The Rainmaker

The Rainmaker (1997)

22 mistakes - chronological order

(3 votes)

Continuity mistake: When Rudy comes to Bruiser's office to get hired the coral in the middle of the aquarium is a lot more branched in the opening close-up than in the later wide shots. (00:02:30)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: When Dot Black wants her husband to sign the contract she walks up to the car wreck where he is sitting in. There are numerous cats sitting on the car, and when Dot gets there all of them run away except one white one on the roof. When Dot starts talking to her hubby all cats have disappeared, but in the next wide shot we see her chasing a black cat off the roof. (00:10:30)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: When Rudy comes to the Black's place the first time and Donny Ray's nose starts bleeding, blood drops on the letter in which Great Benefits deny their claim for the eighth and last time, calling Dot Black "stupid, stupid, stupid". The letter dates from April 25, 1995 and is signed by Russell Krokit. When the same letter is produced as evidence when Everett Rufkin is heard as a witness the letter dates from July 7, 1994 and is signed by Everett Rufkin with copy to Russell Krokit. (00:10:50 - 01:17:30)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: When Rudy is waiting in the hospital cafeteria for Kelly he is reading a newspaper. When he is seen from the front the crease is in his right hand, but when we look over his shoulder at the article on Bruiser's legal problems it's in his left hand. (00:19:50)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: One morning Rudy wakes up from the clattering noises Ms. Birdie is making when she unloads a number of biggish garden tools from a wheelbarrow. The camera cuts to Rudy who is trying to sleep while we hear her unloading, then back to Ms. Birdie where the number of tools on the wheelbarrow has gone up again. (00:22:20)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: When Rudy talks to Kelly in the hospital for the first time the items on the table keep changing positions, like in the beginning the orange and the apple which suddenly move together. (00:23:35)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: When Rudy fights with Cliff the curtain on the glass door where Kelly is crouching keeps disappearing and reappearing. (00:24:25)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: When Matt Damon gets his letter stating that he passed the bar, he is holding it in his left hand. After he hugs the old lady, the letter has immediately jumped to his right hand. (00:35:10)

William Bergquist

Continuity mistake: When Kelly joins Rudy in the cinema her hair changes from tucked behind her ear to falling over her right temple between shots. (00:56:55)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: When Kelly calls Rudy at night after his return from Cleveland he is lying in bed in his suit. There's a close-up where the blanket is pulled up to his chin, but when the camera angle changes as he puts the receiver back his arms and shoulders are uncovered. (01:02:55)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: When Rudy and Deck listen to the taped phone call the items on the desk shift from one shot to the next. Check for example the position of the red pen. (01:08:45)

NancyFelix

Visible crew/equipment: When Deck Shifflet (played by Danny DeVito) and another actor are calling their office from a payphone, in order to setup another law firm, once the call has been completed and there is some back and forth between the Danny and the other actor, a crew member is entering the scene via a side alley, more humorous is how said crew member leaves the scene, on realizing that he has just walked onto a live set, the crew member proceeds to stop and walk in reverse out of shot. (01:13:57)

SirGr3mlin

Continuity mistake: When Matt Damon is protecting Claire Danes from her rampaging husband just after they arrived at her house to get her clothes, you see Matt's hands are up, trying to calm Claire's husband down, yet, in the next shot, his hands are behind him, keeping Claire behind. They change back in the next shot. (01:24:30)

Audio problem: At the beginning of the fight at Kelly's place Cliff steps up to Kelly saying "you hurt me, baby" without moving his lips. (01:24:40)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: When Rudy and Kelly talk in the police station they are sitting quite close and holding hands, even when the two constables enter the room to get Kelly. When the camera angle changes they sit much further apart and Rudy with his hands on the table. (01:29:50)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: When Everett Lufkin is heard as a witness he reads the last letter he had written to Dot Black. Then he puts it on the armrest. A few shots later it disappears from there but reappears again later, now lying in a different position. (01:31:30)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: When Wilfred Keeley is questioned as a witness Rudy hands him a huge computer print-out. Keeley keeps holding and reading it like a normal book although it's bound at the top of the pages. When hands it back to Rudy it's only half as thick at most. (01:51:10)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: While Matt Damon is questioning the CEO of the insurance company, he removes a large book of insurance information from the CEO's lap, pushing his microphone out. He then gives the CEO a document that virtually wins the case. When he reads it, the shot clearly shows the mic is back where it shuold be. Yeah, maybe he pulled it back. But in the next shot, when Matt asks him to read it again, he comes up to him and pushes the mic back to where it was before. (01:52:55)

Revealing mistake: During his final speech Rudy projects a video of Donny Ray on a screen. When he rolls up the screen at the end, the projection of Donny Ray's face should still be visible on the wall behind. (01:57:45)

NancyFelix

Rudy Baylor: There's gotta be a hundred years of law experience sitting at this very table. My staff has flunked the bar exam six times.

More quotes from The Rainmaker

Question: I have two questions.1. Why would it be important, as Leo Drummond says, that his objections have to be noted, even after they are overruled? 2.After Rudy was finished with the C.E.O., Leo Drummond is allowed to ask the C.E.O. some questions, what good does it do to say that he rests on his objections?

Answer: 1) Having his objections noted into the court records would make it easier if the defense decides to appeal the verdict, allowing counsel to cite what aspects of the trail he felt were mishandled. 2) Having him repeat his objections after cross-examining the CEO reminds the jury that Drummond felt it was inappropriate to use stolen documents as evidence in the case, perhaps generating some sympathy.

Answer: 1) A lawyer has only to object one time and it be acknowledged by the judge to preserve his right of appeal related to a given legal ruling. He might choose to object a second time in order to eliminate the highly unlikely possibility that the court reporter misheard and inaccurately recorded his first objection and/or it being overruled. 2) The CEO had just been destroyed on direct examination by the plaintiff's lawyer, Rudy, to the point where no questions Drummond might ask had any chance of rehabilitating his client's testimony, and so he passed on asking any questions. Saying, "No questions, your honor, as we instead rely on our earlier objections", Drummond was making a somewhat feeble attempt to imply to the jury that the reason he wasn't asking any questions wasn't because he didn't have any that could help his case, but it was actually because they should not have been allowed in the first place. It was weak, but it was all he had under the circumstances.

More questions & answers from The Rainmaker

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