Continuity mistake: The dressing that is on the evil Dr Leticia Baines's forehead keeps changing. When she is first placed on Grogan's raft, the dressing is soaked with blood. In the next few scenes it just has a small patch of blood in the centre. After she swims to rescue the boy from his canoe, she gets on the raft and the dressing is dry. In the next two close-up shots the dressing is wet (with water) and then it is dry again.
Piranha (1978)
Directed by: Joe Dante
Starring: Kevin McCarthy, Bradford Dillman, Keenan Wynn, Heather Menzies-Urich
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: While the description of the events and the mistake is accurate, it wasn't Dr. Baines that swims out to save the boy. It was Dr. Hoak. You're thinking of the 1995 remake of the film.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the kids at the Lost River Lake Resort are being attacked by piranha fish, Brogan's daughter Susie is hiding under a blue boat. She tries to lift the boat so she can use it to rescue her friends. It's too heavy for her, so she uses an inflatable boat instead. As she launches the inflatable off the jetty, you can see the blue boat in the water beside the jetty. Moments later, Brogan arrives and picks up the boat from where it was when she was hiding under it.
Revealing mistake: At the beginning when the teens break into the waste water plant and start swimming, the boy gets attacked then killed by the unseen piranha, and a large blood pool spills out into the water. The girl is but 3 feet away, but somehow doesn't' see the blood as she calls out his name and scolds him for not responding.
Trivia: Dick Miller plays the Mayor Buck Gardner, who serves much the same plot purpose as the Mayor Larry Vaughn in the first two JAWS films, in that he insists on keeping the beaches open and dismisses all danger signs. Dick Miller would go on to appear in every single movie ever directed by Joe Dante, right up until Miller's death in 2019.
Maggie McKeown: That guard is still out there.
Paul Grogan: Fine, I need you to distract him.
Maggie McKeown: What for?
Paul Grogan: So I can get away.
Maggie McKeown: So you can get away? What about me?
Paul Grogan: Well suit yourself. Just come onto him, tell him what an admirer you are of Army or something like that.
Maggie McKeown: What if he's gay?
Paul Grogan: Then I'll go and distract him.
Dumont: People eat fish, Grogan. Fish don't eat people.
Whitney: The piranhas.
Buck Gardner: What about the goddamn piranhas?
Whitney: They're eating the guests, sir.
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.