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Quotes

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!

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Trivia

The majority of the extras in the movie were from the Irish Army and the F.C.A. (a military organisation). Direct from one of these extras: in the opening scenes where the soldiers are in the boats before landing at the French beach against German defenders, the soldiers puke their guts out, and we all see this. What you don't know is that it was REAL vomit you see - it was caught on camera perfectly and it was kept. See more...

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Saving Private Ryan (1998) - 100 mistakes

Directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Adam Goldberg, Edward Burns, Matt Damon, Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Vin Diesel (add more)

Genres: Action, Drama, War

Where is Saving Private Ryan ranked on the ultimate best to worst list? Cast your vote and find out!

Mistakes
Trivia
Pictures
Quotes
Corrections
Questions
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Continuity: At the end of the Radar Station Battle, Miller is yelling for Upham to bring their gear. As told he does. Watch carefully. Just as he picks up the gear, he has a green strap on his chest. when you see a shot of him running, the strap is gone.

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Continuity: When James Ryan from Minnesota is told his brothers died, the arm behind him disappears and reappears depending on the angle.

Edit Submitted by Sacha
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Revealing: In the scene in Ramelle, 5 or so guys climb onto a stopped tank and the 20mm gun opens fire on them. The middle "guy" is stood upright next to the turret. I say "guy" because he's a dummy rigged to be shot - he is rigid for the whole scene until he falls to pieces.

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Continuity: When Miller first hits the sand at Omaha a mortar round blows up behind him. He kneels in the sand, his face covered with bloody water. Seconds later a young soldier shouts at him and suddenly Miller is chest deep in the water with a clean face. Also his helmet liner strap changes position across the visor of his helmet.

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Revealing: When the 20 mm flak starts to open fire on the Tiger, there is one soldier who doesn't make an effort to get off. He stands dead still, because it is a dummy replacement, which then gets blown to pieces.

Edit Submitted by Friso94 Time
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Continuity: When the eight men are walking through the fields near the start, Vin Diesel has a cigarette. In some shots it is considerably longer than in previous shots.

Edit Submitted by Starchild
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Visible crew/equipment: When Riben, Ryan, and Miller are in the ditch a side angle shows them all on the same frame, if you look carefully to the right and behind some rubble, a blue tent is visible which is revealed in the special features to be the tent that dailies are viewed.

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Revealing: At the end of the movie, in the Omaha Cemetery scene where the old Ryan is reading Captain Miller's marker, the shoreline should be to his left, not his right. This is because all the stones face the same direction and, when reading them, the water would be on the reader's left. Only Miller's stone is facing the opposite direction- note that all the others look blank because we're looking at their backs.

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Continuity: When the two infantries are waiting for the enemy, Upham, Reiben and Horvath are sitting on some steps outside a building listening to music. In the wide shot Reiben is looking at his fingers but in the following shot his hands are crossed and is holding his arms.

Edit Submitted by The-Immortal Time
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Factual error: In the scene where Jackson takes out the German sniper, we see the German snipers point of view through his scope and he eventually spots Jackson who fires at him. First you see the flash, then the bang, and then the German sniper gets hit through his scope. This is wrong because since bullets from a powerful sniper rifle travel much faster than sound, he couldn't have heard the shot before he got hit.

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Continuity: Close to the end of the movie after Captain Miller is shot in the chest and leaning against a motorcycle, he begins to fire at the German tank coming across the bridge with his .45 cal pistol. After his second shot at the tank the camera turns to face Miller and for a second or 2 you can see that the slide on the top of his pistol stays back revealing the end of the barrel as if the gun were out of ammo, then seconds later without reloading Miller fires at the tank.

Edit Submitted by rml0015
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Continuity: At the end of the film with the older James Ryan visiting Capt. Miller's grave, Ryan squares himself off with the tombstone to salute. However, in the next shot Ryan is off to the left of his tombstone, so that the camera can take the head-on angle of Miller's tombstone.

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Continuity: When inside the higgins boats, we see some men have netted helmets. However when they started to get blown to bits, they all have regular helmets.

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Continuity: In the scene where Tom Hanks releases the German POW, he ties a black blindfold around the prisoner's eyes. Notice how narrow the blindfold looks. In the next shot Upham is guiding the prisoner and instructing him, and the blindfold all of a sudden becomes very broad.

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Continuity: When Miller's men reach the town where the first Ryan is (the wrong one), Miller tells Ryan the bad news about his brothers. When Ryan starts to cry and leans over to his captain the captain's hand is on Ryan's head, but in the following shot it is on the top of his back.

Edit Submitted by The-Immortal Time
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Continuity: When Miller's men and the other captain's men find the French family hiding in a partly destroyed house, Caparzo goes up to get the kid and gives her his necklace, but in the following shot he's giving it to her again. In the shot after it's gone from the kids hand, then reappears again when he is walking towards Miller.

Edit Submitted by The-Immortal Time
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Factual error: In the scene where the soldiers are going through the dog tags to try and find Ryan, they all have the smaller chains attached to the tags. This is wrong in two ways: (1) those chains were not brought into use during WWII, as you can see around Miller's neck (they're a circular piece of medal attached with string); (2) when ripping the dog tags off a dead body, the smaller link that you see attached is broken away from the necklace around the dead body. It would be rare, if ever, that a soldier would take the time to reconnect the smaller chain. More likely, he would simply take the tag.

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Continuity: In the scene where the two infantries are waiting by the bridge for the enemy, when Reiben, Upham and Horvath are on some steps, Fish walks up and sits down in front of Reiben. Fish is taking a puff of his cigarette holding it in his right hand, but in the following shot the cigarette is now in his left hand.

Edit Submitted by The-Immortal Time
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Continuity: When Mellish is in the house with the other soldier, and the other soldier shoots at the wall, just after this shot, the camera pans back to the two soldiers, if you look at the fireplace and chair, it looks like they are covered with dust and dirt, but in the overhead shot of the two soldiers, the fireplace and chair look brand new.

Edit Submitted by The-Immortal Time
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Continuity: In the scene when they defend the bridge in Ramelle there is a soldier who wants to attach a stick-bomb at a German tank. When he walks out to the tank you see that he is wearing a beige uniform. In the next shot you see that the uniform has changed into a dark green, and you also see that it is a puppet that explodes.

Edit Submitted by Ronnie Bischof Picture Time