Basic Instinct

Basic Instinct (1992)

72 mistakes - chronological order

(16 votes)

Continuity mistake: When Roxy drives Sharon Stone's car off the road it lands on a yellow hose at the bottom of a construction site. When Michael Douglas runs down into the construction site the car is nowhere near the yellow hose. (01:26:10)

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Continuity mistake: Michael Douglas waits in the dark in Jeanne Tripplehorn's apartment and says to her after she walks in, " Tell me about Catherine". At first we see a couch and chair on the right side of the room but two shots later as he walks towards her these two items have been removed from the room. (01:38:40)

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Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie when Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone relax in bed contemplating their future together and the black lamp on the left side of his bed changes the direction that it's pointing in throughout the scene without anyone going near it. (02:01:00)

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Continuity mistake: During the infamous leg un-crossing scene when Sharon Stone is being interrogated, a cigarette in her hand disappears and then reappears.

Plot hole: This is another movie where the cops are too dumb to go out by themselves. The woman who icepicks the first victim (we see) to death would have left enough forensic evidence on the scene to convict her ten times over - skin, hair, sweat, saliva, vaginal fluid, possibly blood, and they all contain DNA in abundance. She had vigorous, sweaty sex with this man and she didn't clean up afterwards (and she couldn't have done so thoroughly enough anyway) so she's left calling cards all over the place. The killer also handled the icepick (which the police take away in an evidence bag) with bare hands - her prints would be all over it. She might as well have left a signed confession, but they can't even identify her. Sharon Stone, for instance, leaves her fingerprints (on the chair and fixtures in the police station) and her saliva (containing epithelial skin cells which are an excellent source of DNA) on the cigarette butt she discards, also in the police station. She went there of her own accord and these artifacts are legally accessible by the police. It is obvious to anyone that the women who had sex with the victim killed him, and Catherine is most certainly a suspect. They don't have enough to charge her but they would if they did a simple series of tests on the dead man's body - and if she didn't do it, that would eliminate her as a suspect. They don't even check.

Continuity mistake: During the big sex scene you see red marks on Michael Douglas's back. These red marks are from when Sharon Stone scratches him. The thing is, she scratches him a minute AFTER you see the red marks on him for the first time.

Continuity mistake: During the interrogation scene, Stone has her legs crossed right over the left then suddenly left over the right and a second later (during the shot where she wears no underwear) right to left again.

Continuity mistake: In the scene where the actual murder takes place the blonde woman stabs him in the neck. The body has no blood on it. The second stab the body is covered with blood. This all happens in one eyeblink.

Continuity mistake: Douglas opens a mailbox to check the mail for clues. He then puts the mail back and closes the box, a second later you hear him closing the mailbox again.

Factual error: Michael Douglas is lying on the couch watching the Jeffersons. Jeanne Tripplehorn arrives and they talk. In the background the theme song to the Jeffersons is playing, but it is the song from the beginning of the show rather than the closing theme.

Continuity mistake: When Roxy runs off the bridge you see the Lotus crashing over with its low beams on - when you see the car fly off the bridge its brights are on.

Continuity mistake: In the sequence where Michael Douglas is driving along the coastal highway, his car's center rear-view mirror appears and disappears over and over.

Continuity mistake: When Roxy tries to run over Nick the left front light is broken off - in the next scene it is back on.

Continuity mistake: When the detectives ask Catherine to go in for questioning, she has her hair down. Then, a minute later, she comes out with her hair up. Problems: one, there's no way Catherine could do that on her own, and no-one else is in the house; two, even if she could it would take much more than a minute, say thirty minutes.

kh1616

Gus: I thought you said he was a rock and roll star.
Lt. Walker: He was a retired rock and roll star.
Capt. Talcott: A civic-minded, very respectable rock and roll star.
Gus: What's that over there?
Nick: It looks like some civic-minded, very respectable cocaine to me, Gus.

More quotes from Basic Instinct

Trivia: Director Paul Verhoeven actually has a PhD in mathematics. He received it back in the 1960's in Holland. He left the field and became a film director. (From Director's commentary on "Basic Instinct: The Original Director's Cut".).

Luna Negra

More trivia for Basic Instinct

Question: Did Stone have a motive for all that she did or was she nuts and doing it all for fun?

Rob245

Answer: She is portrayed as a psychopath with an uncontrollable urge to kill.

raywest

I wouldn't say that she had an "urge" to kill. Rather, she was willing to "dispose" of people by killing them. She would kill people who were in her way or were no longer interesting/useful.

More questions & answers from Basic Instinct

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