Braveheart (1995) - 63 mistakes

Visible crew/equipment: At the funeral of William Wallace's wife, Murron, a white van can be seen. He bends down to kiss her and as he stands back up, if you look over his left shoulder through the trees you can see the van going past. It's very quick, small, and blurred, but it's there.

Continuity: In one of the major battles, Wallace is charging down a hill with a large sword in his hand. During the charging it changes to being a small pick axe type tool. Then around the middle of the charge there is a quick shot change and almost from the same angle the pick axe has disappeared. It then changes back to a large sword, a quick change back to the pick axe, then back to the large sword.

Continuity: In the first large battle with England at Falkirk the same scenes are used when the English fire the arrows. The first time the arrows are fired, a blonde young man is hit in the foot, they then moon the English so they fire again and the same man is seen getting hit in the same foot. A man in the same battle is shot in the hip - when he grabs the wound you can see the shape of the cushioned bulb that the arrow is attached to. If you watch during all the battle scenes you can detect men who are supposed to be on opposite sides standing and talking, also you can see the choreographed moves being played out in almost slow motion - their swords aren't even striking.

Continuity: When Wallace first meets Princess Isabelle and is left alone with her in the tent, the wimple she is wearing appears to have a life of its own - first it's on her chin, then over her chin, and then under her chin.

Revealing: At the end, Wallace's friend is charging in slow motion, and if you look closely you will see his battle axe flopping around like it's made of rubber.

Other: When Robert the Bruce returns to the battlefield at Falkirk, there are 2 children supposedly crying over a loved one. If you look at the blonde girl she is actually laughing.

Continuity: At the end when Wallace is being led to be executed, he is pelted with food. Much of it sticks to his face and hair. A few moments later when they are standing him up he is completely clean.

Continuity: In a major fight scene two soldiers on opposite sides are jumping and spinning and tapping each other on the head with their swords.

Continuity: In another major battle scene William Wallace is running into battle with a bloody claymore in his hand. In the next shot of him it is back in its sheath. Then in another scene he has it in his grasp again, but this time it is clean.

Continuity: After Wallace kills the Scottish noble in bed, he jumps out of the castle window into a river on a horse. As he is falling, you can see that the horse is a model and when they fall into the water one can see the paper-mache (or whatever) horse bobbing around.

Revealing: When Wallace walks up to the man who killed Murron and faces him. Look at the man behind Wallace and the man. You can actually see a car passing behind his head in the distance.

Continuity: At Stirling an English archer is hit by the nobles on horseback causing his helmet to fall off. He's then hit again and somehow his helmet falls off again. Then when he lands he is still wearing his helmet despite it having fallen off (twice).

Continuity: When the English spy tries to kill Wallace, and you realize the crazy Irishman is a friend, you see the spy drop his sword, as soon as he is hit by the Irishman's weapon, but as soon as he hits the ground dead, the sword is back in his hand.

Continuity: When Wallace tries to escape from the English with his wife, not knowing that she has been captured and executed, he is seen running through the woods screaming her name... As he's running he has a sword in his right hand. During the course of three or four camera shots, the sword he is holding magically disappears and reappears as different cameras shoot him. Then it reappears and he digs it into the ground as he takes off the English soldier's uniform that he stole.

Continuity: When Wallace, Hamish and Stephen burn the hut with the English soldiers inside watch for a fourth man who appears for one shot only then disappears. He also has a torch despite Stephen only lighting three.

Visible crew/equipment: In the execution scene at the end, right as Wallace is being quartered, you can clearly see (on widescreen) a plastic spray bottle on the upper left part of the screen, presumably filled with fake blood.

Factual error: The reason why it is called the Battle of Stirling is because it was fought on Stirling Bridge, in mud.  The English had to file down into small ranks so they could cross the bridge, while William Wallace came in with full plate armour, not kilts, and butchered them with the rest of the Scots. [An amusing addition off the DVD to add to this mistake. Mel Gibson originally planned to film the battle of Stirling Bridge at the actual site. He had to scrap that idea because the bridge kept getting in the way. When he mentioned this to one of the Scottish history advisors on the film, the man's reply was "Aye, that's what the English found." ]

Factual error: Malcolm Wallace had three sons: John, William, and Malcolm. He was not killed in a minor scuffle with the English. He, in fact, fought for several years with the English in order to free John de Baliol from the tower of London. At the time, Baliol was the rightful heir to the Scottish crown, and that was actually William's reason for fighting the English. Robert the Bruce was the one who actually liberated Scotland, right?

Factual error: The voice-over at the beginning of the film tells us that Malcolm Wallace was a commoner with his own lands and constant references are made through-out the film to William being a commoner. However this is a common historical myth. Malcolm Wallace was in fact born as a minor noble and became a knight, as was William. They were poor as noble families went but were still infinitely more privileged than the commoners of the day.

Visible crew/equipment: When Wallace throws one of the archers down from the tower, as he falls on the roof below him. Look down to the left of the screen. You should be able to see a man in a dark blue shirt standing beside a camera.