Continuity mistake: When Linus is on the train with Danny watching him, his pen changes from being in his right hand in one shot, to being in his mouth in the next shot. (00:25:20)
Continuity mistake: When Tess is first coming down the stairs, if you look closely you can see she is not wearing any shoes. But when it cuts to her coming down the last few steps she has on some high heels. Which would have very noticeable while she was walking down the previous steps. (00:44:30)
Continuity mistake: Near the beginning, when Danny raises $2,000 in the poker game, there is a water bottle in front of Topher Grace. When Joshua Jackson calls, it's gone. When Rusty calls, it's back again. Gone when Topher calls, and back when Danny shows his cards. (00:10:15)
Continuity mistake: At the start of the film when we first see Rusty at a card table with the actors & actresses, Rusty leans over to give the deck of cards to Josh. In this shot Rusty lays the deck on the table with his left hand, Josh reaches over for them but doesn't pick them up, yet in the following shot the deck of cards are suddenly in Josh's left hand. (00:06:05)
Continuity mistake: Danny's face changes quite a bit between being beaten up and being put in the police car. Stubble and bruises vanish suddenly.
Continuity mistake: Close to the end when Linus and Danny are on top of the elevator shaft, they stand up and start to take off the white jackets. If you watch closely, Linus takes his off twice between shots. (01:17:50)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Danny is sliding the device to knock out the guards with uzis at the bottom of the elevator, the device slides on an angle to the line on the floor, but in the next shot it is sliding along the line. [On the DVD commentary, Soderbergh said that the filming crew had to slide the device many times, because it wouldn't slide far enough. There's the reason, but still a mistake.] (01:25:30)
Continuity mistake: In the scene just after the group have discussed the plan in Reuben's house, it cuts to Frank listening to a conversation about crazy horse. When we see Frank noting information down on a crossword his left hand is writing and his right index finger is pointing out and the other fingers are folded like a fist, but in the following shot all his fingers on his right hand are stretched out. (00:32:40)
Revealing mistake: When Yen jumps backwards onto the shelving unit during the con, you can hear a crew member say, 'Left' mid-jump. (01:26:45)
Continuity mistake: When the Malloy twins are first seen at the race track, both of the cars roll up before the white line on the track, yet in all other shots they are on the white line. (00:17:45)
Continuity mistake: When Basher is first seen, he is blowing up the vault door, and the charges go off. There are 3 charges after the main bar in the middle of the vault door that blow. In the close up its still only on the second one yet in the previous shot we see 3 explode after the bar in the vault door. (00:19:50)
Continuity mistake: When Rusty starts to thank the stripper for the access card, he removes the lollipop from his mouth to thank her and in the next camera shot he's removing it again. (00:34:00)
Visible crew/equipment: The camera and operator are reflected in the narrow mirror at Reuben Tishkoff's house as the gang discusses the robbery.
Continuity mistake: When the Malloy Twins are racing, the weather alternates from being totally overcast to sunny. When they first start, it is overcast. When the race starts and the camera pans in on the race car before it is flattened, there is sunlight on the side of the car. (00:19:00)
Visible crew/equipment: When the trolley with Yen in is taken into the vault, the shot from inside the vault shows the reflection of the crew to our left of the door. (01:18:00)
Continuity mistake: When Rusty is sitting next to Saul at the Greyhound race track, just before Rusty leaves, he puts his beverage/orange ice cream down, watch closely and you can see that the spoon switches sides between shots. (00:24:05)
Continuity mistake: At the poker game at the beginning, Rusty says, "Guys, whats the first lesson in poker." In this shot, between Danny and the actor with the gold like jacket on, the actor with no cards in his right hand raises his left hand to talk to Rusty. However, in the following shot from Rusty's POV, that actor is now holding the cards in his right hand. (00:08:55)
Continuity mistake: When Rusty goes to talk to Danny in the warehouse where they are creating the replica, in one of the shots, you can see Danny is standing behind Rusty, in the following shot he is standing in front. (00:43:55)
Continuity mistake: When Rusty and Danny are at Reuben's house talking to him over lunch, the three objects to the right of Reuben on the table (one of them is black, the other two are gold) change position between shots.
Continuity mistake: When Danny and Linus are at the bottom of the elevator shaft, Danny cuts his wire and lands. When Linus cuts his there is a shot when Danny lands on the shaft floor, and Linus's feet are visible on the ground, yet in the following shot his feet land on the ground again. (01:20:50)
Answer: The battery-related delay doesn't matter - Rusty doesn't call Benedict until after the vault has been successfully breached. Up to that point, Livingston is simply running a looped image of the undisturbed vault. Only once Benedict has reached the control room does the tape of the fake vault start running. This just shows the preparation of the bags and the robbers generally wandering around the vault. Danny and co, down in the vault, would know how roughly long to leave it from the start of the tape to sending the bags up, and they know that the tape will start within a few minutes of them breaching the vault, so that's no real problem, timing-wise. The fake SWAT team show up and head down the liftshaft to the vault area. They then tell Benedict to cut all power to the vault, which he does, and all his screens showing what's going on go blank. During that time, they throw an explosive into the vault and it detonates. When Benedict brings the power back up, he's not looking at the tape any more - he's now seeing real images from the vault cameras. At no point is split-second timing required, nor do they have to worry about the tape being out of time with real events.
Tailkinker ★