LOTR has a couple of stonkers which almost spoil the scenes for me. Don’t read on if you don’t want them to piss you off, too.
In FOTR, when Boromir is dying, the shots go back and forth from him and Aragorn. The only problem is, in the shots focusing on Sean Bean, he’s got his hand on Viggos’ shoulder. And when the camera goes back to Viggo, no hand! Apparently they shot the two different POVs at two different times (before and after lunch) and the actors must’ve forgotten that hand thing. Highly irritating, though.
And in TTT there’s the lovely scene where Frodo and Sam are sitting against two barrels and discussing stuff. In comes Faramir and suddenly – oops, no barrels! The floor is completely bare. I’ve no idea how anyone could have missed that.
In the TV show Roseanne, the character of Mark’s younger brother is introduced in one episode. He is called Kevin. Next time we see him, the same character played by the same actor is now called David for the rest of the series run. WTF?
In Friends, the first time we see Rachel in the coffee shop, she doesn’t recognize Monica. It’s not just because Monica has lost a large amount of weight, but because they were never close in High School. Rachel was the rich, stuck up, popular girl who basically didn’t even acknowledge Monica’s existence when they were younger. However, later on in the series we have flashbacks of them getting ready at Monica’s house for a double date for the prom when they were teenagers.
Also, Chandler was shocked to see pictures of Monica when she was extremely overweight as a youth; however it was later written into the storyline that he knew Ross in college and had come over to his (Ross’s) house and met his family (including the “fat” Monica) during a holiday.
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the movie. . . Did you count all the bulletholes? Is there the same number before and after? I’m not trying to ask that like a smartass, but I just thought it could be the “real world” reason for Jules’ “miracle.” As in, there are already holes in the wall from some previous incident, the guy misses with his hand cannon (probably fairly easy to do in reality if you’re scared shitless, and a gun like that probably has some serious recoil issues), Jules turns around and sees the pre-existing holes directly behind him and thinks they were from the current incident. Thus, a miracle is born. ??
Being a big Evil Dead fan, I always feel like jumping in when this stuff is brought up. I don’t really see those as “Continuity errors” as I do “Rewrites”. All you know from the end of the first one is that Ash is possessed. Of course, the original intent is that this means he’s dead, but possession doesn’t necessarily lead to death, so it can be assumed he’s still alive. Now, here’s the big thing that confuses people:
Evil Dead 2 is not so much a sequel as it is a continuation. The first five minutes or so dealing with his girlfriend are a brief retelling of the plot from the first movie, not an entirely separate course of events! So, if one were to watch the two movies back to back and splice them together from where Ash gets possessed at the end of 1 to where Ash gets possessed at the begining of 2, it becomes a single, solid plot. The same goes with the end of 2 when Ash drops out of the sky, to the beginning of 3, when Ash gets dropped out of the sky. With no knowledge, or plans, of Army of Darkness ever being made, they sure as hell couldn’t end ED2 with him being taken prisoner. They needed a good ending to help show that he is “The Chosen One” talked about when reviewing the lost pages. It’s not really a continuity error, because after all is said and done, he is worshiped by the people for defeating the deadites, and he is proven as being the chosen one. It just takes him a little longer to get to that point in Army of Darkness.
I’m sure it’s already been mentioned, but it’s nothing compared to, ohhh…Highlander 2’s horrible rewrite! Or, for that matter, Highlander the Series. At the beginning of the first movie, there were 5 immortals left in the world. About ten years later, there are apparently HUNDREDS still strewn across the world. How’s that for a continuity problem?
This might hold the record for greatest continuity error.
One season ended with Darrin being played by Dick York.
The next season began with Dick Sargent as Darrin.
No explanation was given - no one noticed - Samantha didn’t notice - Larry Tate didn’t notice - even Dr Bombay didn’t notice !!!
In Commando - the yellow Porsche is trashed rather badly (including landing on it’s side) - however when Arnie drives it off, it’s immaculate.
Cars may do clever things in films tho - cos for the first 10 mins of The Transporter, the BMW is pounded and bounced off all manner of things (as well as shot at) but arrives back at his home IMMACULATE too…
Can I buy one of these cars please - it would help a LOT
In MAUDE, her maid Florida (Esther Rolle) was married to Henry (though played by John Amos), who in the plot was a mechanic who made her quit so that he could move the family to Harlem where he had a job waiting. In their spin-off, GOOD TIMES, Henry’s name is changed to James, somehow they decided to move into the Chicago projects instead of to Harlem, Henry/James is no longer a mechanic but an unskilled worker who goes through TV’s longest unemployment streak, and yet even at their most-broke Florida never goes back to rich liberal Maude for her job back. Also, sometimes the family is from Mississippi and sometimes they’re from up north, and sometimes J.J. is the eldest and sometimes that’s Thelma.
There were lots of continuity errors twixt DALLAS and its spin-off KNOT’S LANDING. Among others, the fact that one or the other of her parents was dying or dead on KL didn’t seem to particularly concern Lucy over in Dallas, and apparently Victoria Principal’s season long “dream” was so powerful that its aftershocks were felt in California, because brother Gary seemed to be under the mistaken opinion that Bobby was dead as well that year.
While daytime soaps stand alone in terms of continuity errors, DAYS OF OUR LIVES (which I watched as a kid, then sporadically in college, and now over Christmas when I visit my mother) must set a record even by their standards. One of the stranger things they’ve done is bring back the actor Josh Taylor, who played the character Chris for ten years in the 1970s/1980s (until getting the job on the everchanging primetime show VALERIE/VALERIE’S FAMILY/HOGAN FAMILY), as the character Roman in the 1990s. The two characters were not supposed to be related and no mention was made of the “resemblance”, plus the character of Roman had been contemporary with the character of Chris.
Another great thing about DOOL: the matriarch Alice, played by an actress who is probably around 90 and has been with the show since it’s inception, has adult great-great-great grandchildren due to the fact that they age in 2-4-6-12-16 dog year fashion. They all call her “Grandma” and mention that she has more generations of descendants than Lazarus Long isn’t made since their intervening ancestors were written off when their boobs sagged long ago.
There’s a terrible continuity error in the Buffy episode “Innocence.” There’s a night scene where Xander has a plan and tells Cordelia to chang into something “trashy…er” and meet him later. Then we cut to Buffy waking up the next day and striding into Ms. Calendar’s classroom and attacking her. Then we go back to Xander’s plan the previous night (stealing a rocket launcher from an army base- Oz: “So, do you steal weapons from the army often?”/Willow:" Well, we don’t get cable, so we have to make our own fun.")
Joss Whedon realized this error after it was too late. His rationale, should you choose to accept it, is that Xander only wanted Cordelia to practice dressing trashy, and that the plan wasn’t actually executed til the next night. Fortunately for Joss, most fans were probably too busy sobbing to notice.
In the scene immediately before “wax on, wax off”, Ralph Macchio is admiring Miyagi’s antique cars and it is bright daylight.
Camera switches to Miyagi coming out of the house with a bucket and sponge and it is pitch black night.
Switch back to Macchio and it is daytime again. Wow!
One of my faves is from the Honeymooners. For some reason, the scenery outside the Kramden’s kitchen window periodically changes between two different building scenes. This can happen several times in a single episode.
At the end of Wayne’s World, when they’re beaming their live broadcast to Mr. Big, it’s clearly night outside, but the basement’s window shows daylight.
Yes, they cut off the cats’ nuts. The idea isn’t to let tomcats behave normally without producing offspring, it’s to modify their behavior (spraying, fighting, etc.)
Most of the examples given here are not what the OP requested. Think in terms of script continuity rather than visual continuity. So the vanishing from memory of a character’s previously introduced sibling is a good example, but a change in wardrobe or hand position between shots is not.
I just read the novel “The Carrier,” and was frustrated by one recurring error.
One of the main characters steals a buttload of money from a minor character – $250,000. He then finances a trip across country, spending money as he goes.
You guessed it – the amount of money he has remaining rarely, if ever, coincides with what he’s already spent. I wouldn’t have been so bothered by this if the author didn’t keep referencing what the character had spent and what he had left.
It’s a BOOK. It’s not hard to maintain continuity in a BOOK.
In Pulp Fiction, the bullet holes were not there from a previous incident, when Jules and Vincent first enter, the holes are not there, but just before the fourth man comes out of the bathroom the holes appear behind them but before the gun is shot.
So the bullet holes are a continuity error.
The trivia track on the Special Edition DVD mentions them and discusses them, if anyone has this handy, check it out. (I would check my copy, but all my movies are packed for a trip I’m taking)
The entire series Enterprise is one big continuity error. Not just in technology, in protocols, in which species they have contacted, the speed of the ships, their vessel design, how they handle first contact, what their mission is and I really hate all of these temporal anomolies!
If you really want a continuity nightmare go watch Mulholland Drive that was a headache to peice together and I had parts left over!
