Continuity mistake: When Paddy has a bunch of bananas and is heading around the jungle before he stumbles upon "God", he changes his clothing slightly. In the first shot, he has his hat on. In the next shot, he doesn't have it on. Then when he sees "God" it is on his head again. (00:20:00)
Continuity mistake: This mistake takes place when Paddy has grabbed some bananas and is walking through the jungle and stumbles upon God. In one shot as he's hoping over a log, his knife in his belt is on his right side. Soon after when he finds God, his knife in his belt is on his left side. (00:20:05)
Continuity mistake: When Richard looks through his telescope he spots Paddy laying on rocks near the foot of a small cliff. They then sail over to him, yet now he is laying on the beach. (00:23:30 - 00:24:10)
Continuity mistake: When Richard spots Paddy laying on the ground, they sail over to him. As they run up the beach there's hardly any seaweed around Paddy's body. Yet when it cuts there is much more seaweed around him. Also to the right of the screen on the beach, there are some rocks, but when it cuts (in the same shots as the aforementioned mistake) another large rock appears. (00:24:10)
Revealing mistake: When Paddy lays dead on the beach holding a barrel, the kids turn him over and a crab crawls out of his mouth. You then can briefly see his nose move like a rabbit sniffling. Also his pupils are narrow, and a the side of his neck has a pulse. In other words, he is very much alive. (00:24:30)
Continuity mistake: When Richard goes for a swim while Em is inside the hut, you can see him under the water with his hair drenched. He then climbs onto the shore and his hair is completely dry and curly again. (00:29:05)
Continuity mistake: In the scene when Emmeline and Richard sit on the beach with their stockings, on the shore behind them you can see a white boat, and there's a long wooden stick leaning against it. But in the all closeups of Richard talking, the stick has disappeared. Then when it goes back to the ending wideshot, it has reappered. (00:29:50 - 00:31:15)
Continuity mistake: This error occurs when Emmeline and Richard are sitting out on a rock watching the sunset and deciding whether or not Paddy was a liar. When we first see them from behind, they are high up out of the water on rocks. When we see their faces they are really close to the water because they are in a different place. I listened to the commentary and the director said they didn't have a place facing the sunset like what they needed, so they shot the first scene from far off somewhere else. (00:38:40)
Continuity mistake: There is a scene in which it is raining quite heavily and Em and Richard are inside the hutch. Richard is playing Pop Goes The Weasel over and over which annoys Em. She stabs him in the foot and he chases her outside. In this scene she is wearing a strapless dress but when he catches her and pins her down on the sand she is wearing a lacey jacket (she didn't have time to change) and there are no clouds or rain. The sand doesn't seem to be very wet either, despite the fact that it was raining heavily a few minutes ago. (00:41:10)
Continuity mistake: After Emmeline has her nightmare about Richard dying, she wakes up, and Richard comes and asks her if she's alright, as he stands in the hut doorway. You can see that it's raining and that the sky is grey and cloudy and you can hear thunder rumbling and can see lightning. It then cuts back to Emmeline, that back to Richard, and the sky is is now blue and the sun is shining bright. (00:47:55)
Visible crew/equipment: When Em is sheltering from the rain after being evicted from the hut, as the wall of fronds falls, the string used to pull it over is visible to the right of the screen. (00:55:20)
Other mistake: This mistake happened right after Richard evicted Emmeline from their hut. We see Emmeline under some rocks and it is raining. See has a makeshift wall made of palm leaves. The rain is coming down to the left, but the wall comes down the opposite way to the right, against the wind and the rain. The director mentioned on the commentary they used ropes to do this. (00:57:35)
Continuity mistake: After the baby is born, in one scene where it is lying on the bed, it's lying on a blue-green print receiving blanket. In the next shot, the baby is wrapped in a fur or rough cloth material. (01:20:20)
Revealing mistake: After Richard tells Em about the "drum people," when the bird is walking around on the beach, there's about a half-dozen of what appears to be water droplets on the camera lens. (01:21:45)
Other mistake: For someone who has been living on a desert island for at least 10 years, Emmeline seems to have discovered a beauty salon hidden in the paradise. In the close up shots of her hands, she has remarkably nice manicured nails.
Revealing mistake: You can tell that Brooke Shields is wearing a wig throughout most of the movie when they are on the island. You can see her real hair is is about 6 inches shorter than the wig.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Em is ill and Richard takes her to "God" and places her on the rock, she is shown lying on her right side, her face turned to the side with her hair partly covering her face. In the close-up shot of her, she is lying face up and her hair is away from her face. Then in the next shot, she's again on her side with her hair back over her face.
Factual error: Despite being on an island for a long time, Emmeline has no body hair anywhere.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Em discovers the rock that she believes is God, there is a close up of her face and she is very clearly wearing make-up. After being stranded on a deserted island for around 10 years I find it hard to believe that she owns any beauty products.
Revealing mistake: In the beginning, right as Richard and Emmeline are seen for the first times as adults, Emmeline picks what appears to be a Zucchini or Squash from a coconut tree. There are coconuts visible next to the item she picks from it.
Answer: The ending is meant to be ambiguous, and is identical to the ending of the original novel on which the film is based. It is never answered whether they are alive or not.
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