Rambo III (1988) - 16 mistakes

Continuity: Rambo has a cut on his left cheek bone that is forever getting smaller, bigger, scabby and in some scenes it's gone. Sometimes it's white, sometimes red. This all happens in one day.

Continuity: The soviet military equipment isn't all that Soviet ... e.g. the helicopter is supposed to be a "Mil-Mi 24 Hind" (Pilot and system operator sitting behind each other), in fact it's just a French "aerospatiale puma" with additional mock turrets and so on (crew sits side by side).

Factual error: Trautman and Rambo both repel down into the cave, Rambo climbs up out of the cave, and a 300 lb Russian soldier falls back down into the cave about 40 feet and hangs suspended in mid-air, on a rope tied to a rock. At the end of the scene, where Rambo picks up his gun and grenades, you can see the rope tied to the rock. This rock couldn't have weighed enough to support the weight of a man, and most definitely not heavy enough to stop a falling man.

Factual error: When Rambo is going through the Soviet minefield, he probes a couple of times very hard with his knife, and then he lunges forward. Now, jabbing hard into the ground where you think there might be an explosive device is as bad an idea as it sounds. Also, Rambo doesn't probe to the sides where his elbows and knees are going to support his weight. Also, he lunges forward farther than he had probed. And finally, the mine he does find is very big for an antipersonnel mine. It looks big enough to be an antitank mine.

Revealing: Rambo, Trautman, and the Afghan prisoners are escaping the fortress by stealing the Soviet helicopter, and Rambo is preparing for liftoff. There is a close-in shot of the Soviet helicopter's rotor shaft, on which can be seen a small American flag.

Revealing: When the Afghan village is attacked by the two choppers you see a lady running with a baby. It is quite obvious she is carrying a doll instead of a real baby.

Continuity: Inside the Russian fort, Rambo throws a hand grenade at a wooden door. If you look closely, the door explodes from the other side, NOT the grenade side.

Revealing: The character Zayasen is played the French actor Marc de Jonge, who does really well despite that French words are at times substituted for Russian (e.g. "maintnant" is the French for "now", "chercher" means "to search". When he says (in Russian ),"Keep searching ['cherchez'] for the Americans. I have to return and refuel now ['maintnant']",and "I want every trooper on the border now ['maintnant']".

Continuity: When Col. Zaysen says, "We are wiping out no one." to Col. Trautman, you see Zaysen holding a chess brick in front of him. When it cuts he is holding the brick away.

Continuity: In the beginning when the man shows the picture of Rambo to the man behind the desk, he flips the picture twice during the shots.

Continuity: Inside the castle, at the Russian base, Rambo picks up a rifle of the AK-family with a front grip, but it is not an Ak-47. Then, in the middle of firing, when the camera angle changes, his rifle has turned into an Ak-47.

Continuity: In the scene where Rambo is stick fighting and the other guy is on the ground and submits. Rambo reaches down with the stick to help him up with his right hand. Then in the next shot it shows Rambo pulling him up with the stick with his left hand.

Continuity: A soldier in Pakistan runs and grabs his arm which has blood on it from a bomb that goes off a split second later. Bad timing.

Factual error: Rambo manages to drive, fire and load the tank simultaneously. That would require a crew of at least 3: Commander, Driver, and Gunner. Rambo could drive the tank, and he could fire the gun, but he couldn't do both at the same time.

Continuity: Rambo plays a game where you have to pick up a dead sheep and throw it into a circle. He reaches down from his horse to pick up a huge, black, fake and dry sheep with his right arm. The next scene shows him with a small, wet, real dead sheep but now it's in his left hand.

Factual error: In several scenes, Rambo is carrying an AKSU-74 assault rifle which he has taken from a slain Soviet soldier. In the scene where Rambo and his accomplice are hunkered down in a hole and see a large amount of Soviet soldiers advancing, there is a close-up of Rambo's pilfered AKSU-74, And there is an American M203 Grenade launcher attached to it. Regular soldiers in the Russian military have never been issued the M203 under-barrel grenade launcher. The correct one would have been the Soviet GP-30 grenade launcher. Also, the M203 would not fit onto the AKSU-74 without first adding a special mounting bracket.