Tropic Thunder

Continuity mistake: In the opening scene with the three helicopters, there is only one chopper with missile launchers on it. But soon on all of them have launchers and in the immediate next rear-view shot, voila, no launchers. They keep appearing and disappearing during the whole action sequence. (00:05:15)

Milar

Continuity mistake: When Cockburn is at the beach and sits down with Four Leaf, Four Leaf says "Beds give me nightmares". At that point, Four Leaf doesn't have his cigar in his mouth, but in the next shot the cigar appears in his mouth. (00:21:10)

Mortug

Continuity mistake: Just after the ambush scene, Speedman walks towards Lazarus and speaks to him, the camera viewing from behind Speedman's point of view. The very next shot shows it from behind Lazarus with Lazarus looking back in suspicion. There is a noticeable difference in the level of day light between these shots. Like an hour has passed with the sun going down. (00:33:20)

Quantom X

Tropic Thunder mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Tugg Speedman is talking to Kirk Lazarus, Tugg Speedman uniform has a large metal caribiner on his right shoulder. In between shots of him talking to Kirk Lazarus, the caribiner switches orientation from facing left to facing right to left again. (00:36:40)

Tropic Thunder mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Ben Stiller is talking to Robert Downey Jr. about his performance in Simple Jack, the backpack strap on his right shoulder is sometimes over the carabina and sometimes beside it between shots. (00:36:45)

ployp

Tropic Thunder mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Kirk Lazarus tricks Tugg Speedman into giving him the map, in one shot one of the shotgun shells on his back in his artillery belt is out of place and not lined up with the rest of them. In the very next shot, all the shotgun shells are lined up and in place evenly. (00:44:05)

Tropic Thunder mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Tugg Speedman leaves the team, when he is climbing a hill his rifle is on his back, but in the next shot he is holding the rifle while climbing. (00:45:00)

Tropic Thunder mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Speedman is by himself in the rain, he puts down the iPod and picks up the Chapstick with the white cap on. The next shot, the cap is off. (00:49:00)

Michael Piscitelli

Tropic Thunder mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the actors (minus Tugg Speedman) have set up camp for the night, close up shots of Kirk Lazarus show him petting the water buffalo, while all other shots show the water buffalo completely out of arm's length. Lazarus does not move around in this scene to make this possible. (01:15:20)

Continuity mistake: When Tugg is in his room after giving his "Simple Jack" performance for the Vietnamese, he splashes water on his face to remove his make-up. Cut camera angle to him looking up when his friends burst in, and his face is completely dry. (01:23:55)

BocaDavie

Continuity mistake: When Jeff Portnoy is tied to the tree, he changes from having trousers to having just Y-fronts on several times. Usually happens between shots of the group and shots of just him.

Continuity mistake: In some of the earlier shots from inside the drug maker's camp, you can see a set of high-tension power lines running across the sky, but in the establishing shots, it's only jungle.

Continuity mistake: Tugg's amount of white makeup on his face changes constantly during and after the scene where the little boy hands him the wooden Oscar.

manthabeat

Continuity mistake: Watch for the vanishing extra in the background when Speedman does his spitting scene with the flaming dragon member.One second he is there, then he is gone.

Continuity mistake: In the scene where the group is first attacked by the heroin terrorists, if you look closely at the two scenes where Speedman is shooting back at them, you can see two men wearing a pith hat behind Speedman. In the first scene, the man is on Speedman's left, and in the cut back scene, the pith man is seen on his right.

Gman992

Continuity mistake: When Tugg's agent is speaking to him on the mobile, his headset mike keeps changing position to and away from him in different shots.

Tropic Thunder mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Speedman is by himself in the rain, he puts down the iPod and picks up the Chapstick with the white cap on. The next shot, the cap is off. (00:49:00)

Michael Piscitelli

More mistakes in Tropic Thunder

Alpa Chino: Man I'm tired of this Koala hugging Nig...
Kirk Lazarus: [Punches Alpa.] For 400 years, that word has kept us down.
Alpa Chino: What the... ?
Kirk Lazarus: It took a whole lot of trying, just to get up that hill, now... We're in the big leagues, getting our turn to bat, as long as we live, It's you and me baby, there ain't nothi...
Alpa Chino: Man, that's the theme song to The Jeffersons, man you really need help!
Kirk Lazarus: Hey, just 'cause it's a theme song don't make it not true.

More quotes from Tropic Thunder

Trivia: In the movie, Robert Downey Jr.'s character of Kirk Lazarus, who is in character as Lincoln Osiris, says he won't drop character until after the DVD commentary. In the DVD commentary Robert Downey Jr. actually stays in character as Lincoln Osiris until the scene where Kirk Lazarus also drops the character. At this point in the commentary, Downey Jr. adopts Lazarus' "real" Australian accent and stays in that character.

Quantom X

More trivia for Tropic Thunder

Question: At the beginning of the film we're told that four people came back from the rescue mission, three wrote books and two had their books published. Later on we find out Four Leafs made the whole thing up. So how do the other three survivors fit into the whole thing, did they just make it up too? Or was the opening statement just meant as a joke all-together?

Answer: There were 3 other survivors. Only they presumably told the truth. Since Four Leafs made up his version, his more than likely seemed more entertaining. So his book was chosen to be made into a movie.

Carl Missouri

More questions & answers from Tropic Thunder

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