Factual error: During the escape at the end of the movie, when the Minis come out of the pipe and drop down into the basin of the LA River they fall nose first into the pavement. However, with approximately 9 million dollars worth of gold in the trunks of the cars, they would be back heavy, not front heavy, and fall more evenly or even back first. It's been suggested that Wrench could have put a ton of weight up front to balance the cars properly, but the amount of gold carried in those special boxes loaded into the back end of the very short wheelbase Minis could not be balanced even by the legendary Wrench without severely re-engineering the vehicle. If that was possible, the handling of the unladen Mini would be woeful, and the chase scene BEFORE the subway gold heist would be impossible. The Minis would have fallen like bricks nose-first onto the subway track when jumping from the platform.
Bishop73
3rd Jun 2003
The Italian Job (2003)
Suggested correction: I have spoken with an expert in vehicle dynamics and physics, and he said that the falling of the vehicles is absolutely correct. He has seen the movie and finds nothing wrong with the scene. The front of the car starts falling first, and therefore will land first. The cars would have to fall a much greater distance for the weight to take over and cause the back of the car to drop and hit first - it would have to have fallen perhaps as much as 25-30 feet. I know it seems counter-intuitive, but in reality it was real as presented.
Sorry, your expert must have been a friend of the stunt coordinator. It was the worst car stunt mistake of all time and why they never balanced the cars and reshot the scene is anybody's guess.
Of course the front end starts to fall first, that's the point of the mistake, it should be backend heavy. If you watch the scene, it's clear there's a ramp at the end of the tube (whether intentionally done by the characters or for stunt purposes). When the cars hit the ramp, they fly up so that the front end is up in the air above the back end. Then the cars fall front end first, fairly quickly, that if even if they fell from higher up, the back end would never fall faster than the front.
16th Jan 2021
The Italian Job (2003)
Corrected entry: When Stella writes the safe combination on the wall she writes the numbers 7-17. The first 7 has a line through it, but in the number 17 the line is omitted. There should be a line through that seven as well. No one would write the first seven one way and the next a different way.
Correction: This is an assumption and not a mistake. I'm constantly switching back and forth between putting a line through my 7's and not doing it. Often my stand alone 7's get the line and a 7 with other numbers (like 17) don't. This is especially true when I'm not writing the numbers at the same time.
11th Dec 2006
The Italian Job (2003)
Factual error: When Mark Wahlberg is trying to evade the helicopter, he runs into a dead end made up of two buses attached to a tow truck. The problem is that they're MUNI buses, and MUNI only runs in the San Francisco bay area, so these would be no where in the Los Angeles area.
Suggested correction: The Muni bus is not exclusive to San Fran. I lived north of Halifax NS, and there were 18 GMC silverside MUNI buses.
"Muni" buses aren't a brand or model. Muni is short for San Francisco Municipal Railway, which is a transit service owned by the San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority. The SFMTA does not operate anywhere else in California, and certainly not in a foreign country. Los Angeles is served by Metro, not Muni.
8th Sep 2013
The Italian Job (2003)
Other mistake: In the opening boat chase in Venice, the safe is supposedly represented by a metal pipe structure covered by cloth. But it doesn't flap or wave in the wind at all. On the contrary it has completely straight sides. It is quite clear that there must be a box underneath. (00:10:00)
Suggested correction: It may seem like that, in actuality there is a military grade fabric Lycra-Kevline that does not buckle or wave like ordinary fabrics.
This correction seems to have been made without watching the scene and understanding the mistake. Plus I think they meant to say "Kevlar." But, whatever material they're thinking of wouldn't behave like a solid piece of wood by not moving in the wind. And, the material wouldn't magically make rounded corners straight edged.
2nd Jul 2015
The Italian Job (2003)
Corrected entry: As Charlie walks by Wrench, he asks about the stuff on the table. Wrench tells him it's just extra engine parts. Apparently at least one Mini didn't need a starter motor, and one didn't need a crankshaft.
Correction: Extra engine parts implies just that, they were extra. He's not saying they were left over parts or parts needed for the Minis.
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.