Save the Last Dance

Save the Last Dance (2001)

13 corrected entries

(4 votes)

Corrected entry: During the last few scenes, where Malakai is arrested, we can see 'Chicago' written on the police car. However, we all know this movie is set in N.Y. (01:40:55)

Correction: The movie is set in Chicago. There are many instances in the movie where "Chicago" or "Chi-town" are referenced. And the ballet Derek and Sara went to see is Joffrey, which is a Chicago dance company.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Sarah is going to the club for the first time, Chenille asks her friend for her car keys, then opens the car door without unlocking it. When she and Sarah get out, she still doesn't lock the car, and hands the keys back to her friend.

Correction: Chenille not locking the door behind her isn't a mistake. Rude, but no mistake.

Corrected entry: In the first scene where Sara takes her pointe shoes out of a box, you can see that the brand of the pointe shoes is Grishco. The next time she takes out her pointe shoes, you see that the brand is Gaynor Minden pointe shoes.

Correction: Dancers wear down their pointe shoes fairly rapidly and tend to have more than one pair because of this.

Corrected entry: In the movie Derrick is talking to Sarah after they watch the show and she is crying. He says "Do you want to go to Juliard" She had never mentioned to him that she wanted to go to Juliard or anything like that.

Correction: Just because she never mentioned it to him on camera doesn't mean she never mentioned it to him at all .

Corrected entry: In the scene near the end of the movie where Derek and his sister are at the playground with her son, Derek's sister tells him what she said to Sarah. Derek gets mad and then leaves to go tell his friend that he is not going with him. You can see that when Derek is at the park it is mid day and the sun is out. But by the time he gets to Malikye the sky is pitch black.

Correction: If it was late in the day, this is completely possible, especially considering that the movie is set during winter, when the sun sets early.

Corrected entry: In middle of the film when Sara decides to go back to ballet, she unwraps her pointe shoes and slips them on. As she puts them on you should see the elastic strap that goes across the top of her foot as she puts the shoes on, but it's not there until she starts wrapping the ribbons around her ankle - then the elastic suddenly appears.

Correction: You can see the elastic strap when she is slipping on the ballet slipper, as well as when she is tying it.

Corrected entry: After Sarah and Chenille are done talking at the doctor's, Derek is helping Sarah make up a dance for the Juilliard auditions. After she sits down he takes off her boot to massage her foot, but notice when she was dancing she had sneakers on.

Correction: She is still wearing sneakers. The bottom looks like boots.

Corrected entry: As a former dancer and follower of the dance scene, I can say Sara would not have been accepted based on that audition: she was auditioning as a ballet dancer (albeit with hip-hop mixed in) but didn't even go en pointe. She did a few advanced technical moves (a pirouette, a grand jete, etc) but not nearly enough to show mastery of the field she chose to audition in.

Correction: I'm a dancer as well. That was the "freestyle" portion of her audition. In the earlier portion of her audition (which we see interspersed with scenes of the gang shootout), she is seen performing a full repertoire of ballet moves and frequently going en pointe. And if even that still wasn't good enough for admission to Juilliard, we can just call that a character mistake on the part of the judges.

Corrected entry: After Chenille picks up Sarah's backpack, she gives it back to her and leaves, but doesn't put the lock back on her locker. You can see that all the lockers around her have bright red locks, but hers doesn't.

Correction: Chenille does put the lock back on her locker. In the next scene Sara turns around to get ready to introduce herself, but Chenille has already left.

Corrected entry: In the end of the movie when Sarah is auditioning again for Juilliard, there is a close up of her putting on her toe shoes. They are obviously brand new, they are nice and clean and shiny. A dancer would not be going to an audition with brand new shoes that have not been broken in. They would be using a pair of shoes that they have worn a while and adjusted to.

Correction: When breaking in toe shoes they plan to wear for a performance or an audition, dancers wear socks over their pointe shoes. This way, the shoes look "nice and clean and shiny" to the audience, but they are actually well worn and ready to dance in.

Correction: The leotard does not change height; her arm causes a shadow over her back, making it look like the leotard goes up to her neck, when it doesn't.

Corrected entry: When Sarah is auditioning for Juilliard, the folding chair that she puts in the middle of the stage changes direction that it is facing.

Correction: Julia Stiles turns the chair around while she's dancing.

Corrected entry: When her father shows her the room he has done for her he tells her not to touch the walls because they are still wet, but there are pictures hanging on the wall.

Correction: Sarah's father does not say don't touch "the walls", he instead says, "don't touch THAT wall". He could be meaning the wall that contains the window; there don't appear to be any pictures on that wall from what I can tell.

Continuity mistake: In the scene when Sara gets off from the train and her father asks her how many bags she has, she says that she has two small ones and a big one. But when they walk into their apartment, you can see that she has one small one and two big suitcases.

More mistakes in Save the Last Dance

Derek: "Stepps" ain't no square dance.
Sara: That's okay, I'll dance in circles, probably around you.

More quotes from Save the Last Dance

Trivia: The woman who choreographed the dance scenes in the movie is also the choreographer for the Backstreet Boys. She uses a lot of "Backstreet style" dance moves in the movie, especially during Sara's second audition for Julliard. The dance moves she does with the chair are the same moves the Backstreet Boys use in their video for "As Long As You Love Me".

More trivia for Save the Last Dance

Question: The first time Sarah goes out clubbing with Chenille, they run into some other girls from their school. One of them is Nikki, who gets mean and says that she's 'not walking on eggshells just because someone brought the Brady Bunch to the N*gro club'. Chenille gets offended and yells "Nikki, you did not just call me a N*gro." How is the term N*gro offensive? Or were they just not allowed to say ni**err in this movie? (Perhaps to preserve the rating?) Someone please help - this has been driving me nuts.

Answer: "N*gro" was the PC term in the 60's. While by no means vulgar, it has mostly fallen out of use and some people are offended by it.

Grumpy Scot

More questions & answers from Save the Last Dance

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.