Visible crew/equipment: When Michael Caine leaves the Last Chance Saloon at night and is walking along a sidewalk in town, he looks inside one of the store windows to see something moving under an old cloth. As he looks closer to the window, suddenly a hand jumps out from under the cloth and crashes through the store front window from the inside and grabs Michael Caine's throat. What is so laughable is that the crew or extra who is putting his hand through the breakable glass to get at Michael Caine's throat fails to "hide" his entire arm from view and what is supposed to be a severed hand is not only the hand but the entire arm attached.
Revealing mistake: While the two dudes are talking up about getting girls, the couple behind them appears to be making out - but the girl's face is resting into the guy's shoulder while his head moves about. (00:19:31)
Continuity mistake: At the end when Axel hits TG as he's coming round the corner, the head lamp TG is wearing is on or off depending on the angle of the camera.
Revealing mistake: In the letter to Mike Gallagher attached to the newspaper, subscription is misspelled. Sally Field is a reporter, so she should have caught that. (01:19:43)
Factual error: There could never be an aircraft of World War 2 vintage with the call sign "Yankee Zephyr". If it was a US aircraft (it appears to be) it would have the call sign "Yankee Zulu". If it was an RAF aircraft it would be "Yoke Zephyr". This all changed when the phonetic alphabets were standardised by NATO in the Fifties, but the DC3 in this film is supposed to have crashed before the end of World War 2 in 1945.
Revealing mistake: During the final battle one of the bad guys is blown through the air due to an explosion - but right behind him you see the springboard used to launch him.
Continuity mistake: When Jeremy Irons goes out on the breakwater to talk to Meryl Streep his umbrella is in his right hand. When the scene shifts his umbrella is in his left hand. (00:01:00 - 00:04:00)
Factual error: Ragtime is set in 1906. Yet a 1915 Model T figures prominently in the plot.
Revealing mistake: When John Jaffrey is lying dead in front of his medicine cabinet, he is still breathing.
Other mistake: As Debbie walks through the foggy maze from her upstairs bedroom to the bathroom across the hall, she closes the door and then asks herself why she is in the kitchen, when the kitchen is obviously downstairs.
Continuity mistake: When we see Susan and her friend David laughing, Harold's at the closed window. When Susan comes back into the room the window's open.
Continuity mistake: When the protagonists get in the office to talk to his client at the beginning of the movie, he's holding the bag one way outside the door, the other way around when he walks in.
Continuity mistake: When Owen shoves the hamburger back into his father, it falls on the floor right where the father is. When the father stands up to leave the room, the hamburger is now a few feet away from where it should have originally landed.
Revealing mistake: When the photographer is shot by Thana, his blood can be seen being thrown from offscreen. (00:36:54)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the robots run out of battery, the female robot stretches out her right arm and shuts down in that position. The male robot walks up and stretches out his right arm and shuts down holding hands. In between shots of holding right hands, you see them holding left hands. First right hands, then left hands, then right hands again.
Continuity mistake: 1981 film: Near the end, John Heard is riding a white horse. He has his left arm missing during the whole movie, but in one scene his right arm is missing instead as he is dashing through the woods. When he comes out of the woods it is correct again.
Visible crew/equipment: When Anne and Tyler break into the morgue, the shadow of the camera can be seen on the wall outside.
Plot hole: After the first murder in Pam's dorm room there should be blood everywhere but when Pam returns to change her dress there is only a single stripe of it on the bedsheets.
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the movie Jane's wearing a loin cloth like Tarzan that the natives dressed her in. When she's with Tarzan and a monkey after washing off the white paint she's suddenly wearing a skirt.
Continuity mistake: The girl who dies in the track meet's number goes back and forth from 40 to 45.