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Trivia

In order to make Gort's body appear seamless, two different costumes were created, one that opened in the back for front shots and one that opened in the front for rear shots. Unfortunately, as someone has already pointed out on this site, it was sometimes rather difficult to co-ordinate which suit was needed for which shot and thus there are several times in the film where Gort's seams can be seen. See more...

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The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) - 24 mistakes

Directed by Robert Wise (add more)

Genres: Drama, Sci-fi, Thriller

Mistakes
Trivia
Pictures
Corrections
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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.

Edit Submitted by Larry Koehn Picture Time
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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.

Edit Submitted by Hamster Time
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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.

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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.

Edit Submitted by Hamster
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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.

Edit Submitted by Hamster Time
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Edit Submitted by Dr Wilson Time
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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.

Edit Submitted by Larry Koehn Time
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Continuity: In some shots, Gort the robot has air vents under the chin. In others there are no vents.

Edit Submitted by Dr Wilson Time
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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.

Edit Submitted by Larry Koehn Time
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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?

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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".

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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.

Edit Submitted by Hamster Time
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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.'

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

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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.

Edit Submitted by Larry Koehn Time
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Continuity: As the spaceships runway platform emerges from the ship, there are hardly any trees behind the spacecraft; only a few behind the left side. In the next wideshot, there are plenty of trees behind the ship.

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Continuity: When the power goes out there is a scene where it shows all the cars not being able to work, although in the background there is a movie marquee with the lights on.

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