Movie Magic Mishaps: The Surprising Slip-Ups That Made It Into The Final Cut
They say making a movie is like planning a wedding. By that, they don't just mean that it's a major undertaking that brings out the worst in clashing personalities but also involves handling hundreds of small details at once. And just like with weddings, that means there are a thousand things that could go wrong.
But while filmmakers tend to have a keen eye for those mistakes, that doesn't mean they catch everything. Sometimes pretty glaring mistakes make it to the big screen. It's a phenomenon that has happened to even the most beloved films. From Back to the Future to Avengers: Endgame, here are some movie mishaps that made the final cut.
Jurassic Park (1993)
Before two velociraptors menace Lex and Tim Murphy in the kitchen scene in Jurassic Park, a pretty glaring mistake occurs that only the tension of the scene could cover up.
When the first dinosaur steps through the entrance to the kitchen, there's a brief moment in which a crew member's hands can be seen reaching from off-screen to hold the model steady.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of The Black Pearl(2003)
While Jack Sparrow is gripping the helm of The Black Pearl in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of The Black Pearl as an adoring crew looks on, he says, "On deck, you scabrous dogs."
This line makes a pirate behind him react by moving to the side, revealing a crew member in a tan cowboy hat and a white T-shirt looking over the edge of the boat. Not exactly period-appropriate attire.
Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
When a group of stormtroopers breaks into the control room where C3PO is holed up while the heroes are braving the garbage mashers in the original Star Wars, one of the troops bumps his head on the doorframe.
Amusingly, enough fans noticed this mistake that the DVD release of this movie adds an audible bumping sound when this moment occurs.
Spider-Man (2002)
While Peter Parker tests his web-shooting abilities in the first Spider-Man movie, he accidentally yanks too hard on a line and destroys a lamp in his bedroom.
However, when Aunt May asks what he's up to just moments later, that lamp suddenly returns to where it was and looks as good as new. No wonder he calls himself the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
Gladiator (2000)
During the scene in Gladiator that sees Emperor Commodus disastrously attempt to recreate the second battle of Carthage in the Colosseum, a chariot can be seen turning over.
Although its back is obscured by dust at first, it doesn't take long before a gas canister that wouldn't exist for centuries is clearly visible in a special crevice built into this chariot.
Back To The Future (1985)
One of Back To The Future's defining scenes sees Marty McFly stun the attendees at his parents' school dance with a rendition of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Good." But while the audience is supposed to understand that this song wasn't written by the scene's time period of 1955, not even time travel paradoxes can explain one mistake.
According to Guitar World magazine, Marty is playing a Gibson ES-345 in this scene, despite the fact that the guitar didn't exist until 1958. And it's not like he brought it with him.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
During the climactic final battle of Avengers: Endgame, Ant-Man and the Wasp find themselves holed up in a van at one point while trying to fix the quantum tunnel time machine.
However, it seems that someone involved in the production forgot that's what Ant-Man was supposed to be doing, as seconds later, he's suddenly mixed up in the battle itself in his Giant-Man form.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Early in The Dark Knight Rises, Batman becomes aware of Catwoman's stealthy crime spree, thanks to an article in The Gotham Times.
However, the newspaper seems to have experienced some cuts in its copy-editing department lately, as the headline says, "Police Suspect 'Cat' Burglar In Jewel Hiest." Unfortunately, that's not how "heist" is spelled.
American Sniper (2014)
When Chris Kyle is holding his infant daughter during a serious discussion with his wife, it immediately becomes clear that the baby is a plastic doll. So clear, in fact, that Bradley Cooper had to jostle its arm with his thumb to make it look like it was moving.
According to Entertainment Weekly, this was potentially a case of unfortunate circumstances rather than a careless mistake. Screenwriter Jason Hall said the doll was used after the first baby scheduled to appear on set fell ill and the second never arrived.
Grease (1978)
After the main characters of Grease meet at the malt shop and before the "Beauty School Dropout" number, Frenchy and a waitress named Vai share a scene together.
During this scene, Vai stretches her elbow to turn off a light switch while holding a tray. However, a sharp-eyed viewer will notice that she misses the switch completely yet still manages to turn off the lights.
The Goonies (1985)
Although The Goonies is a movie that so many people can watch again and again, it's hard for them not to get a little confused when they get to the end. This is because Data tells reporters that the scariest part of his friends' adventure was the "octopus," which instantly makes viewers wonder when the group encountered such a beast.
At long last, those viewers have their answer. There was a scene with a giant octopus that was cut from the final movie, but the filmmakers apparently forgot to take out this reference to it. Poor Data was telling the truth all along.
Joker (2019)
Although no character ever says it explicitly, Joker's viewers are guided by background details like the fact that a local movie theater is showing Blow Out and Zorro The Gay Blade to believe the movie was set in 1981.
Unfortunately, it seems the filmmakers were better film historians than advertising buffs because a commercial featuring the Energizer Bunny throws that time period into question. That's because the Energizer company confirms the bunny didn't appear in ads until 1989, almost a decade after he was supposed to appear in Joker.
Pretty Woman (1990)
While Julia Roberts' character, Vivian Ward, is sitting down to breakfast with the millionaire played by Richard Gere in Pretty Woman, she starts eating a croissant as he reads the paper.
However, during their conversation, her half-eaten croissant turns into a half-eaten pancake after the camera cuts from her to Gere and back again. It seems the millionaire is so rich he can order magic food.
Titanic (1997)
When he first meets Rose in Titanic, Jack Dawson mentions that he had gone ice fishing at Lake Wissota in Wisconsin. But the problem is that even if this is a lie, it's a lie that Dawson shouldn't have been able to tell.
According to The Chicago Tribune, Lake Wissota was created as the result of a hydroelectric project that began in 1915 and ended in 1917. That means by the time the Titanic sank in 1912, neither the lake nor the name would exist for years.
Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (2002)
When Lucius Malfoy confronts Dumbledore in his office at the end of Harry Potter In The Chamber Of Secrets, there's a moment that sees him standing displeased with his long, silver hair fanned out behind his shoulders.
Unfortunately, this shot is lit keenly enough from behind him that the viewer can see Jason Isaacs's short, brown hair peek out from under his longer wig.
The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
Soon after Dorothy and the Scarecrow meet in The Wizard Of Oz, they have a less-than-friendly encounter with a talking apple tree.
Viewers will likely recall that this exchange ended with the Scarecrow baiting the trees into throwing apples at him and falling over comically in the process. However, they may not have noticed that while this fall is taking place, Dorothy's iconic ruby slippers are briefly replaced by black shoes. In the next shot, they're red again.
Forrest Gump (1994)
After Forrest Gump sees success with the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company in the 1994 classic, he mentions that his friend Lieutenant Dan advised him to invest in Apple in 1975.
But as funny as it is to see Gump refer to the tech giant as "some fruit company," there would have been no way Dan could have advised this at the time. According to CNBC, that's because Apple's initial public offering didn't occur until December 12, 1980.
Bad Boys (1983)
In the 1983 juvenile detention movie Bad Boys, Sean Penn's character Mickey O'Brien gets into an intense fight with a rival named Paco Moreno.
However, the fight isn't so intense that it manages to misdirect the viewer's eye from the massive camera one of the cinematographers is blatantly using to record the brawl in one shot. While it's not unheard of for the film crew to accidentally show up sometimes, this scene sees the operator openly filming while someone perched next to him helps hold the camera steady.
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
One scene in 10 Things I Hate About You sees a coach accidentally get shot with an arrow, at which point a female student runs off to summon help.
However, it seems the actress playing this student wasn't given sufficient direction because soon after she starts running, the viewer can see her stop moving in the background and idly turn around to look back at the camera. The urgency is palpable.
Home Alone (1990)
A scene in Home Alone sees Kevin McCallister go grocery shopping, and one of the items he checks out is a bottle of Tide detergent, which the viewer sees him use soon after he gets home.
However, when Kevin's shopping bags break on the way home, and all his items tumble onto the sidewalk, that distinctly red bottle of detergent is suddenly missing.
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
In a pivotal scene in Top Gun: Maverick, a surface-to-air missile brings one of the main characters' planes down during an enemy base's aerial attack.
However, Forbes reported that viewers with military experience were quick to point out that sending Maverick's squad of fighters for that mission didn't make any sense when a cruise missile could've done the job. Even taking that aside, the squad's first priority on such a mission would be to take out the missile launchers for precisely the reason shown.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
During a scene where the patients in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest play basketball with the orderlies, Danny DeVito's character throws the ball against a fence, earning him an earful from Jack Nicholson's character.
But right as Nicholson starts reacting to this ill-advised throw, the viewer can look just slightly to the left of him and see a couple of film crew members standing behind the fence. Even more glaringly, they can also see two spotlights standing in front of it.
The Green Mile (1999)
Throughout The Green Mile, the threat of the fearsome electric chair looms over John Coffey and his fellow inmates in a 1930s Louisiana prison.
According to Variety, however, that wouldn't be the case in real life because the electric chair wasn't adopted as a method of execution in that state until 1940.
The Great Escape (1963)
Although Steve McQueen's outfit as Hilts in The Great Escape has been criticized as belonging more to the '60s than to a period where World War II POWs would be plotting their escape from a prison complex, that's not the main issue with his wardrobe.
Instead, the problem is that there's no way Hilts's captors would let him walk around in a civilian outfit at all, as this would make him an obvious flight risk. Instead, he would have been issued a prisoner uniform.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
While Andy Dufresne is crafting his escape plan in The Shawshank Redemption, he asks for a series of posters of celebrities. At first, this is a poster of Rita Hayworth poster, which is swapped for a Marilyn Monroe image, which is itself traded for a poster of Raquel Welch.
As Variety pointed out, however, that poster was in place by the time Dufresne makes his escape in 1966. That's simply not possible because Welch's picture is from a promotional poster for One Million Years B.C., a movie that wouldn't see its U.S. release until the following year.
Trainwreck (2014)
Although Trainwreck seems to end happily for the main character Amy Townsend, there's one aspect of that ending that simply could not happen the way it's laid out.
After she gets fired from S'Nuff Magazine, Amy takes the story on doctor Aaron Connors to Vanity Fair, who then publish it. Unfortunately, they would be unlikely to do so in real life because their editorial staff would be aware that since Amy wrote the story for S'Nuff, the magazine would hold the copyright for her article.
The Irishman (2019)
It's easy to miss in The Irishman's robust runtime, but one line struck the car enthusiasts in the audience as particularly strange.
In one scene, Russell Bufalino tells Frank Sheeran that the timing chain in his Chevrolet truck needs an adjustment. However, those truck models during the time the movie was set in didn't have a timing chain.
Ferdinand (2017)
In the animated film Ferdinand, the titular bull meets a little girl named Nina as a calf who gives him his name.
While that all sounds fine, it's actually the basis for a plot hole because, by the time Nina names him, Ferdinand was already called that by the other animals. And since the animals can only talk to each other in this movie, it comes as quite the coincidence that Nina just happened to give him the specific and unusual name he was already using.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
When two main characters are sitting in a movie theater in O Brother, Where Art Thou? a group of prison inmates are led into the theater from a side door.
But whether viewers notice it or not, the sign above the door these inmates enter from is a standard red "exit" sign common in American public buildings. According to Slate, however, the standards that dictated what those signs look like were still being hashed out by the time the movie takes place in the 1930s.
Mr. And Mrs. Smith (2005)
During a car chase that sees the titular secret agents of Mr. & Mrs. Smith fighting with enemies in three BMWs, it only takes one glance to take the audience out of the action.
That's because the viewer had long been told that the movie takes place in and around New York City. Unfortunately, the actual filming location breaks this immersion because, in a wide shot, there's a street sign that makes it clear this chase is happening in Los Angeles.
