Continuity mistake: Pvt. Pyle is on the rifle range with Gunnery Sergeant Hartman right behind him. When filmed from Pyle's right side, he is wearing a white wrist wrap/brace but the shot moves behind him and it is gone. Back to the right side and it reappears. (00:35:50)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Vincent D'Onofrio, Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, R. Lee Ermey, Arliss Howard
About three soldiers (including Cowboy and Eightball) are killed by the VC Sniper. Private Joker (Matthew Modine) and the others search a demolished building that they believe the sniper is in. Joker spots the sniper but his gun jams at the last minute. He avoids the sniper's bullets by hiding behind a post, before Private Rafterman (Kevyn Major Howard) saves his life, by shooting the sniper. The sniper is actually a female and starts asking the men to kill her. The last scene shows the surviving troops walking next to a flaming Hue City at night and singing the Mickey Mouse Club theme song.
Private Pyle
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: You had best un-fuck yourself or I will unscrew your head and shit down your neck!
Trivia: Not really a mistake, given the need to maintain the story arc in the first half of the film, but in real life, Pyle would have been discharged from the Marine Corps within days of his starting basic training - for his own good. It happens all the time - dropout rate of boot camp recruits varies but is generally around 10%.
Question: Private Joker asks the gunner on the chopper about how he is able to shoot women and children, and the gunner replies by saying 'it's easy, you just don't lead them so much'. Does anyone know what that means?
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Answer: To lead means to aim ahead of a moving target. His statement means that women and children don't run as fast as men, so you don't need to aim as far in front of them to hit them.
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