Continuity mistake: In the exterior front shots of Elliott's house there are some significant changes to the landscape in different shots. For instance, the two lampposts at the bottom of the driveway change to an entirely different style in some shots, and the huge garden boulders repeatedly vanish and reappear. Also, note when Michael takes off on Elliott's bike to go search for ET, the in-ground lamppost that should be beside the mailbox has vanished, but it reappears when all the government agents are setting things up outside the house.
Continuity mistake: When the twins are singing about Brad for the talent show, and Michael was playing the piano (you have to listen and watch), his hands are suppose to go across the keys but he is still doing the fake up-and-down-hand-move.
Continuity mistake: In one scene, Nick Nolte is driving Eddie Murphy around in a convertible. First you see Murphy in handcuffs, then no cuffs, he's got one arm on the back of the seat, and then back with the handcuffs on.
Continuity mistake: When Brad Hamilton is pouring the coffee in the machine at the Mi-T-Mart, there is a clock on the wall next to the battery display, but when the guy comes in to rob the place, the clock is gone and there is a Hostess Fruit Pie poster there now. (01:23:00)
Continuity mistake: Near the end after the mob goes over the cliff and Jim is chasing the horses through a snow patch, another rider on a light colored horse can be seen on the right. (01:36:00)
Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the movie, Richard Gere's friend hangs himself in the shower. Notice how many times his friend goes from nude to wearing underwear.
Continuity mistake: When De Niro's character gets in the limousine with Lewis' character he has a hurt hand. He wraps it with a handkerchief. As the scene progresses the handkerchief disappears and reappears depending on the camera angle. (00:07:15)
Continuity mistake: The woman reporter was walking behind Gandhi at the beginning of the movie. At the end, in the "repeat," she wasn't.
Continuity mistake: During "Comfortably Numb," the wad of cash shoved into the hotel manager's top pocket by Pink's manager disappears and reappears between shots.
Continuity mistake: There is a long scene wherein Meryl Streep is sitting in a bay window going on about something. When we first see her, her eyes are brown. Moments later, they are blue. At the end of the scene they are brown again.
Continuity mistake: When Dustin Hoffman (dressed as Dorothy) goes to babysit for Jessica Lange he takes a bunch of flowers as a present. Jessica Lange takes them from him and throws them on the kitchen table. Then she walks into the kitchen (shot from different angle) still holding the flowers and throws them on the table (again).
Continuity mistake: When Terry Corrigan goes mad and teaches his students at gun point, he asks one of the thugs a question and holds his gun right up to his face. The tip of the gun is almost touching the thug's face, but from a different angle, the gun is further away.
Continuity mistake: The sequence in which Dragon is chasing Mrs. Brisby through the field, up the tree and eventually into the mill's lake, watch his eyes. The original placement is (from viewer's perspective) blue on the right and gold on the left. When he chases her up the tree the gold one is visible on the right, it then switches back when the camera cuts back to a wide shot. This happens again a few seconds later near the lake.
Continuity mistake: When Hartmuts mother opens the bottle the bottletop is already off before she even touches the bottle.
Continuity mistake: When Poirot and the others get ferried to the island the pile of luggage at the bow is arranged differently when they arrive. (00:15:30)
Continuity mistake: In the kitchen scene when Steve Guttenberg has asked his mom to make him breakfast she chases him around the kitchen with a knife. First the blade is down in her hand, then up, then down again.
Continuity mistake: At one point in the film, the wingspan of Q is mentioned. Later on, its length is mentioned. The monster is twenty feet longer than its wingspan.
Continuity mistake: When Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn are left alone to write the final scene to a movie, Goldie says she needs air, so Burt takes a trash can and breaks out a window. In the next shot, more of the window is broken out than was shown previously.
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the film when Jessica Lange, playing Frances Farmer, runs away from her parents' home in Seattle, Washington and takes on the life of a vagrant. She is seen hitchhiking on a road, which is obviously adjacent to a desert and looks very much like southern California. When the police pick her up and drive her back home, in what seems like a short period of time, she is transported back to the Seattle landscape surrounding her parents' home.
Continuity mistake: As Garp is being placed aboard the helicopter, the rotor motor can be heard spinning, but there is no downdraft affecting the people in the scene.