The Game

The Game (1997)

18 mistakes

(5 votes)

Plot hole: When Nick confronts the P.I. and yells "Why are you following me?", he looks inside the car and see the file with his picture on the front seat. The P.I. notices this and turns the file over. After Nick grabs his gun, the P.I. jumps out on the other side, raises his hands in the air and tells him someone hired him and runs off. As the P.I. runs off, Nick yells "Who hired you?" as he stands alone next to the car. He then waits a minute and walks off. If he really wanted to know more information, he could have taken the file that was right in front of him on the carseat. It makes no sense that he is desperate for information about the strange events that are going on, sees this file on him, and yet doesn't even pick it up or look at it. (00:59:55)

Plot hole: At the end, when Nick is on the roof and everyone is behind the metal doors, you hear the saws trying cut through the door and the sparks flying. Immediately when they cut through, the doors swing open and everyone is standing right up front with Champagne glasses. No one is holding any saws or equipment or have any in front of them. Nor was there any time for the people cutting the doors to run to the back to hide behind everyone else since the sparks fly right up until the doors swing wide open. (01:53:40)

Luna Negra

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: There's enough time from when the last lock is cut for Christine to shout "He's got a gun, get away from the door." I counted about 7 seconds before the doors opened. Plenty of time for people with cutting equipment to take a few steps out of the way.

Deliberate mistake: Every time Nicholas enters his gate at home, it's daylight and then when he drives up to the house it is night. Either he has a 300 mile property or there is something else going on. It would appear that it is deliberate as it happens many times in the film. Symbolically, Nick is leaving the world as he appears with wealth and privilege (light) and entering the real van Orton world of solitude and sadness (dark). (00:09:00 - 00:09:55)

The Game mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the scene at the restaurant, when the waitress runs into Michael Douglas and they both get wine all over each other, watch her shirt carefully. In one shot there are many wine stains all over. The next shot, there's not much. Then it goes back to having lots of wine stains. (00:35:40)

The Game mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Nicholas and Christine are starting to leave her apartment after Nicholas smashes the smoke detector, Christine puts on her coat, then it cuts to the CRS van. When it cuts back to her, she only has the coat on her right arm. (01:20:15)

Continuity mistake: When Nicholas pulls Christine out of the elevator he is standing just above it and reaching through the opening. But in the next wide shot from outside the cabin he is pulling her through the door a few meters above the cabin. (00:44:05)

NancyFelix

The Game mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Nicholas waits at the CRS office he is supervised by a hidden camera. In the convex cover of the camera you see a reflection of the whole room but Nicholas, who is standing in the middle of the room, is not visible. (00:18:40)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: When Nicholas and Christine run away from the hospital the CRS people send a dog after them through a narrow lane. The stretch the dog has to cover to catch up with them is a lot longer that what they actually run. (00:45:40)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: When Nicholas wakes up in the Mexican graveyard he has a injury on his nose. For the rest of the movie the size and shape of the scar keeps changing from one scene to the next. (01:38:05)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: When Nick is being followed by the PI, watch the chase car carefully. Several times both seats in the PI's car are occupied yet when Nick confronts him, the PI is alone. (00:58:55 - 00:59:45)

Revealing mistake: When Nick is being followed by the PI, several times Nick's speedometer is seen to be at zero. (00:58:40)

Continuity mistake: At the very end of the movie, Nicholas is talking to Christine. The hair around her ear changes from perfectly combed to messy between front and back shots. (01:52:15)

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Nick confronts the old man in the hotel after he sees the pictures, he throws them in the old man's lap. Watch the cup and one of the pictures jump around between shots. Sometimes the cup is gone and the picture moves. (01:01:05 - 01:02:00)

Audio problem: When the ambulance goes to the hospital and the people disappear and he answers, "I'm sorry about that," you can see clearly that his lips don't actually move. (00:40:15)

Continuity mistake: In Christine's apartment, watch the lamp. In some shots, the entire ring around the shade is smoking, but in others, there is only one tendril. (01:21:15)

Phoenix

Audio problem: When Michael Douglas catches up with James Rebhorn at the zoo, just as Douglas grabs Rebhorn he pulls him in close and brandishes his pistol. You hear the sound of the gun being cocked (i.e. the hammer being pulled back), but when the camera actually shows the gun, the hammer is not in the cocked position. (01:43:10)

Character mistake: When Nicolas returns from Mexico and goes to the gate of his house, he sees a sign that says his house is being sold at public auction. The word "foreclosure" is spelled incorrectly. It is spelled "forclosure."

Character mistake: In the scene where Michael Douglas pulls out the CRS contract to show his lawyer, the page is blank and a surprised Douglas says "They used invisible ink." He should have said "disappearing" ink, which is not the same thing at all. Invisible ink doesn't show up unless treated with some form of catalyst such as lemon juice or heat. Disappearing ink vanishes after a period of time, which is what happened on the contract.

Christine: What is the going rate for a trapped-in-an-elevator adventure?

More quotes from The Game

Trivia: The final party scene was filmed over a three night period at the real Palace Hotel. To save money, the same food was used all three nights, which stank up the place for days.

bobmcdow4984

More trivia for The Game

Question: Why did Nicholas react very rudely when his assistant wished him a happy birthday?

dan coakley..

Chosen answer: Nicholas' father committed suicide on his 48th birthday, something that has haunted Nicholas ever since. Nicholas himself has now reached the same birthday, putting him in a very sour mood and in no place to receive birthday wishes cordially.

Tailkinker

Answer: No, he admits to his ex-wife after 11:40pm that day that he didn't even realise he was the same age as when his father committed suicide until she just brought it up. I'm guessing he was annoyed because he was just a grumpy man and was resentful of celebrating his birthday due to the painful memories associated with his father.

I always thought he was lying or being sarcastic when he said that.

Answer: The story parallels "A Christmas Carol" with Nicholas being a modern day mirror to Ebenezer Scrooge. When wished "Merry Christmas" Ebenezer famously would say "Humbug." When wished "Happy Birthday", Nicholas is equally as unhappy with the sentiment "I don't like her" he says to his assistant.

More questions & answers from The Game

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.