Purple Rain (1984) - 33 mistakes

Continuity: Prince concentrates on the chalk mark of his father's suicide attempt in the basement just before he flips out. Funny, but I thought they only made chalk outlines for people who actually died.

Continuity: Apollonia jumps into the lake. She is soaking wet, naturally. However, soon after, she's riding on the back of Prince's motorcycle and her hair is completely dry.

Continuity: When Apollonia originally tries to get into the club, the door slams on her foot. When she opens the door and sneaks in later, the door slowly closes behind her.

Continuity: During the "Lake Minnetonka" scene, Prince's motorcycle tire automagically changes from knobby to street and back.

Continuity: The Kid receives a white guitar from Appolonia placing it in his lap. They kiss. His arms are still placed on the guitar. She tells him that she is going to join Morris's group. As he jumps up and slaps her in the face, the guitar is gone.

Continuity: When The Kid goes home and sees his mother's crying in the front yard it is daytime. He immediately goes inside to confront his dad and the windows show that it is now night.

Continuity: When the woman confronts Morris and Jerome on the street about how long she waited the night before for Morris, she first appears without an over the shoulder pocketbook. The camera angle changes and you can see the strap on her shoulder. The camera angle changes again and the strap is gone.

Continuity: When The Kid goes home after playing at the club, he arrives home without his guitar that he left the house with, and the guitar is seen inside the house later on.

Continuity: When the waitress posts Apollonia's card on the board, the large white folded paper that was seen on the board in the previous shot of The Kid seeing her for the first time is no longer there.

Continuity: When Morris first meets Apollonia he sits at her table and if you notice the straw in her drink, it changes positions during the entire scene and she never touches it.

Visible crew/equipment: When Morris turns to face the mirror to see what the suit that he is holding will look like pressed against him, as soon as he turns and faces the mirror, look at the right side of the mirror where the edge of the open door is, you can see a crew member with the white baseball cap ducking behind the door trying to stay out of the shot.

Continuity: When Prince arrives at First-Avenue, the box office area is well-lit. After Apollonia checks into the Huntington Hotel, she looks down at the venue and it's dark. When Morris arrives, it's bright again.

Audio problem: Morris addresses The Kid: "Why don't you stay a while to see how it's done?" Then Jerome is mocking The Kid, saying, "So sexy!" Part of Jerome's line can be heard right before Morris' line.

Continuity: Right after The Kid rescues Apollonia from Morris in the alley, he drives her to a secluded area where the makeup on her face is now brighter and heavier than it was in the alley.

Continuity: When The Kid knocks Morris into the pile of boxes in the alley, you can see that the stunt double taking the fall is white, and when he lands in the pile of boxes he is seen in the next camera angle laying on a different set of boxes.

Continuity: When The Kid Looks at Apollonia's card that the waitress is holding, it states that she is 5'7" and her weight is also filled out. Later when he looks at the card when it's posted on the board it now says 5'6" and her weight is not there.

Audio problem: When The Kid and Apollonia first arrive at the lake, you can hear them talking, but their mouths are not moving as they walk along the edge of the lake.

Continuity: When The Kid looks at Apollonia's card on the board after Morris talks to the club owner, when he turns to walk away, you can see that the card on the board is not the same one he was just looking at.

Audio problem: During the opening song, none of the instruments are plugged in but sound is coming out of them.

Other: When Morris is talking to the club owner about getting rid of The Kid, the club owner says that The Kid is not even "Pulling them in like he used to" but the subtitles say "Pooling them in".

Continuity: When The Kid first takes Apollonia for a ride on his motorcycle, his white scarf is blowing in the wind. The camera angle changes and the scarf is tucked into his jacket. The camera angle changes again and the scarf is blowing in the wind again.

Continuity: Right after The Kid sees an image of himself hanging in the basement, he grabs a stick and starts smashing food jars on a shelf. The camera angle changes and he's seen smashing the same jars again.

Factual error: Right after The Kid's father shoots himself, The Kid is seen in the basement being interviewed by two police officers in uniform and one detective. One of the police officers is asking the questions while the detective is writing in his notepad. Standard procedure is for a "Lead Detective" to be assigned to the case and he conducts all interviews.

Continuity: When The Kid starts smashing the food jars in the basement with a stick, he starts with the first shelf and then he smashes the jars on the 2nd shelf and then there is a close up of him smashing more jars on yet another shelf. (The jars are different). When the camera angle changes to a wide-shot, none of the jars on the 2nd shelf are damaged, and where did the third shelf come from? He is then seen smashing the jars on the 2nd shelf again.

Continuity: When The Time are first introduced, they start walking onto the stage and the camera cuts to Apollonia who is standing at the bar. The guys behind her are moving their heads and bodies to the sound of music, but The Time hasn't started playing yet.

Continuity: After The Kid runs off the stage while singing "Darling Nikkie" he is seen in his dressing room with sweat on his back and chest. When the club owner goes in to yell at him for leaving the stage, he is now completely dry.

Continuity: When Apollonia tells The Kid that she is going to join Morris' group, he slaps her and makes her fall into the dresser where you see what looks like a red shirt hanging from the top of the second draw down the length of the dresser. The camera angle changes and the shirt is now seen much shorter in length.

Continuity: When The Kid is at home he puts Wendy and Lisa's tape in his player and you see him put the tape holder on the player in front of the small lamp. The camera angle changes to a close up and the tape holder is now on the side on the lamp which has moved to allow the holder to be on the side.

Continuity: In the scene where The Kid "flips-out" and destroys his basement with a stick, he deliberately breaks several mason jars of preserves that are sitting on two adjacent bookshelves. Near the end of that scene just before he finds his father's music sheets, you can see that the same jars he just exploded all over the basement are now back on the bookshelf perfectly intact.

Continuity: When Apollonia fills out the form at the club, you can see when she's holding it in her hand after she's done that she wrote "singing and dancing" on it. Later, when Prince looks at it on the wall, that particular line isn't filled out.

Continuity: When Morris and Apollonia are in the car in front of the club, you can hear them talking, but when Morris says something to Jerome, Morris' lips move but you can't hear him.

Deliberate "mistake": Before going on stage in the infamous purple coat for the first time in the movie, the Kid is in his dressing room. The silver jewelry/decoration on his coat is on the left shoulder. In all subsequent shots, the silver jewelry/decoration is on his right shoulder.

Continuity: While enroute to the 'Lake Minnetonka' scene, Prince, or his stunt double, is seen from the helicopter cam as wearing the purple coat. As the truck cams show Prince and Apollonia on the bike, he's wearing the black coat. This is best seen after Prince passes the horses.