The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) - 89 mistakes

Factual error: The criminologist describes the events of the movie as taking place "on a late November evening". In the very next scene, Brad and Janet are driving in Brad's car, and President Richard Nixon's resignation speech is playing on the radio. Nixon resigned in August of 1974.

Continuity: When Eddie escapes the deep freeze, he wears three rings on his left hand (his middle and ring fingers and his pinky). Bizarrely, the pinky ring actually disappears in quite a few shots, including when Eddie plays the sax and when he lifts Columbia, just before they mess around on the floor.

Visible crew/equipment: Just as Eddie rides his motorcycle down from the lab's upper level, in the shot from behind him, set equipment and a few crew members, one wears a stripe/plaid shirt, are seen gathered at the top right of the screen, just before the shot cuts away.

Other: When Riff Raff and Magenta burst in after Frank's song, Janet steps away from Frank's side into Brad's arms. Watch Brad's face - you can clearly see the look of pain, as Janet steps on his foot in four inch spike heels.

Continuity: In the lab, during 'Hot Patootie', Eddie wears red suspenders clasped to his jeans. When he lies on top of Columbia, both back suspender clasps come undone, though the front clasps are still intact. In following shots both of Eddie's back clasps are on properly.

Revealing: When Rocky climbs the RKO tower, he carries lifeless Frank-N-Furter on his back. In the wideshots facing the stunt doubles' backs, while Rocky has both of his hands on the tower, the very much dead Frank-N-Furter has his right arm firmly around Rocky's neck to hang on.

Revealing: When Dr. Scott is being pulled through the castle by the Triple Contact Electro-Magnet, you can see the cable and the cut in the carpet, that the cable runs under, pulling his wheelchair at the top of one of the staircases.

Other: Funny how when Brad and Janet are led to separate rooms, their rooms are identical, right down to the folds in the chair material and missing drapery tassle fringes...

Visible crew/equipment: In the lab, as Eddie rides his motorcycle on the upper level, in the shot from behind him, the large rectangular reflector/light screen is visible down below to his right. It is angled up, facing the upper level as he rides past.

Visible crew/equipment: In the lab, just after Brad is Medusa-fide, when Frank-N-Furter steps in front of Dr. Scott, two moving reflections are visible on the surface of Rocky's tank. One is Frank-N-Furter's and the other is the camera moving right behind him.

Revealing: The saxophone Eddie plays in "Hot Patootie" has no reed.

Other: Just minutes after Rocky's creation, when he is lifted out of the tank, there is a nice close-up of Rocky's face. The newly created man with the "Charles Atlas seal of approval" has a few silver fillings in his upper right teeth, which are easily visible as he sings, "Over my head and I've got the feeling..."

Continuity: After Frank-N-Furter makes his initial appearance, when he bumps into Janet on the way out, her necklace chain is under her large pink dress collar. Once Frank-N-Furter leaves, her chain is actually around her neck now, over the large collar, so Riff Raff can easily pull the dress down unhindered.

Revealing: When Rocky lifts Frank-N-Furter's body Rocky is barefoot, wearing only the stockings. When Rocky is climbing the RKO tower, carrying his creator, evidently Rocky is wearing a type of thin shoes under his stockings. The stunt double did this as a safety precaution.

Continuity: After Frank kisses Janet's hand, as she puts it back by her side you can see his lipstick on it. When she reaches out to take the shirt from Brad, Frank's lipstick mark is gone.

Visible crew/equipment: When Eddie rides his motorcycle on the lab's upper level, in the second shot from behind him, just as he veers a bit to his left, the equipment attached in front of the windshield becomes visible (at the left). It's gone in other shots.

Visible crew/equipment: When the newlyweds leave, just as Ralph and Betty drive their car towards the camera, the reflection of the boom mic/pole is visible on the car's windshield.

Audio problem: During "I Can Make You A Man," when Frank slides his finger down Rocky's chest while saying "ste-he-he-he-heam," you can hear a solitary beep from out of nowhere, from when the synthesizer was hit accidentally during that part of the song and was never edited out (it is on the CD too).

Continuity: In the dinner scene, Riff Raff pours Dr. Scott's wine in one shot and again two shots later.

Visible crew/equipment: On his motorcycle, when Eddie begins to ride to the lab's upper level, in the first shot from behind him, the shadow of the camera/equipment is visible on his back as he is moving.

Revealing: When Dr. Scott's wheelchair is being pulled by Frank-N-Furter's magnet, just after passing Magenta and Columbia, Dr. Scott soars up the next flight of stairs. Look between the cobwebby banister bars and you'll notice that the 'stairs' are actually a flat surface.

Continuity: After Frank-N-Furter gets out of the pool, and is being threatened by Riff with the anti-matter laser, the tattoo on his upper left torso seems to have mysteriously washed off. It's running and illegible. Also earlier, when he's still in the pool, there's barely a smudge, but when he first gets out it's quite clear.

Continuity: Before Rocky's unveiling, when Frank-N-Furter is giving his speech, the rubber gloves he is wearing go from being folded, to being straight, and back again.

Continuity: When Brad draws the heart on the church door in the close-up, it's a different shape in the following wide shot.

Deliberate "mistake": In the lab, when Eddie is riding his motorcycle on the upper level in the wideshots, the stunt double is rather obvious despite the added padding, due to his slimmer face and non-chunky arms.

Revealing: After Frank-N-Furter pulls the lever to immobilize Janet, Brad and Dr. Scott, Janet's feet are positioned close together when Frank-N-Furter shouts, "Planet Schmanet Janet,", but when she screams, "Stop!" her supposedly immovable feet now have a space of about 2 ft. between them.

Audio problem: During the first song sung by Rocky as he is getting his bandages removed when Rocky sings "Oh no no no" his mouth doesn't move.

Continuity: Near the beginning of "The Time Warp", we see a male Transylvanian handing a tray of snacks to another Transylvanian (note the b/w socks and shoes) off-screen to the left. In the very next shot, he is holding the tray of snacks and eating a donut.

Continuity: Before Frank-N-Furter kills Eddie, his painted black eyebrows are curved with pointed angles above his eyes, but when he explains to Rocky about the mercy killing, his painted eyebrows have a rounded arc shape to them.

Continuity: The words 'love' and 'hate', which appear on Eddie's knuckles in the close-up when he mounts his motorbike, disappear in other shots where we see his hands.

Continuity: Dinner party - Brad's party hat: After serving Dr. Scott's wine, Riff Raff passes by Brad's chair and knocks his hat off the back of the chair so it's hanging by the string. In the next shot showing Brad a few seconds later, it's back to its normal position.

Continuity: As Frank leaves the pool and sings "I'm going home", his makeup is clearly running all over his face, in the next shot it is perfect again.

Continuity: At the beginning of the film, just after the wedding photo is taken we see the father of the bride run up the church steps. Seconds later, we see him running up the steps again.

Continuity: After the "Time Warp" while they are showing the characters lying on the floor, you can see Janet starting to say her lines in the background.

Continuity: When Frank-N-Furter steps out of the pool, the heart 'tattoo' on his right upper arm (deltoid area) is smudged and runny, but is near perfect in a following shot.

Continuity: During "Hot Patootie", before Eddie drives up onto the ramp, there is a group shot of the Transylvanians dancing. Two of them disappear from one shot to another. The black guy and the Arab can be seen kicking out during the line up but when the camera changes to the wide shot of them all they are both gone.

Other: After Frank releases Dr. Scott from the Triple Contact Electro Magnet, Janet and Rocky are heard giggling in Rocky's birthtank. As Frank walks over to the tank, the right magnet pops out again just before it goes off-screen.

Audio problem: During 'Hot Patootie', just before Eddie plays the sax, he can be heard singing, "Bless my soul," but his mouth is not in sync.

Continuity: During dinner, the Stein mug in front of Rocky (not Dr. Scott's) switches repeatedly, from being to the right his plate to the left of his plate. Additionally, plates/serviceware appear and disappear from the table.

Continuity: During 'Hot Patootie, as Eddie and Columbia canoodle on the floor, when the guests dance on the upper level their positions in the line change between shots.

Continuity: Near the beginning of the movie, in the "wedding scene," when we first see the little camera man his camera has an old fashioned flash (a round metal dish with a flashbulb inside). When he takes the wedding photo, the camera has a modern electronic flash on it.

Continuity: With the spotlight on him, when Frank-N-Furter is sitting at the stage edge the long black scarf is suddenly over his shoulder between shots.

Continuity: After Brad and Janet arrive at the lab, when Frank-N-Furter holds out his right hand to shake their hands, his left hand holds a champagne glass and the rubber gloves. The gloves go from lying over his pinky, to over his hand, to over the middle finger, between shots.

Continuity: When Ralph and Betty drive off in the car, the positions of the surrounding family and friends noticeably change between shots, such as the elderly couple who stand near the church sign.

Continuity: During the tossing of the bouquet, the positions of family and guests change between shots, such as the woman beside the banister, behind Janet.

Continuity: The characteristics (size, shape etc.) of the cut going across Eddie's forehead (from his partial brain 'donation' to Rocky) changes throughout the scene in the lab.

Continuity: During 'Dammit Janet', just after Brad draws the heart on the doors, when Janet runs to the stairs her arms are outstretched as she holds the bouquet in her right hand in the close-up, but next shot it's in her left hand.

Continuity: At the start, when Janet catches the bouquet and shouts, "I got it," as she jumps up and down, she holds it in her left hand in the close-up, but in the next shot it's in her right hand.

Continuity: In the scene where Brad and Janet first talk with Frank in the lab (before Frank's speech beginning with 'Tonight, my unconventional conventionalists...'), Frank makes a comment about how Brad is "so dominant." At that moment, Brad closes his robe but does not button it. However, when the camera switches angles, it is buttoned.

Continuity: During the dinner scene, there's a party hat on the back of Janet's chair. It disappears in one shot.

Continuity: As Magenta is undressing Brad she throws Columbia his pullover - twice.

Other: When the Narrator looks at the photographs in "The Denton Affair" album, some of the photos don't match up with what actually occurred in the previous scene. Things such as, when the car pulls up, and the driver exits and moves out of view, there are only a few people left on the porch, but in the photo there is a crowd on the porch.

Continuity: When Janet rips the front of her white slip, the ripped strip of cloth is much larger than the bit she places on Rocky in the next shot.

Continuity: When Riff Raff kills Columbia, she falls beside the spotlight, directly behind three beach chairs in the last row. But in following shots the last row consists of two beach chairs.

Continuity: When Rocky is first seen in the tank wrapped in bandages until he starts to stand, water is clearly in the tank but when he stands up fully, his bandages are completely dry.

Other: When Frank is awakening Rocky he tells Riff Raff to turn up the power three more points; the power hadn't been turned up in the first place.

Other: When Rocky first stands up in the tank still bandaged, he doesn't get up directly underneath the colour machine, which he is going to grab onto moments later, because he can't see; you can see him trying to shuffle discreetly into the right position.

Revealing: In the laboratory, when the tank is unveiled, fishing lines are visible strung across the top of the tank (probably to keep the red sheet from dipping down into the water). Watch closely in the reverse shot after Magenta and Columbia throw off the sheet.

Audio problem: During the dinner scene, just before Dr. Scott says, "We came here to discuss Eddie," we can hear a banging sound and see his wheelchair move back a little bit.

Continuity: Towards the end where they are all in the pool singing, Dr. Scott is saying how he can't fall into his trap and pulls up his leg and you see the stocking. A few seconds later when they cut in with a faster beat, you see his leg fall to the ground. There is not a stocking on his leg.

Continuity: When Brad, Dr. Scott, and Janet are turned into stone, their clothes fall to the ground. Dr. Scott's and Janet's clothes turn to stone, but Brad's remain cloth. When Columbia and Rocky are turned to stone, Columbia's clothes completely disappear (there is nothing around her feet when they are shown a few shots later). We never get to see if Rocky's are cloth, stone or nothing.

Continuity: At the beginning of Columbia's solo in "The Time Warp" she is sitting on the jukebox and wearing her gold glitter hat. Then, during the refrain, we see the hat on the floor near the jukebox, sans Columbia. Immediately after the refrain, Columbia has her hat back on as she does her tap dance. [There's about 9 seconds that Columbia's off-screen that she could have retrieved it, and about 4 seconds Magenta and Riff Raff are off-screen and end up next to Columbia and could have picked it up and given it to her, but there's no reason for it to have been out in the middle of the floor to begin with.]

Audio problem: When Dr. Scott meets Dr. Frank-N-Furter for the first time, Dr. Scott's spoken line is "We meet at last", but his lips don't correctly move with the words.

Continuity: During Columbia's solo in the floor show, her corset falls down. When she shimmies across the stage, she tries to fix it, but it doesn't work. In the next shot, it's perfect again.

Continuity: When Frank is first descending in the elevator, he is tapping his foot to the beat. In the close-up, he seems to be just barely lifting his heel just a few inches from his other foot, but on the wider shots, his foot is lifting MUCH higher and about a foot apart.

Continuity: During the song "I Can Make You A Man" as Frank-N-Furter pushes away the vaulting horse, you can see the hand at the right of the screen, pulling the attached wire to assist Tim Curry. (Visible in the theatre and on widescreen DVD - but the TV version crops it.)

Deliberate "mistake": Before the floor scene starts Dr. Scott does not have on the fishnet stockings. As he rolls across the stage the stockings are back.

Continuity: As Brad and Janet enter the ballroom at the beginning of "The Time Warp", a red carpet runs from the throne at the opposite end of the room, down the steps, and clear across the floor to the ballroom entrance. After the second verse, as Riff Raff and Magenta dance across the floor, the carpet stops short at the bottom of the steps. The full-length carpet reappears and disappears several times during this number.

Continuity: At the beginning when Brad and Janet get the flat tyre and it's raining, Brad says "Didn't we pass a castle back down the road a few miles?" before they get out of the car to go to the castle. If the castle was a few miles back, both of them should be soaking wet, and the paper Janet put over her head should have been soaked not long after they got out of the car. After they enter the driveway of the castle they get increasingly wet, but they are barely damp before this despite walking some distance in the constant rain.

Continuity: Shortly after Dr Scott crashes through the wall and confronts Frank, their conversation leads to Eddie's whereabouts. When Dr Scott tells Frank, 'I can assure you that Brad's presence comes as a complete surprise to me,' he is leaning forward in his wheelchair. In the next shot, when he says, 'I came here to find Eddie' he is leaning back in his wheelchair.

Continuity: Right before 'Planet Schmanet Janet', look at her slip right after Frank slaps her. In the close up, the back is intact. But in the wider shot, the back is ripped.

Continuity: When Frank-N-Furter is talking to Dr. Scott just before he reveals his relation to Brad, Furter's right leg goes from being on the arm of the chair Dr. Scott is sitting in to a standing position from shot to shot.

Continuity: When Janet is fainting after Frank comes down the elevator, she is lifting up one hand. In the close-up it's the other hand.

Continuity: While riding his motorcycle around the lab during the "Hot Patootie" number, notice how Eddie's black eye and cut changes sides in two of the flipped close-ups.

Continuity: During the song "Dammit Janet", as Brad presents the ring to Janet, her purse is behind her at the top of the church steps. A few seconds later, the purse has moved to the left of her feet.

Continuity: When Brad and Janet first enter Frank-N-Furter's laboratory, Janet's shirt is buttoned when she is hanging on Brad. When she twirls around to stand on his other side, her shirt opens during the turn, but as soon as she stops, it is buttoned up again.

Plot hole: After Dr. Scott exposes Frank + company as aliens, Frank replies 'Go on, Dr. Scott. Or should I say, Dr. VON Scott.' Brad is outraged, but it doesn't make much sense. Why would it be so shocking to hear that he has a German surname? He's spoken with a German accent throughout the movie. Simply stating his real name wouldn't imply that Dr. Scott is a Nazi. It is obvious that he is German. Richard O'Brien (creator of Rocky Horror) even states on the DVD commentary that he's always disagreed on this being in the film.

Continuity: During "Sweet Transvestite", Frank throws his cape off onto the throne. Part of the cape is over the left side of the back of the throne and the front of the left arm of the throne is not covered at all. There's a cut to Brad & Janet, then when it cuts back to Frank the cape is evenly draped over both arms of the throne covering them all the way to the floor with none on the back.

Audio problem: As Frank-N-Furter exits the elevator and starts singing 'Sweet Transvestite', Janet faints but keeps screaming even after she has passed out.

Revealing: During 'Sweet Transvestite', when Frank goes to get a drink of water, watch closely. You can see the screen shake a little bit. This leads me to believe that the cameraman tripped.

Continuity: When the color machine has been lowered and Frank has finished opening the spigots, there is a shot which shows his reflection in the monitor on the console where Riff Raff is turning the crank. In the reflection his hands are up in the air, waiting for the color machine to be lowered - which, of course, it already has.

Plot hole: When the castle is about to blast off, Brad and Janet abandon Dr. Scott's wheelchair at the door of the castle and carry/drag him across the porch and down the steps. After the blast off, Brad, Janet, and Dr. Scott are on the grass and have been blown some distance apart from each other (in the UK version, there's another song where Brad and Janet crawl toward Dr. Scott so they are blown farther apart than shown in the US version). It seems extremely unlikely that the remains of Dr. Scott's wheelchair just happened to fly from the doorway to land directly under him during the blast. Brad and Janet can barely crawl so they didn't move him or it.

Continuity: During the first verse of Eddie's song, you can see Frank standing in the background (right before Eddie goes over to sing to Rocky). In the next shot it shows Frank leaning against the wall.

Continuity: After Frank-N-Furter carves the "tender" main course, when Riff Raff tosses one piece of 'meat' onto Brad's plate, in the next shot Frank sits down, but when it cuts to the wide shot Riff Raff tosses the piece of meat onto Brad's plate again.

Continuity: When Tim Curry is about to pull the switch to send Dr. Scott into the room, he starts to lift up his left leg. In the close up, it's his right.

Continuity: During "There's a Light" Janet's sweater changes colour. First it's white, then blue, then white, then blue, then white. In the car, it's white, once they get out of the car, it's definitely pale blue from all camera angles and gets slightly darker as it gets wetter, then there's a 7 second shot where it's definitely white, then there's another two shots where it's blue, then they reach the door and it's white for the remainder of the time it's in the movie. It's been suggested that there's colored lighting, but nothing else picks up nearly that amount of blue, i.e. her pink shirt isn't lavender, its white buttons aren't blue, their teeth aren't greenish, etc.

Continuity: When Brad and Janet are in the Throne room, it shows that when Magenta is taking off his blue woolen undercoat his light blue shirt is undone, but when the view comes out wide Columbia then undoes his shirt.

Revealing: At the end of the movie when the castle shoots into space, if you look just as it gets really misty, in the background (it's maybe just centimetres off) you can see the real castle. The one that blasts off is a cutout.

Plot hole: Before "Rose Tint My World" the nude statues of Brad, Janet, Dr. Scott, Columbia, and Rocky are in the same positions, but somehow Frank-N-Furter managed to dress them despite the following impossibilities: 1) All are wearing high-heels despite being frozen while their feet are flat on the ground. 2) The fingerless gloves have a loop through which their index finger protrudes, despite their solid stone fists, except Janet whose stone fingers are solidly entangled in her stone hair. 3) All of Dr. Scott's clothes have been put on him despite being attached to the stone wheelchair and his legs covered with the stone blanket.