Look, we all know it's a tough grind getting a movie made. With so many people involved - directors, producers, best boys, and so on - it's no wonder that the occasional gaffe slips through the net. Movie mistakes are, for the most part, undetected by the audience, who are too caught up in the storytelling to notice that someone wasn't wearing that cardigan a moment ago! But for the rest of us eagle-eyed fans? We love spotting continuity errors, factual glitches, and the flat-out physical impossibilities that appear in many, MANY movies. Here's 50 of the absolute best you won't be able to unsee.
50. Disappear view mirror
The movie: Clueless (1995)
The mistake: When Cher (Alicia Silverstone) is picked up by her step-brother Josh (Paul Rudd) and his girlfriend, they all play an amazing game of ‘spot the rear-view mirror’, which keeps vanishing and reappearing depending on the shot.
How noticeable is it? To be honest, Cher’s feather boa is really distracting, and the Hamlet references keep you entertained, so this one’s not massively noticeable.
49. Jewellery thief
The movie: Stand By Me (1986)
The mistake: Taking a break from their trek - you know, to go track down a corpse - Teddy (Corey Feldman), Vern (Jerry O’Connell), Chris (River Phoenix) and Gordie (Wil Wheaton) sit down for a breather. And to throw rocks into a can. Then you notice Teddy is suddenly wearing a necklace. And then he's not again. Wah?
How noticeable is it? Depends how much time you spend ogling jewellery. Not crazily so.
48. Sword in the ground
The movie: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (2005)
The mistake: After fighting valiantly, Peter gets stabbed in the arm during the film’s climactic battle. Weeeeeell... not quite. Take a closer look and you’ll see that the sword is actually embedded in the ground above his arm and nowhere near his bodily flesh.
How noticeable is it? You’d have to pause it to spot it, but it’s there
47. Pass the mic
The movie: Bridesmaids (2011)
The mistake: Annie (Kristen Wiig) and Helen (Rose Byrne) compete for the affections of bride-to-be Lillian (Maya Rudolph), regaling her and the congregation with tales of friendship and terrible, terrible Spanish. Except Annie keeps inexplicably changing which hand she’s holding the microphone and her champagne with in each shot.
How noticeable is it? You’ll probably be too busy laughing at their silliness to notice things like inexplicable microphone hand-switching.
46. Where's the noose?
The movie: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (1966)
The mistake: Blondie (Clint Eastwood) sits on his horse talking to Tuco (Eli Wallach), who has a rope tied around his neck. But the tricksy noose keeps changing position so that the knot is either in front of Tuco, or slung over his shoulder. Come on, continuity person, get a grip!
How noticeable is it? You’re probably too bewitched by Eastwood's charisma to notice this one.
45. Scarface
The movie: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
The mistake: During the course of this third Middle-earth fantasy, Frodo (Elijah Wood) acquires a battle scar on his jawline. Yeah! Except depending on which shot you’re looking at, the scar keeps switching from one side of his face to the other.
How noticeable is it? To be honest, everybody’s pretty beaten up at this point, so unless you’re really keeping track of all the wounds everybody’s acquired, this one isn’t massively noticeable.
44. Engine trouble
The movie: The Usual Suspects (1995)
The mistake: Before the scene in which a police car is robbed, we get a lovely shot of a Boeing 747 coming in to land. Except when the shot reverses, we’re suddenly looking at a shot of another plane ascending. The first has four engines, the second only two…
How noticeable is it? This one's for the die-hard plane-spotters.
43. Wipe on, wipe off
The movie: Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
The mistake: When The Bride (Uma Thurman) visits Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba), he writes the name ‘Bill’ in a steamed-up window. But you can see that window’s already been wiped clean from a previous take. How often does this guy write on windowpanes, eh?
How noticeable is it? If you're a dab hand with a chamois, then you'll definitely notice it.
42. Honk that horn
The movie: The Goonies (1985)
The mistake: When Brand (Josh Brolin) is taken for a ride by Troy (Steve Antin) while on the little girl’s bike, the horn on the right handlebar keeps appearing and then disappearing.
How noticeable is it? Not too noticeable, considering we’re more concerned with Brand not getting smashed into by oncoming traffic!
41. Tied in the middle with you
The movie: Reservoir Dogs (1992)
The mistake: Marvin Nash (Kirk Baltz) is lying on the floor with his hands cuffed behind his back. As soon as Mr. Blonde grabs him and plonks him into the chair? His hands are cuffed in front of him.
How noticeable is it? If you’ve watched the film as many times as we have, you’ll definitely have picked up on this one.
