The Great Escape

Audio problem: The sounds of the prisoners laughing and bantering about during the 4th of July moonshine scene is obviously a looped soundtrack as the same exact sounds and volume are heard at least four times during this scene.

Scott215

Factual error: Why is Hilts not wearing a uniform? A serving officer captured behind enemy lines in civilian clothing risked being shot as a spy. If a prisoner's uniform was too worn or damaged to wear, it was routine for the German authorities to replace it - a P.O.W. in civilian clothes is an obvious escape risk. He is wearing a pair of tan chinos, a cut off sloppy Joe sweatshirt, both ridiculously anachronistic - Sixties hipster fashions - and nowhere even close to a World War 2 uniform. He is also wearing Army Type III Service boots - something that would never have been issued to a fighter pilot.

More mistakes in The Great Escape

Colonel Von Luger: Are all American officers so ill-mannered?
Hilts: Yeah, about ninety-nine percent.

More quotes from The Great Escape

Trivia: While Steve McQueen performed most of his own stunts, the only stunt he didn't perform was the 60 foot jump over the Austrian-Swiss border fence. The jump was performed by stuntman Bud Ekins, who later doubled for McQueen in "Bullitt."

More trivia for The Great Escape

Question: When Roger is explaining the escape plan, he says that Tom will run under the vorlager, the cooler, and the wire. The cooler and the wire are obvious, but what's the vorlager?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: Vorlage is German for "forward position," so this likely refers to either the main gate, or a machine gun nest.

Captain Defenestrator

More questions & answers from The Great Escape

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.