Deliberate mistake: During the interrogation scene, a patient asks for a glass of water. When she receives a the glass of water, she lifts her right hand to her mouth and makes a drinking motion, but is not holding a glass. A moment later she sets down an empty glass with her left hand. When the camera angle changes, the glass has become half full. This implies the patient's mental instability and adds to the surreal feel of the film.


Continuity mistake: When Teddy's kids are lying dead on the grass, the position of the girl's arms keeps changing between shots.
George Noyce: Don't you get it? You're a rat in a maze.
Trivia: During the ferry approach at the start, we are shown Shutter Island. In actuality this is a combination of Peddocks Island (the decaying brick buildings), Maine's Acadia National Park, Massachusetts' Medfield State Hospital, and Turner Hill Country Club's Rice Estate (located in Ipswich, MA), which were combined via CGI. Additionally, the mountainous region of the island (shown as the ferry approaches) was also CGI, and added in post-production.
Question: The children in Teddy's hallucinations were bloody but they died by drowning. Is this just an inference to Andrew's guilt that his children's "blood is on his hands" because he didn't seek treatment for Dolores' mental illness? Or is it Scorsese being overly dramatic and adding a lot of blood where it doesn't belong? Also, how exactly did Andrew kill Dolores? Did he use his service revolver, even though we don't hear the shot?
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Chosen answer: I think the recurring blood comes from the blood of his wife when he killed her. there was a lot of blood you see, in his psychosis that means a lot and has taken over a large part of his hallucinations, just like Dachau camp. Yes, he did shoot his wife Dolores, in the belly. You can see it in the end of the movie.
lionhead