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Continuity mistake: The actual napalm attack burns quite a large area of the tree line and just two shots later Colonel Kilgore speaks the famous lines, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning!" At this time, when we see this area is still smoking, quite heavily, however, the amount of destruction is much less and there is very little fire visible. (00:48:55)

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Continuity mistake: Just before Colonel Kilgore gets into his helicopter, he says to the trumpet player, "All right, Son, let her rip!" His left hand moves from being in front of his belt to being at his side between shots. (00:34:45)

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Continuity mistake: In a close-up after he burns the picture of his wife with his cigarette, Captain Willard says to himself, "When I was there all I could think of was getting back into the jungle". Look closely at his left cheek and note a red scratch missing from previous shots and not visible in later shots during his drunken dance. (00:05:20)

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Continuity mistake: When Captain Willard looks out his window at the streets of Saigon you can tell by the shadows that the sun is overhead. But in the next shot the sun is coming directly through the window and shining on his face. (00:04:20)

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Continuity mistake: Captain Willard says, "Whatever was going to happen, it wasn't gonna be the way they called it back in Nha Trang". Note the light pole in the center of the boat, the second blue light from the top is shot out however there hasn't been any battles since the French plantation scene when all four blue lights were intact. (02:21:25)

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Continuity mistake: Before they arrive at the French plantation there's a shot of the back of the boat with Clean's dead body lying there. If you look closely the blood splatter is entirely different from the shot when Chief Phillips turns around and first sees that Clean's been killed. The two main differences are that at this point there's blood on the rear machine gun where there wasn't any before, and there's no blood on the right of the V shaped support bar of the 60-caliber machine gun where it had been covered prior. (01:55:40)

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Continuity mistake: As Kilgore introduces Lance to his surfing buddies he says to him, " none of us are anywhere near your class though". Captain Willard's cigarette and it's ash gets shorter between shots. (00:30:25)

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Continuity mistake: As Chef and Captain Willard are walking through the jungle looking for mangos Chef says," I was supposed to go to Paris" as he's walking over the roots of a huge tree. He continues talking but in the next shot he's out in the open, nowhere near the roots of that tree. (00:57:00)

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Continuity mistake: On the dock Chef listens intently to the Frenchmen who is yelling at them. A smoke canister is lit up on the back of the boat but in the next shot there's a close-up of Chief Phillips with no smoke behind him. (01:57:25)

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Continuity mistake: The attack on Vin Din Dop starts out as a bright sunshiny morning and stays that way until Clean and Chief Phillips watch their boat drop into the river. There's no cut in the action but after this shot the cloud cover turns darker and it's late afternoon. (00:47:35)

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Continuity mistake: As they approach Vin Din Dop, Chef asks one of the other soldiers, "How come all you guys sit on your helmets?", then puts his left hand on his rifle site. In the next shot his hand is four inches below the site. (00:37:05)

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Continuity mistake: The three adjoining huts on the beach with the communist flags in front of them explode twice at different times in the scene. Then they appear again undamaged in another overhead shot of the beach as a helicopter pilot says, "We're taking fire from the holes". (00:40:10)

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Continuity mistake: In the rear close-up shot of the Vietnamese machine gun nest the soldier in the dark green shirt is to the right of the soldier in the tan shirt who is firing it. In the next shot the soldier in the dark green shirt is behind and to the left of the soldier in the tan shirt. (00:40:45)

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Continuity mistake: Approaching Kurtz' compound they pass the natives in their canoes and we see the back of the PBR. Look closely and you can see that the boat's name is painted over. In other shots of the PBR we don't see this mark. (02:28:25)

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Continuity mistake: In the beginning of the movie when Captain Willard hears the helicopter flying over and walks to his window the blinds are dark. In the next shot when you see him looking through them they're lit up. (00:04:15)

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Continuity mistake: Colonel Kilgore walks over to a VC soldier with a stomach wound and one of his soldiers follows behind carrying a thermos with an orange cap in his right hand and nothing in his left. Kilgore turns and says to this soldier, "Give me that canteen" and in the next shot the canteen appears in his left hand. (00:29:20)

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Continuity mistake: Captain Willard enters the temple after he kills a guard and there's a great shot of him holding the machete as it glistens in the light. He just slit someone's throat not two seconds before and there's not an ounce of blood on the blade and it's not even the same machete he was holding three shots ago when we see his silhouette in the festival lights. The first machete we see has a thinner blade with a hook on the end of it and a different handle. (03:07:05)

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Continuity mistake: As the VC first hear the helicopters coming an old woman in a pink top with a baby runs across the schoolyard. In the next shot she disappears and most of the school children have changed positions. (00:39:05)

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Continuity mistake: A soldier walks up to Colonel Kilgore, as he offers the wounded VC soldier water, and says, "I think one of those soldiers is Lance Johnson the surfer". His floppy hat has the name Latigo printed in the dark letters on the back of it. The next time we see the back of his hat when everyone talks with Lance the name Latigo isn't there even though he doesn't touch it. (00:29:45)

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Continuity mistake: When the soldiers come to the door with Captain Willard's new orders a green piece of paper (money) appears behind his gun lying on the table under the lamp. It's there in the close-up but not when they first walk in. The other pieces of paper in front and to the left of the gun are also moved. (00:08:20)

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