Superman (1978) - 142 mistakes

Revealing: Superman has fillings in his teeth.

Revealing: When Jor-El is placing the baby Kal-El into the spacecraft, you can see his Rolex under his sleeve.

Visible crew/equipment: Just after young Clark Kent jumps in front of the train, there is a close up of the train speeding by with a very visible camera in its reflection.

Continuity: Kal-El's cradle arrives on earth, flies zooming past the Kents' car, which is driving in the opposite direction and crashes 500 meters behind the vehicle. The car keeps moving for about 200 meters and then pulls over. A brief shot shows an intact curb on the right. However, when Jonathan Kent gets out of the car, everything changes: The cradle has moved 700 meters and lays next to the car; and the immaculate field is now destroyed by a huge ditch.

Visible crew/equipment: Near the beginning when Lois and Clark are walking out of the Daily Planet, Clark gets stuck in the revolving doors. But, look closely at the glass door, and you can see the crewman holding the door so that Christopher Reeve can get stuck.

Continuity: The lights on the heliport keep swapping from facing the ground to pointing at the sky between shots.

Audio problem: In the plane, when the Captain says "I'm not too god, what do you think" his lips aren't moving.

Continuity: On the Golden Gate, the blue beetle skids and stops with the rear tyres on top of a painted white line. A frame later the car is on the middle on the white line.

Continuity: Inside the cab arriving at the Daily Planet, the fruit stall has no van behind. Immediately afterwards, a van appears.

Continuity: When Otis is reading the paper about the meteorite found in Addis Ababa, the amount of chocolate in the candy bar increases or decreases depending on the shot.

Continuity: The telephone poles close to the gap on the railroad disappear in the wide angles.

Revealing: When Lois is at the heliport, watch the wind flag on the left: when the helicopter arrives, the roaring wind from the vanes makes the flag move up and get stiff. In the close-ups, you keep on hearing the sound but the vanes are off screen. Watch and you'll see the wind flag is down, thus revealing that the engine is off and that the sound we are hearing is fake.

Continuity: When leaving the Daily Planet for the first time together Clark gets stuck in the revolving door behind Lois. He lets her go through ahead of him and gets in the next section as the door revolves. Cut to the exterior of the Planet when they emerge (just before they meet Rex Reed) and Clark is in the same section of the revolving door as Lois.

Other: When the camera pulls back from Superman in his Fortress of Solitude, right after the image of his father wanting to hug him disappears, you can see on the right of the screen that one of Superman's 'crystal' walls is fluttering or shaking like it's made of plastic.

Revealing: In the final shot of the destruction of Krypton several of the people falling into the abyss disappear a split second before the shot of Krypton exploding.

Continuity: Liz places her kitty on her right shoulder and on the next shot the cat's gone.

Continuity: When Luthor switches the snow machine off, a wide angle shows the chamber totally covered in snow and ice, but the close-up of the vents and the walls surrounding are spotless.

Continuity: Before Superman lands on the sidewalk looking for Luthor, the aerial view shows no cars around. When he lands, the place is jammed.

Continuity: During the Golden Gate Bridge crash sequence, a reversed shot of a life-sized 1972 Trans-Am braking hard is shown. The next shot shows a model car smashing into a model school bus, and the car is suddenly a 1965 Corvette. The fimakers have painted it red & white so it resembles the Trans Am. (Timecode is for Director's Cut)

Continuity: The huge lamp post next to the bus on the Golden gate disappears when the bus is about to fall down.

Continuity: When the Hollywood sign is falling on the girls, a close view shows a girl very close to a letter while her friends run away. A split second later, from a wide angle, the girl has disappeared.

Continuity: When Superman pulls Lois' car out of the quake hole, the camera then does some wide shots, rotating around the scene before Superman flies off. The damage to the front of the car changes in these shots.

Continuity: In the extended version, when Superman talks with his father in the Fortress of Solitude about being a hero, one shot shows the crystals reaching up to Superman's waist. In the next shot they are at ankle level.

Continuity: The cheerleading equipment is knocked down from the bench, but magically appears up on the next shot.

Continuity: When the gas station collapses, at first the roof falls down completely and covers the gas tanks, but in the next shot it's slightly laying sideways.

Continuity: In the football field, all the player pass in front of Clark and leave him alone. In the next angle a player is passing by again.

Continuity: After the van crashes against the beetle car, the new angle shows the van in a different position.

Continuity: During the trial, Zod and Ursa swap places in a couple of brief shots.

Continuity: When Hoover Dam is about to explode, there's a shot of a resort nearby. The people running close to the fallen umbrella differ between shots.

Continuity: Right before Superman catches the burglar, he is standing in a steel intersection of the building. A second afterwards, he is in the middle of a window pane.

Continuity: When Clark first meets Lois and the staff of the Daily Planet, he is wearing a handkerchief in his suit pocket. After using it to wipe up the spill from the soda, he stuffs it loosely back into the pocket when he exits Mr. White's office. A couple of shots later, it is neatly folded back into a triangle.

Other: When Superman and Lois are flying through the clouds, there are a number of shots in which we see Superman from Lois' point of view. If you look closely, you can see that Christopher Reeve is not being suspended in these shots, but is, in fact, kneeling to look as though he is flying. You can tell by the profile of the red trunks.

Continuity: The two cops are following Otis at Grand Central Station and two girls, one in yellow, pass by their left side. When the angle changes to a closer one, the girls are in the back and pass by again.

Continuity: At the police station, the counter swaps from being stacked with papers to semi empty when the angle changes.

Continuity: When Lois is about to ride on the helicopter, there's a man in the background easy noticeable because he holds two very bright glowing sticks. When the angle changes to a ground level view of Lois's legs, the man disappears.

Continuity: At the heliport, a cork bulletin board on the wall appears and disappears between shots.

Continuity: At the end of the falling Hollywood sign, the girls are zooming away from the sign. Angle cuts brusquely and, though the sign keeps falling on top of them, the girls are now walking calmly forming a neat cue.

Continuity: On the Golden Gate, the school bus smashes a blue beetle car, a second later the car appears in perfect condition.

Continuity: When the helicopter is spinning around two men run towards the control room. In the next angle they're gone, only to appear entering several seconds later.

Continuity: During the first scene inside Perry's office there's a radio on the background resting on a white book and a fat red volume. The white book changes positions depending on the angle.

Continuity: Superman lands on the sidewalk looking for Luthor and a group of people gather closely together behind him. In the next shot, half a second later, they are standing way apart from each other.

Continuity: Superman's hands' position when holding the fuselage of the plane swap between shots.

Continuity: When young Clark is running next to a train, he passes by a pole on the ground. Half a second later the angle changes and he is inches away from the pole, which he passes by again.

Continuity: Lois exits Perry's office and Clark enters to talk about salary. His hat swaps from facing up to down between shots.

Continuity: When Clark is about to jump in front of the train, there's a crossing sign shaped as an X. Depending on the shot the front upper left part is either bent and about to break, straight, or missing.

Continuity: When the Kent's stop the truck and see the cradle, the sky swaps from sunny and clear to heavily cloudy in a second.

Continuity: When Kent's father pulls over his car, he holds the steering wheel with his right hand on the top. From the side, barely a frame before, he has his left hand on the side.

Continuity: The first wide shot of Superman arriving at the broken railway shows no logs hanging. The close shots, and then on, do show logs.

Continuity: The way the bags are positioned in the Kent's pickup differs between the side and back angles.

Continuity: When Superman and Lois are being mugged in the alley, watch Clark's tie before and after entering; there's a thick blue coloured stripe near the knot, which later disappears.

Continuity: When Lois exits the alley where Clark grabs the bullet, her hair is much shorter than when she entered.

Continuity: When the cab arrives in front of the Daily Planet, the sidewalk in front of the office is empty. A split second later there are people everywhere.

Continuity: When Lois interviews Clark, the position of the glasses changes between shots.

Continuity: When the cradle takes off, thousands of glasses fall on the floor, but the next travelling shot shows just four or five around the parents, and the rest of the floor clean.

Continuity: When Krypton is exploding, Superman's mother looses her balance and falls backwards. In a new angle a frame later she is up-straight loosing balance again.

Continuity: In Lex Luthor's lair, the bottles to the left of the TV broadcasting the news disappear in the following shot.

Continuity: When Superman arrives at the dam, after chunks of concrete have exploded everywhere seconds before, there is barely nothing broken, except for some cracks on the wall.

Continuity: When hanging from the bridge, the damage on the school bus' hood is different depending on the shot.

Revealing: When in the prison yard, Luthor's bald cap is hanging loose around his nape.

Revealing: After saving Jimmy from falling to the dam, during the flying sequence a couple of wires are seen between them.

Continuity: When Ms. Teschmaker is sunbathing, the trolley by her side is close to her thigh. In the wider angle is by her ankle.

Continuity: When Jimmy runs towards Hoover Dam his hair is long. A fraction of a second later it's very short.

Continuity: The Hoover Dam breaks in many pieces with huge cracks everywhere. When Jimmy is hanging about to fall, from his POV there are just four tiny cracks.

Revealing: On the Golden Gate bridge, the beetle car that skidded a split second before appears totally empty when the van crashes against it.

Continuity: When Jimmy is rescued by Clark in the Hoover Dam, Jimmy's hair during the flight is way longer than when he was hanging.

Continuity: After Jor-el talks to Von-Dah he places his hands on a man's chest. In the following shot they're on his shoulders.

Deliberate "mistake": Before the school bus crashes, a brown car is seen coming. When the angle changes we still see a brown car but it's a totally different model.

Continuity: In the gas station, the "closed" sign falls down but appears up in the next shot (you'll find it in the right side of the screen).

Deliberate "mistake": Before Superman traps the black missile, its beam is really big and covers half of the lettering on the side. When Superman is behind, the fire is much smaller and the lettering is visible, allowing us to see Superman.

Continuity: Perry White shows newspapers with day shots of Superman, but he made his appearance at night.

Continuity: When Lois falls from the helicopter, the cable holding her is visible.

Continuity: When the burglar falls from the building, his flashlight is sometimes swinging, but other times it's flat against his body revealing the camera was tilted.

Continuity: When Lois is hanging from the helicopter, she looks down and sees some cars on the pavement, by the entrance of the Daily Planet. From a ground view the cars are gone.

Continuity: When Lois dies, Superman's face is covered in dirt. When he takes off and flies, it's clean.

Continuity: When the gas station falls down, watch the right side: A green car with an open hood suddenly gets replaced by a red car.

Continuity: When the school bus smashes the Golden Gate fence, the aerial shot from the back shows the fence complete, the shot from the front shows it smashed.

Continuity: When Lois dies, the first time Superman sees her the left side of her face has sand and rocks around her cheek. When the angle changes they are at shoulder level.

Continuity: When Superman avoids the train from derailing, the wide shot shows his cape fluttering but the close one not.

Continuity: When Superman moves the school bus away from the void, the wide shot shows a different fence and wreckage, with a long piece of fence missing. The close shot shows a missing space that is slightly bigger than the bus.

Other: On Perry's office, there's a painted sign on the glass that says "Editors Secretary". Being the Daily Planet such an important paper, and with Perry White so picky on grammar mistakes, someone should've noticed that an apostrophe is missing.

Continuity: Lois leaves the gas station but the reflection of the glass shows it still there.

Audio problem: While flying with Superman, Lois falls down and starts to shout. When he grabs her, her mouth closes slightly and her expression changes, but the loud crying continues.

Continuity: When Superman saves the wrecked plane, from the outside shots the window has droplets of water, but from the copilot's POV the glass is clean.

Continuity: When Luthor smashes the green car, its wreckage is different in the shot when the soldiers arrive: The hood is open wider and the windows are broken.

Continuity: The way the word Otisburg is written on Lex's map changes between shots.

Continuity: When Ms. Teschmaker is watching the Metropolis news, the glass by the TV swaps from being behind the sun-lotion cream to in front of it.

Continuity: When Luthor takes the kryptonite out of the box, from a side view he holds it at waist level, from a front shot he holds it at chest level.

Continuity: When Ms. Teschmaker rests her arm on the file cabinet, a white roll of paper appears and disappears.

Revealing: In Grand Central Station, the same extras appear in every scene, no matter where in time or place occurs.

Continuity: When the three villains get trapped by the glass, Ursa's face and haircut are totally different.

Continuity: When Clark is shot by the mugger, his hat falls down. In the next shot, while Lois is screaming, you can see him taking his hat off.

Continuity: In the wheat field, the clothes inside the cocoon change from being tucked inside a corner to visible.

Continuity: By the craddle, Jor-El's hands are appart, a frame later they're holding the crystal.

Continuity: The first day in the Daily planet, Lois starts typing and a man is sitting beside her. In the following angle the guy is standing several meters in front of her.

Continuity: When baby Clark is greeting the Kents inside the cocoon, Martha's hands change from resting on the sides to up.

Continuity: In the footbal field, one of the megaphones that Clark kicks down appears on the bench in the following shot.

Revealing: After jumping in front of the train, Clark runs leaving a white trace behind. Watch the grass on the lower right and you'll see the scene is speeded up.

Continuity: When the truck falls on Jonathan Kent, the way Martha holds him changes between shots.

Continuity: When the player takes Susie with him, a bucket appears from nowhere on the right side of the bench.

Continuity: When the football game ends, Clark is holding a bundle of towels. A frame later, the towel is neatly folded.

Continuity: Before Superman enters Luthor's lair, Teschmacher is laying on the couch and a bottle of Ambre Solaire is facing straight close to the TV. In the next shot the bottle is turned to the left.

Continuity: After Lex Luthor opens the box with Kryptonite, Superman leans with both arms on a table. A second later he's leaning with just one arm.

Continuity: The first day Clark Kent works in the Daily Planet, he sits by his desk and then a close-up shows Lois placing her hair behind her ear. In the next shot the hair has changed and is now is covering her ear.

Continuity: The day young Clark Kent leaves his parents' home, there's a shot where mother is watching him from inside the house. The clouds and sky colour reflected on the glass is different to the one we see in the following angle.

Continuity: At the beginning when Jor-El and the council pass judgement on the three criminals and the huge white dome starts to open, it stops about a third of the way. Long shot of the three criminals, it's completely open. Next shot it's back to a third of the way open.

Continuity: When Clark Kent falls out of the window of the Daily Planet and turns into Superman you can see that he is still wearing slacks and not blue tights.

Continuity: After Jor-El places the green crystal on Khal-El pod, it keeps changing place.

Continuity: When Lois's car first runs out of gas, the car radio is running. When Superman comes back after turning back time, the radio is off.

Continuity: When the train is about to derail, we see a bunch of goats and donkeys under the bridge, with a kid dressed in jeans and a blue shirt, and a bearded man with a white jacket. When the shot changes, the man is wearing the kids' clothes and the boy has vanished.

Continuity: When the council tells Jor-El not to worry them, a bald man standing in the back changes positions between shots.

Continuity: The morning Clark leaves the home farm, the sky keeps changing throughout the sequence: Dawning, clouds, sunny, dawn again, cloudy, back to sunny.

Revealing: In the shot of Krypton exploding, you can see creases in the black backdrop in the lower, left hand quadrant of the screen (especially visible on Blu-Ray).

Continuity: When the young soldier is about to reanimate Ms. Teschmaker his helmet is behind her arm. When the Captain lifts him up the helmet appears one meter away from the arm.

Continuity: At the police station, behind the fat cop there's a young cop picking up papers who walks to the left and stays there for a while. When the angle changes he reappears in the previous spot, repeating all the movements.

Continuity: While being mugged in the alley, Clark's gabardine keeps swapping between neatly folded to wrinkled between shots.

Continuity: When Lex Luthor calls Superman and the dogs bark, a group of trash cans disappear from the right of the black and white dog.

Continuity: The close shot of the dogs and the garbage bins shows stuff on top of the bins. In the next angle they're gone.

Visible crew/equipment: During the first scene in the Daily Planet, after Lois exits Perry's office saying "You forgot my report", two big stage lights get reflected on the left glass door.

Continuity: When Clark shows Perry a white paper with directions of where to send the payroll, the way he holds the paper differs between shots.

Continuity: When Superman arrives at the ditch by the railway, the gap is 3 times his length. In the next shot the gap has shrunk and now measures exactly Superman's height.

Revealing: In the extended version, when Luthor fires snow at Superman, the icicles bounce, rather than shatter, revealing they are some type of foam or plastic balls.

Continuity: When Superman is in Luthor's lair and Lex calls Ms. Teschmaker , the lamp on the floor changes from lit to unlit depending on the shot.

Continuity: When Superman walks to Luthor's lair, the amount of snow on the bridge of the snow-chamber differs between the CCTV shot and the one from the inside.

Continuity: The first shot of Lois' red car shows it clean and shiny, a second later it's all dusty and dirty.

Revealing: When Superman leaves the prison, wires holding him are visible.

Continuity: After Superman breaks Luthor's door, on Lex's table a map is resting on a sculpture on the left. From a back shot, it isn't.

Revealing: When Superman lands the burglar, wires holding him are visible for a brief moment.

Revealing: Under Grand Central, the train that passes by Otis is the same one (5048) that kills the cop.

Revealing: After Superman saves the cat, he takes off and wires holding him are visible.

Continuity: The position of the baby when his mother holds him by the cradle differs in the wide and close shots.

Continuity: After Clark runs by the train, a girl in a moving car stands up. In the next angle, a split second later, she is sitting down.

Continuity: At the end of the football game, a guy with a cap tells Clark to have the clothes ready. But his lips are not in synch.

Revealing: Superman startles a cat burglar who falls from the side of a building. When Superman catches him he is facing upwards yet his cape does not fall back, it stays parallel to his body.

Revealing: When Superman takes Otis and Luthor to the prison wires holding them are visible.

Revealing: When Superman holds the plane's engine, the "S" on his shirt is looking the wrong way, revealing the angle was flipped.

Revealing: Before the Hoover Dam breaks, the places where all the cracks and water will later appear are easily traced on the concrete, covered in plaster and painted. Either that, or the real Hoover Dam has burst many many times and always through the same spots.

Continuity: Near the end of the movie when Superman pulls Lois Lane out of the car and she's already dead, she is very dirty all over because of all the dirt that "drowned" her. In the following shot when Superman is done crying over her and leaves her on the ground to reverse time so that she will come to life again, her clothes are all white and shiny.

Other: Something that happens a lot in films. When Lex Luthor is watching the cops trail Otis the image on Lex's CCTV screen is actually just the scene from the film being played back. The shots change to angles where Lex couldn't possibly have a camera, for instance a close up on the cop holding his partner's hat. This mistake is especially more noticeable in the extended edition where Superman walks through Lex's 'gauntlet'.

Continuity: When the lady of Lex Luthor is in a red dress pretending to be unconscious on the road we see her legs flat on the ground, then in the next shot one leg is standing up.

Continuity: Jor-El teaches about Einstein during Kal-El's voyage to Earth, but when Superman talks with him in the Fortress, Jor-El says "I will have been dead for many thousands of YOUR years".

Revealing: When Otis first arrives in Luthor's lair beneath the train station, he knocks a table lamp over. When the lamp shade comes off the lamp, the bright, exposed light bulb then dims to a less-distracting level for filming purposes. Otis then replaces the shade upon the lamp, and the bulb then instantly goes back to its original level of brightness, so that it will look appropriately illuminated through the shade. The bulb's brightness was manipulated off-screen to conform with the needs of the bulb's effect on the scene.

Continuity: By the cradle, Jor-El and her wife are standing a couple meters apart. In the next shot they appear closer together.