Continuity mistake: The PBR's roof canvas is damaged by fire after passing another PBR. Later, Chef and Lance repair it with palm fronds. When departing the Do Loung bridge, the roof canvas appears undamaged.
Visible crew/equipment: As they sit in the foxhole watching the surfers, Lance's helmet gets wet and you can see the reflection of two studio lights, and the crew standing between them, in it. (00:47:10)
Continuity mistake: In the wide shot when Kilgore throws the megaphone in the air all the smoke canisters that throughout the scene were blowing behind him are now gone.
Continuity mistake: Colonel Kilgore walks away from his helicopter saying, "Body cards, bring my body cards." Behind him is a radioman and an antenna that is kinked at a 45 degree angle. Two shots later the antenna is standing straight up without adjustment. (00:27:10)
Continuity mistake: When Captain Willard punches the mirror with his right fist, he bloodies it up considerably. Later in the scene when the soldiers come and throw him into the shower, we see a close-up of his right hand without any cuts or blood. (00:09:15)
Continuity mistake: Just before the tiger attacks them there's a close-up of Captain Willard's face with a large leaf in front of him to his right. As the tiger lunges he runs several feet to his left. He gets out of the way by moving, but the next shot as he fires his rifle he's back in the same spot again. (00:58:50)
Continuity mistake: At the French plantation dock Lance and Chef get off the boat and it's clear to see that it's not tied to the dock. In subsequent shots sometimes it's tied and sometimes it isn't and in all the close-up shots of Chief Phillips it isn't tied up. (01:57:00)
Continuity mistake: As they pull up next to the Vietnamese sampan, Chief Phillips moves the spotlight on top of the PBR with his left hand so it's pointing at Chef as he takes the papers from the fishermen. Thirty seconds later there's a wide shot of both boats as Chef reads the papers and we see the spotlight back to where it was before facing away from Chef even though Chief Phillips doesn't touch it again. (01:35:05)
Continuity mistake: Chef says to Miss May, "You're beautiful, I just want to " and a white Styrofoam ball appears stuck in her hair between shots. (01:30:25)
Continuity mistake: Captain Willard steals Colonel Kilgore's surfboard from the men sitting in the colonel's helicopter. The helicopter has changed since the colonel and his surfboard flew in on it earlier in this scene. The words "Death From Above" and the two crossed sabers that were painted on the front of the helicopter are not on the front of this one. (00:51:20)
Visible crew/equipment: After the man sitting to the right of Roxanne gets up and leaves there's a wide shot of the table with Captain Willard at the right. If you look closely at his hair you'll see the shadows of crew members moving between him and the stage lighting throughout this shot. (02:11:15)
Continuity mistake: In an aerial shot a helicopter pilot says, "I got a vehicle on the bridge " but if you look closely there's no vehicle on the bridge until the next shot. (00:41:40)
Continuity mistake: When the soldiers crash the stage the pink "Playmate of the Year" sign in the back is moving from the wind and then stationary between shots. (01:09:30)
Continuity mistake: Lance wants the surfboard out of his gun turret so Captain Willard pulls it straight up with both hands. In the next shot he's got the surfboard under his arm. (00:54:45)
Continuity mistake: Leaving Hau Phat Clean tells the guys a story about a, "cat in the Delta" and Lance picks up his new water skies then puts them back down again while still holding on to them. In the next shot he's not touching them anymore. (01:12:30)
Continuity mistake: While sitting in the PBR at Kurtz's compound, Chef and Captain Willard discuss what they should do as the Captain puts on a clean shirt. Chef says to him, "He's wacko man. He's worse than crazy, he's evil." The background (box behind captain's head) changes. (02:34:40)
Continuity mistake: When the Medevac helicopter first lands in the Vin Din Dop courtyard there are only soldiers on the left side of it putting the injured man in. In the next shot five soldiers and a Vietnamese woman appear standing on the right of the helicopter who weren't there before. (00:44:05)
Visible crew/equipment: As he gives the captain some water, Dennis Hopper says, "Why would a nice guy like you want to kill a genius?" Look closely at the ladle and you can see the reflections of two crewmember's heads moving in front of the main stage light, one on the left and one on the right. (02:43:00)
Continuity mistake: Approaching Kurtz' compound they pass the natives in their canoes and we see the back of the PBR. Look closely and you can see that the boat's name is painted over. In other shots of the PBR we don't see this mark. (02:28:25)
Continuity mistake: When the woman tries to feed the rice to Captain Willard he absolutely refuses it and the spoon barely touches his lips before she takes it away. The next time we see his face after he spots the colonel there are two small pieces of rice stuck to the right side of his upper lip as he turns to the right after the woman wipes his face. (02:54:00)
Chosen answer: Kurtz was protected by political connections and his military record from being relieved of command, and the Montagnard people whose village he was in were considered American allies, so they couldn't just send a force in to kill him or relieve him of command, but an individual assassin. (The US Government's "official" policy is that they do not engage in assassination, which is why "this mission does not exist, nor will it ever exist").
Captain Defenestrator