Best sci-fi movie continuity mistakes of all time

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Hulk picture

Continuity mistake: Near the beginning, when Banner arrives at the lab with his helmet on, he removes the helmet when he sees Betty. A close-up of his face is shown and his hair is messy with part of his fringe on his forehead. Betty is shown quickly, then the same shot of Banner is shown again, but this time his hair is perfect.

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Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back picture Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the original 1980 version, in the first wideshot of Darth Vader's Star Destroyer, the light of a Star Destroyer can be seen on the right side just flying through space. This is fixed in the 2004 DVD release.

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Back to the Future Part II picture Back to the Future Part II mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Notice Marty's hair in the scene when he's playing "Johnny B. Goode." It's quite larger than when he says, some seconds later, "I guess that you're not ready for it yet." That's because when he says that, it's a recycled shot from the original BTTF, whereas most shots showing he's playing the guitar are newly made for BTTF2. However, Marty's hair is considerably longer in the new shots. (01:27:19)

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Baby Geniuses picture

Continuity mistake: When Sly is in the attic, and the fake power dude comes up to kidnap him, Sly uses a ski to "hit him in the gonads". But if you look closely at his face, the guy who was hit in the nuts wasn't the same guy that fell down the stairs.

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Evolution picture Evolution mistake picture

Continuity mistake: During the scene in the mall when the girl is in the dressing room, she keeps putting on more layers of clothing. But as they are shooting different shots she will have a hot pink shirt on, then it is back on the hanger, and then back on again. It switches back and forth many times. (01:00:50)

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture picture Star Trek: The Motion Picture mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the final scene on the bridge, Spock and McCoy are wearing coloured arm bands which identify their departments: Spock's is orange (for Science) and McCoy's is green (for Medical). In the very last shot, Spock is wearing the green band and McCoy is wearing the orange one (corrected in the 2022 re-release of the Director's Edition).

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White Noise picture

Continuity mistake: When John is driving to work and he hears Anna on the radio, he swerves to avoid a car. From inside the car you can see that there are no cars in the rear window, yet when the shot changes to an outside shot, there are 3 cars. (00:33:35)

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Transformers picture

Continuity mistake: When Sam and Mikaela handcuff all the agents, Sam is wearing a black short-sleeved tee shirt atop a blue long-sleeved tee, before putting on the hoodie. We see the dark tee sticking out when he and Mikaela climb onto Prime. Then moments later, Sam is wearing ONLY a long white short-sleeved (we see it has short sleeves when Bumblebee gives him the All Spark later, through a tear in the hoodie sleeve) tee shirt under his hoodie, when he falls from Prime, when he witnesses Bumblebee's capture and thereafter. (Earlier, after he knocks Mikaela off the moped, from that point on there is a very large hole at the back of his blue and black tees, where we see his skin under the jagged material edges, with no white material seen anywhere. We also see no sign of a long white undershirt at any time when Sam's dark tees go up, during his many action shots.)

Super Grover

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Her (2013)

Her picture

Continuity mistake: When Theodore goes to Amy for comfort in her apartment, there's someone (or something), walking at the front door, but then not again in the next shot. Keep your eyes top right, it's very visible. (01:26:50)

Paula Rose

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Spaceballs picture

Continuity mistake: The head of Mega-Maid mysteriously shrinks in size. After Spaceball-1 transforms into Mega-Maid, the head is gigantic enough for a Winnebago to fly through for a considerable length of time. However, later on in the film, after the head has been jettisoned and crashed on a beach, the head is only big enough to hold a few dozen people. This can be determined by the size of the people coming out of her nose.

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Space Mutiny picture

Continuity mistake: While this movie is so bad and full of mistakes, its barely worth finding them all, one stands out in the history of movie mistakes. One of the officers on board the ship, Lt. Lamont, is killed by the villain. A few scenes later she shows up on the bridge as an extra.

Grumpy Scot

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Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams picture

Continuity mistake: Carmen is wearing white sneakers riding with Juni on the magnetic transporter. After jumping off the magnetic rider and entering the hidden temple, Carmen is wearing black sneakers.

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Planet of the Apes picture Planet of the Apes mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Thade takes the weapon from Leo the weapon is a futuristic laser type gun. When Thade is firing the weapon after being locked in the command centre, the gun is a stainless steel Beretta brigadier model. (01:50:00)

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Starship Troopers picture

Continuity mistake: Toward the end, Carmen Ibanez gets stabbed through the shoulder when she is brought before the big master alien thing. If you were to sustain such an injury, there would be so much swelling, not to mention just destroyed tissue, that you wouldn't be able to move that arm for weeks. Yet a few minutes later, she is seen hefting around a very large assault rifle, and seems to have no difficulty. I guess it's a pretty standard action movie "heroes can temporarily ignore injury in order to save the day" kind of oversight, but it just seems exaggerated in this case, considering how severe the shoulder trauma looked. (01:48:15 - 01:53:40)

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The Running Man picture

Continuity mistake: In the scene after the prison break, we see Richards, Weiss and Laughlin walking through the city. On the big television screen there is a commercial for The Running Man game show. The footage they feature on the commercial is footage from the episode Richards is in. How could they show footage from that episode if it has not taken place yet?

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The Incredible Hulk picture

Continuity mistake: During the street chase in Brazil, the time of day changes from night, to perhaps late afternoon/evening, to night again.

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Star Trek V: The Final Frontier picture Video

Continuity mistake: When Spock, wearing rocket boots, is in the turboshaft carrying Kirk and McCoy on either arm, he fires the booster rockets, thus propelling the three of them up the turboshaft. If you watch carefully, the deck numbers in the background as they rise upwards go as follows: 35, 52, 64, back to 52, 77, 78, and then 78 again! Not content with one goof, Kirk and McCoy can quite clearly be seen with their feet dangling in mid air, not on Spock's boots. They aren't exactly clinging to him either, more like leaning against him. Surely Kirk and McCoy would be unable to hold onto him!

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Runaway picture

Continuity mistake: The whole time sequence in the last part of the movie is messed up. After trying to nab the bad guys at the hotel, Tom Selleck goes home and puts his son to bed, then is called back in to work, and then the rest of the film is supposed to be the same evening, but it was already late night.

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