Private Caparzo: Captain, the decent thing to do would be take her over to the next town.
Captain John Miller: We're not here to do the decent thing, we're here to follow f*cking orders!
At the end when Tom Hanks has just died, there is a distant shot of Ryan standing there in disbelief. By Tom Hanks left leg is a helmet, upside down. The next shot is from above and the helmet has flipped over. See more...
The resentment the soldiers feel towards Pvt. Ryan is real: Matt Damon was the only cast member who didn't go through boot camp. See more...
Directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Adam Goldberg, Edward Burns, Matt Damon, Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Vin Diesel (add more)
Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.
Although Miller's group is wearing canvas gaiters and boots issued on the first American uniform, in the scene that precede their arrival on the first French village , when rain starts falling on the leaves, they show paratroopers or the second type regular boots of later issue stomping on the water pool. [They are not supposed to be the boots of Miller and his group; they are the boots of soldiers in the village. Those soldiers were paratroopers.]
At the first battle scene, when the camera is up in the pill boxes, looking down at the soldiers, there are hardly any wounded or dead or even live soldiers, but when the camera comes back down to ground level, there are clearly more soldiers. This happens a number of times. [Omaha Beach is 5,6 kilometres long. In some parts there were fewer soldiers. There is no indication that we are watching only one small patch throughout the scene.]
At the end of the movie, a tank explodes from a P51 bomb before the plane over flies the scene. A real bomb would have exploded after the plane had passed. [The airplane we see after the bomb has exploded is not the same plane that dropped the bomb. You can see more than one plane in that scene.]
Throughout the movie you hear the U.S. soldiers using profanity consisting mainly of certain four-lettered expletives. I have talked with, and seen numerous TV interviews with, American WWII veterans and they have all commented that that particular choice of expletives and obscenities were not used in the 1940's and that it seemed it was nothing more than the director's attempt to relate to today's audience. [Since it was part of the movie and it was intended, it is not a movie mistake. This entry is trivia at best.]
Corrected by William Bergquist
In the final battle an American solider gets stabbed through the chest after a long scuffle with a German soldier. It is impossible for a human chest to be penetrated that slowly and smoothly by even a really sharp knife, especially with clothing on and only using one hand. [I've just reviewed the scene and we can't really see the angle of the knife, plus the knife is quite small and ribs can be displaced quite easily, especially with the force the German soldier applies as he is leaning on the knife with his whole body.]
At the start of the film on the attack on Omaha Beach, when we see the ship bringing the soldiers in and it lowers its platform we can see there are no steel things in the sand, and even from the enemies' point of view there aren't any, yet when Tom Hanks says "over the sides" if you watch closely, there are loads. [Wrong. See the screen-shot showing one of the obstacles toward the right of the shot. This is just after the door drops and the bodies start falling (00:06:32). No error here.]
When Capt. Miller talks to the pilot of the crashed glider telling his story the guy says he lost 22 men in the crash. Only one problem: his glider is a Waco CG-4A. The maximum load for one of those was only 13 fully equipped troops and the two pilots, and that's without a jeep. As a jeep is visible in the rear of the fuselage, there couldn't possibly have been more than 6 men on that glider including the pilots, or it never would have got airborne. [The glider could just as well be the Waco CG-13A, which was the larger version of the 4A, and capable of holding up to 42 men - or 22 men and crew plus equipment. Both gliders look very similar since they're based on the same design - wingspan and length almost the same, with only height/width making the difference.]
As the boys on MythBusters recently demonstrated, bullets that enter the water even from very short ranges shatter and travel no more than about 1 metre before they run out of energy. So the opening scenes of the Omaha landing showing troops being shot while well under the water could not have happened. [As veterans of the Omaha beach landing described how they received injuries under those exact circumstances, I think it's safe to say that not only did the Mythbusters experiment fail to accurately replicate the situation, but that what's seen on screen is entirely possible.]
Corrected by Tailkinker
The men are sitting in the French village waiting for the Germans to arrive. They listen to a French record and a large pile of rubble can be seen in the background. The camera then cuts to a face shot of one of the soldiers, which gives a closer view of the rubble; and just above his shoulder can be seen a black shiny plastic rubbish bin lid - a product that surely wouldn't have been available in a small French village, let alone before say, 1970. [No such error. The only 'face shot' during the record player scenes is of Upham (see screen-shots) and only the player is behind him. Shortly before that, Ryan has a pile of rubble over his right shoulder, and on top is a black disc that may be a melted tire, but is certainly not a trash can lid.]
When the sniper says, "This sniper's got real talent," and shoots through the scope, the scope is not damaged and you can tell that in post-production the sniper's eyelid was painted black. [Not so. When the 'bullet' goes through the sight of the sniper's rifle, both ends blow out with a heavy smoke effect, and the sniper's eye is bloody and chuny as he fall dead.]
In the scene where the troop comes upon the crashed aircraft you can see Ryan in the background as an injured soldier. As Miller crosses under the netting Ryan can be seen sitting next to the pilot with a bandage covering the left side of his face. Again, about thirty seconds later when the pilot stands up to talk to Miller, you can see Ryan on the ground behind Reiben as he is lighting his cigarette. [Actually, no, just a guy with a similar appearance, but not Matt Damon. No error here. See screen-shot.]
Every weapon used in the movie was an authentic WW2 weapon. Capt. John Miller used a Thompson SMG and a Colt 45 pistol, Pvt. Daniel Jackson had a Springfield 03" sniper rifle, Pvt. James Ryan had an M1 Garand, the private who survives at the end used a BAR M1918A1, and the Germans used mounted MG42 machine guns. The grenades used were also real, Germans having Stielhandgranates and the Americans using Mark 2 Fragmentation grenades. [Unless the author is trying to imply that every weapon we see actually saw service during the war, I don't understand the point of this "trivia". Saying that a movie attempting to accurately portray history succeeded in being historically accurate is unremarkable.]
On the shore it shows a full can of ammunition floating in and out on the tide. A full can would be as heavy as a rock and would not move. [There is nothing to show that the can is full.]
Corrected by AdmRose
Many tanks were landing on the beach at the beginning. Actually, only two tanks landed on "Omaha Beach." [There are no tanks on the beach at all. This is made light of several times during the Omaha Beach scene by several different characters.]
Corrected by AdmRose
In a scene where Miller is talking to Ryan after blowing up the truck, Miller's uniform clearly displays the Screaming Eagle, the insignia of the 101st airborne, also Ryan's division. However, Miller was a ranger, not a paratrooper. [I looked at this scene over and over again - Miller's patch says Rangers.]
Corrected by AdmRose
In the scene immediately preceding the climactic battle in the village at the end of the movie, Capt. Miller is watching Jackson giving him hand signals from the tower regarding approaching Germans. He indicates two Tiger tanks, two "Panzer" tanks, and some infantry. However, the two Panzer tanks he refers to are actually tank destroyers which were a model called the "Marder" (which had several different models) and were opened-top (i.e. no enclosed crew compartment). They were never considered as bonafide tanks and, most likley, would not be referred to as a "Panzer" by a combat veteran. In all fairness, Jackson might not have been able to identify them accurately at long range. [Just because he's been in combat before does not mean that Jackson is an expert on German tanks. As he's still a private, he's quite likely not seen a great deal of combat anyway.]
During the scene in the French village, where Hamill comes to the rescue of Miller's men, as both Americans and Germans are screaming at each other to lay down their weapons - if you look closely at Miller's Thompson machine gun, it has no clip. [Both Americans and Germans were surprised after that wall collapsed. In the confusion Miller probably did not notice that his Thompson had no clip.]
On the beach, when Capt. Miller is dragging the wounded Briggs, there is a tank in the background, most likely a Sherman M4. Yet, a few minutes before he was telling "All the armor's foundering in the channel". Also we never see tanks landing on the beach so this tank appeared from nowhere. [The Statement by Captain Miller is simply a generalization, and not meant as fact. Some, though few tanks landed on the beaches in the first hours, although we don't see it, it makes no difference. We don't see every single man who is there land either, but we know they are there.]
In the Scene where the American knocks down the wall to reveal the Germans, Jackson (the sniper) is pointing an unscoped Springfield at them. When they exchange words, you see Jackson aiming his rifle with a scope. [The scope is on Jackson's rifle during the whole scene.]
When Capt. Miller meets up with the first (and wrong) Private Ryan, his squad has just passed through a torrential downpour, soaking all of their uniforms. The rain has stopped when he sits to interview the mistaken private Ryan and the ground is still wet, but Miller's uniform is suddenly bone dry. [If you have ever seen or worn a military combat uniform, you would know that they are special because they can dry incredibly quickly. In the sun, a drenched uniform would be dry within the hour.]
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