Continuity mistake: When Short Round is dangling between the two carts, just before the cart tracks split, he goes from being held by one arm to suddenly being held by two. (01:33:25)
Continuity mistake: During the escape from the mine, Indy has to slide along on a rope to catch his companion's cart. Whilst hanging from the rope the shot switches from in front to behind a number of times. Depending on the shot, Indy switches from barely hanging on to having the rope grasped tightly next to him. (01:34:45)
Continuity mistake: When Indy kicks the Thuggee rifleman off the scaffolding, you can see in the background that Mola Ram is about to reach the scaffolding. In the next shot, he is no longer there. (01:34:54)
Continuity mistake: During the 8 minute race on the mine carts through the mine. The group passes several bottomless cliffs, several huge holes, and even a hole of lava about 200 feet long. Yet when the water is released, it gets to them in about 30 seconds, and shows no sign of stopping when they outrun it. (01:36:00 - 01:39:30)
Continuity mistake: When Indy starts climbing up the cliff after the water bursts through, we see a close-up of the back of his shirt, and there's one small tear quite high up. We cut to a wide shot, and now there are several quite wide rips across the back of his shirt. (01:36:30)
Continuity mistake: When Indy fights the two guards before the bridge scene, the sequence is all off. He knocks one to the ground, who lands still clutching his sword. The other one has his sword whipped away from him - it flies over the cliff, and he runs off, whimpering. We then see the other guard approach, and suddenly Indy's standing over an unconscious guard by the boulder and clutching a sword, both of which have appeared from nowhere. (01:37:25)
Continuity mistake: On the bridge scene Indy's sword changes. Initially, he has a sword with a straight blade and no hilt; however, when he shouts at Mola Rom, he has a something like a cutlass curved blade and heavy handguard to a machete-like weapon he uses to cut the bridge. (01:38:05 - 01:38:55)
Continuity mistake: When the water tank is about to collapse there's a closeup of Mola Ram and a few Thuggees, then after a shot of the water tower collapsing there's another closeup of smiling Mola Ram and his Thuggees, but the second closeup is a flipped shot. (01:39:25)
Continuity mistake: When Mola Ram is climbing the bridge, Willie and Short stand together; half a second later Mola Ram falls and Short has managed to climb up and move apart to let him pass by. Then a nano-second later, Mola Ram grabs onto a piece a wood and Short and Willie manage to stand together again. (01:41:15)
Continuity mistake: When Shorty falls through the bridge, a large hole is made. Later on, the hole disappears. (01:41:55 - 01:42:50)
Continuity mistake: On the bridge, an arrow suddenly appears to the right of Indy's foot seconds before any arrows are shot at him. (01:42:55)
Continuity mistake: As Mola Ram and Indy fight hanging from the broken bridge, there is a wide shot of the fight. In this shot, the Thuggee that was right above Mola Ram disappears. (01:46:17)
Continuity mistake: After Wu Han is shot there's a closeup of the gun in Chen's hand, and as the camera slowly pans up to Chen's face note the carnation is on Chen's right lapel, though in the previous and following shots Chen's boutonnière is on his left lapel. The closeup is a flipped shot.
Continuity mistake: The mine cart Willie pushes and then climbs into does not have an actual braking mechanism at the bottom of the braking pole, but after Indy joins Willie and Shorty in the mine cart there's a sudden appearance of a metal braking mechanism, which is attached to the pole and base of the cart, for use during the chase.
Continuity mistake: When Lao Che's goons toss Indiana onto the dish cart, in the next shot just as Indy notices the rolling vial on the floor and reaches out to it, at the top left of the screen we see broken dishes and broken remnants of the band's podium lying on the floor, but the problem is the goons haven't yet pushed Indy's cart into the podium, which happens three shots later.
Continuity mistake: During the mine cart scene, right after Indy strikes the overhead metal bin, the next wideshot of the Thuggee goons is a flipped shot, note the stripe direction on their turbans and their cart's brake has switched sides. Then another shot with a view facing the front of Indy's cart looking back towards the Thuggee cart, note the brake at the front of Indy's cart has switched sides.
Continuity mistake: After the pilots have jumped from the plane Willie shows Indy the empty cockpit, and in the shot of the front windshield note the view outside and the gauges, then after Indy nervously repeats "fuel" a few times there's another shot of the front windshield which is a flipped shot.
Continuity mistake: All during the fight in the sacrifice temple, the strap across Indy's chest hangs from his left shoulder to his right side. When he hugs Shorty, the strap is reversed. Also, the blood on his mouth occasionally switches sides, as does the parting of his hair. They obviously flipped the negative. Fixed in some DVD versions.
Continuity mistake: When Indy, Shorty and Willie are looking at the ritual from the "balcony" in the cave, they take a look at the big skull on the wall. The artifact stones aren't placed in the skull. In the next shot the stones are there. After a few seconds the camera turns and the stones aren't there again. Some minutes later some of the bad guys bring them and put them in the skull.
Continuity mistake: During the mine cart chase, in the first wideshot of Shorty being pulled between the two carts where we see the lava under Shorty, this is a flipped shot. Note Indy's ripped sleeve is at his left side instead of his right, and the stripe on the Thuggee's turban is the opposite direction than it should be.
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.