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Quotes

John Winger: We are Americans with a capital A, huh? You know what that means? Do you? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuge. We're the underdogs. We're the mutts.

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Mistakes

When the platoon is escaping in the EM50, Sarge is on top and says, "I'm getting too old for this #%&*," he then lowers his head. The next shot, he lowers it again. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

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starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis (add more)

Genres: Comedy, Romance

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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Throughout the movie ALL the characters salute completely improperly. As a comedy this is not unexpected, however, in this movie the high ranking officers are depicted correctly and accurately within military decorum, yet they also salute totally inappropriately. Specifically, at the end of the salute your arm is dropped straight down to your side at the attention position immediately, which they fail to do. This is a mistake regardless of this being a comedy, drama or any other genre. [The fact is this: Bad salutes are a part of everyday life in the military. No matter what someone should know, no matter what someone should do, sloppy salutes happen.]
Edit Corrected by Rlvlk
Who took the photo of Russell shooting at the Russians which appears on the Magazine at the end? [He could have been posing for a reconstruction as opposed to being 'in the field.']
Edit Corrected by Andy Benham
After hustling Bill Murray and Harold Ramis onto the bus to basic training, the brunette MP turns to the blond MP and you can see her enlisted rank on her sleeve. She's wearing a Specialist 5 rank displaying an inverted green chevron shaped patch with a gold eagle in the middle and a curved, gold stripe over the top of the patch. Later on, at the graduation ceremony when the 2 MP's are sitting together in the bleachers, the same MP is now only a Specialist 4. The patch is the same, but the gold stripe is gone. Was she demoted between the time of the bus station scene and the time Bill Murray graduated from basic training? [She had a sexual encounter with an enlisted man who was still in boot camp. If this had come to the attention of her superiors, damn right she'd be demoted - if she was lucky.]
Edit
In the scene where the recruits are sitting/standing around telling their stories to Sgt. Hulka, you can see cigarette smoke rising behind one of the men when no one is smoking or should be smoking. [Recruits were allowed cigarettes in boot camp back then.]
Edit Corrected by Grumpy Scot
Realistically speaking, if 2 Army Privates had actually stolen a top-secret vehicle and wreaked the havoc that they did, they'd be immediately discharged from the Army and doing hard time in jail - definitely NOT coming home to a hero's welcome like they did. [Not necessarily, the Army could quite realistically turn something like that into a PR bonanza instead of having the public wonder what kind of organization lets two idiots cause so much trouble. Further, they proved without a doubt the Urban Assault Vehicle concept works perfectly and the officers in charge of that project would feel at least a little favorably towards them.]
Edit Corrected by Grumpy Scot
During John and Sgt Hulka's "heart to heart" talk in the latrine, Hulka says that he's been in the Army 28 years. Hulka's rank was an E7 (Sergeant First Class). It's not possible to be in the Army that long as only an E7, you'd have to be at least an E9 (Sergeant Major) - in which case you wouldn't be a drill sergeant since Sergeant Majors aren't drill sergeants. [This assumes that Hulka never lost a rank or two due to misbehavior or that he loved being a drill sergeant and turned down promotions. Further, it is entirely possible to be in that long and only be E-7. An E-5 in my old unit had been in the Army for 22 years and hadn't gotten any farther.]
Edit Corrected by Grumpy Scot
In the scene where Bill Murray is driving the lady to the airport, he is driving across a bridge. He is driving away from the airport in Louisville, KY where the film is set, and into Indiana. [True. But after been called a "typical lowlife" by the elderly passenger, driving in the wrong direction seems pretty much in character as he seems to be quite enjoying making her mad (and probably had no intention of taking her to the airport).]
Edit Corrected by Gavin Jackson
When the soldiers are held captive and Bill Murray tries to blow down the door, there is an unknown soldier within the cell (small person), he is on the right of all the rest. When the door is broken down by John Candy, you can barely see the same person in the back of the rest of the soldiers jumping up and down wildly. [So what's the mistake?]
Edit
Throughout the whole movie, Captain Stillman has lieutenant's bars on his hat and/or shoulders. He should have captain's ensignia, which is one bar, not two. [In the Army, Captain's bars ARE two bars, whereas 1st Lt. is a single silver bar, and a 2nd Lt. is a single gold bar sometimes referred to as a "butter bar".]
Edit Corrected by William Bergquist