The Italian Job (2003) - 52 mistakes

Continuity: When the Mini Coopers enter the subway tunnel, the white Mini is bumped by the train, yet in the following scene and the rest of the movie no body damage is visible to the rear of that Mini.

Factual error: Even a minor low-speed impact of a motorbike that heavy into a car door would damage it so badly that it would look different than shown on the white Mini - if the door were still there. Most certainly the glass would be shattered and the door could not be closed.

Factual error: The group is plunged into the icy water for at least several minutes wearing nothing but light jackets yet no one seems to be suffering from hypothermia in the slightest when they show up on shore.

Continuity: When Stella and Steve are on their date and Stella says "you're just gonna have to wait and see" you can see Steve holding his hand up. When it cuts to Steve his hand is down.

Audio problem: When Mashkov's men grab Steve, you can hear him say "Come on, Charlie", but his lips aren't moving at all.

Continuity: During the flashback to Charlie's childhood, immediately before the kid gets his book slapped out of his hands, the book is open. When it cuts, some of the pages are suddenly sticking up.

Revealing: In the chase scene in the subway, Napster stops the subway train at the end of the tunnel to block the tunnel entrance. When you see the view on his laptop, the train station CLEARLY has a metal railing. There is no such railing throughout the rest of the scene. (Yes, it's likely while filming that railing was removed to enhance the scene then put back.)

Factual error: The crew sets off explosives so the armored truck will fall through the street into the subway tunnel. In reality, the subway tunnels underneath Hollywood Blvd are about 6 stories underground. That means the truck would have to fall through approximately 80 feet of concrete, soil, rock and more concrete to fall into the tunnel.

Visible crew/equipment: In Venice, when they enter the house, the camera crew is reflected on the windshield of the boat. It is very obvious.

Revealing: When Edward Norton takes Charlize Theron out to dinner, the mustache on the right side of his mouth is further away from his lip, than on the left side of his mouth showing that the mustache is only stuck on.

Continuity: When the blue Mini is driving through the streets, there is a dent on the rear wing on the passenger side, but when you see the car drive into the train, the dent is no longer there.

Continuity: In the sequence where the three Minis are being driven around a waterway as a rehearsal for the job, the auxiliary driving lights (the ones fixed in front of the radiator) go off and on. In the first shot all the cars have these lights on, in the next external shot the white car has them switched off, then back on again for the immediately following shot. Shortly afterwards the red Mini has these lights off for one shot - then back on in the very next one.

Revealing: In the shots of the Metro tunnels, the "rails" are flush with the concrete surface, as streetcar tracks would be, to form a level surface that automobiles can easily drive on. In a dedicated right-of-way, however, the engineers would not go to this unnecessary trouble and expense; the rails would simply be mounted on the tunnel floor. Also notable is the presence of crossovers, but the absence of any movable switching equipment, rendering them useless.

Factual error: When Steve is measuring the position of the safe, 14' 8" is depicted as 14.8 and 8' 5" is shown as 8.5. This is completely wrong.

Continuity: During the Venice water chase, Charlie's boat goes under a bridge toward two green tugs. The tugs are moving apart to let him through, but when he comes out from under the bridge, the two tugs are close together and off to one side. In the very next shot, they are far enough apart to allow Charlie's pursuer to pass between them.

Continuity: When Steve gets hit in the mouth by Charlie, the amount of blood in his mouth and over his teeth changes depending on the shot.

Factual error: Pilots always use the established phonetic alphabet to give registrations or information. Steve's pilot says, "3 Kilo Bob". He should have said "3 Kilo Bravo".

Continuity: In the scene where "the Napster" is changing the street lights, there is a shot where armored truck 128 is slowly moving behind a grey or white Saturn (right after you hear on the radio "Truck 128, what is your progress?"). In the next shot, where one of the men in the truck says "Ah, get us outta here," you see Napster's computer. On the computer, when you see the street camera looking down onto truck 128, the Saturn is gone and all the surrounding traffic has moved. Truck 128 is one lane closer to the curb, and the car and SUV that were on 128's right in the live shot appear to be to the truck's left on camera. Other cars are gone or have changed places as well.

Audio problem: When Skinny Pete warns Charlie over the phone, he says "mother freaking", which is a clear dub over.

Continuity: When Lyle and Charlie are arguing about calling him 'the Napster', note Stella Bridger in the background. Her cup goes from chest height to down on the table.

Factual error: When Mark Wahlberg is a child, he steals a wallet with bills sticking out. The bills are large head print, not possible in that time period.

Continuity: When Rob gets the key off Becky, a camera man's shadow can be seen moving over the bed. This is not Rob's shadow as at the time he isn't moving.

Continuity: When Wrench first sees Stella, the neck cover on his welder's mask is loose. The camera cuts and it's not tucked behind his head.

Revealing: When the 4x4 is arriving at the train, you can see it is not Steve driving as the driver doesn't have a mustache.

Continuity: In the subway, all the Minis get covered in dust and grime. However, while the red and white ones stay fairly dirty, the blue one becomes spotless when he is facing off against Steve's helicopter.

Visible crew/equipment: When at the scrapyard, a man opens the door of a black car. When he does, the film crew can be seen in the mirror.

Continuity: The Minis drive through a storm drain and a huge puddle. However the Minis never leave so much a mark on the dry surface of the road.

Continuity: After the heist, the blue Mini is seen to have a dent in the rear wing. Throughout the chase, up to when the helicopter hits the blue Mini, the dent changes size constantly.

Revealing: When the red and white minis are driving to the train, there are tyre marks from previous takes visible.

Revealing: At the golf course, tyre marks can be seen from previous takes. They are not from golf buggies as they are the exact width of the tyres and the same distance apart.

Factual error: In the flashback scene of Lyle when his roommate steals the Napster code, the caption says Northeast University - 1999. The computer Lyle is sleeping at is running Windows XP, which was not commercially available at the time.

Revealing: When the van goes off the bridge at the start, you can see that no-one is in the van.

Plot hole: In the metro tunnel scene, the Minis have vanished and gone down a single side tunnel. However, the two motor bikes know exactly what tunnel to take to get the Minis.

Other: Just as the minis are finishing loading up the gold from the truck, there is a shot of at least 40 gold bars still left in the truck (3 rows of 13 bricks and at least 1 single brick on top. We are given the numbers by Charlie as he relays it to Lyle to work out the value). Then 10 seconds later, we are shown the minis leaving, having got all the bricks, packed up and started the engines. There is no way they could move 40 bricks and pack up in less than 10 seconds.

Continuity: When the armoured truck begins to fall into the subway, the above ground shot shows the truck tilting forward as it falls. The next shot from the subway shows the truck falling exactly horizontally.

Revealing: As Edward Norton is finishing up the chase scene to the train station, the last turn he takes is off a one way street. But as you watch the other cars, you notice all the cars are going the wrong way down the one way street. Except for Norton that is.

Continuity: When the three armored trucks are driving side by side there are stars on the sidewalk, indicating that they are behind the walk of fame. Truck 128 passes this and later, the Minis are seen on the Walk of fame with the truck passing beside them.

Continuity: In the subway tunnel scene, when the trunks of the Mini Coopers are open you can see they have British licence plates. During the chase sequence the Coopers have California licence plates.

Visible crew/equipment: When the Mini Coopers jump out of the sewage tunnel, you can see the black ramp they launch off of to give the tunnel exit more of a dramatic effect.

Continuity: When Charlie is a kid, a kid knocks another kid's book out of his hands. The book hits the lockers and one of the lockers swings open. When it cuts, the locker is closed again.

Continuity: As you watch the chase scene after the golf course, you can tell that Left ear is driving the white mini instead of Handsome Rob. [If you watch the deleted scenes, it shows them switching places due to a gunshot wound in Rob's arm. A mistake, but explained.]

Continuity: When Napster is comparing height of the armored trucks they all have their truck number on the fender right behind the rear tire, but the number isn't there in any other shots.

Factual error: In the Mini Cooper subway scene, the cars are first seen outside of the Hollywood/Highland red line station. However, when they jump in front of the metro rail line, it is the blue line they are jumping in front of and not the red line. The only red line station that meets up with the blue line is the 7th Street/Metro station, not the Hollywood/Highland station.

Factual error: When Mark Wahlberg is trying to evade the helicopter, he runs into a dead end made up of two buses attached to a tow truck. The problem is that they're MUNI buses, and MUNI only runs in the San Francisco bay area, so these would be no where in the Los Angeles area.

Visible crew/equipment: When Charlie is waiting in his red Mini, just before the 'job' and he is talking to Lyle, you can see the reflection of the camera in the side bit next to the windscreen.

Continuity: When Charlie and Stella are talking in Stella's hotel room in Hollywood, a strand of her hair goes from over her head to hanging beside her face as the shot cuts to behind her. When it cuts to her face, the strand is over her head again, though she didn't touch her hair.

Continuity: When we are looking back to when Charlie was a kid we see the thug kid walking by some kids before he slaps the book out of the other kid's hands. When it cuts, one of the girls that the thug just passed by suddenly is far down the hall. She couldn't have gotten there that fast.

Continuity: When the kid has thrown the ball on the thug kid, you see the thug stumble forward. When it cuts he stumbles again.

Continuity: Charlize Theron parks her original Mini in a tight spot behind the Ford 4WD where she goes in front first at a fair speed. But when we see the wide shot of the Mini parked in there, it's almost bumper to bumper - there is no way anyone could have parked the Mini in that spot going in front first no matter how small the Mini is.

Continuity: During the chase scene in the tunnel, the two motorcycles were always pretty close to each other through most of the scene. When the first motorist was knocked off, it should've taken out the second one right away.

Factual error: When the gang celebrate in the Alps before Charlie's surprise, they're sipping Dom Perignon champagne straight from the bottles. It looks like they're drinking water as it's quite impossible to drink champagne from the bottle, the real stuff will foam heavily when it comes out (and especially in one's mouth).

Visible crew/equipment: When the crew first get the Minis and ther're testing them out, when the girl first gets into the car and the camera cranes down you can see the reflection in the front passenger window and rear, the reflection of the camera and an older crew member in the back.