In the VHS version of The Matrix, you can see a stageperson’s hand in the scene in Neo’s office. It is gone in the DVD version
Some of my favorites –
In Ghost, Patrick and Demi caress each other with clay. They they apparently take a shower before doing it again.
Pretty Woman, Richard Gere’s shirt gets rebuttoned and his tie, retied in the middle of oral sex.
The Group takes place in the 1930s in New York with the Pan Am building (now the Met Life Building) clearly visible. It was built in 1963.
Desk Set Katharine Hepburn leaves the office with white carnations that are pink by the time she leaves the building.
In Bloodline, Audrey Hepburn changes from pants to a dress (or the other way around) while in a revolving door.
Visible crew members or equipment and modern items such as cars, watches and antenna in period films are much too common to list (e.g. Greer Garson’s dress in Pride and Prejudice has a zipper in 1810).
Best line I’ve heard all month!
One more reason I can’t read this board at work; too many coworkers asking me what I keep giggling about.
They make a reference at one point that the blizzard is widespread, and other airports are closed because of it. And some of the planes do divert to alternate sites after they’re contacted by air phones.
The thing that drove me nuts in that movie is that they spend the whole time trying to get a transmitter to talk to the planes that are circling. Every plane parked on the ground at that airport has got a transmitter in it.
Woo, what would you pay to see that, huh?
I’m not 100% sure but I believe this isn’t necessarily a production mistake, but rather an error in the settings of the film projector that’s showing the movie. If the settings aren’t correct then too much of the frame is shown, hence the presence of the boom mike. I once saw an on-campus showing of “Risky Business” where you could see the boom mikes in every single shot* throughout the movie.
In Pearl Harbor a bored Ben Affleck decides to leave the US Army Air Corps to go to Britain to help assist the RAF in their fight against Germany. Right before he leaves, he and Kate Birkensall(?) have your typical teary-romantic moment, after which Mr. Affleck gets set to go to England…
By boarding a train.
I haven’t seen Pearl Harbor, JohnT; where did that scene take place? If it was anyplace other than New York City, they probably got it right. Air travel was barely out of its infancy then. He would have taken a train to New York and then a ship to England.
They were in…
NYC. Technically, Long Island, but the issue remains the same - if he is going to take a ship, take a ship! Don’t leave it up to the audience to wonder how the hell he’s going to take that TRAIN to England, just shoot the damn scene with him boarding a ship!
A-hem. Sorry, but that scene was really, really stupid. There is nothing in the scene that necessitated him boarding a train, it was just pure lazy movie-making.
Yet another example of Lucas trying to claim that he “planned it that way all along” rather than admitting that he screwed up. Given the fact that Solo is shown to be a competent pilot at the very least, that particular level of ignorance would be like a BSing race car driver claiming that he “ran the Indy 500 in 300 miles.” At least the black hole/obstacle course explaination is plausable. Of course, that explanation came from fans who admitted that they were fixing the screw-up, demonstrating that the fans have both more creativity and integrety than Lucas.
I’m surprised that by page two no one has mentioned these two corkers.
Towards the end of Saturday Night Fever, a boom mike is clearly visible hanging down from the top of the screen.
In Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the group canoes past two massive statues by the river (can’t remember the names, but I’m sure a LOTR fan can fill in the blanks). On the approach shot, both statues have their left arms raised in something of a Nazi salute. On the reverse shot, the statue to the left of screen clearly has its right arm raised.
:smack:
This error is also in the DVD version of the movie. It’s so obvious I couldn’t help but notice it even when I saw the movie for the first time at the cinemas.
Bride of Frankenstein. As the castle is crashing down, we can see the good doctor trapped inside, yet the very next scene shows him safely outside next to his babe.
Apparently they had to shoot a different ending where Dr. Frankenstein comes out alive, but didn’t have the budget to reshoot the interior shots.
The fanboys can explain it from here to Alderaan; it was a dumb line and it’s famous. So it qualifies.
One I’ve never understood from Star Wars is in “Return of the Jedi.” The impending Rebel attack is supposed to be taken, in part, because the Imperial fleet is spread all over the galaxy, leaving the new Death Star vulnerable. So when they arrive at Endor in the stolen shuttle, what do they find? An enormous fleet of Imperial ships all around the Death Star - Han Solo even specifically refers to the presence of a maga-huge “command ship.” And nobody in the shuttle seems to notice that this is a rather large wrench in the works.
My Favorites
The Godfather: The “ghost” of Mama Corleone appears in the funeral scene. Just as Micheal gets up to confer with Tessio his black suit fills most of the screen in that blackness there is a ghostly reflection of the actress who played the mother.
Star Trek Wrath of Khan: Kristy Alley jumps when Kirk smashes a glass panel on Space Station regula. She seems to lose character for a few seconds as she looks to the camera as if to see if the director would stop the scene, realizes he’s not and continues to act.
By the way Walter Koenig has a funny way of explaining the Khan line away. Checkov worked in the lower decks and occupied the bathroom Kahn was dying to get to. Now you know why Khan wouldn’t forget a face.
“You are the one that made me almost pee myself. Luckily my genetically engineered bladder allowed me to hold it.”
Scooby Doo (Don’t Ask) In the end a disheveled and very Hairy Rowen Atkins thanks Shaggy for resuing him. Seconds later the gang steps outside to meet the press, only to be followed by a well groomed clean Rowen Atkins.
Star Trek the Motion Picture: Mcoy and Spock wear these Tan jackes one has an orange arm band the other a green one, in the last shot the two colours are on the opposite people (possibly they are mood bands)
Jumpin’ Jack Flash: aftering entering Jack’s key code, Terry’s monitor display suddenly changes from amber monochrome to 16-color EGA.
Stand by Me: the narrator doesn’t save his work before leaving his computer, nor does he need to. He’s using an IBM XT which does not have a front-mounted power switch.
I never noticed that goof in the LoTR, i will pay more attention next time, however, right around that scene I am too busy cringing over the fact that Legolas looks left when he should be looking right if he is sensing the orcs coming out of the west.
I seem to recall that in the 50’s and 60’s, due to the filming of some movies in certain wide-screen formats, that often the director or cameraman would allow the boom mike to be in frame. Reason being that when the films are shown in the theaters, the tops and bottoms are cropped somewhat, so they assumed that such gaffs would not be visible to the audience.
They weren’t thinking about how it would look on video.
Short - sighted bastards! 
Did anyone mention the bandaid from Spartacus?
I remember an episode of the Waltons. It sticks in my mind for no other reason than a…not really a mistake as much as a poor improvisation. The family is sitting around the dinner table and one of the grand-children (later episode) who is very young points at a toy or something and says something like “my friend gave me this.” Ralph Waite responds asking who and the kid says a name. Waite looks a little flustered and says how nice the friend is and the kid nods and looks away.
It doesn’t seem like anything, but it’s completely out of context and the kid sort of jumped the dialogue. It had a definite feel of an actor trying to save a scene but it was definitely out of sync with the script.
I think the same thing happened on an episode of WKRP once too. The scenes just feel wrong, like the actors are trying to keep going when a mistake has been made, which seems strange since it’s being taped/filmed. It’s not live, so who cares? Just reshoot.
Rickjay, that isn’t a plot hole. Iirc it was deliberately set up that way by the Emperor who fed the rebellion false information regarding fleet deployments and the operational status of the Death Star. I seem to remember him saying something about the rebellion falling for a trap.
Narrad: The IMDB mentions that one in theirlist of goofs for The Lord of the Rings but says that it may just be the camera angle. Of course, my favorite LOTR goof is the dead orc who sits up and looks around before lying back down…
Another Star Trek (curiously enough, also involving Khan). Back in TOS episode Space Seed the crew is on the Botany Bay and are trying to get the sleeper compartment with Khan in it open. They do, but when it opens William Shatner’s (Kirk) phaser falls off his belt and to the floor (and out of sight of the camera). DeForest Kelly (McCoy) sees it fall and you can see him glance several times between the phaser and someone off screen as if he keeps expecting the director to yell “cut” but the scene keeps running. Then, when McCoy kneels down to examine Khan, you can see him reach down and apparently shove the phaser out of the way. Kind of funny when you first see it and wonder why no one else on the set apparently saw anything.
kingpengvin: I’ve seen the green/orange armband switch, but if you look at the way they fit it actually looks like they switched jackets between takes. (Look at the length of the jacket DeForest Kelly is wearing before and after the switch.) I think it may have been done deliberately as a joke by Kelly and Nimoy.