Men in Black
Men in Black mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Just before the diner scene, where the two aliens are discussing the galaxy, we see the outside of the Russian restaurant. The neon sign says "haroshaya" meaning "good" all the way across the window, in the next shot inside the restaurant, the "ha", which looks like the English letters "xo", is gone and the sign is centered. (00:41:00)

Continuity mistake: When J is changing in to his suit, he reaches in to the locker with his right hand and pulls out a hanger with a pair of trousers and a jacket on it. His forearm is bare and he isn't wearing a watch. Seconds later when he takes the shoes out of the locker with his left hand, his forearm is now covered by the long sleeve of a white shirt and he has a silver watch on. A few seconds later when he lays the jacket over the bench, both his forearms are bare and again he isn't wearing a watch.

Men in Black mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the truck gets smashed at the start, the tree beside the truck is well alight, but when the man comes out of the house, it is only a little alight. (00:12:40)

Ssiscool

Continuity mistake: When the jeweller leaves his shop, the shop window clearly shows the reflection of the parked exterminator's van. Then you see the van being driven up the cross-street as the jeweller leaves in the taxi. Then Edgar/bug parks the van, goes to the shop, and you can see the same reflection in the jewellery shop window. (00:38:35)

Continuity mistake: When the countdown timer for the destruction of Earth appears on the viewscreen, you see it count down to 59:56. There is a cut to three cast members including Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones for a brief dialogue scene. When it cuts to Will Smith walking away you can see the clock still counting down on the screen in the background. Now it is showing the time of 59:54. The aforementioned dialogue section took noticeably longer than two seconds. (01:15:45)

Continuity mistake: In the restaurant scene, the jewel case containing the diamonds is to Mr. Rosenberg's right, but when the Arquillian asks what it is, the jewel case is to Mr. Rosenberg's left. (00:41:55)

Continuity mistake: When J and K first get in the car (the Ford POS),the windows keep switching from up to down. Interior shots Will Smith's window is up, exterior shots his window is down. (00:40:30)

Continuity mistake: When the UFO crashes against the ground, K's hair moves wildly in the front shot, but remains still in the angle shot from behind. (01:21:00)

Sacha

Continuity mistake: Throughout the whole movie it is summer. Green trees with leaves, green grass, etc. After the scene where Will Smith is deciding to become a Man in Black (summer), there is a shot of the Bug Mobile driven by Edgar where it is obviously winter. A wide shot of Manhattan with steam coming out of the tops of some of the buildings, and some trees without leaves in the background (winter). Then in the next scene and those following it is back to summer. (00:31:20)

Continuity mistake: In the beginning of the film when "Edgar" kills the exterminator, the exterminator's truck has a small almost unnoticeable plastic roach decoration on top. Yet during the rest of the movie the roach is huge and it sticks up away from the vehicle. (00:22:30 - 00:33:20)

Men in Black mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the cat in on the table in the diner, the word "ORION" on the cat's collar is in normal capitalized block lettering. But when the cat is on the table in the morgue, the word "ORION" is in calligraphy. Also, the colour of the cat's collar seems to change between these two points. (00:42:40 - 01:08:15)

Continuity mistake: In the beginning, when K shoots Mikey, one of the cops gets covered with blue slime all over his face and hat. Watch the right side of the hat: The length of the slime differs between the front and back shots. It's more seen when the scene is about to end and the slime starts to fall down in the front shot, but stays still in the back one. (00:07:25)

Sacha

Men in Black mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Will Smith and the other recruits are taking their written tests, the white table first appears to be situated between the second and third men from the left. When Smith goes to the table to pull it across the room, it is much further to the right of the scene. (00:24:25 - 00:26:35)

Continuity mistake: After Kay neuralizes Jay the first time, Jay 'wakes' up in a restaurant and Kay hands Jay a card. He tells him to report to that location. The address can be seen written on the back on the bottom edge of the card. Jay flips the card over to read the address and it's still on the bottom edge of the card. When flipped, the address should now be on the top edge of the card. (00:22:00)

ChiChi

Continuity mistake: When J is trapped by a tentacle of the alien woman in the car, the first seconds of him being dragged up and down he casts no shadow on the ground. Later on when the tentacle is extended he does cast a small shadow. (00:44:10)

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When the Mexican alien is running away, the whole scene is all wrong: He runs for a long time and passes by many bushes and cacti, but when K takes out his gun, the alien is just 10 meters away. Plus, from the POV angle, he passes by the cactus to the left of the guard twice. (00:06:50)

Sacha

Continuity mistake: The MIB applicants are all sitting in the testing room and Zed talks about how they are all the best of the best of the best like, "Rangers, Navy SEALs, NYPD". The only sailor sitting in the room is not a SEAL, he's EOD. You can tell because he is not wearing the Special Warfare badge on his uniform, he's wearing the badge for Explosive Ordnance Disposal. (00:24:35 - 00:27:30)

Continuity mistake: When J and K are shooting their guns at the space ship toward the end, if you look carefully, you can see the spark that ignites their guns to have the fire come out of the barrel. (01:20:25)

Revealing mistake: When Will Smith throws a rock at the escaping Edgar alien, if you watch the rock after it hits the alien, it disappears after hitting the ground. (01:23:20)

More mistakes in Men in Black

Large cop: If you were half the man I am... [Jay looks pointedly at policeman's stomach] I am half the man you are!

More quotes from Men in Black
Men in Black trivia picture

Trivia: At the end of the credits, instead of the usual "no animals were harmed in the making of this movie", the words "no aliens were harmed in the making of this movie" appear. (01:37:20)

garok89

More trivia for Men in Black

Question: When we first see MIB headquarters, K says that the little destructive energy ball thing is "a little practical joke by the Great Attractor." As far as I can tell, the Great Attractor is just a gravitational anomaly, so how could it play practical jokes?

Answer: Yes, "the Great Attractor" can refer to a specific anomaly in the Centaurus Supercluster, but that is a far cry from saying that the term can only refer to that specific anomaly. It is completely possible for a high-tech prankster and/or performer to use the name "the Great Attractor." It's like saying "the Boss" when referring to Springsteen. The term means a manager over a group of people in a place of work, but he can still use it as a stage name.

Garlonuss

More questions & answers from Men in Black

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.