Continuity mistake: When they go to find Private Ryan there are eight of them, when they go to a French town and Caparzo picks up the little girl and he gets killed there are seven, right? Wrong. A few scenes later, the camera shows all eight of them marching on to the next town, only in a far away camera shot so it's hard to see. (01:23:11)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, Tom Sizemore, Barry Pepper, Edward Burns, Adam Goldberg
When Miller and his men find Ryan, he is dug in with his unit awaiting the German counter attack. Ryan refuses to leave his buddies and Miller and his men agree to fight with them. The Germans attack in overwhelming numbers and everyone fights valiantly except Upham who runs and hides. Of the men in the original platoon, Jackson gets blown up in the Bell Tower. Mellish has a fight with a German Soldier who after much struggling stabs Mellish to death. And Horvath gets shot numerous times and eventually dies. Miller gets shot trying to reach the remote to detonate the bridge. Reinforcements arrive just before he dies. Upham, Reiben and Ryan survive the battle. The old man we saw at the beginning in the war cemetery is Ryan, and he is there with his family to visit Miller's gravesite, the man who saved his life.
More mistakes in Saving Private Ryan
Private Jackson: What I mean by that, sir, is if you was to put me and this here sniper rifle anywhere up to and including one mile from Adolf Hitler... With a clean line of sight... Pack your bags, fellas. War's over. Amen.
Trivia: The movie was shot in chronological order, which is unusual for a film. Spielberg chose to shoot it that way so that the actors would feel like they were going through the experience in the same order as the characters they play, and they lose friends on the way. This helped create the resentment towards Ryan, who doesn't share the journey with them.
Question: Jackson, the sniper of Miller's crew, states that if he was in a mile of Adolf Hitler, he would kill him. So, as they were driven to the beach, why didn't Jackson and other snipers try to pick off the the German guys who were firing the at the boats as the Americans left them?
Answer: Also, the machine gunners were under heavy cover. No one had a good shot at them.
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Answer: Sniping needs stability - the movement of the waves under the boat would disrupt their aim so badly that they wouldn't have much hope of hitting anything.
Tailkinker ★