Magnum Force

Magnum Force (1973)

56 mistakes

(8 votes)

Revealing mistake: When the girl falls out the hotel window after one of the officers shoots her, you can see that the girl is an obvious dummy.

Other mistake: When Harry and Early Smith are in Lt. Briggs' office, Briggs' first name on the desk nameplate is spelled "Neil", but when Harry and Early Smith leave the office, Briggs' first name on his office door is spelled "Neill."

Continuity mistake: When Harry hits Grimes head-on with his car, the car comes to a rest and Grimes' legs are draped over the motorcycle, but in the next shot, Grimes is lying on the ground and his legs are beside the motorcycle.

Visible crew/equipment: When Harry returns to the trashed car after the last motorcycle cop was killed, he leans into the back seat to look for the bomb and Briggs pulls a gun on him. At this point, a small boom microphone is reflected in the window behind Harry.

Visible crew/equipment: When Harry is running up the steps to enter the aircraft carrier, you can see a camera and crewman in a white hat below, just above the wood wall.

Continuity mistake: During the supermarket scene, one of the thugs points his shotgun at Early Smith and tells him to "Freeze". At this point you can see the till is open, but after a quick cut to Harry, we return to the cash desk and the till is now closed.

Continuity mistake: When one of the hijackers says "Now close that door!" to Harry in the aeroplane, he is pointing his gun directly at Harry, but in the next shot he is pointing his gun downwards.

Other mistake: The vigilante bike-cop slaps a supressor on his Colt Python. A suppressor on a revolver doesn't work without serious modification. There's only one revolver I know of which would be able to use a suppressor, namely the Russian Nagant M1895. And that's due to the gas-seal system in the cylinder, which seals all the out-gassing, only letting the gases out the muzzle-opening. (01:01:00 - 01:10:00)

Budoshi

Audio problem: When Harry is talking with the crime scene technician, they are looking at the bullet trajectory in the pimp's car and a distinct female sneeze and cough can be heard in the background.

Continuity mistake: In the front view of the pimpmobile crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, we see that the door mirror has a shroud. This is the correct mirror for that car. Then, we see the pimp looking through the mirror at the traffic following him. That mirror has no shroud - it is the wrong mirror for that car and does not match the view we saw from the front of the car.

Leicaman

Revealing mistake: Near the beginning, a couple of men are shot in the back of a car. The guy in the middle, Ricca, is supposedly dead but takes several normal breaths as the shot lingers.

manthabeat

Continuity mistake: After the pimp is killed, Harry and his partner follow a couple of cars across the Golden Gate Bridge back toward the crime scene. The sky changes between shots of the vehicles.

manthabeat

Character mistake: The coroner says the pump was shot with a full mag from a magnum which is six rounds but the pimp was only shot with five.

jbrbbt

Factual error: The woman walking past waiting fares, saying "excuse me, this is important." She gets into the right rear door of a 1963 Chevrolet, with flat door sill. In the interior of the car there is "Kick Up" in the doorsill, and a Ford door release handle, flush with the side trim. The 63 Chevy had different handles.

Other mistake: In the final credits, DiGiorgio is misspelled as "DiGorgio."

Revealing mistake: When Harry is thrown off the hood of Palancio's car, the windshield runs into the arm of a crane, killing Palancio. At this point, the arm misses the driver, and the actor playing Palancio has been replaced by a dummy.

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene just after the pimp is shot by the cop in his Cadillac, the right side of the car is shown as the cop walks back to his motorcycle. The filming crew is visible moving around in the reflection of the car paint of the right side quarter panel, in spite of the paint being dulled to reduce the reflections. (00:46:25)

Continuity mistake: The cop walks up the hill to the pool party scene with 2 pipes and the bomb satchel in his hands. When he gets there the pipes magically turn into a machine gun.

Revealing mistake: Before the pimp is shot dead by the police officer, a circular discoloration is visible on the actor's neck, exactly where he is about to be shot.

Sunny: What does a girl have to do to go to bed with you?
Harry Callahan: Try knocking on the door.

More quotes from Magnum Force
More trivia for Magnum Force

Question: I understand the concept of spelling mistakes and an editor accidentally missing them, especially for an unknown actor's name. But how did "Callahan" end up getting misspelled when it was spelled correctly in the first film? Has any reason been given? Or if there someone with general knowledge of how end credits are produced, is there no editor?

Bishop73

Chosen answer: The error didn't necessarily start with the makers of the credits. It could have crept into the process at any point. Whoever typed up the names to give them to the technicians who made the credits could have misspelled the name.

More questions & answers from Magnum Force

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.