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Quotes

Truman Burbank: Good morning! And in case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!

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Mistakes

There's a series of shots explaining the set built to make Seahaven, and the places where the show broadcasts. We see a shot of place similar to Times Square, with a big screen on a building's facade playing the show. The action on the screen plays at a normal pace, but the people walking on the street have been sped up. The action on the screen should have been played at the same speed. See more...

Trivia

The motto on the double archway in the Seahaven town center is UNUS PRO OMNIBUS, OMNES PRO UNO: "One for all, all for one" in Latin, thus fitting the premise of the Truman Show. See more...

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The Truman Show (1998) - 22 corrections

Directed by Peter Weir, starring Ed Harris, Jim Carrey (add more)

Genres: Drama, Sci-fi

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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Given the nature of Truman's "world," many instances of "crew or equipment visible" may not be movie mistakes and may be Cristoph's mistake. [Far too obvious to be considered trivia. In fact these "mistakes" are a plot point in the film.]
Edit Corrected by jhoffman100@yahoo.com
Director Peter Weir filmed in the 1.66:1 ratio to make it feel more like a television show. [I bought the 2006 collectors edition special and at the back it says he filmed in a 1:78:1 aspect ratio, it may be different for other versions but it says this on mine.]
Edit Corrected by dancer
The shots of Truman's early life show him as a fetus on day 1, and then toddling on a beach on day 125. Even if day 1 had been the day of his birth, which, going by the development of the fetus, it isn't, he would only have been about 4 months old in the latter shot. Babies generally don't start walking until around the age of 8 to 12 months. [There are no captions on the mentioned scenes, and no such captions reading Day 1 or Day 125 exist in the film.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez
In the scene where Truman sees the wedding picture and he realizes Meryl has her fingers crossed, her wedding ring is on her right hand, not her left. In other scenes, she wears her wedding ring on her left hand. [She changed the hand it is on between the time of the picture and when we see her.]
Edit Corrected by Starchild
When they resume transmission after Truman is found on the sea, they cut to a shot of the man sitting in the bathtub. He sits up and appears to turn a knob on the edge of the tub. There is nothing there. [Looking at the scene, I don't see anything wrong. While it's strange, it is in no way a mistake.]
Edit Corrected by Lummie
Seahaven is supposed to be set right behind the Hollywood sign in Hollywood, California. Yet when the camera zooms out away from the dome it shows a shot of the South-East Los Angeles region - about 20 miles from Hollywood. [Seahaven is also HUGE. Remember, it's a fully-functioning community. When you consider the man-made ocean, it could easily be that large.]
Edit Corrected by jhoffman100@yahoo.com
The name of Truman's boat is the "Santa Maria" - a ship sailed by Christopher Columbus. [Loads of people have named their boats after Columbus', or other famous vessels, for that matter. That Truman has chosen to do so, is not very trivia-worthy.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall
Given that there is a clear difference with "hidden cameras" showing a ring around the outside of the screen, there are a number of shots that would not have been possible given the angles and location where the camera moves around the actors. The best example is when Truman freaks out on his "wife" and they move into the living room and you see a camera following them around the room when it's only the two of them. [The movie is not made from the point of view of all the hidden cameras. If it were, we would never see the people in the bar, the people at home reacting, the "director" making decisions etc... The various "hidden camera" shots are only inserted into the film to show that he is truly being watched everywhere. The film itself is filmed normally, because it's *about* a show that watches Truman 24/7, not the show itself.]
Edit Corrected by Gary O'Reilly
In the shot where Truman Burbank buys a ticket for the ferry, the camera inside the small house changes: there is no "Open" sign in the window with the venetian blind, but in the very next shot you can see the "Open" sign in the window. [The open sign is actually on the opposite window. You can see this when he first walks up to by the ticket. The side showing says closed.]
Edit
When Truman is looking in his rear vision mirror he can predict that the woman on the bike, the man with flowers and the Volkswagen Beetle will all come by, in that order. However, the Beetle can go a lot faster than the man with flowers, and if they were all going around on a loop, the Beetle would pass by a few times before the man with flowers came by again. [And he's taken all that into account, merely noting that the VW comes past, say, 5 times before the cyclist does one loop. Or, the director of The Truman Show has decided that should always be the order, so the VW waits around the corner until his cue.]
Edit Corrected by SexyIrishLeprechaun
Truman is so scared of water that he cannot even drive over a bridge without having a paralysing panic attack. But he and his friend have their long, deep and meaningful talk while sitting on the edge of an unfinished bridge - directly above the visible (and audible) water course over which the bridge is being built. [Like any mistake that relies on what a person could or couldn't do is generally more opinionated rather than fact. While Truman was afraid of water we don't know to what extent. When he had his panic attacks before driving over the bridge and catching the boat he knew he was going to have to go over water. This is different from sitting near water and having no intention of going over it or going near it. We also see from other instances that he had no trouble being near to water, such as his trips to the beach.]
Edit Corrected by Lummie
Christophe has complete control of the weather in Truman's world - he even uses a storm to try to stop Truman sailing to the edge of the set. Truman is in an un-powered sailboat. It goes where the wind blows it, nowhere else. Why didn't Christophe simply have the wind blow him back to shore? [Character mistake, not movie mistake. In addition, sail boats sail in any direction. Using your logic, every sail boat always goes out to sea never to return.]
Edit Corrected by William Bergquist
When Truman goes postal and drives through the fire across the road, the car is filled with smoke yet they can say their lines flawlessly. That kind of an irritant would've sent them both into a coughing fit. [Since the whole fire scene was staged to keep Truman from going beyond it, they most likely used a substance that would be safe for Truman and the "actors".]
Edit
In the scene with Lauren/Sylvia on the beach, Truman is already wearing his wedding ring. [He could be wearing a ring for any number of reasons.]
Edit Corrected by William Bergquist Time
When Christof touches the huge screen with the image of Truman sleeping, his hand casts a shadow. However, the only light source in the control room is the screen itself. This reveals that the scene was composited using a blue screen. [The screen is not the only light source in the room. There is actually plenty of light in the room. You can even see a bit of light reflecting off Christof's head. In the wide shot of the control room you can see the light for the musician and light illuminating the walls.]
Edit Corrected by Lummie
When Truman is in his office for the first time, calling Fiji directory assistance, there is a "magic eight ball" on his desk. If you look closely into it you can see a reflection/shadow of a cameraman. [I've looked through this scene and zoomed in on the magic eight ball and I cannot see any reflection/shadow of a cameraman.]
Edit Corrected by Lummie
In the movie there is an aerial shot of what the fake town looks like, it is completely covered by a dome like structure and apparently can be seen from space, however soon after we see that a man tried to sabotage the show by parachuting into the town. There is no possible way he could have done this. [Of course there is. Inside the dome there are, as we can see, loads of mechanical devices to simulate things like weather change, light change, the sun rising and setting, etc. This equipment must be possible to access by maintenance crews, and the parachutist simply used one of their access ladders/elevators to the top, climbed to the inside of the dome and jumped.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall
In the scene where Truman is talking to his best friend, and his friend is filling the vending machine, he fills up two of the spaces with yellow candy bars, then it cuts away for a bit. When it cuts back to the same shot as before, there are no yellow candy bars. It cuts away again and when it comes back again, there are more than two yellow candy bars in the vending machine. [That's because he was taking them out and putting them back in. You can actually see him reaching back for the yellow bars. He's doing this to make himself look busy as long as he can, while Truman is there with him.]
Edit
Throughout the entire movie you can see little cameras watching Jim Carry, but you have to look for them. There is one on the side of the neighbor's garbage can. [Is this really trivia? It is blatantly in the film, that is why the neighbour is carrying his garbage can so awkwardly, you even see a POV shot through that camera at Truman.]
Edit
Truman's car has no headrests. This is so the camera can get good shots of his and Meryl's faces and reactions, but he would be unlikely to drive without them. [Why would he be unlikely to drive without them? Would the producers of the fake TV shows that Truman watches ever mention that aspect of car safety? Would the fake teachers at Truman's school ever mention that aspect of car safety if it was specifically so that they could get better shots of Truman et al?]
Edit

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