Coming to America

Visible crew/equipment: You can see bits of the camera crew reflecting on the carriages, when the metro-train leaves the station after Akeem has gotten out after Lisa refused to marry him (near the end of the film).

Revealing mistake: While Akeem is getting his hair cut, you can see the reflection of the white character he plays in the mirror. It is quite obviously a stand-in, with a fatter face and different glasses. (00:33:45)

LorgSkyegon

More mistakes in Coming to America

Prince Akeem: Fascinating! Semmi, look at this! America is great indeed. Imagine a country so free, one can throw glass on the streets.

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Trivia: One of the bathers washing Akeem early in the film is soon-to-be adult film actress "Midori" (real name: Michele Evette Watley), who is the sister of singer Jody Watley.

megamii

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Question: How did both Akeem and Semmi get a job at McDowell's without Akeem's parents noticing? Also, wouldn't Mr. McDowell have noticed in doing Akeem's pre-employment background checks who Akeem really was vs finding out when the parents arrived? (00:44:08 - 01:29:34)

jm1138

Answer: How would Akeem's parents know what they were up to? They think he's taking an American vacation, and in the pre social media days, it was hard to keep track of people. As for McDowell, what sort of background check did you expect him to do on a fast food employee in the 80s? McDowell seems like a guy who would cut corners anyway.

Brian Katcher

There aren't exactly a lot of people lining up to work at McDowell's, so Cleo gives the applications a once over and hires them on the spot. I'm in my 40's and I've had plenty of jobs that didn't even call my references, let alone perform a background check.

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