Basic Instinct (1992) - 51 mistakes

Continuity: During the famous leg un-crossing scene when SS is being interrogated, a cigarette in her hand disappears and then reappears, but who was looking at her hand at the time?

Continuity: During the interrogation scene, Stone has her legs crossed right over the left then suddenly left over the right and a second later (during the shot where she wears no underwear) right to left again.

Continuity: During the big sex scene you see red marks on Michael Douglas's back. These red marks are from when Sharon Stone scratches him. The thing is, she scratches him a minute AFTER you see the red marks on him for the first time.

Visible crew/equipment: Jeanne Tripplehorn along with Dr. Myron and Dr. McElwaine meet with Michael Douglas back at the station after Roxy's death and equipment shadows can be seen moving all over the walls.

Continuity: When Roxy runs off the bridge you see the Lotus crashing over with its low beams on - when you see the car fly off the bridge its brights are on.

Continuity: Douglas opens a mailbox to check Stone's mail for clues. He then puts the mail back and closes the box, a second later you hear him closing the mailbox again.

Continuity: As Michael Douglas and his partner drive Sharon Stone to the police station for questioning in the shots of her she's sitting on the left of the rear window. When Gus Moran looks at her in the rear view mirror she's on the other side next to a large police light. Throughout the scene she moves left and right between shots on the back seat.

Continuity: When Roxy drives Sharon Stone's car off the road it lands on a yellow hose at the bottom of a construction site. When Michael Douglas runs down into the construction site the car is nowhere near the yellow hose.

Factual error: Michael Douglas is lying on the couch watching the Jeffersons. Jeanne Tripplehorn arrives and they talk. In the background the theme song to the Jeffersons is playing, but it is the song from the beginning of the show rather than the closing theme.

Continuity: Sharon Stone finely comes out of Hazel Dobkins' house and her car is dry. There's no indication that Michael Douglas hasn't been sitting there waiting for her but his car is soaking wet. In the next shot it's dry also.

Continuity: In the scene where the actual murder takes place the blonde woman stabs him in the neck. The body has no blood on it. The second stab the body is covered with blood. This all happens in one eyeblink.

Continuity: Before Sharon Stone leaves Michael Douglas' apartment the box on the left against the far wall near his front door is empty. Several shots later when Gus Moran brings him a pizza, the box is full of stuff.

Continuity: Michael Douglas goes back to Sharon Stone's house where she invites him upstairs as he watches her break up ice cubes with an ice pick. If you look closely at the painting above her fireplace, you can watch the different times of day go by between shots in the reflection of sunlight off of the pool and onto the picture.

Continuity: As she walks into Michael Douglas' apartment, Sharon Stone drapes her jacket over the center of one of his kitchen chairs. Later in the scene she walks over and gets the jacket and it's draped over the left side of the chair.

Continuity: At Sharon Stone's house, Michael Douglas sees her undressing through a large picture window. He has to turn to the left to see the window, but in the close-up of him watching he's not looking to the left but looking straight ahead.

Visible crew/equipment: Michael Douglas spots Sharon Stone's car after the high-speed highway chase and as he walks up to her you can see the reflection in his sunglasses of the cameraman walking in front of him.

Continuity: Someone moved the pencil holder on Jeanne Tripplehorn's desk between shots. It's there in the beginning of the scene then it just disappears.

Continuity: When Michael Douglas walks into Jeanne Tripplehorn's office there's a large plant more than one foot to the right of the lamp by her window. Later in the scene this plant is moved to the left where it's almost in front of the lamp in her close-ups.

Visible crew/equipment: At the beach house, Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas speak about Jonny Boz and as she says, "I wasn't dating him" the shadow of the cameraman can be seen moving on the railing behind her.

Continuity: When Michael Douglas goes back to Sharon Stone's house, there's a table with a lamp on it next to a white chair. The table moves back about four inches throughout the scene and the pillow on the chair, the flower centerpiece, and the stuff on the table on the right also move as the scene progresses.

Continuity: Sharon Stone leaves the top of Michael Douglas' back all bloodied with her sharp fingernails. After the lovemaking scene, Roxy talks to him in the bathroom and we see the reflection of his back in the mirror. The scratches on his back are now much lower and not anywhere near the right place.

Visible crew/equipment: As Roxy follows Michael Douglas after he leaves Mac's Diner, the shadow of the cameraman can be seen moving on the license plate of Sharon Stone's car.

Continuity: Michael Douglas sits and watches Sharon Stone's car in front of Hazel Dobkins' house. There's no indication that she ever left the house but the car is in a different position, in relation to the mailbox, then when he first saw it.

Visible crew/equipment: Michael Douglas spots Sharon Stone's car in front of Hazel Dobkins' house and if you look closely as he walks up to her car you can see the camera man's reflection on the front window as he is obviously filming inside of another vehicle.

Continuity: Sharon Stone has gone and left a note on the pillow and we see Michael Douglas's back again as he wakes up to find it. The scratch marks on his back have all healed as there are hardly any there.

Continuity: As Jeanne Tripplehorn talks with Michael Douglas her hair is combed differently in the close ups. When we first see her it's combed totally to the left, then in the close-ups it's combed back and to the left.

Continuity: As Sharon Stone sits for questioning at the police station, the coffee pot on top of the coffee machine rotates throughout the scene without anyone leaving their seats.

Continuity: Michael Douglas and his partner go up to Sharon Stone's beach house to get her to come in for questioning and the large clasp on her gold necklace moves between shots without being touched.

Continuity: No one goes near it but during Sharon Stone's questioning at the police station the brown coffee cup in front of Wayne Knight rotates between shots.

Continuity: When Michael Douglas first sees her at the beach house he says, "Miss. Tramell?". If you closely at the shadow cast by the railing it's obvious that at least an hour has gone by between shots as he walks down to talk to her. The lounge chair has also moved between shots.

Continuity: In the sequence where Michael Douglas is driving along the coastal highway, his car's center rear-view mirror appears and disappears over and over.

Continuity: At the end of the movie when Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone relax in bed contemplating their future together and the black lamp on the left side of his bed changes the direction that it's pointing in throughout the scene without anyone going near it.

Continuity: Back at Michael Douglas' apartment, Sharon Stone uses his ice pick to break up a big hunk of ice for their drinks. In front of her is a tray with various items and loose change in it, with a padlock and a piece of paper to left of it. Everything in the tray and the piece of paper move throughout the scene without anyone going near them.

Continuity: Michael Douglas waits in the dark in Jeanne Tripplehorn's apartment and says to her after she walks in, " Tell me about Catherine". At first we see a couch and chair on the right side of the room but two shots later as he walks towards her these two items have been removed from the room.

Continuity: When Michael Douglas walks into Jeanne Tripplehorn's apartment we see a chair on the left of the screen. Later in the scene the chair is pushed right up against the table, which it wasn't in the previous shot.

Visible crew/equipment: After the scene in Jeanne Tripplehorn's apartment, Michael Douglas meets with the other investigators back at the police station and the reflection of the cameraman can be seen in the glass partition behind him as an investigators says, "I made a couple of calls to Berkeley".

Visible crew/equipment: Michael Douglas kisses Jeanne Tripplehorn in her apartment and the shadow of the camera can he seen on his shirt in the extreme close ups.

Continuity: In the first scene of the movie Sharon Stone holds the end of her white silk scarf in her right-hand. In the next shot the end of the scarf is draped over her right hand.

Continuity: In the scene where Rocky and Nick are talking in the bathroom you can see Nick's back in the mirror - he has two nasty looking scratched up areas of bare skin on his back - then when he turns and returns to the bedroom you can see that he now only has a couple of superficial marks.

Revealing: When Michael Douglas pulls his car in front of Jonny Boz' house after the initial murder we hear him come to a screeching halt. If you look closely, perfect tire skid marks can be seen in the exact same spot on the road in front of his police car before it comes to a stop.

Audio problem: After Jeanne Tripplehorn is killed, Michael Douglas is back at the police station and Jack the Internal Affairs Investigator says to the black investigator, "No report from Berkeley, nothing at all about Salinas". If you look closely at his lips he's saying something else.

Continuity: In the first scene of the movie Sharon Stone ties Jonny Boz's right hand with her white silk scarf. When we first see his hand it's wide open than in the next shot it's closed only to open as she pulls the knot tightly.

Visible crew/equipment: When Michael Douglas pulls his car in front of Jonny Boz' house after the initial murder scene policemen on the far corner can be seen directing traffic away from the movie set, at the top of the hill.

Revealing: When Jeanne Tripplehorn meets with Michael Douglas it's obvious by the flat reflection of the studio lights that she's wearing prop glasses.

Continuity: When Nick and Gus are driving Katherine to the police station for the first time, they drive past the same stretch of coast about three times throughout the scene. Most obviously seen by the position of the small island - it jumps from being in the distance, to being even with the car, then behind the car, then in front again etc.

Continuity: When Michael Douglas and his partner are in the diner, the cap on the Tabasco sauce bottle is off. A second later, it is on.

Factual error: The light reflections at Tremell's beach house are not the ones an ocean would make. The reflections are from large flat areas of almost calm water - like in basins - but there are none around.

Visible crew/equipment: The film crew is visible in Nick's sunglasses when he meets Hazel, the old lady.

Continuity: When Roxy tries to run over Nick the left front light is broken off - in the next scene it is back on.

Factual error: The road where the cops drive on their way back from the beach - where we see San Francisco in the background - is a dead end. It does not lead to Stinson Beach.

Revealing: Michael Douglas almost has a head-on collision with a bus as he chases Sharon Stone down the highway. If you look closely as he slams on his brakes, there are many skid marks in that exact same spot in the road from previous takes.