The Big Lebowski (1998)

Continuity mistake: When the Dude is in Jackie Treehorn's estate, he pencils over a pad of paper to see what Jackie wrote down while he was on the phone. He then hurriedly crumples up the piece of paper and shoves it in his wallet. Then, when we see the Chief of Police of Malibu looking through the contents of The Dude's wallet, the paper is there, neatly folded in fourths.

Continuity mistake: In the opening credits when a very large bowler attempts a 7-10 split, the ball he releases changes color when it is shown picking up the spare.

Continuity mistake: When the Dude first looks at the Nihilist in the pool the liquor bottle is way off to the side. In the next shot a few seconds later, (the close up) it is tucked right under his arm. (00:15:30)

Continuity mistake: The Dude's driver's-side door is unusable after his car is stolen and retrieved, and we see him using the passenger door at least once after he takes the car home. But then at Larry Sellers' house, which they visit pretty soon, The Dude gets out of the driver's door as if nothing had happened; I doubt he'd have bothered to have it fixed in that short time. (01:09:00)

Continuity mistake: There's one scene where The Dude is taking a bath, and three Germans threaten him with a marmot (actually a ferret). When they take the little animal out of the water, you see Dude's head and in the back four candles: yellow, blue, red and white. The yellow and red one aren't burning; the blue and white are. The next shot of the Dude's head you see that the yellow, blue and red candles are burning, the white one isn't.

Continuity mistake: The Dude is driving, being followed by Da Fino. Suddenly he realises the tail has disappeared and hurriedly pulls the car over. As he looks out his driver's side window, we can see he's wearing his sunglasses, but when he checks the other window, his sunnies are gone.

Deliberate mistake: In the first bowling scene, all the lane numbers are backwards.

Visible crew/equipment: When the Nihilists are ordering food at the restaurant, you can see the reflection of the camera and cameraman in the window behind them. Watch as the scene pans around and you can see the camera and the cameraman move as well. Could the person behind the camera be Roger Deakins? (01:34:20)

esiegel76

Character mistake: When they exit the bowling alley with the dog, the dog is never put in the car, only the cage.

Continuity mistake: When Jesus' partner is seen bowling for the first time, when you see the P.O.V of the bowling pins there's another much skinnier man with different clothes in his place. Then the shot goes back to the Jesus' partner's midsection doing his strike dance. (00:06:20)

Continuity mistake: When The Dude enters Lebowski's office the telephone is on the far right of the desk and the lamp is on the far left with 3 wooden objects between them. During the shots of The Dude, when he is talking, the phone and lamp are much closer together and the wooden objects aren't there. (00:12:00)

jle

Audio problem: When Walter is destroying the expensive sports car, the owner comes out of his house to stop him. You hear him screaming, but his mouth is not moving. (01:12:40)

Visible crew/equipment: As The Dude enters his apartment, having left Ralphs, a stage hand can be seen in a window of another apartment. The stage hand ducks quickly.

Deliberate mistake: When we are introduced to Jesus, during his slow motion roll, the camera cuts to the ball hitting the pins and then back to Jesus doing a celebratory dance. For some un-known reason, the film of the ball hitting a strike is actually back to front (see the posters above the lane are in mirror image to what they should be). Given that a bowling lane is perfectly symmetrical, if anyone's got an explanation, I'd love to hear it... [Jesus bowls with his right hand. If the scene was played the correct way, you would realize the shot of the ball rolling was done by a LEFT HANDED bowler...so obviously rather than re-shoot the scene with a right-handed bowler they reversed the shot. Voila. Still a mistake but there's why.] (00:25:26)

Continuity mistake: When you first see the Dude, Walter, and Donnie together at the bowling alley the bowlers sitting in the background of the next lane keep changing between the shots of Walter and Donnie sitting down and the Dude standing. (00:09:00)

Continuity mistake: When the Dude shows up at Maude's place (the time where the video artist is laughing annoyingly), pay attention to Maude's bangs changing positions between several shots. Sometimes the hair is raised up on the left side of her forehead and other times the bangs are straight across. It's most noticeable after she pours a drink and turns around.

Continuity mistake: In her studio, Maude dumps a bunch of trinkets on the counter. While she is on the phone, some of the items disappear and then reappear.

Factual error: This film takes place in the early 90's. When Walter and the Dude are talking about the toe in the cafe, you can see late model cars driving by on the street, such as a late model Ford Explorer and a Cadilac. This is also evident when the Dude gets kicked out of the cab and a mid '90s Nissan Maxima drives by.

Continuity mistake: The paint disappears from The Dude's face before Julianne Moore hands him the towel. (00:44:10)

jle

Continuity mistake: When the Dude joins Mr. Lebowski in the West Wing, where he was in seclusion, he is handed Bunny's ransom note by Brandt. As he reads the note he smokes a joint. Through the entire reading sequence he moves the joint from his mouth to his hand and back. Watch how several times the joint is in his hand, while you see a shot of the note and the Dude's hands, but when the shot changes to overall view, the joint is suddenly back in his mouth and he retrieves it again.