Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie the executioner bends down to bind William's feet. The scene shows the rope starting around his feet and then a second later William is yanked into the air with a complicated noose-like knot holding his lower body to the ground. How did they make that knot so fast?
Suggested correction: The scene was obviously clipped to save time. His lower body isn't held to the ground, it's pulled outwards by a couple of horses. The executioners hold ropes attached to his wrists.
Other mistake: Near the end of the battle of Sterling after Wallace nearly hits one of his allies on the horse, look on the right side of the shot. An English man wearing metal armor is fighting some Scots. He doesn't make much effort, barely swinging his sword. The Scots fighting him also don't put up much of a challenge either.
Suggested correction: Because they're exhausted.
Continuity mistake: When Wallace pounds an English soldier with a large mallet, in the village where his wife was killed, watch the third hit. Wallace hits the soldier in the hip and then in the back. On the third hit, the mallet comes down at least an inch or two from the soldiers head, missing. The soldier jumps as if he was hit.
Continuity mistake: In the first battle where Wallace is attacking the palisades and he is riding slowly, pretending to be unarmed and later draws a morning star/flail from behind his hair, the morning star/flail obviously isn't there until he needs it.
Continuity mistake: When Wallace is a boy and they are at the grave to bury his father and brother, the shovels of dirt shake the wrapped dummy body in the grave.
Continuity mistake: After Wallace kills the noble and his crew for killing his wife there's blood on his face. At the funeral there is no blood on his face. The night of the funeral the blood on his face returns.
Continuity mistake: When the princess and her chambermaid are talking about William and how they killed his wife, at the end of the conversation, the princess leans back against the edge of the archway. In the next shot from over her left shoulder, she's not leaning back, but sitting straight up.
Continuity mistake: After being knighted, William says that he will invade England. In the close-up shots of Robert in the group reacting to him saying this, you can see the man whose bride was taken away by the English lord earlier in the film behind him. But, in the wide shots, he's not there. It's just some random man behind him.
Audio problem: At the end, when the sword is thrown and sticks into the ground, the sound of the sword sticking into the ground is not synced up with the impact.
Character mistake: At the beginning, in the funeral of the young lady, the priest says in Latin the traditional "In nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti", but he says the last word wrong, "sanctus" instead of "sancti."
Continuity mistake: During the battle of Stirling, the archers' arrows hit the Scottish shields and are sticking out. When the army stands up to mock the English again, the arrows are gone.
Continuity mistake: When Mel Gibson is disembowelled, in one shot there's no blood on his neck, but in the very next shot there is.
Suggested correction: Could that be because in the first scene his shirt is torn open, and they haven't started the disembowelment. Then they start the process and blood spurts up across his chest and neck?
Continuity mistake: When Wallace was in the bedchamber of a noble lord, he takes out a chain with a ball at the end. The chain is wrapped twice around his fist, and the ball is dangling under his fist; however, when Wallace swings the weapon, the chain is leading outwards from the top of his fist.
Continuity mistake: When the English and the Scots come together at the Battle of Stirling look at one of the Englishmen's swords: it is bloodied even though he has just engaged the enemy.
Continuity mistake: When Wallace is at his brother and father's funeral at the start of the film, Hamish's and Murron's father are both in attendance. Let's say that this is about 20 years prior to the first battle at Stirling in 1297. 17 years later, the battle at Bannockburn takes place, yet Murron's father is fighting in it, looking not a day older than at the funeral scene which was supposedly almost 40 years prior to it. And when Hamish's father dies at Falkirk, he looks no older than at the aforementioned funeral scene. A miracle anti-ageing cream perhaps?
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Wallace and Hamish are discussing throwing rocks while at the wedding, the shots alternate between their faces, depending on who is speaking. From one angle their hair is blowing in a breeze, from the other angle the wind is calm.
Continuity mistake: During the execution scene when Wallace is reflecting and sees his wife in the crowd. Pay attention to the axe as it is coming down on Wallace's neck. As the axe approaches, it slows down as it gets closer. The scene is in slow motion, so look close. [According to Mel Gibson, the executioner actually placed the axe near Wallace's head and then raised the axe. The scene was shot in reverse for the movie. Doesn't make it less of a mistake, but explains it - the axe was accelerating, so in reverse it looks like it was slowing down]
Continuity mistake: At one point, when a bit player escorts Wallace's friend away, he utters his only line without a Scottish accent. Someone from southern California must be visiting Wallace's army.
