Continuity mistake: During one of the piano lessons, Baines tries to force Ada to lie on the bed next to him. When she tries to leave, he holds her back, pulls her blouse down about the shoulders, and it tears in the back. When she gets up later, the blouse is whole again. (00:52:05)
Continuity mistake: Dwight is showing Toby a Boy's Life magazine. As the camera angle changes he goes from holding it with the back of his hand facing Toby to facing away and back again. (00:45:50)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Maggie goes to the restaurant with Bob, he offers her the case where the weapon is. Bob says, 'It's loaded'. Close inspection shows the clip chamber is empty (not loaded), and a cartridge clip is positioned beside the weapon in its tailored slot in the custom case. Maggie closes the case and says, 'I don't understand.' After Bob explains what she is to do, then leaves, Maggie opens the case again and suddenly there's a clip in the weapon (loaded) and another one beside it. The weapon was not loaded when she looked the first time.
Continuity mistake: You can clearly see the blood packet underneath his head right before he hits the ground.
Continuity mistake: When the waitress at Dottie's seduces Butch, the degree of boob exposure varies depending on the camera angle (not only due to perspective). (01:17:15)
Deliberate mistake: Within the final crash scene, in the shot where the flames are first shown exploding through the cabin, you can plainly see that all the seats (especially the aisle seats) are empty. In addition, this shot takes place after several shots depicting cabin breakage, and debris flying everywhere. Here, nothing is flying anywhere, and nothing is broken.
Other mistake: During Waverly's second chess match, her opponent says "check" (and play continues) even though it is checkmate.
Continuity mistake: When Walter (Robert Duval) is shaving Frank (Richard Harris), notice how the shaving foam on the upperlip disappears before the upperlip has even been shaved and then suddenly reappears in the next shot where the upperlip is shaved.
Continuity mistake: When Joe, the Heisman candidate quarterback, jumps his Harley off of a dirt cliff, one camera angle is from below as the bike is in the air. The angle clearly shows the bike is different from the Harley he started and finished with. Most noticeable is the fact that the tyres on the stunt bike are knobby enduro tyres, but later when the bike is stopped, you can see the smooth street tyres are back again.
Continuity mistake: This movie has many flashbacks to the late 1970s or early '80s, but in one scene the little boy is in his pajamas and it depicts symbols of NHL teams. Half, if not most of those teams were not around at that time.
Continuity mistake: In the hotel scene where Darby calls Gavin to give him the instructions to meet her the next day, he eats one of the chocolates on his pillow and throws it down. They show a close up of the chocolates. After Khamel murders Gavin, he walks to the bed, pulls the recording device and eats one of the chocolates. They are now in a different spot on the bed. (00:59:55 - 01:00:25)
Factual error: During the scene where Bruce leaves his girlfriend's parents home, it's raining. He leaves in a huff on his motorcycle and you can clearly hear the sound of screeching rubber on the pavement. Peeling out and making this sound would not have been possible in a rainstorm.
Continuity mistake: When a nude Brad Pitt is digging a big hole, at first his skin is clean, then in an instant with a camera angle change he is covered in dirt and sweat.
Continuity mistake: When 'Bill Jenkins' is being surrounded by the Yakuza cars in the desert, one of the cars casts a large shadow underneath him that wasn't there in the previous shot. The grass around his feet also changes. (00:57:30)
Continuity mistake: When Jack shows Joseph the first hornworm the way he is holding the tobacco leaf changes when the camera goes from close-up to a wider shot. (00:51:25)
Continuity mistake: The last shot, when the camera pans away from the front door of the house, appears to be taken from a helicopter, and a modern 1990's white car can be seen parked behind the property in a courtyard. The shot was meant to be at the end of the 1950s. There's also a motorway in the background with lots of fast moving traffic.
Visible crew/equipment: In the VHS edition, one can see a reflection of a boom mic in the painting above the staircase landing as Ann-Margret goes up the stairs to Jack Lemmon's bathroom, and again when she comes down. (02:51:30)
Continuity mistake: When Kathleen Turner is talking to Tommy Lee Jones in the hallway of the institution, in some shots the wide collar of her shirt is outside of her jacket, and in other shots it's tucked inside.
Continuity mistake: There is a scene where Kim Basinger's character has been paroled from prison and is taking a train from the Athens, GA to Atlanta, GA. First there is no commuter train from Athens to Atlanta and clearly this scene was shot inside a MARTA train, Atlanta's local transit system.
Factual error: When the convictions are overturned, the defendants' solicitor, Gareth Pearce (played by Emma Thompson) is shown arguing their case in court. In England solicitors cannot appear in the higher courts, and in fact a barrister presented the case. However, the film is 'dramatically correct' because it was Gareth Pearce who got them freed, and the barrister in question is far too full of herself without having the honour of being portrayed by Emma T.