The Poseidon Adventure (1972) - 16 mistakes

Visible crew/equipment: When Susan jumps from the inverted table to the curtain held taut by the men below, you can see the shadow of the microphone on the curtain and defined near the top.

Continuity: When Gene Hackman shakes the metal doors that lead to the shaft, in a close-up he unlatches the small latch holding the doors together. After a cut showing some water filling up the passageway, it cuts back to the shaft where the metal doors are shaking, but the hook is now latched again.

Visible crew/equipment: When Rev. Scott swims up the first stairwell, after pushing aside the dead crew member, as his head comes up the shaft, you can see, very quickly, the flippers of a crewmember swimming out of the shot behind him.

Continuity: Before she dies, Shelley Winters asks Gene Hackman to give her husband a necklace with a charm of the symbol of life to pass on to her grandson, but Gene Hackman instead gives her husband a medallion and not the necklace that she gave him.

Revealing: When Manny gets to the engine room and spots Belle lying dead on the floor, you can see her breathing as her chest slightly moves.

Audio problem: Just before midnight when the band is playing "Morning After" the camera pans out for a wide shot of the dance floor - the dancers are dancing MUCH too fast for such a slow song - and you do still hear the song.

Factual error: Throughout the end there is fire everywhere. All of that fire would consume any oxygen that was in the rooms and fill the rooms with heavy black smoke. They are walking and climbing everywhere without the effects that the smoke and lack of oxygen would have caused.

Continuity: Just before Shelley Winters tries to persuade the others she should be first to swim the underwater corridor to the engine room because she used to be an underwater swimming champion, watch closely what she is doing with her hands in each shot before she speaks. In one shot she is fondling the medallion hanging on a chain around her neck; in cutaway shots you can see the medallion is hanging free and her hands are nowhere near it.

Continuity: Just as Susan jumps down from the overturned table, you see a shot of her feet, and she is not wearing shoes. Then when she lands in the curtain, she has her shoes on.

Revealing: During the dining room scene when everyone is eating. Look for the shot where Shirley Winters reaches over to Manny's plate, in the background you can see a boom mike.

Continuity: In the scene where they start going through the pipe and end up in the funnel thing Gene Hackman takes off the pipe cover and leans it against the wall. After everybody gets into the funnel it shows the water lapping at the pipe. In the background you see the cover is leaning against the pipe, not the wall.

Plot hole: Shortly after the ship flips over, the steward, Ackers, is asked why lights are on. He explains they are emergency lights that will last three hours. The lights are left on throughout the movie, but when they get out it is bright daylight. Considering the ship flipped at midnight, there is nowhere on any ocean where it gets light at 3:00 in the morning (03 hours after midnight).

Continuity: When Manny leaves Belle behind to join the others in the propeller shaft, a crew member is lying 'dead' behind him. As Manny passes him, you can see the crew member move his arm, possibly to get it away from the fire below him.

Continuity: Gene Hackman and Pamela Sue Martin are both doused with water when they come out of the restroom. In the next shot, their hair is completely dry.

Revealing: When the ship is upside-down and they're trying to get Susan down from the table, you can see that the table really isn't attached to the ceiling. You can see the center pool split into legs that are supposed to be connected to the floor, but when Susan moves around and shakes the table, the legs shake and you can see space between them and the floor. Even if the other legs outside of the shot were connected, the table would be leaning under Susan's weight.

Continuity: When Gene Hackman is about to swim through the passage to the Engine Room, Red Buttons hands him a lit flashlight. The camera changes to Gene under the water, and he is turning on the light again.