Continuity mistake: A large pile of cash mysteriously appears on the table in the nightclub scene when Indy asks for the diamond. The glass nearby also refills itself. (00:04:15)
Continuity mistake: Willie Scott's fingernails are considerably shorter in the nightclub scene compared to when she "burns her finger and cracks a nail" in the car. (00:04:45 - 00:12:35)
Visible crew/equipment: In the wide shot as Willie sits down after Lao shouts at her, you can very briefly see a member of the crew lift his head as he pulls the chair across the floor as she sits. (00:05:15)
Continuity mistake: When Indy tries to grab the antidote vial from the table, in the closeup just as the vial falls off the table the camera follows the vial as it lands in the empty area to the left of Lao Che's chair where Kao Kan's chair should be, but it's not, and the rug's edge with wood floor beside Lao Che's chair though it shouldn't be. Then Indy hits Kao Kan who is again seated closely to Lao Che's left, as he should be, and when Kao Kan falls backward we see the rug edge is nowhere near Lao Che's chair, also as it should be. (00:08:20)
Continuity mistake: Some bad guys throw knives at Indy as the band is seated and playing "Anything Goes". Then Indy throws a cymbal at one of the bad guys and the entire band is now gone. (00:09:30)
Continuity mistake: As Willie Scott frantically searches for the diamond after the ice has been spilled on the floor, the red glove on her right hand disappears. (00:09:35)
Revealing mistake: During car pursuit, when the Chinese thugs drive into the food stands and two of them fall onto the tables, you can see that at least one of them is a puppet from the way his arm is rigidly sticking out when he has fallen. It should have fallen to his side. (00:11:45)
Continuity mistake: When Short Round rams the car into the back of the rickshaw, in the next shot facing the rickshaw driver we can see that he loses his right shoe (viewer's left) just as he's lifted into the air, but his shoe returns in following shots. (00:12:05)
Continuity mistake: Outside the club, a sailor and a girl are in a buggy, which crashes. When the buggy is on the road, the sailor is on one side - when it crashes, he is on the other side, having swapped places with the girl. Some shots are flipped, note the car's license plate. (00:12:05)
Factual error: When they fly from Shanghai (southern China) to India (southwest of China) you see the plane passing the Great Chinese Wall. But the wall is placed in northern China, not on the route Shanghai - Chungking - India. (00:14:35)
Continuity mistake: Mola Ram passes twice next to the same two black-dressed Thuggee Guards between shots. (00:14:59)
Continuity mistake: After pilots jump from the plane, there is a shot showing a view from the cockpit. You can see a propeller standing still, even before the fuel runs out. (00:16:00)
Factual error: The image of the plane's instrument panel shows a VOR, just to the left of the orange circle with the triangle in it. The VOR is "a type of short-range radio navigation system for aircraft, enabling aircraft with a receiving unit to determine its position and stay on course by receiving radio signals transmitted by a network of fixed ground radio beacons. ... Developed in the United States beginning in 1937 and deployed by 1946..." (Wikipedia). The movie's opening scene is Shanghai, 1935. (00:16:45)
Continuity mistake: When the fuel runs out, the engines die and propellers stop. They are stopped as it grazes the mountain peak. In the next two outside shots as they exit the plane, you can see the propellers are again at full speed and can hear the engines. (00:16:55)
Audio problem: When the group piles into the lifeboat on the crashing plane, Shorty (who is stuck between Indy and Willie) exclaims "Indy, I can't breathe!", but his lips don't move. (00:17:35)
Continuity mistake: As Indy, Willie, and Short Round are going down the river in the raft, their positions in the raft keep changing, from Indy being on one side of them, to being in the middle, then on the other side, etc. (00:18:25)
Factual error: When they are riding the life raft off of the top of the snow-covered mountain watch how it falls. All three people were close to the front of the raft, yet the raft drifts backwards before plunging in nose first. That would be impossible with all of the weight shifted to the front of the raft to begin with. (00:18:25)
Audio problem: Indy's line "Those aren't big birds, sweetheart. They're giant vampire bats," doesn't match the mouth movements he is making at the time. (00:30:40)
Continuity mistake: When the girl falls off the elephant, she falls off head first, and during a 5 foot fall, at most, manages to do a complete flip and land on her backside. (00:31:00)
Continuity mistake: When Indy and Willie are waiting for each other to come to their respective rooms, Indy's clock shows the time as 10.17 and yet when the Thuggee guard tries to strangle Indy, the same clock shows the time at 10.36. (00:50:10)
Suggested correction: Actually it appears the vial falls to the left of Kao Ken's chair, not Lao Che's. It appears after Indy pierces the other guy with the shishkebab, Kao Ken, off camera, takes the vial and puts on his left side. Indy jumps on the table and after missing the vial he slides further and then elbows Kao Ken who is on the right side now. The vial is still on the left side of Kao Ken's chair when it's kicked onto the wooden floor.
lionhead
You're very much mistaken. Lao Che is wearing an embroidered dinner jacket and has a pinky ring on his left pinky, and Kao Kan's left hand is bandaged in gauze. After Indy skewers Chen, in the closeup of Indy's hand just as it knocks the vial off the table, it's Lao Che's hand (note the pinky ring, etc) that we see on the table next to Nurhachi's urn, the stack of money, and the vial. That is not Kao Kan's hand/arm, remember his left hand is bandaged. And as this closeup continues to pan down it follows the vial as it lands on the floor in the empty space where Kao Kan's chair should be, but it isn't.
Super Grover ★
Yep, you're right I see it. There are 2 shots of Indy trying to grab the vial off the table and the second one is followed through with the vial falling off it and that one is wrong. Alright.