Clearly, the ability to spot a good slip-up runs in the family. My brother Dan noticed a cost-cutting move when Don Dawson (Sasha Jenson) and Randall "Pink" Floyd (Jason London) are throwing garbage cans. Don, in a blue shirt with a watch on his wrist, picks up a can and throws it. Then "Pink", wearing (suprise) a pink shirt, and with a bare wrist, goes to pick up a can. But the arm (which is all we see) picking up the can is wearing a blue shirt and a watch. The director had used the same footage for both boys, figuring nobody would notice. Sorry. Never underestimate the power of a slip-spotter.
The Devil's Advocate (1997):
During the funeral of the detective killed by homeless people,
there's a scene where Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) sits down next to his wife, Mary Ann (Charlize Theron). She is wearing a stunning pair of diamond stud earrings. When the camera returns to her again in another shot, she is wearing a different pair. The jumpy jewelry caught Monica's eye.
Diamonds are Forever (1972):
The requesite car chase scene shows James Bond's (Sean Connery) car enter an alley tilted on two side wheels. John Elliot noticed that when the car emerges from the alley, it's tilted on the other two wheels.
Die Hard (1988):
Dead men don't tell tales, but as Brett Podwoiski points out, they sometimes move. When John McClane (Bruce Willis) makes his first kill and sends the bad guy down the elevator, the boss reads the ho! ho! ho! on his shirt and gently slaps the dead guy's face. At that instant the dead guy blinks and moves his head.
Super-dilligent flub-spotters David Keech, Tie, and Dave managed to find 13 gaffes from this flick in one viewing:
At the very opening of the film , a character (Hart Bochner) asks Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) out on a date, and she addresses him as Harry. Throughout the rest of the movie, and in the list of credits, he is only referred to as Ellis.
In the scence where Holly and John are arguing in the bathroom, pay close attention to the plant and light over Holly's right shoulder (left, by the viewer's perspective). The plant is directly behind the light in some shots, and in others is off to the side. Is this due to camera angles?
When John McClane walks to the elevator, he nods to a guard. In this scene two distinctly different statues are shown in the corridor. When Karl (Alexander Godunov) is in the same corridor, about to kill the guard, a completely different statue can be seen behind the guard.
Perhaps it is due to lighting, but look closely at John's pants in various scenes. In scenes in the stairwell they appear either black or dark navy blue. In scenes on floor #34, his pants appear green. And eventually, his pants are a dirty brown colour.
In the scene where the terrorists are unloading the weapons, you can clearly see Marco (Lorenzo Caccialanza) throw his red coat on to the weapon which is being carried. Yet, in the next shot, he is still carrying his jacket.
In the aforementioned "dead man blinks" scene, check out the position of the pom-pom on Tony's (Andreas Wisniewski) hat. It is near the front of his head when the elevator opens, and near the back of his head before anyone has touched or moved him in the next shot.
In the scene where John escpaes down the elevator shaft, pay carefull attention to the position of his right hand. In the first shot of him entering the elevator shaft, his right hand is holding the cable, as he braces himself with his left hand. Yet, when they show him bracing on his gun, it is with his right hand.
When Ellis is talking to John over the phone in Holly's office, one of the terrorists starts puring a Coca-Cola into a glass for Ellis. As we hear Ellis talking over the phone, we also hear the sound of the cola being poured into the glass for an extended period of time. Yet, when the scene returns to Ellis, the glass has very little cola in it.
There are obvious stunt doubles in the fight between John and Karl.
As Karl shoots John in the shoulder, John's blood splatters on the door. And yet when the door swings open and shut, we clearly see both sides of the door and neither has any blood on it.
When Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) is hanging on for his life, John's arm brushes against Holly's face, leaving a a bit of blood on her left cheek. The shot moves to Hans' face for a second, and then back to Holly's face which is now clean.
As all the supposed bonds fall to the ground, they are quite obviously blank sheets of paper, even though they had print on them when Hans and Theo were looking at them.
The characters (and, indeed, the film's tag line) mention several times that there are twelve terrorists, yet thirteen either die or get knocked out. In the credits, there are thirteen terrorists listed.
And then they went back and found a few more:
When John checks for Holly's name on the company computerized directory, he finds it under her maiden name, "Holly Gennaro." Yet, on her office, her name is spelled "Gennero."
Sgt. Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson) gets wounded when his car gets smashed up, and he is bleeding fairly badly from the forehead. As soon as Deputy Chief Dwayne Robinson (Paul Gleason) shows up though, all evidence of the wound has disappeared. There is no scar, residual blood, or any other evidence that a wound even existed.
When Hans and Karl are shooting at John, before Hans tells Karl to shoot the glass, John shoots at Karl and hits a small Christmas tree. Look closely at the shot before this, and you'll notice that the tree is already on its side, even though John has not yet knocked it over with a bullet.
When the terrorists shoot at the Police APC with the rocket
launcher, their SECOND shot shatters the glass in the window. So, how did they fire their first shot without shattering the glass?
While John is chatting over the radio with Al about their
respective families, there is a shot of John holding his wallet looking at his kids. How can he hold the wallet with two hands if he's still holding on to the radio, which he obviously is doing since he's talking to Al at that exact time.
Right after the fabulous hose stunt, John crashes through the window and lands on his back, and there is a split-second shot of something else, and when the camera returns to John, he's on his front. Can a person actually move that fast?
Keep an eye on John's left foot. His bandage does a cool
disappearing act, showing up sometimes, and not in others.
In another fight sequence, this time with Tony, it is obvious John is being played by a stunt double, because he has no tattoo on his left shoulder. Bruce Willis does have the tattoo.
And what film would be complete without an inside joke? Deputy Chief Robinson, talking about McClane, says, "He could be a bartender for all we know!" Before becoming an actor, Bruce Willis was a licensed bartender.
Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990):
A real bonus in the slip-spotting business is when I get not only a slip-up, but the explanation for it as well. This film takes place at the Washington, D.C. International Airport. However, when John McClane (Bruce Willis) makes a call at a pay phone, both Joseph Martin and Charlton C. Jones spotted the Pacific Bell logo on the phone. Joseph says it's because the D.C airport wouldn't allow the filming of a movie that painted such a bad picture of airports, so the film crew had to shoot the scene in L.A.
Michael Gillespie found what he calls one of the worst movie slipups he's ever seen. There is a scene where McClane is fighting with two guys on some sort of escalator thing and one guy is shooting at him from a scaffold. McClane pushes the scaffold over on top of the bad guy. If you look closely or pause the movie you can clearly see that it is a dummy and a very cheap
special effect.
Dr. Strangelove (1963):
A battle scene on a military base takes place at 3a.m. . . . in broad daylight. Joseph Martin shed light on the gaffe.
The Driver (1978):
In the final chase sequence, the transmission changes
from a "3 on the tree", to a "4 on the floor" and back again. Sean Maguire spotted the sticky shift.
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