Best mystery movie mistakes of all time

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn picture

Plot hole: In Bagghar, Allan knocks out Haddock by hitting him on the head from behind. Later, Haddock tells Tintin it was Allan who knocked him out - how would he have seen him?

LadyArcher

More The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn mistakes
Amistad picture

Other mistake: When the slaves are getting into the Portuguese ship (the "Tecora"), the crew shouts in clear Spanish (some Spaniard and some Mexican accent) rather than the expected Portuguese. (01:18:10)

More Amistad mistakes
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country picture

Continuity mistake: After the bird of prey first fires on Enterprise, Kirk is thrown right out of his chair to his left and lands on the floor. The camera pans around the bridge briefly, seeing the rest of the crew staggering and holding onto things. In the very next shot Kirk is back in his chair shouting "back off, back off" and the crew back in their positions as if nothing has happened.

More Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country mistakes
Dude, Where's My Car? picture

Other mistake: When Chester is taking Jacko's pipe, Nelson gets up out of his seat. When they show Jacko really really mad, you can look in the background and Nelson is sitting down. When they show him again he is out of his seat.

More Dude, Where's My Car? mistakes
More Striking Distance mistakes
Brotherhood of the Wolf picture

Continuity mistake: When the members of the brotherhood beat up Mani until he is dead, they pick him up above their heads. The tattoo on his torso appears to be on his right side, whereas in previous and following scenes the tattoo is on his left side. That shot is flipped.

More Brotherhood of the Wolf mistakes
Sneakers picture

Other mistake: Towards the end where they steal the chip, they are detected and about a million security guards are all running around, yet 30 seconds later, the only security guard is one man with a shotgun. What happened to their big army of security guards? (01:41:30 - 01:42:55)

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

Suggested correction: This isn't a mistake. Bishop had been directed to a part of the building where there weren't any security guards; this was shortly before one of the guards found their camera feed. The guy with the shotgun was the only person to head into that location. Unlikely maybe, but possible.

More Sneakers mistakes
Mystic River picture

Factual error: In the scene at the beginning of the movie as the 3 youths walk up the street, you can see current MA license plates, although the action should have taken place many years earlier. (00:01:30 - 00:05:50)

More Mystic River mistakes
The Game picture

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)

More The Game mistakes
Dirty Harry picture

Continuity mistake: In the early scene when Harry walks across the street to confront the wounded robber on the street ("Did he fire six shots or only five?"), the shotgun used by the robber is lying several feet from the robber's hand, but when he reaches the robber, the camera shot shows the shotgun just a few inches from the robber's left hand. (00:13:00)

More Dirty Harry mistakes
I Know What You Did Last Summer picture

Continuity mistake: After Barry has jumped into the water reclaim the crown, he comes out of the water with a perfectly clean shirt, but in the next shot the blood is back on his shirt as expected. (00:22:50)

More I Know What You Did Last Summer mistakes
The Langoliers picture The Langoliers mistake picture

Continuity mistake: As Brian lands the plane down to Bangor, his headset is on in a frontal shot, but in a reverse shot it isn't. (00:47:05)

Hamster

More The Langoliers mistakes
Contact picture

Factual error: The geography around the VLA in New Mexico is actually relatively flat - in fact one of the reasons why the array complex is there is because the land is flat. The canyon in the film was actually Canyon de Chelly, in Arizona, more than 170 miles (270 km) away. But in the film, when Ellie goes to the canyon, the radio antennas seem to be right there, insinuating that the canyon is part of the VLA's magical desert scenery.

solarpilot

More Contact mistakes
The Blair Witch Project picture

Factual error: A girl is playing with a Tamagotchi virtual pet in the scene set in 1994, but the toy was not released in Japan until 1996 (it wasn't officially available in the USA until May 1997).

Rev.Erebus

More The Blair Witch Project mistakes
The Thing picture

Factual error: Winter in Antarctica would not have a night and day as portrayed, with the amount of light changing so much during the course of 24 hours.

More The Thing mistakes
Without a Paddle picture Without a Paddle mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: While in the pot field, just as the growers are about to shoot them with the laser sights, you can see a crewmember crawling by in the background. (00:44:50)

More Without a Paddle mistakes
Paycheck picture

Factual error: When Shorty is removing Jennings' memories in the beginning, the pictures shown are from a third person viewpoint. If they are his memories, shouldn't these be from Jennings' viewpoint? (00:06:40)

Phoenix

More Paycheck mistakes
Eddie and the Cruisers picture

Continuity mistake: Eddie drives a 1957 Chevy convertible off the bridge. A scene showing the car being fished out of the water clearly has an older vehicle dangling from the line.

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

Suggested correction: The car pulled onto the bridge is absolutely a 1957 Chevrolet convertible.

More Eddie and the Cruisers mistakes
Invasion of the Body Snatchers picture Invasion of the Body Snatchers mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: After Matthew meets with the Mayor's Special Assistant and told to keep it quiet, it soon cuts to Mathew inside a phone booth to make a call. As the camera moves around the booth you can see a reflection of the cameraman. (01:05:35)

More Invasion of the Body Snatchers mistakes
Hot Fuzz picture

Continuity mistake: Nick's character is eating an ice cream in the police car and eats the whole thing. When the shot changes to Simon's side, he's still got about half of it left.

Cybermoose

More Hot Fuzz mistakes

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.