Best history movie continuity mistakes of all time

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The Irishman picture

Continuity mistake: When a man attacks Hoffa in court, Hoffa's son attacks him, then in the next shot he is not up from his chair. (01:22:47)

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Dunkirk picture

Continuity mistake: When the Stukas are shown bombing the beach, they drop a single bomb, but from beach level, you see sticks of bombs landing.

freedom2006

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The Stukas are dropping SD-2 canister bombs, a particularly nasty anti-personnel weapon. Upon release from the aircraft the bomb divided into the bomblets you see here.

First known use was bombing of England, no evidence they were used at Dunkirk. Also, the SD-2 was smaller and produced numerous small explosions. The ones we see in Dunkirk are larger and much bigger than anything the little SD-2 could ever produce - so the original criticism sticks.

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Patriots Day picture

Continuity mistake: When the police are moving in to arrest Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the shot shows an FBI SWAT officer grabbing him. But in the next cut, the officer changes to a Boston Police Officer while changing back to a FBI Officer in the following shot.

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The Untouchables picture

Continuity mistake: When Eliot Ness is at Jim Malone's house for the first time, Malone's collar is opened, then buttoned, then open again.

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Oppenheimer picture

Continuity mistake: Near the end of the movie, when Oppenheimer is being interrogated in the small room, his lawyer is on the phone (we later find out it's Kitty). In a wide shot, he gives Oppenheimer the phone, and he puts it to his left ear. The next shot is a tight shot of Oppenheimer's face with the phone to his right ear.

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Hamilton picture Hamilton mistake picture Video

Continuity mistake: Angelica has flowers on her dress. During the wedding, they disappear and reappear between shots.

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The Social Network picture The Social Network mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Eduardo finds the letter on the mantlepiece about them apparently stealing the idea for Facebook and asks Mark if they did or not, he places a bottle on the mantlepiece just before he finds the letter. This bottle rotates slightly between shots without him touching it after placing it down. (00:49:15)

THGhost

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Midway picture

Continuity mistake: When the American torpedo bomber attacks the first carrier, it gets shot up and flies past the carrier, crashing into the sea, at which point it becomes a single seat fighter.

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Troy picture Troy mistake picture

Continuity mistake: While Ajax and Hector fight, Hector head butts Ajax, and three shots later in a wide shot, half of the hammer end of his unusual spear actually breaks and falls to the ground behind him to his left. But lo and behold, in the next close-up the bloody hammer end (bloodier than the previous shot) of his spear is whole and intact. (01:20:00)

Super Grover

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Munich picture

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Avner shoots the first Palestinian, the dead man falls forward onto his groceries, but the next time the body is seen, he is lying on his back.

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Zulu picture

Continuity mistake: When Corporal Allen pulls Private Hitch off the ramparts when Hitch is shooting at Zulu's in the hills with his pith helmet on backwards, Hitch gets shot in the leg, and Allen pulls him in. Allen is shot in the chest, he clutches his chest, falls inside ramparts with blood underneath his clutching hand. When you see him after camera cut he is clutching the OTHER side of his chest.

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12 Strong picture

Continuity mistake: When the soldiers arrive at the Alamo, the soldier with the glasses is reading a book with a white cover. In the next shot, he is reading one with a red cover.

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Midway picture

Continuity mistake: When the B-26 bombers from Midway attack (aside from being to many as mentioned in another posted mistake) the overhead view of the formation shows the B-26 in the back, middle of the formation hit. Both engines erupt in flames and the bomber starts to drop from the formation. The scene then cuts to the Japanese gunners' perspective, showing the B-26 formation from below. The bomber in the back, middle of the formation is no longer on fire and moments later the B-26 just forward and to the left is hit and the engines start to burn. If this was intended to show an overlap in time of the same scene, as simultaneously viewed from two different perspectives, then the visual effects of the flames, from the Japanese perspective, was applied to the wrong bomber in the formation.

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Brotherhood of the Wolf picture

Continuity mistake: When the members of the brotherhood beat up Mani until he is dead, they pick him up above their heads. The tattoo on his torso appears to be on his right side, whereas in previous and following scenes the tattoo is on his left side. That shot is flipped.

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Sink the Bismarck picture

Continuity mistake: The Bismarck is sighted by a British agent in southern Norway, sailing out of the Baltic into the North Sea - east to west. But the view through the agent's binoculars shows the ship sailing from right to left on the screen - which would be sailing west to east from the point of view of an observer on the Norwegian coast.

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Three Kings picture

Continuity mistake: In one scene, some of Saddam's troops pour oil all over Mark Whalberg's face (while forcing him to bite down on a CD so it runs into his mouth) in an attempt to torture him. The next scene, when he is rescued, he has nothing but the requisite smudges and "movie dirt" on his face. Apparently the Iraqis decided to clean the oil slick off of his face before he got rescued.

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K-19: The Widowmaker picture

Continuity mistake: During the briefing Alexei Vostrikov was receiving from the Generals, he has three stars on his shoulders, but for the most of the rest of the movie he only has two stars on his shoulders.

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Enemy at the Gates picture

Continuity mistake: In the scene taking place at the fountain, Danilov's rifle has a round receiver. When he hands the rifle over to Zaitsev, the rifle has a hex receiver. When Zaitsev hands the rifle back, the rifle has a round receiver again. (00:17:30)

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The Passion of the Christ picture

Continuity mistake: When Jesus tells Peter to stop fighting against the temple guards when in the garden, you can see the background behind him: a small tree by a large one. The shot cuts to Peter and then back to Jesus telling him to again stop. The background is now reversed.

sdgirl98

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