The Big Lebowski

Continuity mistake: When Jesus' partner is seen bowling for the first time, when you see the P.O.V of the bowling pins there's another much skinnier man with different clothes in his place. Then the shot goes back to the Jesus' partner's midsection doing his strike dance. (00:06:20)

Continuity mistake: When you first see the Dude, Walter, and Donnie together at the bowling alley the bowlers sitting in the background of the next lane keep changing between the shots of Walter and Donnie sitting down and the Dude standing. (00:09:00)

Continuity mistake: When The Dude enters Lebowski's office the telephone is on the far right of the desk and the lamp is on the far left with 3 wooden objects between them. During the shots of The Dude, when he is talking, the phone and lamp are much closer together and the wooden objects aren't there. (00:12:00)

jle

Continuity mistake: When the Dude first looks at the Nihilist in the pool the liquor bottle is way off to the side. In the next shot a few seconds later, (the close up) it is tucked right under his arm. (00:15:30)

Continuity mistake: The Dude is holding a beer bottle when Walter yells "over the line" at Smokey, after Smokey says "huh?" the movie cuts back to Walter and the Dude, but the Dude is no longer holding the beer bottle. (00:17:00)

Deliberate mistake: When we are introduced to Jesus, during his slow motion roll, the camera cuts to the ball hitting the pins and then back to Jesus doing a celebratory dance. For some un-known reason, the film of the ball hitting a strike is actually back to front (see the posters above the lane are in mirror image to what they should be). Given that a bowling lane is perfectly symmetrical, if anyone's got an explanation, I'd love to hear it... [Jesus bowls with his right hand. If the scene was played the correct way, you would realize the shot of the ball rolling was done by a LEFT HANDED bowler...so obviously rather than re-shoot the scene with a right-handed bowler they reversed the shot. Voila. Still a mistake but there's why.] (00:25:26)

Continuity mistake: The cab belonging to the Eagles-loving cab driver has the same California license plate as Mr. Lebowski's limo. (00:47:05 - 01:23:00)

Continuity mistake: When Lebowski is driving home from the doctors office, the back window of his car is so covered with dirt that you cannot see out of it, yet when he looks in his rearview mirror there is a very clear reflection of the car following him. (01:05:00 - 01:16:00)

Continuity mistake: When the Dude's driving home from the doctor's, he passes a yellow truck, visible through the side window, when he throws his joint against the door window. If you compare the shot where he grabs for his joint and the next one where he sprinkles the beer, you'll see he passes the truck twice. (01:05:35)

Continuity mistake: The Dude's driver's-side door is unusable after his car is stolen and retrieved, and we see him using the passenger door at least once after he takes the car home. But then at Larry Sellers' house, which they visit pretty soon, The Dude gets out of the driver's door as if nothing had happened; I doubt he'd have bothered to have it fixed in that short time. (01:09:00)

Audio problem: When Walter is destroying the expensive sports car, the owner comes out of his house to stop him. You hear him screaming, but his mouth is not moving. (01:12:40)

The Big Lebowski mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: When the Nihilists are ordering food at the restaurant, you can see the reflection of the camera and cameraman in the window behind them. Watch as the scene pans around and you can see the camera and the cameraman move as well. Could the person behind the camera be Roger Deakins? (01:34:20)

esiegel76

Visible crew/equipment: Towards the end of the movie when Dude, Walter and Donny are sat at the bowling seating area, the shot slowly moves forwards to centre Dude and Walter while Walter is talking. Just before Jesus interrupts them you can see the boom microphone reflected on the bowling equipment between Dude and Walter. (01:40:29)

Jack Vaughan

Continuity mistake: When the Dude is in Jackie Treehorn's estate, he pencils over a pad of paper to see what Jackie wrote down while he was on the phone. He then hurriedly crumples up the piece of paper and shoves it in his wallet. Then, when we see the Chief of Police of Malibu looking through the contents of The Dude's wallet, the paper is there, neatly folded in fourths.

Continuity mistake: In the opening credits when a very large bowler attempts a 7-10 split, the ball he releases changes color when it is shown picking up the spare.

Continuity mistake: There's one scene where The Dude is taking a bath, and three Germans threaten him with a marmot (actually a ferret). When they take the little animal out of the water, you see Dude's head and in the back four candles: yellow, blue, red and white. The yellow and red one aren't burning; the blue and white are. The next shot of the Dude's head you see that the yellow, blue and red candles are burning, the white one isn't.

Continuity mistake: The Dude is driving, being followed by Da Fino. Suddenly he realises the tail has disappeared and hurriedly pulls the car over. As he looks out his driver's side window, we can see he's wearing his sunglasses, but when he checks the other window, his sunnies are gone.

Walter Sobchak: Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.

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Question: What did Walter mean by, "You're killing your father, Larry!"?

Answer: Generally, he means that the boy, Larry Sellers, is disgracing his family (Walter has huge respect for the boy's dad, but considers the kid a dunce). Specifically, Walter is blaming Larry for his father struggling to breathe; that's Larry's dad in an iron lung in the background. Walter and The Dude become louder, more insistent and more vulgar, but the kid still blankly refuses to answer, and all you can hear is the iron lung pumping in the background. Frustrated because the kid isn't intimidated, Walter lashes out: "You're killing your father, Larry!"

Charles Austin Miller

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