Quantum Leap

Quantum Leap (1989)

25 mistakes in season 3 - chronological order

(7 votes)

Leap of Faith - August 19, 1963 - S3-E3

Revealing mistake: The newspaper Father John holds up has the headline "Youth Hit By Train", but the article text under it talks about Diane Feinstein's election race against John Van de Kamp for California governor in 1990, the year the episode was filmed. Other article texts do not match either. The text under the Bangladesh Flood article talks about Germany's reunification, which also happened in 1990, after the Soviet collapse. The paper is a copy of the Los Angeles Times with the titles and date changed. (00:05:10)

jimba

Miss Deep South - June 7, 1958 - S3-E6

Revealing mistake: Connie and Sam are talking in their room, while Sam is looking at his female self in the mirror. As Connie walks back into the shot, her shadow is cast on the wall behind the mirror. This indicates she came from the opposite direction that is possible in the reflection had this not been the mirror trick. In reality, she would have been coming from behind Sam, not from in front and wouldn't have cast a shadow on the wall with the mirror.

manthabeat

8 1/2 Months - November 15, 1955 - S3-E12

Continuity mistake: After Sam refuses to sign the adoption papers, he's leaning forward with one hand to his mouth, talking to Mrs. Thailer. When the shot cuts to a wider angle, he's suddenly leaning back with both hands supporting his weight behind him. (00:22:00)

Jean G

8 1/2 Months - November 15, 1955 - S3-E12

Continuity mistake: Willis drops his cap on the road when he runs away. It's still there in the long shot of him running, but after the commercial break we return to the same scene, and as Sam stands up, the cap is no longer on the road behind him. (00:35:10)

Jean G

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: After the commercial break we are looking in the opposite direction than Willis ran, so not seeing a hat isn't a mistake. In fact if we saw a hat, THAT would be a mistake.

jimba

8 1/2 Months - November 15, 1955 - S3-E12

Other mistake: Towards the end of the episode when Sam is being wheeled into the delivery room in labor, there is a mirror above the table. We see Sam's reflection in it when we should see Billie's. (00:44:45)

Future Boy - October 6, 1957 - S3-E13

Revealing mistake: Just after Mrs. Stiner delivers the line "My car's out front" after her father's hearing, everyone except Al rushes away from the broken window. Sam brushes up against Al's shirt sleeve, causing it to move. Al, being a hologram, shouldn't have been touched. (00:41:50)

Phixius

Private Dancer - October 6, 1979 - S3-E14

Factual error: When Sam knocks on Diana's door, she opens it. But we've just been told that she's completely deaf, so there's no way she could have heard him knocking. Though she dances to "vibrations in the air," this is with music played at volumes high enough to cause such vibrations. Sam is absolutely not banging on her door that loudly.

Jean G

Quantum Leap mistake picture

Piano Man - November 10, 1985 - S3-E15

Continuity mistake: The old Ford pickup Sam steals to chase them is noticeably different than the one we see being driven later, including the front end, side, and roof damage, different side mirror type, no antenna on driven truck, and a different license plate number. (00:35:50)

jimba

Piano Man - November 10, 1985 - S3-E15

Revealing mistake: When Sam is driving the truck through the fog/smoke, Al tells Gooshie to center him on Lorraine but Al doesn't jump out. The shot cuts to a front view of the fog. The road noticeably jumps forward because there is a dissolve transition in this shot, even thought its the same angle. It's likely it was done to lengthen the shot.

manthabeat

Sam: Leaping about in time, I've found that there are some things in life that I can't change, and there are some things that I can. To save a life, to change a heart, to make the right choice. I guess that's what life's about, making the right choice at the right time.

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Leaping of the Shrew - September 27, 1956 - S5-E3

Question: Shortly after Sam throws some items off the life raft, Al appears and tells him that because of what Sam had done, neither he nor Vanessa would be saved for quite a while. If Sam had not done anything, both of them would have been rescued within an hour. I might be wrong about this next part so further verification will help. Al also said that because of Sam throwing stuff into the ocean, that somehow, instead if only being stranded in the lifeboat for a few minutes, four whole hours have passed. How could tossing anything into the ocean have made time move so rapidly?

Answer: Sam threw items off the raft to lighten the load, so it wouldn't sink, in doing so he made the raft less heavy. Which made easier to float with the currents, if it was heavy the raft would have moved slower and not moved so far.

Except that Al said that immediately after throwing stuff out of the boat four hours passed and it was shown that they didn't really move from where they were. They were still in the same spot. Forgot to ask this too. When Sam and Vanessa are stranded on the island, one of them, can't remember who, did something and when Al appears, he tells them that because of it, time had suddenly skipped several more hours and if the event hadn't been interrupted, they would have been rescued by a boat. So, what happened on the island that once again caused time to speed up? It seems kind of strange that time could move so quickly on the island, especially since it was still day time and it never showed any sort of changes like the sun or clouds moving.

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