The Running Man (1987) - 13 mistakes

Continuity: In the fight scene where Arnold is fighting the hockey goalie, he gets cut on barbed wire and leaves a bloody tear on the chest of his fancy spandex bodysuit. In the very next scene the suit is clean and the rip is gone.

Visible crew/equipment: In one of the scenes where Arnold is running through piles of debris an explosion behind him causes him to fly through the air. The mechanism that launches him in the air can clearly be seen flipped up from the ground.

Continuity: In the scene after the prison break, we see Richards, Weiss and Laughlin walking through the city. On the big television screen there is a commercial for The Running Man game show. The footage they feature on the commercial is footage from the episode Richards is in. How could they show footage from that episode if it has not taken place yet?

Visible crew/equipment: When Sub-Zero pushes Weiss into the net, Weiss slides towards the camera. Just before hitting the camera, you can see the camera guy's hand sticking out to stop Weiss.

Continuity: The film opens with Arnie in a helicopter, refusing to fire on "innocent women and children". At the film's climax, when the (undoctored) film of this event is screened, it is changed to "innocent human beings". It may have been the other way around, but it is still a horrendous lack of continuity.

Factual error: In the beginning of the movie just prior to the Bakersfield Massacre, the camera cuts away from Arnold periodically and shows a computer schematic for his location. The very first coordinate that we see is 29º, 43' N by 119º 23' W and is off the coast of Baja California. The last coordinate that we see is 45º 4' N by 119 8' W and is in north-east Oregon. So, in the 35 seconds or so between these scenes, Arnold's helicopter traveled approximately 1050 miles. That's one fast helicopter. This cannot be explained by saying that they just shortened the trip for the movie because in the first computer schematic you see Bakersfield in the distance which is certainly not 1050 miles away.

Visible crew/equipment: When the Singing Man (with the L.E.D.'s on his chest) chases Arnold Schwarzenegger in his off-roader, Arnold lures him in/onto a pile of junk, following which Singing Man's car crashes and overturns. When the car is on its side you can see the cable used to overturn the vehicle. In the next shot the cable has disappeared.

Continuity: When Fireball first enters the arena and chases after Ben and the woman, the distance Fireball is from them changes from shot to shot.

Visible crew/equipment: Just before Dynamo turns the car over, you can see several times that there is a stuntman driving the car.

Continuity: In the scene with Buzzsaw, after Richards ties the rope around a metal spike, Buzzsaw flies off his bike and lands face down. When Richards approaches Buzzsaw, he is still face down. Then when Richards starts to reach down to grab the chainsaw, Buzzsaw's arm comes up to choke Richards and he is now lying on his back. Richards would have reacted quicker, since Buzzsaw would have had to flip over on his back to grab Richards.

Other: Just before Arnold arrives at his brother Edward's apartment, he walks across a plaza. Note the people standing/sitting in the background, along the railing. They are still there, apparently not having moved an inch, in another scene of that plaza which is supposed to be much later after Arnold has been caught, sent to the tele-station and gassed unconscious.

Revealing: When Fireball takes off for the first time, if you look way above him at the top of the tower block behind him, you can see the shadow cast by the rig that is used to lift him up.

Revealing: In the Sub-Zero fight scene, Laughlin (the black man) is on his back and Sub-Zero is standing over him. When Sub-Zero tries to kill Laughlin by hitting him with the hockey stick, he rolls to his right. Sub-Zero pulls the stuck hockey stick from the ice and tries to hit Laughlin again, but he then rolls to his left. The stick is once again stuck in the ice, but to the left of the stick there is another divot in the ice, suggesting Sub-Zero struck on Laughlin's right side twice, but in fact it was only once. Sub-Zero tries to hit Laughlin a third time, but he rolls to his right for the final attempt.