Duel
Duel mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: When David's car gets stuck on the bus bumper, the next shot is of the bus' black bumper and the side of the car. At the top of the black bumper there are two people seen in the reflection. The person on the left turns and takes a step to the right.

Duel mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: When David Mann stops off at the reptile lady's place, he enters a phone booth to call the police. When he's inside, you can see a perfect reflection of Spielberg. Look how young he looks.

Duel mistake picture

Continuity mistake: At the end of the film, David Man comes to a dead end, so he spins the car around and waits for the truck to appear. When the truck appears from over the hill, take a look at the very next shot of the truck from the front, and you will notice that the large exhaust on the side of the truck has moved from left to right and back to left again. (01:21:00)

Duel mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When David Mann crashes his car against the truck near the end of the movie, the car's frontal bodywork inexplicably returns as brand new in one shot and back smashed again.

Duel mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When David Mann is at the cafe, the waitress brings over his sandwich and water. He immediately drinks all of the water, yet when the shot changes to above the table, of him looking at his sandwich, the glass of water is completely full again.

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

Suggested correction: There is an empty glass next to the full glass.

The mistake is valid. David drank all his water before getting his food and asked the waitress for another glass of water and aspirin. She then brought him the food, aspirin, and 2nd glass of water. He drinks all the water after taking the aspirin and sets the empty glass down. In the next shot he's holding a glass with water. There should be two empty glasses.

Bishop73

Duel mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: Near the end of the film, while Dennis Weaver is finally starting to get a good lead on the truck, the top of director Steven Spielberg's head is visible in the reflection of the back seat in the rear-view mirror.

Duel mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When David has the accident and crashes his car against the fences, he steps out of it and closes the door, but when he comes back to go on his own way, the car door is inexplicably open. (00:26:49 - 00:42:52)

Duel mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the movie where David begins to take advantage over the truck driver, and he turns on right towards the climb also breaking the cartels and fences, the weather changes in two shots: it's cloudy before and sunny immediately after.

Duel mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When David returns on his way after sleeping, he first wears his glasses in a shot, but when he suddenly brakes after seeing the truck stopped on the side of the highway, his glasses are gone. (01:03:07)

Duel mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After the truck tried to make David's car hit by the train dabbing it from behind, the car has a dent on the right rear light, but in a following scene, the dent has vanished. (00:53:09 - 00:54:30)

Duel mistake picture

Continuity mistake: While David is sitting at the table in Chuck's Cafe, the ashtray is unused, but moves around the table several times. Cutlery changes position too, in two different shots.

Wendy D

Visible crew/equipment: When Dennis Weaver is in the cafe a shadow of a cameraman is cast across the table he is sitting at. The shot then changes to a wider angle to reveal that there isn't anyone near him who could have cast that shadow.

More mistakes in Duel

David Mann: I'd like to report a truck driver who's been endangering my life.

More quotes from Duel

Trivia: At the end of the film when the truck goes off the cliff, we hear an odd groaning sound. This is a dinosaur growl from an old movie Spielberg likes. Interestingly, this same sound is also used at the end of Jaws as the shark sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Spielberg did this to show that Jaws and Duel would always be closely connected.

More trivia for Duel

Question: Where was David Mann actually going? And where from? As in, which states? He seemed to be travelling for hours even before he met the truck and seemed to have a long way to go yet.

The_Iceman

Chosen answer: The movie opens with him in downtown Los Angeles, California, so he's probably from there or somewhere in Southern California. He's heading to Bakersfield, California, which is north, about 2 hours away. In the short story, he's heading to a client in San Francisco. However, in the film he gets off the main freeway running from LA to Bakersfield (IH-5) and takes Highway 14 towards Canyon Country.

Bishop73

More questions & answers from Duel

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.