Continuity mistake: When Michael Jr. is doing his math homework, he holds his pen between his forefinger and middle-finger. In the next camera view, the pen is between his middle-finger and ring-finger. The books are also in different positions. When camera switches back to the first view, everything is as at the beginning again. (00:04:35)
Continuity mistake: When the young Sullivan boy goes to get Rooney's over coat, he walks into the room where the coat is and there is a man laying on the couch, if you notice when the man starts talking to the boy, his cigarette is almost gone, and in the next few seconds it flashes to the man again and he has a cigarette that is almost full. (00:09:20)
Continuity mistake: When Michael is teaching Michael Jr. to drive, the scene opens with the car parked tight on the right hand side of the road. When Michael Jr. pulls away, the car is in the middle of the road. (01:11:50)
Continuity mistake: After Tom Hanks kills Connor Rooney in the tub, Hanks shows up at the hotel room where his boy runs up to hug him. When they hug, Tom's arms around the boy are left over right, but in the next shot they're right over left. (01:43:45)
Continuity mistake: In the end of the diner scene Jude Law fires after the car with Sullivan and his son. A bullet goes through the rear window but not through the windshield. We see the bullet path go by Tom Hanks' head. Regardless, there's no bullet hole anywhere in the car afterwards.
Suggested correction: There is a bullet hole in the rear view glass.
Continuity mistake: When Sullivan and his son are robbing banks, there are several shots where you can see four or five getaway scenes. If you look closely, you can see them making a getaway from the exact same scene twice.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Tom Hanks is battling Jude Law in the hotel room, just before you see Hanks shoot the glass vase that shatters in Law's face, there is a shot of Tom Hanks jumping out behind the chest to get the final round off. Unfortunately, Tom Hanks's 1911 is empty in that shot - you can see the slide locked back.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Tom Hanks shoots Connor Rooney, you see him dead with a splatter of blood above his head, but Hanks shot the gun at a downward angle.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Paul Newman's character hands Michael, Jr. a silver dollar, the first camera angle (from Michael's perspective) shows the "heads" side presented toward the kid. The next angle (from the opposite point of view) also shows the dollar with the "heads" side toward the camera, which means the "tails" side (an eagle) is what the kid should have seen.
Continuity mistake: In keeping with the weather mistakes in this movie, which is set in the winter of 1931, long grass and wildflowers are clearly visible on the roadside as Tom Hanks and Jude law drive up to the diner (the same scene where crickets are heard).
Continuity mistake: Look carefully at the Lone Ranger book that Michael Jr. is reading at two points in the movie (once when he's reading in his bed as he and his brother are talking about their dad, and again in the car after his mother and brother are killed.) The picture and caption under it are identical, but the text on the facing page is different each time.
Continuity mistake: When Michael is sent to go get Rooney's suitcoat, he isn't allowed to get it, and when he appears downstairs just after coming from the study, Rooney is speaking, with his suitcoat on. Rooney didn't have time to get it.
Suggested correction: Mr. Rooney had a jacket on when he asks the boys if they brought the dice. Then, the next scene, they are in the basement shooting the dice and there is a jacket hanging next to him. So, the one in his study may be a different one.
Suggested correction: The scene where Mr. Rooney has his jacket on isn't immediately after the scene where Michael goes for the jacket because Connor, who stayed in the study, is also in the crowd listening to his Dad. And it isn't even the same jacket because when Mr Rooney asks Michael if he brought the dice he has his jacket on. And when they are shooting dice, it is hanging on something right next to him.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the film, when Tom Hanks' character is dying, we see his eyes slowly close as his son cradles his head. Yet in the next cut, when Hanks' character is dead, his eyes are wide open.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Michael Jr. is riding home on his bicycle (before his mother and brother get shot) he drops his bike and runs to the house. A few minutes later when Tom Hanks is driving off with Michael Jr., it shows his bike. The bike has snow covered on it, but it is not snowing, the snow has stopped.
Suggested correction: It looks as though the bike is splattered with snow from the car's tyres.
Continuity mistake: After the night scene of heavy rains, you would expect at least some of the snow to melt the next morning. But if you look closely, the snow mounds in front of the Sullivan home are identical to the shots in the first few scenes, before the heavy rain.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Tom Hanks' son is reading with a flashlight under the covers, he turns the page and keeps reading, but he actually turned several pages. He is reading the Lone Ranger, so I don't think he would want to skip a few pages and keep on reading.
Continuity mistake: When Hanks dies at the end, you can see his left hand laying on its side, but in a wide angle shot of the same scene, you see his hand laying on its back.
Continuity mistake: When the mother and son are shot, it shows from the outside, and the gunfire flashes in the one (suspected) bathroom where they were killed. Just before, the light was on, and then when Jr. went to find them, the light was back on.
Continuity mistake: Tom Hanks has a Colt 1911 tucked into the small of his back throughout the whole movie except for the very end when he shoots Jude Law from behind with a .38. His son doesn't have the 1911, so what happened to it, and why did Tom decide to trade it for a revolver?
Continuity mistake: When they're leaving Chicago for the first time, the snow on Mike's car has melted leaving stains, but the snow on the windshield has melted leaving the windshield crystal clear. He didn't have time to clean the windshield.
