Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Continuity mistake: As they listen to the Frenchmen on the plantation dock, Chef picks up his rifle from the side of the boat. Note this spot and the bloody footprints there, which appear and disappear between shots. (01:57:40)

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Continuity mistake: When we first see the Frenchmen appear on the dock in the plantation scene there are eleven of them. The next time we see them as Captain Willard approaches there are four and a few seconds later another five more appear out of hiding. (01:57:55)

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Continuity mistake: They took the flag from the PBR (which is removed from the roof of the boat the next time we see it) to cover Clean's body at burial. It's not the same flag, the last red stripe on the bottom of the PBR's flag is torn off as we see at the French Plantation dock. The flag on Clean's body has the last red stripe and also has a shorter white stripe on it's bottom. There's no indication that there is more than one flag on the PBR (redux version). (02:00:05)

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Continuity mistake: When the soldiers carry Clean's flag draped body to its final resting place there's no sunlight from behind falling on the flag. The next time we see it it's bathed in sunlight coming from the opposite direction. (02:00:30)

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Continuity mistake: When the soldiers carry Clean's body to it's grave his head and feet are not covered. The next time we see him they are. The cords tied around his body are also in a different position. (02:00:35)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Clean's burial is two minutes of uninterrupted action. When they first carry him over he's on a bamboo stretcher. One of the soldiers proceeds to take the flag off of him then another puts it back on. When we see his body again a few seconds later the flag is in exactly the same spot but the stretcher underneath is gone. (02:00:45)

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Continuity mistake: As they carry Clean's body to the grave there's a lot of smoke blowing through the area. The smoke is in each shot except the close ups of Clean's flag draped body when there is no smoke at all. (02:00:50)

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Continuity mistake: As they prepare to lower Clean's body into his grave Lance stands to his right and reaches down to lift the flag. According to his wrist watch it's 11:45 but twenty seconds later there's a close-up of Chief Phillips' watch and it's now 4:10. (02:01:10)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Continuity mistake: At the funeral Chief Phillips picks up the flag from Clean's body holding it between his fingers about two inches in on each end. In the next shot he's holding it on the edges and the flag is reversed with the stars and stripes on the right. (02:01:15)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the soldiers lower Clean's body into the grave they're all standing. In the next shot they're all crouching. (02:01:50)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the first shot of them having dinner at the French Plantation a Vietnamese waiter speaks to the woman at the right of the table. In the next shot he's speaking to the man sitting next to her. (02:02:40)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the second shot of dinner at the plantation a French boy is speaking to the people seated at the table. There's no centerpiece or flowers in the middle of the table but there is in the next shot. (02:02:50)

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Continuity mistake: As the little French boy goes to kiss Hubert de Marais the man wearing a tan jacket in the center of the screen goes from looking to his right to looking at his food between shots. (02:03:00)

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Continuity mistake: After the little French boy kisses Hubert de Marais he walks away and we watch from behind as Captain Willard's head turns to the right as he looks at him. In the next close-up of the Captain's face he does the exact same thing again. (02:03:05)

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Continuity mistake: Hubert de Marais says to the Captain, "because life, sometimes is very cruel, as you can see" as he hands him a plaque. At first he's holding it with his left hand then when he gives it to him, he's using both hands. (02:03:15)

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Continuity mistake: As Roxanne sits down at the table Captain Willard looks at Hubert de Marais. In the next shot he's smiling and looking at Roxanne. (02:04:10)

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Continuity mistake: After Roxanne sits down to the eat she says something sweet in French that makes Hubert de Marais chuckle, and also makes the amount of wine in his glass decrease between shots. (02:04:25)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After she sits down everyone is eating and Roxanne breaks the silence saying something in French while holding her napkin. At first she holds the napkin with the frills up but in the next shot the napkin is reversed with the frills on the bottom. (02:04:25)

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Continuity mistake: Hubert de Marais continues to speak to Roxanne in French. As she looks at him intently her expression changes and she goes from having her hands at her sides to unfolding her napkin again between shots. (02:04:30)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Hubert de Marais says, "Oh I'm sorry, Captain," as Roxanne makes him apologize for carrying on their conversation in French. If you look at her hair it goes from being in the sunlight, to not, than back again several times in this scene. (02:04:40)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Revealing mistake: In the major helicopter scene when Ride of the Valkyries is played, the actual tape isn't going over the playing heads. (00:37:29)

More mistakes in Apocalypse Now

Chef: Why do all you guys sit on your helmets?
Soldier: So we don't get our balls blown off.

More quotes from Apocalypse Now

Trivia: Harvey Keitel was originally cast as Captain Willard. Two weeks into filming, director Francis Ford Coppola felt Keitel wasn't taking the role seriously enough, so he fired him and reshot scenes with Martin Sheen as his replacement.

More trivia for Apocalypse Now

Question: This may sound a little crazy to the uninitiated, but does anybody have an alchemical interpretation of Apocalypse Now? I remember seeing pages from Coppola's screenplay that were annotated and made reference to transmutation.

Jack Vaughan

Answer: It should be noted that "transmutation" is a word Coppola has used to describe the film making process. Https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LFTQcwgq4CY.

Bishop73

Answer: Could you be a bit more specific? I can give a link to the screenplay if you wish. Http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/apocolypse.html I hope that helps.

lionhead

More questions & answers from Apocalypse Now

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