Baldwin is supposed to be looking at him.

In Dr. Strangelove there is a buffet table stacked with pies for a pie fight that never occurs.

Chadzilla wrote:

> Most films are shot out of order - exteriors on one day,
> interiors sometimes at a different location entirely, so
> continuity slips.

Yes . . . but it is the job of the continuity person to keep track of what people are wearing, where they are standing, etc. so that continuity DOESN'T slip. I can understand small errors, but when people aren't even wearing the same clothing from one shot to the next, someone was asleep on the job!

I was just explaining the nature of how such errors occur.  Sometimes people are asleep at the wheel, other times it is just the chaotic nature of the production itself.

The Untouchables - Sean Connery's shirt collar magically opens and closes during a dialog scene.

Wow . . . I forgot about The Untouchables . . . the entire theater noticed that error when I went to see it during its original theatrical run. That one was really noticeable.

There is also a continuity error in TWINS. I can't remember exactly what it is, but during a scene where Danny DeVito & Arnold Schwarzenegger are in the men's room, something in the background (a roll of paper towels or something) magically disappears.

And we are all forgetting the scene in Spider-Man, where Spidey saves Mary Jane from a bunch of thugs. He tosses one thug through a window, breaking the glass. Then, they show a close-up of Mary Jane with the window in the background. Magically, it is no longer broken.



Post Edited (07-08-03 13:56)

An obvious one is in Commando after Arnie pushes the damaged Porsche back onto all 4 wheels and the door is magically repaired as the car drives away!

This one appeared in MST3K:

In EEGAH, Mr. Miller is having his face shaved by his daughter. In the close-up, most of the shaving cream is gone, but in the medium shot, half of his face is still covered in shaving cream.

There are some famous mistakes in the Wizard of Oz.One of the biggest is that Dorthys hair changes length through out the picture.

Or the lamp he smashes while trying out his webs, that returns intact to the background.

------ooo-'U'-ooo-------Kilroy was here.

What about the amous shirt changing from White to Brown (or black) in Die HArd.  I got the dvd and then when I saw that scene I was actually questioning if I was asleep or not.  

In Terror Firmer not really a continuity error because it was done on purpose but the conversation between the camera take guy and Casey(if tyhats his name I cant remember)  where everthing is completely out of wack.  

Also in BVlade Runner the dreded 6 escaped replicants became 5.

I have the original Die Hard on DVD and have never noticed it.

What scene are you referring to?

COMMANDO is a work of pure, unadulterated genius! I love this movie! Has there ever been a dumber, more ineptly made film?

my fave scenes from this film are when Arnie takes out two guys with a grenade, and you can clearly see the air rams catapulting them up in the air - no attempt is made to disguise it! - and the bad guy standing by the flower pot who's death is shown five times or so from different angles and passed off as different characters.

*
*
*
"Game over man, game over!"

When John is in the air vent.  He comes out and the shirt is brown or black still not 100% sure :)

Sweat makes the shirt moist. Moisture attracts dust and dirt particles. Airvents usually contain many dust and dirt particles. John was crawling through airvents.

I'll need to read the book, because it's probably explained in it. I always assumed it was just the dirt from the vents clinging to the shirt.

naw he's right about the shirt actually it changes from.....

White, to black, to gray :P

ok as fer my bad one, MST3k the greatest show ever had MATB's watching a crap pile picture called 'space mutiny'

Well in one scene this liutenet girl is asked by the bad guy about something and he shoots her. and when our 'hero' and our """heroine"""( extra ' ' emphasis cause shes a BAD actress) enter the room where the liutenet girl is shes dead from being shot by a lazer gun.

yet one or two scenes later enter the bridge and the commander enters and guess whos right back at her post in the backround? you the liutenet girl alive and well :P

line from the movie :

Man who looks like sting, " excuse me sir"

cow's line "I think its very generous of you to give that dead girl another chance  >X ) p)!

My favourite is from a Western I saw many many years ago on TV:  the hero gallops around a huge rock, followed by the villain  -  who is riding the same horse.  Never fails to crack me up.

There are so many - the clothing and hair ones are very distracting, for me anyway.

*** I was just explaining the nature of how such errors occur. Sometimes people are asleep at the wheel, other times it is just the chaotic nature of the production itself. ***

Ain't that the truth!  I was involved with the Ted V. Mikels' movie MARK OF THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES.  The poor continuity girl gave up midway through the shoot.  During production the videotape camera hooked up to a monitor broke down.  As a back-up Ted used a handheld digital camera in which the timecodes couldn't be seen by anyone on the crew except the operator (Ted).

A simple scene scripted with people running through a parking lot got expanded upon by Mikels.  The scene number ran through sub-lettering A to K (with a variation on the action, people, and dialog in each letter subcategory)!

There was also an abduction scene involving Ted's partner, Shanti, as she fought off an Astro-Zombie.  The problem was the scene wasn't scripted and the initial attack featured only one Astro-Zombie.  The abduction of Shanti with two other Astro-Zombies took place on a different day at a different location.  It's subtle because Ted Mikels' used the same angle featuring part of a white building.  The difference being the first shot showed white wooden slats against a house with a shrub on the corner.  The later shot showed a white plaster wall with a tree on the corner.

http://www.MOTAZart.com

perk cited:
Also in BVlade Runner the dreded 6 escaped replicants became 5.

I have heard discussion as to the identity of Replicant #6 being Rick Deckard himself.  Apparently there are clues dropped throught the film, but one has to view the film with tireless scrutiny to catch on, and I have never desired to do this.

Then there is Ford's apparent fumble in Raiders of the Lost Ark, after Alfred Molina gets impaled in the openinig scene, and Ford's response is supposed to be "Adios, Satipo"  but instead comes out with "Adios, stupido."  Wheter or not this was intentional is al;so the subject of debate.  But I also wanna know:
While trying to evade the evil Nazi menace, Indiana Jones hops on top of a departing U boat and lashes himself onto the conning tower.  
How the hell did Indy survive the trip on the U boat without being detected on deck?  And without eating?
How did he pee?

My favourite from Eegah! is when Miller is flown to the mountains. The actor playing the chopper pilot has a completely different haircut from the real pilot seen in the exterior shots of the chopper.

My favorite continuity errors are from the show Cover Up with Jennifer O'Neil. In one episode, the models are shown getting into a long, low helicopter with clearly visible wheels. Right after it takes off, there are shots of the standard little Bell Jet Ranger with skids, then when it lands you again see wheels. At the end of the episode, they burst into a meeting to show the bad guy that they've gotten the 5.25 floppy disk with the evidence on it and when they wave it around, you can clearly see that there's no actual disk in it because the light is shining through the oval read/write opening.

In the movie Aces, Iron Eagle II, the Russian 'Migs' are actually American F4 Phantoms.

In Casino a pack of smokes turns into a pager and then back.

I forgot the name of the western but, the good guys were in one of those old hearse wagons so they could sneak up on the bad guys at the cementary but, the bad guys knew their plan so they started shooting at the wagon. One of the good guys grabs his shoulder and says I'm hit. When they get out of the wagon his leg is all bandaged up and people are helping him walk away

The Giant Behemouth : Chopper fluing over river. Starts with a Sikorsky S-3, tricycly landing gear, three seats. But, when it blows up, due to dino radiation, its a much larger 12 seat S-55, with 4 wheels.
Even if your not a "Wing nut" like me, you can still see....they don't look alike!

The Crow: when Eric goes back to his apartment for the first time, watch the crow on the banister - it flaps its wings and makes a sound like it's taking flight, but the shadow never moves.

The Outsiders: When Dally is driving Ponyboy to the hospital, there's a HUGE mud stain on the drivers' side window. When it cuts away to Ponyboy and back again, the stain is no longer there.