The list below shows the total mistakes in movies by specific directors. It's going to be slightly skewed against directors of movies which attract lots of mistake-spotting attention, but unfortunately that's life. Below each director's details is the biggest mistake from movies they've directed - click their name to see everything they've done, or click the movie's title in the right hand column to see more from that film.
| Rank |
Director |
Total mistakes |
Biggest mistake in |
| 1 |
Steven Spielberg |
1810 |
Raiders of the Lost Ark |
| While Indy and Marion are in the Well of Souls, and they encounter the snakes, Indy falls to the ground only to be confronted by a hissing Cobra rearing its head. Look carefully and you'll see the snake's reflection on the safety glass between it and Indy. Briefly you can also see the torch's reflection while he's waving it around. [This has been corrected in the new DVD set. You can only see it if you have the original VHS. I think it's visible in the "making of" on the DVD as well.] |
|
| 2 |
Peter Jackson |
1038 |
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers |
| Merry and Pippin were bound when taken by the Uruk-hai, and the bonds weren't cut until after they managed to escape during the fight. Yet, when the horse almost crashed down on Pippin, he had his arms spread out up near his face, not bound, even though they weren't cut until later. In the next shot, his hands are bound again. |
|
| 3 |
Michael Bay |
842 |
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen |
| When Sam is in his bedroom, after he finds the Cube sliver it falls and dramatically burns a hole through the bedroom floor, making its way through the kitchen ceiling, and when it lands on the table it transforms the kitchen appliances. This is quite impossible since Sam's bedroom is in fact over the living room (there is nothing on the ground floor below Sam's elevated bathroom, and in the first movie Jazz hides in this open space as Ron mentions a blown transformer), and the kitchen is actually located between the den and dining room, at the other end of the house. The house has both a den and a living room - the couch in the den faces a flat screen TV on the wall, and the couch in the living room faces the fireplace with paintings on the mantle. If they were to follow the actual floor plan of the house, the Cube sliver would have landed in the area of the piano in the living room, but where would the fun have been in that? |
|
| 4 |
George Lucas |
787 |
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith |
| On Utapau, when Obi-Wan faces off with Grievous, Grievous sends 4 magma droids at Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan force-pulls something from the ceiling to crush the droids. But in the ensuing fight between Obi-Wan and Grievous afterward, the ceiling thing and crushed droids are gone. |
|
| 5 |
Francis Ford Coppola |
780 |
The Godfather |
| When Sonny is punching Carlo under the spraying fire hydrant, he misses an audible punch by at least six inches. |
|
| 6 |
Chris Columbus |
731 |
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets |
| In the dueling scene, when Snape pulls Malfoy back onto his feet, a cameraman is visible on the far left of the screen. |
|
| 7 |
Gore Verbinski |
706 |
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl |
| Just as Jack says, "On deck, you scabrous dogs," to the very left edge of the screen over Jack's shoulder is a grip crew member with a tan cowboy hat, white short sleeve tee shirt and sunglasses, just standing there looking out to sea. |
|
| 8 |
Robert Zemeckis |
684 |
Back to the Future |
| When Marty is being chased by the Libyans, a few times it cuts away to show the instrumentation in the car. The first time the odometer reads 33064.2 and the trip counter says 88.8; the second time it's goes back a little to 33061.8 and 86.4. A few seconds later we see it as he turns the corner, and it goes down again from 33,061.8 to 32,994.4, the trip counter has gone from 86.4 to 19. In fact it's a completely different set of instrumentation - the bottom of the needle's angled in some shots and flat in others. |
|
| 9 |
Alfred Hitchcock |
665 |
North by Northwest |
| In the shooting scene in the Mount Rushmore cafe, a boy in the background puts his fingers in his ears, because he knows the gun is about to be shot. |
|
| 10 |
Richard Donner |
658 |
The Goonies |
| After Chunk does the 'Truffle Shuffle' and Mikey releases the bowling ball, we see the horizontal piece of wood that is painted red and attached to the porch rail, from which the silver bucket is lowered. It's seen in many shots. What's funny is that in the first shot of the Walsh's house, after the Fratellis drive past at the bottom of the hill, that piece of wood is white, because it hasn't been painted red yet by the crew. |
|
| 11 |
Sam Raimi |
657 |
Spider-Man |
| When Mary Jane is being mugged by four men, Spider-Man throws two of the men into two windows behind Mary Jane. The shot switches to Spider-Man beating up the other two guys. When it cuts back to Mary Jane the two windows are intact. |
|
| 12 |
James Cameron |
633 |
Terminator 2: Judgment Day |
| The T-1000 punches his body through the window of a helicopter to get inside. An instant later, the hole in the windshield is gone. |
|
| 13 |
Tim Burton |
547 |
Planet of the Apes (2001) |
| The "video history" of the crashed USAF ship makes it very clear that the planet is uninhabited when they "landed". I can understand how a race of apes develops - they had a bunch of them on board. I can understand how a race of humans develops - they are descendants of the original crew. What I don't understand is... where the heck did all the horses come from? |
|
| 14 |
Victor Fleming |
470 |
Gone With The Wind |
| Scarlett is seen walking on the main street on the way to the hospital. You can clearly see a light bulb in one of the street lights. |
|
| 15 |
Ridley Scott |
459 |
Gladiator |
| In the "Battle of Carthage" in the Colosseum, one of the chariots is turned over. Once the dust settles you can see a gas cylinder in the back of the chariot. |
|
| 16 |
Roland Emmerich |
413 |
Independence Day |
| When Jasmine is running in the tunnel, she kicks open the door just in time to save herself, her son, and the dog. The terrible fireball then goes right by them. They are just inside the open door, with fire and debris flying right past it. While the fire and debris might not spill in, the heatwave would still fry them. |
|
| 17 |
Jay Roach |
363 |
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery |
| When Austin enters the bathroom at the casino, keep your eyes on the door during the scene - it opens by itself before closing. |
|
| 18 |
Jan de Bont |
353 |
Twister |
| During the big falling debris scene, Paxton and Helen Hunt are in the red truck. The truck hits a tractor. The impact damages the windshield, and it is clearly broken, but a second later the windshield is perfect and untouched. |
|
| 19 |
Robert Rodriguez |
353 |
From Dusk Till Dawn |
| Throughout the entire film the tattoo on George Clooney's neck moves position and changes shape. |
|
| 20 |
Alfonso Cuarón |
345 |
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban |
| It was a deliberate directorial decision to change the geography of Hogwarts, but it still grates with continuity. Most of the Buckbeak scenes happen around Hagrid's hut, which is down all those steps and near the forest. However in the Philosopher's Stone, Hagrid's hut is about 5 seconds walk from one of the main entrances of the school, nowhere near a load of steps and huge hill. Also, the Whomping Willow (which itself differs greatly) is on the grounds of the castle, as you see it on flat land when Harry and Ron land the flying car in the Chamber of Secrets, however in this one it is right away from the school next to quite rocky land. |
|
| 21 |
Tony Scott |
342 |
Top Gun |
| At the end, a victorious Maverick is hoisted on the shoulders of the guys. As he goes up, he isn't wearing sunglasses. His head goes out of the shot, and when he comes down, he's wearing a pair. |
|
| 22 |
Sidney J. Furie |
332 |
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace |
| When Superman and the super villain are fighting on the moon, when Superman flies in and lands at the beginning of the fight, you can see the cables that are suspending him. |
|
| 23 |
Ron Howard |
329 |
A Beautiful Mind |
| When Nash is put into the car and is being taken away to the hospital, there is a line of people watching him drive away. Two of the spectators are the imaginary roommate and the little girl. They are standing in front of rest of the spectators. As the car is driving away you see a female student look around the imaginary roommate to see the moving car. If the roommate can only be seen by Nash why did she need to look around the roommate to watch the car drive away? |
|
| 24 |
Wes Craven |
328 |
Scream |
| When Sidney comes running to the house and she sees Dewey come out with the knife in his back she screams "Dewey!" but her mouth says "no!" |
|
| 25 |
David Zucker |
315 |
Scary Movie 3 |
| When Tom is holding the glass oil lamp (start of Michael Jackson scene), the glass is first clear, then darkened black by smoke, then clear again. |
|
| 26 |
Wolfgang Petersen |
304 |
Troy |
| As Achilles' ship nears the Trojan shores, Agamemnon snidely asks, "What's the fool doing? He's going to take the beach of Troy with fifty men?" At the start of the next shot, as the camera begins to pan down, on the far right, just beside a person's (who is dressed in blue) head is a metal bullhorn (ie. used to give instructions to cast/crew, and which definitely doesn't belong in this time period). |
|
| 27 |
Stephen Sommers |
300 |
The Mummy Returns |
| In the British Museum, when Rick and Ardeth are saving Evie, Rick gives her a .45 pistol and they start to shoot the guards, her pistol fires once and the slide locks back meaning the pistol had no ammo, but she keeps firing as if the magazine was still full. |
|
| 28 |
Quentin Tarantino |
299 |
Kill Bill: Volume 2 |
| When Bill is cutting the crusts off a sandwich towards the end, he cuts two off, goes to remove the third, then the angle changes and he's now cutting it in half. After that we hear him sweep the crusts off the board and see him hand the sandwich to BB, then a shot or two later crusts are back on the board and he cleans them off again to make another sandwich. |
|
| 29 |
Martin Scorsese |
284 |
Gangs of New York |
| In the scene of Bill the Butcher lying in bed with the naked women, one woman has a noticeable tan line from a bikini - a bit early for the bikini... |
|
| 30 |
John McTiernan |
277 |
The 13th Warrior |
| In a scene in a cave that is the lair of the "eaters of the dead," the camera takes an overhead wide angle shot of the "eaters" walking down into the cave. It is possible to see a young man wearing a burgundy t-shirt and beige shorts (a crew member), sitting against the wall of the cave cross-legged. |
|
| 31 |
Ivan Reitman |
271 |
Ghostbusters |
| There's a scene where Dana's building is falling apart and stones and stuff are falling to the street below. One of the huge boulders bounces off a wooden police barricade in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. |
|
| 32 |
Joel Schumacher |
268 |
The Phantom of the Opera |
| At the end when Meg steps out of the water, her pants are wet. However, when she enters the bedroom and finds the Phantom's mask, her pants are perfectly dry. |
|
| 33 |
John Woo |
263 |
Mission: Impossible 2 |
| The tyres on the crotch rocket motorcycles they were riding kept changing from knobbly tyres to road slicks, back and forth depending on what terrain they were on. Easiest to see when Ethan skids on the road to avoid the white van - clear shot of slick tyres - then about 30 seconds later they're on the dirt, he skids into the old car and you can easily see that he's got off-road tyres front and back. |
|
| 34 |
Shawn Levy |
260 |
Cheaper by the Dozen |
| After Mark is found, he runs into Kate's arms and hugs her and her sunglasses fall off her head, but then in the very next shot they're back on her head perfectly. |
|
| 35 |
Gary Trousdale |
260 |
Beauty and the Beast |
| In the 'Gaston' song sequence, near the end, Gaston is sitting in his huge antler chair with Lefou. In the wide shot, there is a bear rug behind the chair. The camera does a close up of Gaston, then in the next wide shot, the chair is on top of the bear rug. Also, after this, Gaston gets up off of the chair and in the next shot, both the chair and the rug disappear completely. |
|
| 36 |
Renny Harlin |
251 |
Die Hard 2 |
| The payphone McClane uses in Dulles airport has the "Pacific Bell" logo. Pacific Bell is a West Coast phone company. |
|
| 37 |
Richard Lester |
247 |
Superman II |
| In the town in Texas when General Zod and his crew first visit, watch when the boy's father (elevated by Zod's finger) falls to the ground. You can see the pad under the dirt when he hits it. |
|
| 38 |
Rob Cohen |
242 |
The Fast and the Furious |
| In the final racing scene, when Dominic's car hits the truck and flips in the air, you can clearly see the stunt driver's helmet as the car turns in the air. |
|
| 39 |
Paul Verhoeven |
241 |
Basic Instinct |
| During the famous leg un-crossing scene when SS is being interrogated, a cigarette in her hand disappears and then reappears, but who was looking at her hand at the time? |
|
| 40 |
Irvin Kershner |
239 |
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back |
| When Captain Needa is killed by Darth Vader because they lost track of the Millennium Falcon, in the background, two guards come to take him away. You can clearly see the dead captain get up almost by himself. |
|
| 41 |
Rob Reiner |
236 |
The Princess Bride |
| In the scene where they're tumbling down the hill, Buttercup has a beard. |
|
| 42 |
John Glen |
229 |
Octopussy |
| In the scene where Bond is trying to escape with his new Mini-Jet, he flies through a big hall. If you look carefully, you can see that the aeroplane which is supposed to be flying with its wings vertical is fastened to some kind of sustainer. |
|
| 43 |
Guy Hamilton |
227 |
Diamonds are Forever |
| When Bond escapes from the Willard Whyte facility in the desert in the moon buggy, a car that is chasing him goes over a ridge and turns on its side as the buggy speeds by. A wheel rolls back into the shot, all on its own. It doesn't belong to the car, or the three three wheelers also chasing, but looks like it belongs to the buggy, which has its full compliment of wheels all through the scene. |
|
| 44 |
Lewis Gilbert |
224 |
Sink the Bismarck |
| Here's a big historical mistake. The character of German Admiral Lütjens is depicted overall in this film as a wild-eyed Nazi fanatic. In real life, he was distinctly anti-Nazi, vehemently protested the anti-Semitic actions of Hitler's regime, and was himself subject to intense Nazi scrutiny as he was a quarter Jewish and his wife was half Jewish. He was one of many German naval officers who fought only for their country, not Hitler. |
|
| 45 |
Martin Campbell |
216 |
Casino Royale |
| In a scene towards the end of the movie where Bond and Vesper are lying on the beach, Bond has sand on his back through most of the scene. When they start to kiss, in the distant shot towards the end of the scene, he has no sand on his back at all. |
|
| 46 |
Christopher Nolan |
210 |
Inception |
| When they escape from the building in the first dream, the right-hand mirror of the van is broken by the narrow gate. In the following shot when they are driving, the other mirror is broken and the right mirror is suddenly undamaged. (Not due to flipped shot, note license plate.) |
|
| 47 |
William Friedkin |
205 |
The Exorcist |
| Near the beginning of the movie, the old priest is in Northern Iraq and you can see the shadow of a microphone on his hat. |
|
| 48 |
Richard Marquand |
204 |
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi |
| When Lando says "Go on, you pirate" his entire outfit is reversed - his shoulder holster strap goes the other way, and his rank insignia changes side too. |
|
| 49 |
Tom Shadyac |
200 |
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective |
| When Ace and Melissa are in bed together having sex if you look close enough you can see that she is wearing underwear. |
|
| 50 |
John Landis |
197 |
Coming to America |
| When Akeem and Semmi get their apartment, the landlord says that the room has only one window facing a brick wall. But when Akeem is out on the fire escape, he yells out to a street, not a wall. And there are two windows. |
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