Shutter Island

Factual error: In the flashback, when Teddy was among the soldiers liberating Dachau, there is a semi-circular sign above the gate that says "Arbeit Macht Frei". Dachau had a sign with those words on it, but its sign was oblong. The sign at Auschwitz was that shape.

Factual error: When U.S. troops arrive at the concentration camp, they are wearing M1941 Field Packs. These were developed by the United States Marine Corps and were only used by Marines, not the Army. The standard pack systems used by the Army would've been the M1928 Haversack or M1936 "Musette" Bag.

Matdan97

Factual error: The movie is set in 1954, but the pinball machine named 'Seven Seas' in the staff rec area was not actually released until 1959 - even the metal legs on Gottlieb machines would not be introduced until 1957.

Factual error: Two characters discuss a recording of Mahler's quartet for piano and strings in a minor. The manuscript for this adolescent piece was discovered by his widow, Alma, in the 1960s. Difficult to accept that there was a recording available in 1954 when the movie was set.

sreich

Revealing mistake: When Leo is laying his dead kids on the grass, the little girl keeps moving her eyes and breathing.

More mistakes in Shutter Island
More quotes from Shutter Island

Trivia: The scene where all the soldiers are shot along the fence is historically accurate, though there is debate on the exact numbers.

calflames11

More trivia for Shutter Island

Question: The woman that writes "run" on Teddy's note pad, was Ben Kingsly trusting this "crazy woman" not to tell Teddy or even let it slip that the whole thing was set up for him? Same question goes for every other crazy person in the institute that Teddy speaks to.

dan coakley..

Answer: Teddy belonged in Ward C. He would have never met any of the patients.

Chosen answer: The other patients were not let in on the arrangements. They would have had no reason to suspect that anything at all had been set up for Teddy. As far as they're concerned, if they're cognizant enough to be concerned at all, Teddy's just another crazy guy acting as crazy as all the rest of them.

Phixius

Answer: I think Mrs Kearns is in on it. We see her get a little flustered when she is asked about the doctor, who we find out later is sitting right there. Also, she gets uncomfortable when Teddy brings up Andrew Laeddis. She even tries to warn Teddy. I just discovered this recently when watching with the subtitles, but when Teddy comes back from the cave, Mrs Kearns can be heard saying "I can't remember what I'm supposed to remember", likely referring to the script she was supposed to stick to.

jshy7979

More questions & answers from Shutter Island

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.