Visible crew/equipment: In the beginning of the film, when Linda is getting ready for her wedding, standing in front of the mirror at home, a boom mic is visible at the top of the mirror. (00:07:45)
Continuity mistake: When Michael and Linda are walking outside the Eagle Supermarket, there is a man pushing a shopping cart. At first the man is far away from the corner of the building, when it cuts and the man says "How is it going hot-lips?" he is right by the corner. (01:56:45)
Continuity mistake: When Michael and the guys get back to the bar they pour drinks in their glasses. The amount in the glasses suddenly increases. (02:00:55)
Factual error: The boys go deer hunting somewhere in the Appalachians, but the geology is all wrong. That scene is in North Cascades National Park in Washington State. In addition, the "deer" they are hunting is a Red Stag. Not typically found in the Appalachians.
Suggested correction: Part of the scenery is the North Cascades, including the first mountain shot, Mount Baker, south of the Canadian border.
Someone notes that "Red Stags are not typically found in the Appalachians." In reality, there are no wild red stags in the Eastern US, or anywhere in the US, or in North America, or even in the Western Hemisphere. Red stags are native to most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of Western Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains of Northern Africa.
Thank you! Growing up in Pennsylvania and hunting deer since the age of ten - The use of the Red Stag in the last scene always bothered me. No trained White Tails, I guess. Great movie other than that.
Factual error: When Michael Vronsky gets back from his tour he has a full grown beard. The only branch of the service that allows a beard is the Navy, and he was an Army Green Beret. The beard would only have been tolerated if Mike was either not in his Class A uniform or actively performing on a mission, neither of which are the case here. In addition, he's wearing a Black Beret, but his left shoulder patch is the 101st airborne, not Special Forces.
Continuity mistake: During the long wedding scene, while Michael watches Linda on the dance floor, the level of the beer in his glass goes up and down several times.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the boys are changing into all their hunting gear on the side of the road, keep an eye on Christopher Walken. In a wide shot, he's pulling on a dark green sweater. There's a quick shot of De Niro, then back to the wide shot, in which Walken is again pulling on the dark green sweater.
Factual error: Back from Viet Nam, De Niro is wearing a green beret and he has a 101st Airborne Division patch on the left shoulder of his dress greens. It should be a Special Forces patch, also missing is the special forces tab on the left sleeve.
Suggested correction: The SF tab wasn't authorized until 1983, a date after this movie takes place, so he wouldn't be wearing that tab.
Factual error: When Mike is hunting after his return he switches from left hand shooting to right hand and his rifle also switches the bolt on the right to the bolt on the left.
Factual error: The film is supposedly set in 1968. However, after Nick was released from the hospital in Saigon and entered the Mississippi bar, the music being played on the jukebox is Midnight Train to Georgia by Gladys Night, released in 1973.
Visible crew/equipment: When Mike comes back from war, he goes for a walk with Linda and a cameraman gets reflected on a window shop.
Continuity mistake: After Michael returns from Vietnam for the first time, he goes for a walk with Linda. As they start to pass in front of a store with a guy outside, Michael is shown fiddling with the collar of his coat. The shot changes, and though from their position and reaction of the guy outside it is supposed to be a direct continuation, Michael suddenly has his hands buried deep in the pockets of his coat.
Continuity mistake: When Nick is killed during the final Russian Roulette game, the gunshot wound on his bandana changes from the bottom to near the top between shots.
Factual error: When Christopher Walken is in Saigon after leaving the hospital, he is not wearing a name plate on his uniform. Name plates are required, and every other uniformed soldier is wearing one.
Continuity mistake: When the car vs. lorry race occurs near the beginning of the film, as the car pulls in front the left wing of the bumper clips the lorry and gets noticeably misshapen. Then the shot changes, the car spins round, comes to a halt, and the damage has gone (and remains so for the rest of the film). Possibly made worse by the fact they then make a big thing of Nick actually getting out the car and inspecting it for damage in a disbelieving fashion that anyone could have pulled it off without damaging it.
Continuity mistake: When the boys are on the side of the road ready to go hunting, Stan is complaining about Michael's way of flirting. Michael is holding his rifle with one hand, but a frame later he is holding it with both hands.
Continuity mistake: Near the beginning when Meryl Streep is getting her father dinner she puts a napkin in the collar of her dress. She goes to the range to fill some soup and it disappears.
Continuity mistake: When the movie starts all of the friends go out to a bar. The pool ball changes position depending on the angle.
