Continuity mistake: At the dinner table where Rick and Evy are about to eat fish, after biting into the fish she finds a bullet and pulls it out of her mouth. In the next shot facing Rick, she does the same thing, only differently from the previous shot. (00:14:10)
Continuity mistake: When Evy is trying to seduce Rick, and she finds him asleep in his chair, her hands move from his neck to the back of the chair between shots. (00:17:00)
Continuity mistake: When the Feng Shui compass opens the trapdoor in the floor, we see Alex's leg fall into the hole twice. (00:21:40)
Continuity mistake: When General Yang orders Wilson to kill Rick, Rick's position changes from his back facing Wilson, to facing Wilson head-on, to his back facing Wilson again. (00:39:35)
Continuity mistake: When the group enters Shangri La, Alex runs down toward Zi Juan and the fountain. Before he gets there, we get to see wide shots from behind him of the ground to his left which is rocky with no path, and we also see that no-one is following, yet in the next shot from the front, Zi Juan's daughter appears instantly to block her mothers sword swing. There was simply not enough time between shots for her to accomplish this, and even if it were possible, her mother would have seen her approaching.
Continuity mistake: When we go to the dig to uncover the Emperor's tomb, it shows his head statue being dug out and it's on an angle. A couple of shots later when Alex is stood in front of it, it's noticeably leaning further over than before.
Continuity mistake: During the "final confrontation", after Alex wakes up, we see the Dragon Emperor hit Rick with a spinning kick, knocking him to the ground. As Rick falls, in the first shot the Dragon Emperor lands and is facing away from Rick, in the second shot (where we see Rick hit the ground) the Emperor is already turned back to face Rick, and in the third shot, the Emperor turns to face Rick yet again.
Continuity mistake: Alex pours very little water into the Feng Shui compass. However, when he and Professor Wilson are aligning the stone wheel to the compass, the water level in the compass shows a lot more water in it than the small amount Alex poured in.
Continuity mistake: When Rick and the Emperor are fighting in the end, while they are punching and kicking each other, the Emperor suddenly turns around and is hitting Rick with the back of his elbow after one cut, but if you watch closely, you can tell he didn't have time to turn around, nor did he even start to turn- he simply has turned 180 degrees between shots.
Continuity mistake: In the very last fight, when Rick jumps down and charges the Emperor, watch his hands. In the first shot, they're moving back and forth as he runs. Then it cuts, and they're instantly up like a boxer despite him having no time to lift them between edits. Then it cuts to a shot from behind, and you can tell from his shoulders that he no longer has his arms up. Again, there's not enough time for him to have lowered his arms between edits. It goes by quickly so you have to pay close attention.
Continuity mistake: During the big chase, when Alex is under the chariot, he lets go, spins around and climbs up the back with Lin's help. In one shot under the chariot, you can see that he has a big hole in the left kneecap of his pants. But a few shots later as he's climbing up the back, the hole disappears and is missing throughout the rest of the scene. Seems the wardrobe got damaged and then replaced during filming.
Continuity mistake: When Evie goes to seduce Rick, she pulls the belt on her gown and the camera cuts. Instantly between cuts, her robe is suddenly open.
Continuity mistake: When Rick tells Alex that he put down "more mummies" than him and Alex replies "You put down ONE mummy, dad!" watch Alex's head. In the first shot, he's facing Rick. When it cuts, suddenly he's instantly looking to his right, and then he turns his head to face Rick again.
Continuity mistake: When Alex arrives at the club towards the beginning, Jonathan pulls him away from the pretty woman and gets him a drink. The camera is behind them in a medium-wide shot, then cuts to a side shot as the pretty woman walks by and Alex watches her. Except when the camera cuts, the pretty woman just sort of appears right next to Alex, when she wasn't visible in the previous shot. Jonathan also goes from looking straight forward at Alex to looking to his right at the bar between the same cut.
Continuity mistake: During the short scene when Jonathan is talking to the yak at the camp, he instantly goes from facing sideways at the yak to facing forward at the campfire between edits at one point.
Continuity mistake: When Rick, Alex and Jonathan are going over their plan at the mountain temple, watch Jonathan's hands when he sits down. He takes both of his gloves off. However, during one quick shot in the scene (where Jonathan says "Me?"), suddenly his left glove is back on. The next time you see him a second or so later, both gloves are back off again. There's absolutely no reason why he'd put one glove back on only to take it right back off, nor would there be enough time for him to do so between edits.
Continuity mistake: During the final battle, when Mad Dog and Jonathan are in the plane, Mad Dog remarks about his men drinking for free at Jonathan's bar, and it cuts to a closer shot of Jonathan. In the first shot, Jonathan isn't holding the plane's doorway, but in the second shot, he is. Additionally, Jonathan goes from facing forward to facing Mad Dog between the edits, and a gun appears in front of Jonathan in the second shot that wasn't there in the first shot.
Continuity mistake: During the final battle, when the planes arrive, pay attention to Evie when she says the line "Jonathan certainly knows how to make an entrance!" Between cuts, she instantly goes from being about two feet away from Rick to pressed right up against him.
Continuity mistake: During the chase scene, after Jonathan says "We can use this!" Rick rips the top off a large box and throws it behind him. In the first shot, only Rick is lifting the box-top, but when it cuts to the next shot, suddenly Jonathan is helping him lift it. The cut is instant, so there's no time for Jonathan to have reached down and grabbed it between edits.
Continuity mistake: When Alex and Rick are discussing their guns and battle tactics, when Alex says the line "I say we ambush them with long-range rifles...", pay attention to Jonathan sitting in the background. In the first shot Jonathan only just starts to stand up. But then it cuts to a closeup of him, and he's not only standing all the way up, but he's also walking to the left. The cut is instant, so there's no time for him to have finished standing up and started walking between the cuts.
Chosen answer: For one thing, just because two different years are shown does not mean that a full twelve months passed before they arrived in China. Also, travel to an undeveloped third-world country in the mid 20th century was not like it is today. There were no jet planes, much pre-planning and preparation would have to be done before departure, different modes of transportation would have to be arranged, and there would be many stops, delays, and transfers along the way. This could cumulatively take many months.
raywest ★