# worst continuity error ever **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 8, 2003, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404 "2003-06-08T04:45:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Necromancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac91a4/32.png) [@Necromancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necromancer)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/61 "2003-06-09T03:21:28Z")
I remember seeing an error in Poltergeist involving the daughter putting her bike up against a wall and in the next shot she was seen doing it again. Although this isn’t a big error, in Titanic I remember when Leo’s character was released from his handcuffs, in one shot he has them on, the next shot they’re off, and then they’re back on again. ---
**Author:** ![Wisp00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/977dab/32.png) [@Wisp00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wisp00)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/62 "2003-06-09T03:49:41Z")
Star Trek: Enterprise is supposed to take place before every other Star Trek series, yet thier technology is often more advanced, especially compared to the Original Series. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/63 "2003-06-09T04:08:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jeff Olsen \* > \*\*This was handled better in Fleming’s books. IIRC, Felix did retire and became a private eye. \*\* Oh God yes! If you read the novels in order you get to see piece by piece of Felix’s body disappear (his eye, his hand, his leg, etc.) I think if Fleming had written a couple of more books, Felix would have been nothing but a head. TV ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/64 "2003-06-09T04:30:27Z")
Not really a continuity thing, but a famous mistake: John Wayne admiring the sun setting on the Pacific Ocean from the shores of Viet Nam in _The Green Berets_. ---
**Author:** ![FairyDust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ccd318/32.png) [@FairyDust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyDust)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/65 "2003-06-09T04:43:35Z")
In Pulp Fiction poor Marvin’s brain gets splattered all over the car interior thanks to Vincent’s trigger finger. Yet afterward when Marvin’s body is in the trunk of the car and we see him briefly, his face is intact. WTF? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/66 "2003-06-09T04:44:56Z")
In Tim Burton’s _Sleepy Hollow_… [spoiler] …In a flashback, the Headless Horseman is shown to have filed his teeth down to sharp points. His fully-materialized ghost even has pointy “fangs”. But when his skull is later recovered, it has perfectly normal teeth. [spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/67 "2003-06-09T04:44:59Z")
In Tim Burton’s _Sleepy Hollow_… …In a flashback, the Headless Horseman is shown to have filed his teeth down to sharp points. His fully-materialized ghost even has pointy “fangs”. But when his skull is later recovered, it has perfectly normal teeth. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/68 "2003-06-09T05:10:18Z")
Another one from the TV series _Wiseguy_. There’s a scene where one of the heroes has been captured by the bad guys. The head bad guy orders his number two man to kill him. Unbeknownst to head bad guy, number two man has decided to defect. He shoots the hero with a sub machine gun but secretly substitutes blanks for the real bullets. The hero falls down and is presumed dead; the bad guys leave and the hero is rescued. But the “shooting” occurred with the head bad guy standing about twenty feet away, watching the whole thing. I know TV standards don’t allow for realistic blood and gore, but are supposed to believe that this guy didn’t notice that a man who had just been shot to death with a machine gun didn’t have any blood or holes in him? ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/69 "2003-06-09T05:51:50Z")
How about **every single episode of every single _Star Trek_ series ever made?** I swear, none of those shows can go 5 minutes without contradicting themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Sock\_Munkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Sock\_Munkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sock_Munkey)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/70 "2003-06-09T06:45:31Z")
Voyager directly contradicted itself by stating in one episode that the doctor could NOT be downloaded from the main computer to another location because he was hardwired as an integral part of the ship but in a later episode where they go back in time to the twentieth century he gets stolen by being downloaded! ---
**Author:** ![MrSarcasticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@MrSarcasticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSarcasticus)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/71 "2003-06-09T07:12:37Z")
You are all rank amateurs. Try GUMMO, when White Trash Idiot #156 attacks the chair. Worst editing in the history of cinema. Just keep an eye on the kitchen table. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/72 "2003-06-09T07:18:44Z")
Another one from Voyager: Near the beginning of the series, it’s mentioned that the Holodeck uses a “different kind of power”, and thus they can run the Holodeck even when there’s not enough energy to power a toilet. However, later in the series, they lose main power, and this causes the Holodeck to freeze up, trapping the occupants inside. Hell, Voyager itself is a bit of continuity error (or maybe this is an error from earlier in the series). In a TNG episode that had the Enterprise jaunting all over the galaxy on archeological business, it shows them travelling across the Federation - 8,000 lightyears - in a few days. In many a DS9 episode, it shows the crew taking “shore leave” on Earth, several thousand lightyears away. However, the very premise for Voyager has it that, because of warp speed limitations, it would take the ship 75 years to travel 70,000 lightyears. That’s about a year per thousand lightyears. Which means that, in the aforementioned TNG episode, it should have taken place over the course of no less than eight years. And the shore leaves in DS9 shoulda been six years long (three years there, three years back). Damn, Star Trek needs a better writing team. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/73 "2003-06-09T11:35:44Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s been awhile since I saw Nemesis, but I could swear that there was a throwaway line about how that third Data couldn’t be Lore, or at least a mention of Lore by someone…either Geordi or Data. I’m sure that noone mentioned Lore. The scene wouldn’t have bothered me if someone had mentioned him, even if they just said that it couldn’t be Lore. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/74 "2003-06-09T12:07:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Robot Arm \* > \*\*During the making of _Bonfire of the Vanities_, the crew shot all of the exterior scenes they needed in New York. Then there was a two week break to move all the equipment to Hollywood and film the interiors on a soundstage. During the break, Melanie Griffith had breast implants. Once it’s all edited together, her breasts change size back and forth throughout the film. \*\* Similar to \* Evita \* when Madonna got pregnant as they were shooting. While they hid her stomach pretty well, I found myself wondering when did Eva Peron have a boob job? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/75 "2003-06-09T13:05:45Z")
It’s mainly due to editing, but I love how in the final battle of **Army of Darkness** , Ash goes from having one sword to mystically having two while running up the stairs. Of course, in the director’s cut, you see him kill another deadite and steal his sword, but it took a good ten years or so before a Director’s cut came out, so it always bugged me prior. ---
**Author:** ![brundlefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@brundlefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brundlefly)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/76 "2003-06-09T13:23:20Z")
Halloween 3 had nothing to do with the 1st two. Actually the whole series was one continuous continuity error after the 2nd installment. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/77 "2003-06-09T14:17:01Z")
Edgar Rice Burroughs and the John Carter of Mars series. In the posthumously published 10th book in the series, _John Carter of Mars_, Our Hero ends up being taken to Jupiter (“Skeleton Men of Jupiter”). John Carter got his impressive strength and jumping abilities as a result of being an Earthman on Mars; his Earth-born and Earth-trained muscles make him spectacularly strong by Martian standards. By the same logic, he should be far far weaker than the average Jovian, but he continues in his career as spectacularly strong hero. ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/78 "2003-06-09T15:37:00Z")
In the new _Ocean’s Eleven_ there’s a pretty funny throwaway gag where Brad Pitt’s character is always eating. After this has been established for a while, this is taken to it’s most ridiculous height when Pitt’s character is having a conversation in the main lobby of the Bellagio, standing by a fountain, and eating shrimp cocktail out of a large-bowled wine glass. It’s an unusual choice, and it’s funny. During the scene, the shrimp container he’s holding shifts from the glass to a blue-rimmed plate. It’s not even close, and I normally don’t pick these things up, but this is the subject of an (albeit tossoff) joke and they still messed it up. ---
**Author:** ![paulberserker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@paulberserker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulberserker)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/79 "2003-06-09T15:47:44Z")
terminator to terminator 2: (might be a spoiler) terminator films: no 1s set in 1984, no2 in 1992. sarah connor gets pregnant by reese in no1, so you would imagine john connor to be born in 1985. there he is though in 1992 come the 2nd film, a strapping 16 year old at least. he should at most, 7 years old. this bugged the hell out of me even when i went to see it at the cinema 11 years ago. it may even be 1991. amongst other gaping plot holes. good films though. (im assuming this wont be taken as a spoiler, seeing as everyone and their dogs seen these films) ---
**Author:** ![porcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac91a4/32.png) [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/80 "2003-06-09T15:49:00Z")
An oldie, but a goodie: In the mini-series _Rich Man, Poor Man_, starring Peter Strauss and Nick Nolte, there’s a character that wears a patch on one eye. (IIRC, this is due to a knife fight in an early episode with Nolte). The patch keeps switching between his left and right eye. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404.md?page=5)