Where Eagles Dare (1968) - 32 mistakes

Factual error: The Germans in the castle are using Bell 47 helicopters which, apart from being manufactured by the enemy, did not even appear until after the war.

Factual error: In the courtyard of the castle there is an anti-aircraft gun. You could probably not find a worse place for a gun like that even if you tried (except maybe if you put it inside, in a windowless room). In the position it is placed it can only fire at targets directly ABOVE the castle. What you want to do is fire at targets BEFORE they reach the castle. It would be better if they placed it on the roof, or even near the village below.

Continuity: When Smith is driving the bus, there are at one point several bullet holes in the bus' windscreen and in the next shot they have vanished.

Revealing: When the bus is being pursued, Smith steers it to trip several prepositioned explosives that blow up trees to block the road. In order to by pass a downed tree the Germans push a motorcycle around it, and you can plainly see that the tree was cut by a chainsaw.

Revealing: When the Allies are dropped from the plane into the snow and they find the dead soldier. Watch close, because the dead soldier blinks his eyes...

Revealing: As the spy troupe prepares to leave by airplane, a Kübelwagen with soldiers comes up, which Burton shoots with his MP40. As the car bursts into flames, the driver and passengers are revealed as dummies, since no one could or would sit around quietly while they were on fire.

Continuity: When Schaffer and Smith commandeer a motorcycle and sidecar, one shot shows the MP-40 slung over Schaffer's neck and laying across his lap, while in the next shot it is slung over left shoulder and hanging down his side.

Continuity: Smith puts on one glove just before he hops onto the cable car with the two German spies. The next shot shows him with two gloves on.

Factual error: In the flashback scene where the commandos are being briefed on their mission, they are told that General Carmody was on his way to a meeting with Russian officers on Crete. Hardly the best place for a meeting between the Allies since Crete was then under German occupation.

Plot hole: The radio set used to communicate with headquarters in England was in fact a British low power VHF transceiver with a range of a couple of miles at best. It simply didn't have the capability to reach England.

Factual error: The aircraft at the Luftwaffe airfield at the end of the field look like US Harvard trainers.

Factual error: When Lt. Schaffer is sneaking up on the German soldier, in the radio room in the castle, you see and hear the soldier changing radio station channels. Most of the music you hear playing on the radio is distinctly a 1960s style easy listening music and not 1940s music.

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where the Germans are pursuing Richard Burton's escaping party as they make their way towards the aircraft waiting for them, you will see the first of two pursuing German Kubelwagons being hit with machine gun fire and flipping. When this happens, you will see a cable used to flip the vehicle on the bottom left side of the screen being quickly retracted as it becomes detached from the Kubelwagon's axle.

Continuity: As the stolen bus ploughs through the German airfield Smith yells to Schaffer, "Take out the control tower," so Schaffer and Mary point their guns high and start firing. There is a long shot of bullets strafing the control tower, glass shattering and the traffic controller falling backwards as he is hit. It is followed by a quick close-up of him in perfect health, shouting into his radio, then being mowed down by the stream of bullets.

Factual error: As the coach moves through the village near the end of the film, it drives past a tracked vehicle. The vehicle is a Hotchkiss LPz, a type of armoured personnel carrier not produced until the 1960s.

Continuity: The car that Schaffer and Smith are riding in with the Germans is launched in the air by hitting a pile of snow and then comes to a sudden stop by hitting a pile of gravel where the Germans are killed. What happened to the pile of snow when Schaffer and Smith push the car backwards?

Continuity: When Mary and Schaffer are firing the MP-40s from the back of the bus, a shot from outside of the bus shows the rear windshield broken/cracked one way but in the next shot from inside the bus looking out the rear windshield is broken/cracked differently.

Continuity: During this sequence at the radio transmitter in Admiral Rolland's headquarters, whilst the Admiral is attempting to regain contact with Smith, Colonel Turner is seen in the background, smoking. At the beginning of the sequence, one shot shows him holding a cigarette between the fingers of his right hand. After a cut back to the Admiral, the next shot shows Turner holding the cigarette in the fingers of his left hand.

Continuity: When Schaffer climbs the rope into the castle, he reaches the top of the rope, grabs the window sill and starts to pull himself in. It then cuts to inside the room where Schaffer can be seen outside holding on to the top of the rope and then grabs the window sill to pull himself in, again.

Factual error: Schaffer and Smith are captured and the Nazis are taking them away in a car. After some fighting, the car crashes. While the Nazis fly through the vehicle's windshield, our heroes sit like they had seatbelts, which they didn't.

Continuity: After Smith and Schaeffer are done rigging the trees and poles with explosives, Schaeffer gets off the motorcycle and you can see the seat of his pants is wet. As they are entering the shed, the seat of his pants is now dry.

Continuity: When Major Smith and the others have completed their parachute jump, they find Sgt. Harod dead in the snow. Major Smith says at first Harod broke his neck on landing, but later said to his trusted comrades Harod was murdered after landing. Since he was murdered by a member of the landing party there would be tell-tale footprints of the murderer in the virgin snow around Harod's body, but there are no footprints around him at all.

Other: In the scene where Smith and Schaffer are riding with the SS in the staff car, after the car hits the snow bank, Smith picks up the SS Colonel and puts him back in the car. The Colonel is wearing a Major's collar tabs.

Revealing: After Smith and Schaffer are captured and while they are being transported by car, Schaffer pushes one of the guards out of the car and a struggle begins which causes the car to crash. After the crash, the body of the guard that was pushed out of the car magically appears about 50 feet behind the accident (just before the crash there was no body).

Continuity: Major Smith (Richard Burton) forces one of the traitors out of the castle window on a rope. He is wearing standard battle dress. When the traitor is shot by one of the Germans, he falls wearing a camouflage smock.

Plot hole: In one scene, the heroes of the film (i.e. Burton, Eastwood and others) locked themselves up in the cable car control room within the castle. The pursuing Germans wasted valuable time trying to break down the heavy wooden door of the control room with axes. Why didn't the Germans use grenades or other explosives? They could have instantly blown open even the sturdiest wooden door.

Factual error: Smith has the books with names in his pocket when he goes into the water, jumping from the cable car. When he shows the books to Turner, they are in perfect shape. They should have been waterlogged or at least showed some sign of water damage.

Continuity: In her castle room, Mary lays all the sticks of dynamite on their sides in the suitcase. When Smith opens the suitcase in the meeting room after they got the names of the spies, the dynamite is now standing on end.

Continuity: When Smith is rapelling out of the castle and nearing the bottom, Jones/Carnaby is to the left of Smith but in the next shot he is to the right of Smith.

Continuity: As Mary is starting the rappel down the rope out of the castle, her MP-40 is slung on her right side with the muzzle pointing forward, but in the next shot it is slung across her back with the muzzle pointing to her left.

Plot hole: When Smith and Schaffer are entering the castle via a rope Mary has lowered for them, Smith stops halfway up to look through a large window. Clearly visible through this window are the faces of at least two soldiers with others in the background. It is inconceivable that not one of them would notice: A) the rope suddenly dangling outside; B) Smith's solid frame as he stares in at them; C) Schaffer scrambling up the rope after Smith; or D) the rope bouncing around while Schaffer drags it in along with the attached backpack.

Revealing: When the cable car is seen in long shot coming down from the hill (carrying the film's heroes) it is painfully obvious that while the cable car is real enough, the mountain behind it is fake.