Revealing mistake: Near the end when Ace gets into his Cadillac, in the first shot facing the front of the car, there is a protective glass in front of Ace (the same width as the windshield) with the dashboard in between that glass and the windshield. Note the vertical edge of the glass is visible at the right side, and the rearview mirror's sticker on the windshield casts a shadow onto the second glass. During the stunt, the flames on the dashboard are between the glass shield and the windshield, keeping the actor safe from harm. (02:46:05)
Visible crew/equipment: Just after Lovell secures the hatch for LM jettison, and Swigert states "Okay, pyro batts look good, I don't think we're gonna have to tie those other batteries," there is a visible bearded crew member wearing glasses and a hoodie on the lower right hand side of the screen. This is only visible in the fullscreen version. (02:01:00)
Visible crew/equipment: Near the end of the movie when the convoy is heading back to the Pakistan Stadium, a Humvee stops briefly to allow a man to walk across the street with a child in his arms. When the shot changes and the Humvee begins driving again, a crew member or cameraman is seen inside the Humvee wearing a white shirt. All of the men who entered the Humvee were wearing fatigues. (02:05:27)
Revealing mistake: When the 54th Mass. marches past a liberated plantation some black children wave them on. One of them is wearing a digital wristwatch.
Revealing mistake: When Ajax slams the hammer end of his spear into a man, he has his shield at his back. The top arrow in the shield is bent at a 90° angle and as Ajax moves the top (plastic) arrow droops down and the bottom arrow actually flops around. While still in the same location, when he sticks his spear into the sand and pulls the arrow out of his thigh, the arrows on his shield are gone. (00:42:20)
Continuity mistake: In the end of the movie, Hilts (Steve McQueen) is returned to the camp - he is dirty and his shirt is torn. When he enters the cooler, after being tossed his baseball glove, he is clean and his shirt is no longer torn. (02:49:50)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the three Confederate soldiers are about to be executed for desertion, a blindfold is placed around the deserter on the right. It is a narrow strip of cloth covering his eyes. The camera pans to the firing squad and then back to the three men. The blindfold on the deserter on the right, is now much wider.
Continuity mistake: During Danilov's escape sequence, there is a rollover of a vehicle. While the vehicle's wheels are still turning, the tyre tread is of a modern all-season radial. When you see the vehicle again, it is a tyre more fitting for the time period. (00:14:55)
Factual error: After the successful Trinity test in 1945, people in a crowd are holding small US flags with 50 stars on them (offset rows). At the time there were only 48 states and the flag had 48 stars in even rows. The 50 star flag didn't exist until 1960, after Alaska and Hawaii were made states in 1959.
Visible crew/equipment: When the Muslim armies approach Brendan Gleason's castle there is a side shot of the Muslims army coming to a halt. You can see the marker stake with yellow tape at the top (used during production as a mark). (01:10:10)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning, when Rochefort walks out onto the balcony to address the Musketeers in the courtyard, the guard on Rochefort's left obviously changes halberd/pikes between shots as they are completely different. (00:08:20)
Continuity mistake: The fan who came out onto the ice and draped a flag around Jim Craig's shoulders (a cameo by the film's director, by the way) put it on upside-down. The camera cuts away, then cuts back, and it's suddenly right-side up.
Continuity mistake: On the morning of July 20, Stauffenberg cuts himself while shaving, leaving a noticeable mark on his neck. After he arms the bomb at the Wolf's Lair, the cut disappears. (01:02:40 - 01:06:15)
Continuity mistake: When Nameless defeats Moon the first time in their duel as Broken Sword and Flying Snow fight, he holds his sword horizontally against her throat. In the next shot it's vertical. (01:03:50)
Continuity mistake: Angelica has flowers on her dress. During the wedding, they disappear and reappear between shots.
Continuity mistake: After the 2nd battle (when Joan got an arrow in the chest) she wakes up her soldiers the next morning and uses the tower to break down the English bridge. At the bottom of the bridge when its falling (inside the fort), no one is near the bridge when it's falling except the guy who bad-mouthed Joan earlier that morning. Then in another shot there are at least eight guys getting crushed by the bridge.
Continuity mistake: During the ambush on the river two Indian braves can be seen firing arrows one gets shot and dies but the brave who is left his hair and clothing are wet. The scene cuts away and when it cuts back to this brave he stands up only to get shot in the heart. He clutches his heart with both hands and then dies by falling into the river but now his clothes and hair are completely dry. It's clear that the earlier part was a retake after he fell in the river.
Factual error: At the end of the film a character is walking through a studio lot in 1952. Through the trees behind him can be seen a section of a poster advertising Jackass Forever (2022).
Continuity mistake: The shoulder buckle on the Oracle keeps switching shoulders during her trance scene.
Continuity mistake: Early in the film, Michael talks to Harry Boland on a boat. During this scene, a cigarette appears in Boland's mouth that was not in the previous shot. (00:40:40)
Suggested correction: While this is correct, an argument can be made that since the colour scenes are meant to be subjective and the black and white scenes are meant to be objective, Oppenheimer could have been unintentionally mapping the modern US flag onto this scene.
THGhost
That's a ridiculous stretch with zero evidence, not least as 48 star flags are seen in colour in other scenes. Sometimes a mistake is simply a mistake.
There is evidence, though. Nolan said so himself. Look it up. As for the mistake itself, I'm merely repeating what I've read on Twitter, and this correction was merely a suggestion. Seeing the 48 star flags in other colour scenes still doesn't disprove this theory. It is just a theory though, so no need to shoot it down so hard.
THGhost
He's said subjective in terms of the colour scenes being "first person", and maybe not strictly factual in terms of creating moments between characters and conveying emotion, but nowhere does that stretch to "one random scene happens to feature 50 star flags because Oppenheimer is mapping the modern flag onto it, when nothing like that happens anywhere else in the film."
Meh, take it up with Twitter. I just thought it was interesting, so I posted it here for a different point of view/perspective for others to read. It is most likely bull**** though.
THGhost
The fact that a director realized they had made a mistake and retroactively made up a deus ex machina explanation for it in no way invalidates the mistake. Nice try, Mr. Nolan but this posting is absolutely valid.
While Christopher Nolan's talked about the subjective/objective colour/black and white thing, which is entirely fair and no doubt exactly his intention, I don't think he's actually tried to "excuse" this by using that explanation, that's just other people trying to connect the two things. I'm not sure Nolan has commented on the flag issue in interviews at all.
Precisely, and I was in no way trying to invalidate the original mistake. I just found the whole theory interesting and posted it here. It is rather hilarious that a director with such attention to detail like Nolan would have missed something like this. We shall see if he gets it fixed for the streaming/physical release.
THGhost
It's not fixed in the home video version. However, the behind-the-scenes materials provide a reason for the mistake, in that putting a crowd in the scene was apparently a spur-of-the-moment decision. It's like that in their haste to bring in the crowd, the set decorators bought some modern miniature flags and put them into the scene without anyone realizing the 48/50 discrepancy.
Vader47000