Continuity mistake: In the scene just after Jenny shows up while Forrest is mowing his yard, Forrest and Jenny are walking and they happen upon Jenny's old house, where she lived with her father. She starts out by throwing her shoes, which she is carrying in her hand, at the house. The shot changes to view her from behind as she is throwing rocks, and she is standing on or just in front of a patch of grass in the driveway. As the shots change from in front to behind her, her position in the driveway has moved back from her original position, which is farther from the house by several feet, and when she finally collapses to the ground in tears, the patches of grass in the driveway have disappeared.
Factual error: When Forrest is reading the letter from Apple Computer, Inc., the date at the top of the letter says September 23, 1975. However, Apple wasn't founded until April 1, 1976 and wasn't incorporated until January 1977. No way to get a letter from a company that doesn't even exist yet.
Continuity mistake: Before young Forrest's foot gets trapped in the sewer, a black car in the back is moving towards him, and is about to make a right turn. Close-up on Forrest's foot and, when back to the wide angle, the same black car is further back again and repeats the previous movements.
Continuity mistake: The first shot from above with the floating feather is mostly overcast. Shortly afterwards, after the feather lands and the lady walks up, the sun is coming from the left into the plaza.
Continuity mistake: Young Forrest is about to step in the bus. He says to the bus driver, "My name's Forrest, Forrest Gump." That moment we have a back view of the bus driver's head and she exhales a big puff of smoke. A split second after we cut back to a front view of her and there's no smoke, instead she immediately exhales the smoke again.
Continuity mistake: During College, when Forrest first visits Jenny in her "all girls school". Jenny shows her breasts to Forrest and lets him touch her. When she hurries and puts on her bra, her right bra strap is twisted. When the camera pans away the bra strap is straight again.
Revealing mistake: In the black-and-white newsreel footage of Forrest's All American team visiting President Kennedy in the White House, Kennedy is handling a football and you can see to the right of his grip "N STATE" printed on the ball and beneath that the signature "Rip Engle." The producers obviously spliced stock footage of when the Penn State team visited the White House following their Gator Bowl win in 1962. Rip Engle was their coach at the time. (Kennedy's hand hides the first three letters of Penn State).
Continuity mistake: When Forrest and Bubba meet Lieutenant Dan for the very first time the sun changes between shots.
Continuity mistake: When Forrest comes home after being discharged from the army, his mother greets him outside and it's overcast. The shadows on the ground are very faint. But in the shot from inside the house, it's suddenly sunny outside and the shadows are very dark.
Factual error: When Forrest is running in the desert they show a couple of saguaro cactus that are about 3 ft tall with arms growing out the side. Saguaro cactus do not grow arms for up to 75 years and at least 10 ft tall.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Lt. Dan thanks Forrest for saving his life and "makes his peace with God", before he jumps overboard off the shrimp boat, the water is flat calm. In the next shot when he does jump and is doing the backstroke, the water is slightly choppy or rippled.
Audio problem: John Lennon's lips don't sync with what he's saying. Neither do Kennedy's or Johnson's or Nixon's.
Revealing mistake: When Forrest is playing ping pong in the gym and an officer comes to give him his discharge papers, Forrest reaches for his paddle and the ball but when he picks up his hand, there is no ball although he is acting as if there were. The ping pong scenes used CGI to put the balls into the scenes and this was obviously overlooked.
Continuity mistake: In Washington, when Forrest runs to meet with Jenny he runs between the same people twice. Check the man on the right with the black top hat and a violet ribbon.
Factual error: There is a modern 1960's car in the background when Forrest says Bubba's grandmother cooked shrimp. As young as his grandmother appears to be, no such car would have existed at that time.
Suggested correction: Bubba's grandmother is never seen. The person we see serving shrimp is Bubba's mother and then it skips to his great-grandmother.
Continuity mistake: When Forrest Gump stops running, the road has paved shoulders. In the close-up, the shoulders are all weeds.
Continuity mistake: When Lt. Dan shows up to be Forrest's first mate, he is smoking a cigar. From one angle the cigar has more ash than the next.
Audio problem: In the shot that shows Forrest punch a man three times, there's problems with the sound effects. The first punch has no sound. The other two are too late, they appear after the punch.
