Stand By Me

Continuity mistake: During the mailbox baseball scene, Ace is shown with a cigarette in his mouth. Then after he strikes out and says "ah shit, I'm out", the cigarette is gone.

Factual error: When they find the dead body, the body looks like it has been dead for only a short while, his face even had a pinkish color to it still. Factually, the body would be a lot more decomposed after a few days, bluish or white in color from the blood pooling at the bottom of the body, since the body was on its back. (01:08:30)

Continuity mistake: In the leech scene when the boys get out of the water, Chris takes off his shirt and there are no leeches on his back. But when Chris says "Gordie there are some on your back man. Are there any on mine." he has about 4 or 5 leeches on his back.

a river runs through it

Continuity mistake: About half way through their journey the boys clothes are very dirty, then they become spotless.

Continuity mistake: When the four boys first come to the railroad, Vern shows them his comb. He is holding it upwards, then lowers it a little. Then when Gordie says "Lotta thinking Vern, thanks," his arm is straight down next to his side.

Visible crew/equipment: In a bird's eye view when the boys cross the bridge, there is a camera visible at the end of the bridge.

Revealing mistake: During the pie eating scene when the projectile stream of blueberries starts, the alignment is off for most of them, as it appears to come out of their noses and chins as well. The pie eating contestant next to the radio personality has their stream fall in an arc until it looks like it's coming from beneath their chin directly downward.

jerimiah

Continuity mistake: The author in the beginning is supposed to be Gordy grown up, but the grown up Gordy has blue eyes and light hair color and Gordy as a kid had brown hair and brown eyes.

Continuity mistake: When the boys are continue their journey the second day they are by each other eating blueberries but when it cuts Gordy and Chris are in front of Teddy and Vern while the others are both holding a string.

Revealing mistake: When Ace runs the truck driver off the road, it's obvious that Ace Billy and Charlie are stunt doubles, because of the hair and age.

Continuity mistake: In the beginning scene, the newspaper clipping under the headline shows the first sentence to be about Chris' death from a stabbing, but the next line starts mid sentence about a completely different subject and the second column under the headline talks about taxes, mentioning nothing about the death.

Continuity mistake: All throughout the movie, the angle of the sun and shadows change within scenes. Especially in the scene when the boys are near the train bridge talking. As the camera shots switch, the shadows change angles.

Anthony Lemons

Continuity mistake: When the boys are in the treehouse at the beginning, the coca cola bottle on the treehouse shelf constantly moves places between shots. The two sides of the bottle saying "coke" and "coca-cola" keep switching positions between shots also. (00:02:55 - 00:04:55)

Continuity mistake: Near the start of the movie, in the tree house scene, Chris has a cigarette packet rolled up in the left sleeve of his T-shirt, the cigarette packet is seen to disappear and reappear several times during this scene.

John D 619

Revealing mistake: When Davey cracks the egg, you can tell he doesn't crack it into his mouth. It slides down his cheek and hits the ground. You can actually hear this happen.

Revealing mistake: During the Barf-O-Rama scene, look and you can see that everyone is puking the same thing. No one in the crowd was in the contest.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: This scene is part of a fictional story being told by one of the characters; since everything depicted is taking place within the characters' imaginations, this is not a mistake.

zendaddy621

Factual error: There's a scene with a house in the background that has the electric wires from the power pole going to a connection above the roof. In 1959, the connection would have been made under the eaves or on the outer wall.

Factual error: When the boys start their hike at the railroad yard, there is a modern transformer on a pole in the background. In 1959, they were smaller and black. (00:15:00)

Continuity mistake: After Teddy tries to dodge the train, the boys head back in the opposite direction they were walking. Not a question of camera angles. They're walking towards the oncoming train. After the train passes, they resume walking in the same direction it passed.

Mr. LaChance: Why can't you have friends like Denny's?
Gordie: Dad, they're okay.
Mr. LaChance: Sure they are. A thief and two feebs?
Gordie: Chris isn't a thief.
Mr. LaChance: He stole the milk money at school. He's a thief in my book.

More quotes from Stand By Me

Trivia: While filming the scene in which Ace takes Gordie's Yankees cap, Kiefer Sutherland's first instinct was to put it on, rather than hand it to Eyeball Chambers.

More trivia for Stand By Me

Question: In the train dodging scene, why didn't the loco crew brake at all? They definitely saw the boys in front. I know that trains have very long stopping distances compared to road vehicles, but still. And why didn't the boys try to signal the driver to stop? I get it that they panicked, but still wouldn't that be the first thing coming to one's mind in such a situation?

Answer: No, it wasn't that big of a train. He didn't even attempt to get off the throttle. That's all it would have taken for the boys to make it fairly easy. It was a straight-away track, no chance of it derailing by hitting the brakes. Like the man said above, if trains derailed that easily, we wouldn't be using them.

Answer: Throwing on brakes that heavily gives the train a chance of derailing and the train still wouldn't stop in time.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: To add to the other fine answers, and as mentioned, any attempt to make a sudden stop could have resulted in derailment. The conductor knew the train was about to go over an elevated track, and if it derailed, it would have plunged into the deep ravine, killing the boys anyway, as well as those on aboard. The best he could do was blow the whistle, gradually slow the train, and hope the boys survived.

raywest

Can't agree with the arguments about derailment. If trains derailed so easily, they would derail all the time. The train had only 4 or 5 cars. It would not have needed miles to stop. Simply reducing the throttle would have resulted in significant slowing. Plus, they did not stop to determine if anyone was hurt. That is criminal behavior.

Answer: A train that size would have needed miles to stop, and rapid braking could have caused derailment. The engineer was blowing his whistle so he saw the boys; there was no need for them to signal. The engineer and the boys knew their only chance was to get off the bridge.

Brian Katcher

More questions & answers from Stand By Me

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