Smokey and the Bandit (1977) - 66 mistakes

Continuity: Sheriff Buford T. Justice gets out of his car and leaves the door open. A few moments later, we see a different shot of the car with the door closed. Then a truck drives by and tears the car door off which is open again.

Continuity: When the Bandit first pulls over and picks up Sally Field, then he screeches off, if you look at the road you can see all the skid marks from all of the other takes of this scene, even down to the bit where the van pulls out of the junction and the bandit does his thing and then suddenly speeds off.

Continuity: In the scene where Frog and Bandit crash onto the football field, as they are getting off of the field, you can see them approaching a dugout made of concrete blocks. When they crash through to the other side, the same building is made of wood.

Revealing: In the scene near the end Snowman drives a truck into a load of police cars if you play it in slow motion you can see a protector around the lights.

Revealing: In a scene where Frog is riding with the Bandit, she's resting her head on the center gearshift console. Although they're supposed to be cruising down the road, the automatic transmission shifter is in neutral.

Continuity: In the scene where the tractor trailer and the Trans Am meet up at Ole Miss, We see the Trans Am stop a ways ahead of the rig. In the next shot the Trans Am is closer than before.

Continuity: When the Bandit and Frog make the jump onto the field where the kids are playing football, the Trans Am goes through a chain linked fence then under a score stand. As it emerges thru the wall, the antenna is borken, laying rearward onto the rear glass. The very next shot from the other side shows the antenna is fine and a few wood boards are around it...and when the boards fall off, this antenna falls off completely. The next time we see the car, a third antenna is in place again.

Other: Many times, especially early on, you can hear shifts and see through skid marks that the Trans Am is a 4-speed, but interior shots show it to be an automatic transmission.

Visible crew/equipment: When Snowman stops off at the diner, when he enters and leaves from the diner, various crew-members and equipment are visible in the windows on the doors.

Continuity: The odometer in the Trans Am is shown to have 1108.8 miles on it, rolling on up to 1108.9 during the shot. A little later during the movie, after they have travelled a considerable amount of miles, Bandit says, "We'll let's just see what he's got under the hood." A close-up of the speedometer shows the speed increasing to about 120 Km/hr, but the odometer is still on 1108.9, and counting.

Revealing: In the scene where the Trans Am is hiding among the truck convoy, you can see that the vehicles are all on the wrong side of the highway, as if to let the camera vehicle travel on the normal side of the highway. Notice the missing westbound lanes in the background as the vehicles are pointing directly to the viewer's right...then the lanes are back when the vehicles are shown from the front or rear.

Continuity: When Justice arrives to find the roadblock has broken up to chase Bandit, his car has a black quarter panel on the passenger side. But before and after this moment, the quarter is the same bronze as the rest of the car.

Continuity: When Bandit and Snowman are picking up the beer, Bandit crashes the forklift into the boxes of beer which also forces Snowman to fall into the boxes. You can see all of the boxes crumble under the weight of Snowman, which then shows that all of the boxes are empty.

Continuity: When The Bandit is getting ready to get in the convoy of trucks, right before he gets in between the trucks, all the trucks are close together. When they show a closeup inside the car, you can see the trucks are farther apart when you look out he back window. In the next shot when the cop car is pulling up, the trucks are close to each other once again.

Factual error: When the Snowman is figuring out their schedule and he is typing on the calculator, you can clearly see that it's off.

Continuity: In the scene where Bandit is pulled off to the side of the road waiting for Snowman to pass (just before they pick up the Coors), his Trans Am has Pontiac "Honeycomb" wheels while the rest of the movie the car has Pontiac "Snowflake" wheels.

Continuity: After the Bandit jumps the bridge Sheriff Justice rear-ends the cop car in front of him, smashing the hood of his car. In the next scene Sheriff Justice's hood is fine.

Factual error: The star on Sheriff Justice's car indicates that he is the Sheriff of Montague County Texas. Texarkana is in Bowie County Texas which is approximately 245 miles east of Montague County.

Continuity: Just before the Snowman and the Bandit reach ol' Miss, the Bandit asks where the Snowman is and he replies "mile marker 85," to which the Bandit replies, "Son of a gun; so am I." The Snowman then looks in his side mirror to see the Trans Am behind him with Bandit driving, yet in the next shot when they stop, Bandit gets out of the passenger side, revealing that Frog and the Bandit had not changed places yet.

Continuity: In one scene Buford T. Justice comes up on a long line of cars stopped on the highway due to an accident, so he proceeds to pass the line of cars on the right berm of the road. He pulls up alongside a green Cadillac at the front of the line and stops just as a local cop walks up to his car. The shot changes to the passenger side of the car, but the green Cadillac is nowhere in sight when it was there just one second earlier. If the line had began to move there wouldn't have been enough time for the Cadillac to get out of the shot from a dead stop.

Continuity: After the Bandit makes the jump across the bridge, a police car runs immediately right off the bridge into the river, but Sheriff Branford's car doesn't. When Buford T. Justice later rear-ends Sheriff Branford's car off the bridge, that first police car has completely disappeared.

Continuity: In the scene where Buford T Justice is waiting in line behind a bunch of cars stopped at a car accident (in Alabama) there is a green Cadillac behind him, when he pulls off to the side to try getting through and gets stopped by the trooper, the same Cadillac is in the front of the line. (At the very end of the film, when Bandit and Smokey are talking on CBs to each other, the same Cadillac is parked in the background, ahead of the red convertible that Bandit is driving...now in Georgia! [added by John W Rosa])

Continuity: While at the truck stop to refuel, the Bandit talks to Justice on the CB. During this scene, Justice is having his car worked on the front is up on a jack. When the bandit drives by them to leave, you can see Junior is wide awake (in fact, his head turns to look at the car) and then immediately in the next shot he is sleeping.

Continuity: In different scenes the rear view mirror is shown and then it is gone. This happens several times throughout the movie.

Continuity: When Buford T. Justice's top gets knocked off his car, at the end of the shot his head starts to emerge from the car and some sunglasses but when the car stops a split second later Buford isn't wearing any glasses.

Continuity: In one shot near the beginning the bandit is being chased by the first of many cops, he comes to an intersection and turns left. But if you look close you can see that he actually turns the steering wheel to the right .

Continuity: When the Bandit first drives the Trans Am out of the trailer, the front license plate is easily seen, and it has 2 basic designs on it. The right side of the plate (about 3/5s of it) has a confederate flag on it, and the remaining left side of the plate has a light blue background with a white circular logo in it (the Georgia State Seal?). When Bandit wipes out the row of mailboxes along the side of the highway, the license plate is upside-down.

Visible crew/equipment: When the sheriff tells his son to put the door in the back, the shadow of the boom pole can be seen on the car's surface.

Audio problem: When the one police officer says "Headquaters, disregard my last transmission", he is upside down in his car. When he says that though, his words are out of sync with his mouth.

Revealing: When Sheriff Justice tells his son to take the handcuffs off the man, you can see they are already open.

Continuity: When Sally Field is driving the T/A, right after the Buford's car goes under the rig you can see that her door is locked. Right after the Bandit says, "I'm still trying to get rid of that Texas County Mounty," and the camera is on her, you can see the door lock is open.

Continuity: In the scenes where Sally Fields is removing her wedding dress and veil and throws them out of the car you watch the veil leave the car and fly away, in the very next scene the veil is back inside the car as she struggles to get it to fly out of the car again, as it is caught on the t-top.

Audio problem: Whenever you hear a County Mounty or Smokey without seeing him (i.e. on the radio), it is always the same actor doing the voice over.

Continuity: When Sheriff Justice tries to drive off while on top of the jack (at the gas station), his car falls off the jack, as he hits the red car in front of him, in the car's rear quarter, spinning it around. In the next shot of Buford, the red car is back to its original position, with Buford's car on top of the red car's roof.

Revealing: In the chase scene with the top taking a "10-100," the patrol car loses control and goes backwards into a lake. But if you look closely as it plunges in, you can see the backup lights lit, which is impossible if the car was in drive.

Continuity: The blue lights on Sheriff Justice's car are seen on and then off in the same scene several times throughout the movie during the action chase scenes.

Revealing: When Frog makes her "We're going 110." comment, they then show a close-up of the dash-board. Even though the speedometer does show them to be going 110 kilometers/hr, the ignition key is in the 'off' position, and the 'amp' gauge shows '0'. This is a clear indication that the engine was not actually running during this shot.

Factual error: They go to Texarkana Texas to pick up the beer and later in the movie they are in Fayetteville Arkansas. Why would they go due north to Fayetteville to get to Atlanta which is due East?

Continuity: When Snowman plows into Sheriff Justice, he causes Buford's car to spin clockwise. In the very next shot, Buford is spinning counter-clockwise. If this were to happen in real time, Buford would have rolled over.

Continuity: Throughout the film, Sheriff Justice's CB radio antenna keeps disappearing/reappearing.

Continuity: When Sheriff Justice is held up by the funeral procession, he has lost the wing mirror on the driver's side of his car. However, after this it is back on.

Revealing: Just after the once local police officer has rolled his car, it shows another police car on the highway. This police car then does a hard turn left. When he does, you can see skid marks from previous takes in the exact spot that he turns.

Continuity: All the dust and grime on Bandit's car keeps disappearing/reappearing.

Continuity: As the Bandit says to Frog that "she's safer than in your mothers womb", there are no trucks behind the car. Then, a second later, he is in the convoy.

Continuity: The two Smokeys that join the chase with Evel Kneivel keep changing between Pontiacs and Plymouths throughout the scene.

Continuity: When Bandit and Frog are in the park, before he takes his hat off, Bandit is wearing some sort of belt or brace under his shirt. It does not appear in any of the previous or later scenes.

Visible crew/equipment: All throughout the movie lighting reflections can be seen in Buford T. Justice's sunglasses.

Audio problem: The section of sound effects used as the Trans-Am and the big-rig pull up to the warehouse to get the beer is exactly the same 'loop' as the effects used when the Trans-Am and the big-rig stop by the pond to give 'Fred' his burgers for lunch. Specifically, the Trans-Am's engine idling down to a stop, then the T/A's door closing, then the big-rig's air brakes squealing a very distinctive sound and finally the big-rig's engine rattling to a stop. Exact same 'loop' both times.

Continuity: Junior doesn't lose his hat until after the funeral procession drives past, but there is a shot of Sheriff Justice and him driving up the road, just before they stop because of the graverobber, and in that shot Junior is holding his daddy's hat and his is gone.

Continuity: In one scene where the Bandit and the Snowman are on there way to pick up the beer, you can see Frog (Sally Field) riding with the Bandit. They did not pick up Frog (Sally Field) until after they were on there way back to Atlanta.

Continuity: After the first major chase of the film, where the police car ends up in the lake backwards, there is a shot of the Trans Am power-sliding around a dirt corner as it gets back on paved roads to continue on. During this shot, it is plain to see that the entire three-piece front spolier (from each front wheel and under the bumper) is completely missing, probably torn off by the uneven ground while shooting this sequence.The immediate next scene shows the entire spoiler back in place as if nothing happened.

Revealing: When Smokey jumps the ramp into the football field, there are no tyre tracks. When Sheriff Justice drives up to the ramp, there are tracks that stop short of the ramp. Obviously from previous takes.

Continuity: When Jerry Reed gets into the fist fight with the bikers,his false teeth disappear then reappear in his mouth when the fight is over. He had no time to remove them or put them back in.

Visible crew/equipment: At the end where they arrive at the truck races, when Snowman opens the door a light can be seen and it can be seen reflected in the truck when Bandit, Snowman and Frog are walking over to Mr. Big.

Visible crew/equipment: When Snowman is pulled over by "Mr. Evil Knievel" (the cop) two lighting reflections can be seen in his helmet.

Visible crew/equipment: When Buford T. Justice is telling off the young officer when he is pulled over for driving his "evidence", as Buford heads back to his car a light and two crew-members are reflected in the back of his car.

Continuity: After Jackie Gleason's police car goes under the trailer of the 18-wheeler and the top is ripped off, the window post behind him changes from a tall post to a short one throughout the remainder of the film.

Factual error: When Justice is talking to Sheriff Branford (who says he is of the fictional 'Deeson County', Arkansas), Justice is told that he is out of his Texas jurisdiction. But a sign behind Branford tells us that Branford is also a long way from home, as the sign indicates he is in Willow Bend, Clayton County, in Georgia (where this scene was actually filmed).

Continuity: When Frog spots the Smokey taking a 10-100, he is driving a Pontiac. The next time we see him is when he pulls off the main road, chasing the Bandit, and he is driving a Plymouth. When we see him next, he is back to a Pontiac.

Continuity: In the scene where Bandit and Frog are being chased down a dirt road and discover that the bridge is out, they pull a u-turn and you can see there is no back license plate on the car.

Continuity: When sheriff Justice stops the kids in the van, his gun belt keeps appearing and disappearing.

Continuity: Every time they show how fast the car is driving, there's fewer miles on the odometer...

Continuity: At the roadblock set up in front of the General Store (where Bandit asks Frog if she's ready), all three police cars are Plymouths. When one backs into another, a close-up insert shot shows the ramming car is a Pontiac and the rammed car is a 1960s-era Ford sedan. The next shot has two Plymouths falling into the roadside ditch. The accident itself is also impossible because just before the impact, you see the first car stop before it gets behind the car that will ram it in the next shot, avoiding the accident all together.

Visible crew/equipment: There is a scene that is filmed with a camera mounted outside the passenger door of the Trans AM as it is being driven. Frog is in the passenger seat, Bandit is driving. Look at the bottom of the screen at the reflection in the car door. The camera is clearly visible.

Continuity: When Bandit decides to turn himself in, and Snowman objects, you can see that Jerry Reed is wearing gloves. However, when they are entering the fairgrounds, and they show the entry through the windshield from the back of the cab, the person driving the tractor is not wearing gloves.

Continuity: Just after Bandit picks up Frog, and the thieves arrive to strip her car, a shot of the Trans Am and the truck coming toward the camera shows Frog is not in her wedding headpiece, even though the shots before and after have her wearing it.