Big

Big (1988)

36 mistakes - chronological order

(7 votes)

Continuity mistake: During the opening credits, when the girl shows up, Billy's hair is messed up on the wide shots, but combed in the close-ups. (00:02:50)

Sacha

Revealing mistake: The opening scene shows Josh and Billy as kids walking down their street. At the end of the film, Josh is a kid again and the two are walking on the same street. The same cars are parked there, and the same woman is crossing the street at the same place. It's obvious both scenes were shot the same day. (00:03:20 - 02:06:30)

Continuity mistake: After Josh makes his wish, a shot depicts the older kids run behind the tents. During this shot, the camera shows a side view of the Zoltar machine. You can see the head stop moving up and down, and the breathing sound continues. After Josh reads the card, the head is moving again. (00:09:15)

Continuity mistake: When the shot first enters the bedroom the morning Josh becomes big note the yellow truck at the foot of his bed, it is away from the lower left corner and facing out. When Josh jumps down from the top bunk it is flush with the bunk and facing the other (right) foot of the bed and remains in this position for all remaining shots of the bedroom. (00:10:50)

OneHappyHusky

Continuity mistake: When the camera first pans up to Josh on the top bunk as "big," note his coat on the bottom bunk: The letters on the back are pushed together and three are barely visible. Yet when he returns from the bathroom moments later the coat is noticeably more spread out and many more letters are visible. (00:11:00 - 00:12:50)

OneHappyHusky

Big mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Josh just becomes big, he hands his baby sister a wallet. She lowers her hands beneath the border of the playpen. The immediate angle, barely a frame later, shows her hands above it. (00:14:45)

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Josh hands his wallet to his baby sister, she turns and walks to the center of her playpen. In the very next shot, she's leaning up against the railing again. (00:14:45)

Big mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Josh and Billy are in the equipment room note the orange and blue pads on the middle shelf. The blue pads change, their white strap goes being tucked up to hanging down then they disappear completely and reappear between shots. (00:16:35)

OneHappyHusky

Audio problem: In the scene when Josh (as Tom Hanks) comes back to his house to talk with his Mother for the first time since becoming "big", she starts screaming and backs away from him. She backs into the piano she says "Go away, go away." but her lips don't move at all. (00:16:45)

jennibee

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Tom Hanks goes back to his mother's house when he's "BIG", he tries to convince his mother it's him by telling her his birthday: November 3rd. However, in the scene (with John Heard and Elizabeth Perkins) showing the milk carton of Tom Hanks "missing" as a young boy, his d.o.b. is shown as 1/20/75. (00:16:50 - 00:53:05)

Continuity mistake: When Tom Hanks and the kid are in the ice cream bar, Tom asks the boy if he could have his cherry from the ice cream portion. When he takes the cherry from the boy's glass he drops some ice cream on his jacket, but the next time they show the boy, the ice cream from his jacket had disappeared. (00:28:15)

Continuity mistake: After payday, Billy and Josh are in the hotel and foam suddenly appears on Billy's previously spotless face, only to to clean itself up half a second later. (00:43:35)

Sacha

Continuity mistake: In the toy store, Josh throws himself playfully to the floor as if he had been shot. The square receiver on his chest swaps from being on his right side to being the center of his chest between shots. (00:46:50)

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Tom Hanks is playing the piano in the toy store you see a man in the crowd lift his daughter onto his shoulders 3 times. (00:49:20)

Continuity mistake: When Tom is dancing/playing on the piano keyboard, near the end of the song an overhead shot shows a woman and a child's feet approaching from the back, walking behind Tom to stand and watch. When they cut back to Tom from the front they are not there. Then they arrive after around 5-10 seconds later while the camera is still on Tom from the front. (00:49:40)

Continuity mistake: In the Pizza Place when they bring out Josh's birthday cake note the amount of soft drink in Billy's glass. The amount drops significantly from when they approach with the cake to the close up of the cake on the table where the glass is nearly empty. (01:06:45)

OneHappyHusky

Revealing mistake: At the end of the movie when Josh and his friend are walking down the street, a lady crosses the street in front of them. Look closely to the left of the screen. The lady is obviously behind the tree waiting for her cue because she is not seen walking toward the tree before crossing the street. (02:06:40)

Billy: Here, take this. [Hands Josh a handful of money.]
Josh: Billy, where did you get this?
Billy: From my dad's top drawer.
Josh: You stole money from your father?
Billy: It's his emergency money.
Josh: Jesus, Billy.
Billy: Well what do you call this?

More quotes from Big

Trivia: The big piano scene was actually rehearsed months before shooting. Tom and Robert had to practise on a cardboard cut out with exact dimensions of the real piano. On the day of shooting there were stunt doubles instead of them to film their feet. But once the director saw that they could do it, the stunt doubles were never used.

More trivia for Big

Question: When Josh accuses John Heard of cheating at racquetball, was Heard in fact cheating, or did Josh just not understand the rules of the game?

Rollie55

Answer: Paul (John Heard) tells Josh that the serve has to cross the yellow line. When Josh calls the ball short, Paul is basically trying to cheat and claims he never said the ball has to cross the line. Although I'm trying to figure out what racquet sport their playing. It looks like they're playing on a handball court, but the racquet sports I know, the ball has to cross the short line (the yellow line in "Big") on the serve but you also serve from a service area where you have to stand in front of the short line, which they don't do.

Bishop73

More questions & answers from Big

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