Continuity mistake: Charlie is climbing over his dad towards safety. When Nic Cage says "Up!" the kid's arm moves up to reach the ledge, and then does it again in the next shot. (01:26:35)
Continuity mistake: Mike explains to his wife that she was cutting herself. Sarah Wayne Callies' hair falls in front of her shoulder in the shots from behind, not so in the frontals. (01:03:15)
Continuity mistake: With his wife unconscious, Mike puts a towel under the bleeding arm. Look at the cut, and how the string of the pyjama bottoms rests differently between these two shots. (01:03:05)
Continuity mistake: After she says the line about letting 'something' find her, the medium is holding the plush bear in a different way at the cut. She also never puts it down at the end of the scene, before getting to the window, where she just does not have it anymore. (00:55:45)
Continuity mistake: Mike has just told his wife the crazy stuff about their son trying to reach him through bus windows and hobo street-artist. Naturally she stands up and leaves. When he says "Kristen, please?" one guy that was walking in the street disappears from the window at the cut. (00:39:35)
Continuity mistake: Nicolas Cage is chatting with his friend at work. When she tells him "Mike, listen to what you're saying", his cup turned around on its own, with the paper sleeve showing the brand to the camera. Both his and his colleague's paper sleeves move up and down the cups a few times during the conversation, too. (00:28:55)
Continuity mistake: When a nonplussed Cage and his wife drop by to talk with a drug addict, the candle on the table is at first whole, then in close-up the top is molten out of shape at the top. (00:47:00)
Continuity mistake: Mike and his wife are talking in the street. She is crying and tells him that "It's never him." Twice, with a reverse shot and a line of dialogue in the middle, a woman with a light green jacket gets on the sidewalk behind Nicholas Cage. (00:40:05)
Continuity mistake: Detective Jordan resents Mike's remark and angrily tosses his pen on the desk before pulling out a big binder with the cases. In this second shot you do see his pen, but when he tossed it was gone, not at all ending up where we see it now. (00:31:05)
Continuity mistake: Nicholas Cage is stapling the posters with his missing child (strangely enough, all the concert posters are in terrible condition even if they advertise events that happen exactly when the movie takes place). He hears his son's voice and turns around, the wind flips the poster on his hand. When he turns back to it, the poster is gone (but he still has one to attach). (00:27:00)
Continuity mistake: The crime has been reported and the police just left. Mike joins his wife, who asks him "Anything?" Look at the glasses on the table. A couple cuts later they moved to the left even if nobody touched them. (00:21:10)
Continuity mistake: During the carnival, the ghost does an evil shriek at Charlie. He lowers the hand with the camera, but when his dad calls his name, you can see his arm still bent holding the camera up, out of the frame. (00:16:05)
Continuity mistake: When the mom asks Charlie about the figure in the drawing, and he says that he "kinda" saw it, her hand changes position on the side of the tablet she is holding. (00:10:15)
Continuity mistake: The mom just said bye to the nanny, and her little guy is impatient. "Where's daddy?" he asks. There are three cuts for this simple sequence, and in each the kid is in a slightly different position, hands on/off the table and with the weapon positioned differently. (00:09:50)
Continuity mistake: Charlie shoots a dart with his toy blunderbuss. The dart falls on a well lit area in front of the fireplace. When he retrieves the dart 10 seconds later, the light changed. The position of the logs by the fire also changed. (00:09:30)
Continuity mistake: Charlie asks his dad to check the window. He gives him the "all clear" and the kid says "I love you, Dad", with the blanket up and a hand on it, on his chest. Next shot and the blanket is lower and his hand is down his side. (00:06:35)
Continuity mistake: Mike Lawford is at the college library. His phone buzzes. He has both hands on a book, then in close-up just one hand and the phone itself, the other not in sight, and then both hands again. (00:04:25)
Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie, when the kid says "Dad promised me..." the mom suddenly has her hand on his face mid-sentence at the cut. (01:28:00)
Continuity mistake: Nicholas Cage sees his ghostly son through the window of a bus, and so he rushes after him. Right at the first left turn, the natural light couldn't be any more different in the two separate shots. (00:32:30)
