Continuity mistake: When Apollo is getting ready to fight the Russian boxer, he comes out with white boxing gloves on. Sometime during the announcement of the fighters, the camera shows Rocky and Apollo standing in Apollo's corner. Apollo is jumping up and down while pointing with an ungloved and untaped hand, He is saying "I want you". The next time they show Apollo, he has his gloves on again. (00:26:55)
Continuity mistake: When Apollo is knocked out during the fight with Drago, he falls to the canvas in slow motion. During the fall his hands are hanging down, but in the next shot, when he lies on the floor after the fall, his hands are in front of his head. In the next shot his arms are down again. (00:31:25)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Apollo is playing with his dog in his pool while hearing the news of Ivan Drago on television, he has three tennis balls in his hand. In one shot he throws 2 of the tennis balls to the dog, and in the next shot he is seen with 3 balls back in his hands while looking at the television.
Continuity mistake: During the first round of Rocky's fight with Drago there is a brief shot of Tony and Paulie looking on. Tony already has blood on his shirt, but being the first round there obviously hasn't been any time between rounds for him to have come in contact with Rocky's blood.
Revealing mistake: Take a good look at the lower right corner during the 'Hearts on Fire' training sequence at a barn in Russia. Rocky does a few leaning sit-ups; at that moment the cow in the lower right corner moves backwards. When you look closely you'll see it moves back too quickly and anatomically incorrectly, thus revealing it's a fake head attached to wheels or something. (00:57:45)
Continuity mistake: During round 2 of the Rocky/Drago fight, Drago backed Rocky into a neutral corner. The next shot has them in Rocky's corner, then Rocky cuts Drago from the neutral corner again in the following shot. They couldn't have moved back and forth that quickly.
Character mistake: When Rocky makes his speech after his fight with Drago, he says that it's better that one person fights another instead of a million fighting a million (a US USSR war). The Russian translator misinterprets his speech and says that this is better than a million dollars. You don't have to understand Russian (although I do) to hear the translator says million dollars to confirm this blunder of a mistake. (01:22:25)
Continuity mistake: Before the final round, one of the Russian politicians slowly rises from his seat, comes down to the ring (from all the way up in the luxury suites) yells at the trainer, yells at Drago, then is picked up by Drago and thrown into the crowd. Then Drago says some things to him in Russian. In standard boxing, the period between a round is always 60 seconds. That Premier got down to the ring amazingly fast. (01:17:30)
Deliberate mistake: When Rocky cuts Drago during round two of their fight, the punch actually hits Drago on the chin. His eye would not cut from that impact.
Audio problem: When they arrive in Russia and gets out the plane you can see it is blowing in the snow and you can hear the wind. In the next shot it isn't blowing and the snow is falling straight down, but the sound of the wind remains. (00:47:30)
Deliberate mistake: At the end of the second round when Rocky is holding Drago's arm and punching him, Drago snaps his head back for a punch that completely misses his head and lands on his shoulder.
Factual error: Drago is presented as an infantry Captain in the Soviet Army. However, during the press conference his shoulder bars are the same as a soviet Colonel, not a Captain.
Continuity mistake: When Rocky and his crew arrive in Russia, watch the Mercedes limo that picks them up. In the last shot at the airport as they are getting into the car, it has tinted windows in the back where in the previous views they were clear. This only happens once and the next view of the car when they drive up to the training farm shows the windows are clear and the passengers are visible.
Revealing mistake: As you watch Rocky fight the Russian, watch closely during round three. In a couple of punches, you can see that Drago does not make contact with Rocky, but the sound effects and Rocky's movements indicates that Drago hits him hard. (01:13:45)
Factual error: The limos they are driving in Russia are American Mercedes Benz models (American style bigger bumpers and headlights). Very unlikely at that time.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the second round between Rocky and Drago, Drago has both eyes cut when Rocky throws him to the ground, but he only has one eye cut when he gets to his corner.
Revealing mistake: When the newspaper articles are being shown, the newspaper article is headlined "Rocky vs Drago - for Guilt or Glory". The actual article is talking about the Kansas City Royals playing in the World Series, which has nothing to do with Rocky vs Drago. (00:17:00)
Continuity mistake: Midway between the first and second round in the 'Creed vs. Drago' match the broadcaster states, "Ivan Drago is definitely for real." During his statement there is one camera angle peered on Drago's backside with no trainer within the proximity of his left side. Then immediately there is another camera angle peering on Drago's right side with a trainer placing his mouthpiece to the left in close proximity as the broadcaster finishes his statement. This suggests no discontinuity of time between the two camera angles as the trainer magically appears out of nowhere. (00:31:20)
Revealing mistake: As Rocky backs up his car at the beginning of the montage scene after the press conference with Drago, you can see the "bricks" buckle under the weight of the car signifying that they are fake. (00:41:30)
Factual error: Rocky's license plate reads "Sothpaw". In Pennsylvania, license plates were limited to six letters until the 1990's.
Answer: Presumably it would have been used in the scene where Rocky and company arrive in Russia. Burning Heart (also by Survivor) was chosen to be used in this scene instead.
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