Continuity mistake: In the scene were Gilbert and his friends are in the diner and Gilbert is pouring the salt out onto the table look at how much salt is in the bottle just before the shot switches to Gilberts friends and the look at how much salt in the bottle when the shot switches back. In the first shot there is less salt than in the second shot.
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Lasse Hallström
Starring: Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen
Gilbert's mother, who is morbidly obese, makes a change in her life by actually leaving the couch, in this act she dies. She never wanted to be a joke, and if they were to remove her from the house it would have had to been by a crane, so the children decided to spare their mother that embarrassment and burned the decrepit house down. Amy and Ellen moved to a different town with more opportunities, and Arnie and Gilbert went to tour the US with Becky and her grandmother.
Rohan Weerawardane
More mistakes in What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Arnie Grape: I killed him Gilbert, I killed him.
Trivia: During the scene where Darlene Cates (Mama) climbed the staircase, she climbed only the first two or three steps. This footage was reused to show her climbing the entire staircase. The room which served as her upstairs bedroom was actually a downstairs room.
Question: After burning the house, where does everyone live for the next year? Gilbert's voiceover says that Arnie is about to turn nineteen, so a year has passed. Amy has just gotten the bakery manager job, and Gilbert and Arnie are waiting for Becky. So what did they do between their mother's death and the "one year later" scene?
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.