Airplane (1980) - 41 mistakes

Revealing: In the dance sequence, we see Elaine twirling Ted around and throwing him into the crowd. Watch the top-right-corner of your screen, as the stunt-double lands in the audience you can see Robert Hays (Ted Striker) in the top-right-corner waiting to pop out.

Revealing: When Kramer is walking through the airport and all the cult members come after him and he's flipping them behind him, look down to the lower left and you can see the mat they are landing on.

Visible crew/equipment: Early in the movie, there are scenes of a doctor's office with a human heart bouncing on the desk and you can clearly see the string that pulls the heart.

Visible crew/equipment: In the disco dance sequence where Elaine is twirling, you can see the ropes that keep her attached to the camera rig.

Other: During the disco scene, Elaine is dancing with a fisherman who was just stabbed in the back. The fisherman has a knife sticking out of his back and you can clearly see the block that the knife is stuck in protruding from his shirt. There are holes from other takes too.

Other: During the fight between the girl scouts, one of the girls falls backwards and knocks into the camera's tripod, shaking the camera a bit.

Visible crew/equipment: When Striker unlocks the automatic pilot, you can see strings at the top left corner to lift him up.

Other: When Striker says to Randy "You better leave sweetie, you might get hurt up here," watch Elaine who was trying not to laugh.

Visible crew/equipment: Striker is in the pilot's seat and a vulture is sitting on the back of it. On the bottom-left of screen you can see someone's forearm in a white sleeve, giving the suggestion that either Randy or Elaine are standing, and leaning on the pilot seat's armrest. However, Randy is not in the cockpit and Elaine is sitting in the co-pilot's seat.

Audio problem: When the girl scouts are fighting and one of them slides the other one across the table and she hits the jukebox, you hear a shattering sound, but it doesn't shatter.

Continuity: When the plane crashes into the the window at the very beginning of the movie, between shots people change completely.

Continuity: The whole time Striker and Elaine are talking in the beginning people in the background constantly change.

Revealing: When the old woman asks Elaine about reading, if you look behind Elaine and to the upper left, you can see the scotch tape holding the set together. You have to look closely to see it.

Continuity: When the 747 crashes into the terminal window, the red stripes wrap all the way around the nose of the plane. In the previous shot, the stripes came to a point and ended several feet back.

Continuity: Striker tells Elaine to say the landing gear is down. The first exterior shot after that, the plane is shown without the landing gear down, after that it is.

Continuity: During the kissing on the beach, the seaweed on Striker's body and the lobster behind Elaine disappear when the second wave comes.

Continuity: Striker leaves Elaine in the cockpit. When he sits down, Dr. Rumack comes in. First his shadow is on the the wall on the left, then in the next shot. it's on the right side of him.

Continuity: The plane we see at the end dragging on the ground and takling off is a 707. 707's have four engines: two on each wing. However, the plane we see in the air is a 727. 727's have three engines: one on each side of the rear fuselage and one on the vertical stabilizer.

Continuity: From the back of the plane, the sick girl's plastic tube is hanging from the right side of the plane, in close shots it is right at the middle of her seat.

Visible crew/equipment: When Otto Pilot is inflated, you can see a 'helping hand' pushing him up.

Other: In the scenes in the cockpit, when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Murdoch) is talking, you can see his eyes move back and forth like he's reading from a cue-card.

Revealing: In the beginning, when the girl is running along-side the plane (pretending it's a train), you can see white knee-pads under her skirt to protect her when she runs into metal structures on the tarmac.

Visible crew/equipment: In the beginning where the camera is following some of the characters to appear later in the film, when we see the Harii Krishna guys a cameraman and a camera on a dolly track are reflected in a shadow on them for a few seconds.

Continuity: On the beach, Elaine's hair is semi-wet and fluffy on close shots but soaked and straight in wide ones, and Striker's hair changes to soaked and messy, with two bits of hair sticking out, to wet but not messy.

Revealing: When the girl scouts are fighting, the pad on one of the girl's back to protect her when falling is visible beneath her shirt.

Other: When Striker and Elaine are talking for the second time at the beginning, you suddenly see the religious guy standing there alone waiting for his cue to come out and ask Striker if he wants to donate anything. He wasn't there before.

Audio problem: Most of the time when everyone is getting beat up by Kramer on his way to the airport, not many people move their mouths when they talk.

Revealing: When Elaine is visiting Ted at the mental hospital and she says Lt. Zipp died this morning, when Ted picks up the water right before he spits, there's the same amount the glass when picked it up and set it down. So he didn't drink anything or spit any water.

Visible crew/equipment: Near the beginning, when Striker is running down the hall to talk to Elaine for the second time, you can see a crew member pulling wires.

Revealing: In the scene where Ted has driven the man in the turban to burn himself to death by telling him boring stories, you can see that the man has something on his pants resembling liquid before he pours gasoline on himself.

Revealing: When the Girl Scout crashes into the jukebox, you can see the lights turn on before she hits it.

Continuity: At the beginning, a man is asked to put all of his metal objects into the dish. He then proceeds to remove his prosthetic hand and foot. When he removes his foot, he reaches a good six inches away from himself to pick it up.

Revealing: When the plane crashes through the glass at the beginning of the movie, you can't see any wings on the plane.

Visible crew/equipment: In the Disco Dance scene when Elaine is twirling Ted, you see a wire holding him up.

Continuity: After you see all the newspapers talking about the plane, and when you see the drummer on TV who speaks by drum tones, when the drums are handed to him the ends of the sticks are round, buy when he looks to HIS left, after the camera changes position, they're not round anymore.

Visible crew/equipment: When Dr. Rumack says, "Everyone who has eaten fish for dinner, will become violently ill in the next two hours." Captain Oveur looks down at his food, you can see the filmer's legs, because Captain Oveur is wearing white pants, and it can't be an armrest thing because its wrinkled and it moves.

Revealing: In the flashback scene in the bar, one of the girl scouts slams the other girl scout onto the floor and one can see the mat that the girl lands on. It had been covered in dirt or dust but when the girl lands it is swept away and you can see one of the corners of the mat.

Revealing: Throughout the cockpit scenes, Otto's (the auto pilot) face is just painted, with no facial features sticking out. When he is about to fly the plane, he winks out the window, and turns his head. After he turns his head you can see the extra attachment on his left eye used for this.

Visible crew/equipment: In the flashback dance scene, Ted does a Russian sort of dance. Throughout the scene, you can see the black wires holding him up. Just look to the slightly right or left of him as he dances.

Visible crew/equipment: At the point where Striker is walking through the tunnel to board the plane near the beginning, for a split second, one can see a section of cable lying on the floor and a crewmember off to the side.

Continuity: When the guy, who is sitting next to his wife, pukes into a bag, as he raises his head to puke again for a couple of seconds you can see directly into the barf bag and it's totally empty.