The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) - 25 mistakes

Visible crew/equipment: When Gort picks up Patricia Neal next to the flying saucer, you can see cables leading down to her body to keep her hoisted.

Revealing: When Gort goes behind the wall to pick up Patricia Neal, the camera moves about an inch in the same shot, because they had to stop filming, go rig the wires up to Patricia, then start filming once again.

Continuity: In the very beginning of the movie broadcasters around the world are commenting on the mysterious spaceship. To lend a bit of calm and normalcy one broadcaster notes that despite what is happening many people are enjoying the fine spring weather in the Capital, to this end picnics and the wonderful cherry blossoms are plainly depicted. Shortly afterward when Klatu leaves the hospital, he is seen examining the cleaner's tag on the suit he "borrowed". This is where he adopted the name Carpenter. Clearly printed at the top of this tag is the date-7/18 1951, not spring by at least a few months.

Continuity: The taxi Helen gets into changes in one shot as it drives down the highway, evident by the writing on the side, then back again when it parks outside her house.

Plot hole: Klaatu is shot and his body is lying in a prison cell. Gort leaves the flying saucer and walks all the way to the heavily guarded police station in downtown Washington DC. Gort is 8 feet tall and is a robot plus he uses his noisy death ray to create a hole in the police station to retrieve Klaatu's body and nobody noticed him? On top of that, he walks all the way back to the saucer unseen with a dead body.

Continuity: Just after Klaatu gets shot, Gort is seen melting the clear glass/plastic/cement material he was encapsulated in. When Patricia Neal begins to approach the space ship, the camera shows Gort still melting the material with it almost down to his ankles by this time. The next shot shows Ms. Neal looking at him, but when the camera goes back to Gort, the cement he was encased in is suddenly back up around his waist. How did it get back up when moments before it was down around his ankles?

Factual error: When Bobby is doing his math homework, Klaatu looks over his shoulder and says: "All you have to remember is, first find the common denominator, then divide." Division of fractions doesn't require a common denominator. In fact, the original script says "subtract".

Continuity: During the news broadcast, the TV announcer is evenly lit. You can see this in the side view of him, as well as on the TV monitor that's next to him. Then, just after he says "there is no reasonable cause for alarm," the microphone in front of him is suddenly casting a big shadow on him.

Revealing: During the black-out, there's a shot when you see two cars moving in the background. One of them is slowing, which is normal if the engine stops, but the other is parked and then starts moving.

Continuity: As Drew Pearson is doing his news broadcast, the desk next to the microphone is clear. In the next frontal shot, two pencils have appeared next to the left of the microphone.

Continuity: When Gort emerges from the spaceship, we see all of the crowds run away in fear and panic. Yet in the very next shot the crowds are visible standing behind the ropes again.

Continuity: When Klatu goes to see the professor, there are several white notes tacked around the chalk board. In later shots some of the notes are gone.

Continuity: In some shots, Gort the robot has air vents under the chin. In others there are no vents.

Continuity: When Klaatu writes some notes on the blackboard, in order to help Professor Barnhardt, the handwriting of the words on the board changes between shots, most noticeably the 'T' on 'Try.'

Continuity: Klaatu introduces himself to the Professor for the first time by relaying some details of his stay at the hospital to verify who he is. Klaatu tells the Professor he was staying in room 309, but the early scenes at the hospital show him in room 306.

Continuity: In the newspaper headlined 'Step up Hunt for Spaceman' the photo on the right shows Klatu and Gort on the hull of the ship. This shot is a still from the end of the film.

Revealing: After all of the elecrticity is neutralised, in a street shot you can see neon signs are still working; a huge Coca Cola one, for example.

Revealing: When Gort begins to walk down the saucer ramp, after Klaatu is shot, the crowd gets scared and runs away. I guess the director found the extras running too slow so he sped up the film.

Revealing: When the spaceship is going to take-off, every scientists are trying to escape, but there's a man wearing a light colored suit and hat who seems more interested in pushing the chairs everywhere than escaping. He even pushes a chair in another row. The director obviously told the actors to push some chairs to create more excitement in the scene, but he seems to take that too seriously.

Revealing: When the spaceship arrives in Washington, many people look in the wrong direction.