Cast Away

Cast Away (2000)

45 mistakes - chronological order

(55 votes)

Continuity mistake: Before the crash Hanks is shown relaxing with his shoes off and in his socks. Once the aircraft crashes and he is escaping the aircraft holding onto the raft he swims to the surface in his bare feet. (00:07:20)

Snag.1

Revealing mistake: When Kelly is copying her dissertation, there is no paper being fed through the copier feeder or any printed pages going into the output tray. (00:12:40)

raywest

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Watch carefully. When Kelly turns round, you can see, by her right hand, paper coming out of the copier and landing in a pile on top of each other.

Ssiscool

Have to disagree. Watched this clip on YouTube. There is paper on top of the copier and in the feeder. Even though the copier light is moving back and forth, the paper stays stationary.

raywest

Cast Away mistake picture

Continuity mistake: At the Christmas meal, Chuck gets passed the candied yams. When he takes the yams, there is a spoon in the dish. When the shot changes to behind him, the spoon is not in his hand. (00:14:30)

Ssiscool

Continuity mistake: When Tom Hanks is on the plane he sets down the pocket watch in the lower right corner of the groove in the seat, after an instant angle change it is closer to the upper left corner of the groove, with no time for it to move. (00:20:25)

Visible crew/equipment: When Chuck is crawling on the floor of the plane to reach the watch, the compartment behind him where the raft was stored, you can see the stairs leading down into the set. (00:23:40)

Revealing mistake: The container that breaks the net is made up to be an AMJ container, with the 45 degree angle on the upper corner to fit the contour of the plane. However, as the camera zooms back out to show Tom Hanks, you can see that the side of the container towards the center of the plane is entirely clear, with packages visible. If it was a real AMJ, this side should have a white or purple curtain covering almost the entire side. That can is a prop. (00:25:45)

Jason Sieberg

Factual error: As the plane hits the water, Hanks is pushed back into the cargo area. He travels through an empty passageway between rows of containers. Though this load configuration is possible, it is not used because it makes no sense. Furthermore, he finally stops against a container that reads AEE7480FX. This creates a couple more problems, as AEEs are not only no longer in use, but they were belly containers, with an angled side on the bottom that fits the contour of the bottom of the aircraft. There could not have been one of these on the topside of the aircraft. (00:26:05)

Jason Sieberg

Revealing mistake: As Tom Hanks escapes from the sinking aircraft, it shows him still underwater, looking back and the plane breaking apart. It shows an AKE-shaped container (which fits the contour of the bottom of the aircraft) which has no markings at all, it appears to be just a computer generated solid with no color. (00:27:00)

Jason Sieberg

Continuity mistake: It already shows us that the wings of the plane are submerged in the sea. When Hanks surfaces, he turns around to see an engine (attached to a wing) bearing down on him. Physically this would be impossible even if it didn't show the wings, as the aft part of the plane would have been too heavy to hold that much of itself above the water. (00:27:30)

Jason Sieberg

Factual error: Since the can that breaks through the net is an AMJ on the right side of the plane, they must be in either a DC-10 or a MD-11, as those are the only 2 planes that are wide enough to fit AMJs on the right side. However, when Hanks is in the ocean looking back at the plane, it shows the tail as it is sinking into the water. It shows enough of the tail (which has suddenly lost all its paint, in particular the FedEx logo) to determine that there is no intake on it, which signifies that they were on an AirBus. (00:28:00)

Jason Sieberg

Cast Away mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Tom Hanks first drifts onto the island and is asleep his head is facing out to sea. In the next scene when he gets out of the raft his head is in line with the rest of the beach. (00:30:15)

Continuity mistake: When we first see Chuck washed up on the island in daylight, as he gains consciousness and awakens inside the life raft, he is clean shaven. A moment later when he is walking down the beach collecting the FedEx boxes, he has grown a full day's worth of beard stubble. (00:31:35)

Cast Away mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After becoming stranded, Chuck discovers the first package to wash ashore. While he is walking towards it, you can clearly see some of the stretch of beach behind him (as well as some in front of him) This shot is somewhat of a tight one. When the camera "seamlessly" cuts back to a shot of him bending over to pick up the package, you can clearly see that the beach is now covered with dozens of jagged rocks. The rocks would have been seen in the shot before this. But in this case, the shoreline was cleared of them in the first shot. (The beach is not cleared of the rocks; they are underwater. Still a good continuity error submission, but caused by filming the shot at high tide and low tide - it is the same section of beach) (00:32:35)

Cast Away mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Chuck is looking through the wallet of the dead pilot, you can see the corner of a dollar bill, then the shot breaks away, when he takes the photo out, the dollar's disappeared. (00:46:30)

Cast Away mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Tom Hanks opens the FedEx packages he finds the ice skates. When he decides to cut a bandage for his cut leg he uses the skates to cut the material to wrap his leg. If you look at the skate while he cuts the material there is no shoe tie on it but when he drops the skate to get the shoe tie it is back on it. (01:01:35)

Continuity mistake: When Chuck is attempting to start a fire his hands are so badly scratched/blistered that he ties a piece of fabric around one of them. Once he has started the fire and is doing his little dance on the beach his hands face the camera and there is not a mark on them. (01:09:00)

Continuity mistake: The final sequence of the film has a whole load of stuff different. Just before Chuck walks into the crossroad, we see there's a solid double yellow line on the main road, a dirt track to one side, and another road on the other side - that one has one solid & one dashed line on it. It cuts to a wider shot, and the dashed line has suddenly become solid, the Texas state sign has moved closer to the stop sign, and a big shadow (of a telegraph pole or similar) has appeared next to the stop sign. There's then another cut looking down the adjoining road - Tom Hanks' shadow's done a complete 180, the shadow of the telegraph pole's disappeared, the line's gone dashed again, and the Texas sign's moved away. Basically, in one 20 second clip at least 4 things change significantly - they used two very similar, but not identical junctions, for no good reason. A veritable spot the difference competition! (02:10:30)

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The sun angle does indeed swing wildly from side to side and above during the final scene which moves the shadows around, but it's the same intersection throughout. The dashed line appears to become solid in one of the shots, but the camera angle has changed which makes the dashes longer on the screen, and the other end of the final dash in that line cannot be seen, creating a strong illusion.

Factual error: Shortly after the crash, when Chuck is in the raft, one of the engines continues to run even though it is half submerged in water. The engine would not have exploded like it did, rather, it would have just stopped running as soon as it became disconnected from its fuel source and flooded with water.

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Suggested correction: The aircraft seems like a Airbus A300 or 310 but it is really a MD-11 or DC-10 because you can clearly see that the front body with wing with engine attached sink leaving the tail section. So the tail has a fuel tank and the third engine. The engine normally compresses air then burns it by feeding in fuel and igniting it. But can't compress air because the turbines are in the water. The fuel would in this case would "flood" the engine then the igniter ignites it and explodes.

Fumes explode, raw fuel burns. Igniter will not ignite raw fuel nor would there be anyway to propagate the explosion that took place.

Even if the engine was flooded, and full of water, and the air couldn't, it still wouldn't explode. MD-11 engines run on a fuel that cannot be ignited.

Wrong, the tail section has fuel LINES not a fuel tank.

Continuity mistake: When Chuck first goes over and sees the cave, it changes the camera angle and the sunlight is significantly dimmer and more orange, indicating a sunset.

Continuity mistake: Chuck is on the plane going back home with a noticeable sun tan on his face. When he is talking with the dentist he is way paler, only to be slightly darker during the welcome party thrown hours later.

Sacha

Chuck Noland: I couldn't even kill myself the way I wanted to. I had power over nothing.

More quotes from Cast Away

Trivia: Screenwriter William Broyles took survival courses and during that time a Wilson brand soccer ball washed up on shore - the inspiration for Wilson in the movie. The director Bob Zemeckis states in the feature voiceover that they changed it to a volley ball because "a soccer ball has all those black spots on it'.

More trivia for Cast Away

Question: At the end when the pick-up truck drives away, there is an angel on the back flap of it, similar to the angel in the garden of the house where Tom Hanks delivers the parcel. Are we to assume that the parcel belongs to the woman in the pick-up, and that this is significant in some way?

Answer: This is the same woman seen at the beginning of the film. It's a little complicated. The angel wings are a recurring plot device to show that the parcel Tom Hanks just delivered to the ranch belongs to the woman (who is an artist) in the truck, which also has the wings painted on the tailgate. There are also metal wing wind sculptures in her yard. The wings are her artist's "logo." As Hanks stands in the crossroads deciding where to go, his looking back in the direction that she just drove off implies he will go back to her house, probably to let her know that her package gave him hope while he was on the island that he could someday deliver it, and possibly to restart his life with her (she is pretty, after all). She was married to the guy in Russia who she was sending packages to, but he was cheating on her. If you notice the gateway over the entrance to her property where another package was delivered at the beginning of the movie, both her name and her husband's were on the overhead ironwork, as well as the angel wings. At the end, his name has since been removed, indicating she is now single.

raywest

Wow, you are extremely observant. Thank you, I was totally confused at the end.

You're welcome.

raywest

Also, the artist would have been on the island with him just like Kelly was in the watch.

Answer: The Angel wings are an important symbolic thread that run throughout the move. They appear in several scenes. They represent love/hope/salvation. We first see them in a seemingly unrelated scene at the pretty redhead artist's ranch when she is still married to the cheater dude. She sends him the wings on a package but the package is not important. Rather the Wings on the package are important. She intended the wings to go to her cheating husband but instead they went to Chuck. Chuck preserves the wings. He caresses the wings. Later we see that he has drawn dozens of the same wings on the inside of his cave wall. On the raft, he takes only Wilson and the Wings which he carefully wraps in leaves. When finally delivering them home, Chuck writes "this package saved my life" when he means hope/love/salvation have saved his life. The wings have make the exact same journey as Chuck. They have finally returned to the redhead and bought Chuck with them.

I agree with your assessment, though the wings also serve as a practical plot device. It helps the audience to recognize and track the package as it moves through the story and for Chuck to link it to the woman's truck at the end, which also had the wings painted on the tailgate.

raywest

Nailed it! My thoughts exactly I just needed confirmation that all of this was reasonable to assume. Thank you.

Answer: The package that Mrs. Peterson sends to her husband in Russia contains divorce papers. The winged package that Tom Hanks' character saves as an unfinished task represents his desire to eventually deliver. He opens all the other packages and finds a few useful items. And the package sent by Mrs. Peterson, he uses to motivate himself to make that delivery. He only took bare essentials on the raft when he leaves the island. This package is essential to him. For some reason, he does not deliver the package to the destination to which it was addressed, but instead takes it back to the original sender. It helps close the loop in a way that could not have been done if he just delivered to the original destination 5 years late.

But why would there need to be such a big box for divorce papers? On the island, he opens a document mailer.

More questions & answers from Cast Away

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