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Die Hard (1988) - 48 mistakes

Directed by John McTiernan, starring Bruce Willis, Paul Gleason, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson (add more)

Genres: Action, Thriller

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Revealing: In the shot where we see all the terrorists (except Karl and Theo, who are upstairs) walking into the building from downstairs, they are about to walk through a doorway when the camera cuts out. Watch the terrorist on the left (he's the one who guards the door) - before the camera cuts out he realises he's about to hit the doorframe very hard. Reminiscent of the Stormtrooper in Star Wars.

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Revealing: When the boss discovers the first bad guy lying dead in the lift ("Now I have a gun - HO HO HO!") and slaps him over the cheek, the corpse is moving its head before it is hit (watch carefully!) He also blinks.

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Continuity: When the terrorists launch the rocket at the RV, they break the same window of the building twice.

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Continuity: When Bruce is looking on the touch-screen computer to find out where his wife is, he touches the name GENNARO, but when it changes colour it also corrects the spelling of his wife's name to GENNERO.

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Continuity: When John and the terrorist fall down the stairs together, you can hear the yell of the terrorist signifying his death. Leaving the fact that dead men tend not to yell out alone, you can see the terrorist's corpse is still breathing.

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Revealing: Bruce Willis wore fake feet during the movie to protect his own while shooting the film. They were like boots that slipped on over his. At the part where the FBI guy shoots at him from the helicopter and Bruce jumps to a lower level of the roof, you can see the tops of the fake feet that aren't tight around his ankles.

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Other: In the computer room shoot-out the bad guys shoot out all the glass room dividers in a hail of bullets, but the glass windows on the exterior of the building (behind the dividers and in the path of the bullets) stay intact; they don't even get scratched.

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Continuity: When the terrorists enter the building, they stream out of the rental truck. You don't see the large ambulance that emerges for their getaway at the end of the film.

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Continuity: When Bruce Willis shoots Alan Rickman, Rickman falls through the window and grabs Bonnie Bedilia's arm to pull her with him. He has a good grasp on her arm because of her watch. When Bruce Willis is trying to release the clasp on her watch, you see blood on her face from his arm. The shot then cuts to Alan Rickman, and when the camera goes back to Bedelia and Willis, there is no longer any blood on her face.

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Continuity: After the terrorists blow the roof and Willis jumps off with the fire hose, he hits the window. After kicking the window for a while, he decides to shoot it. As he pushes off the window you can see that his gun is out and pointed at the window yet in the next scene he pulls the gun from his side and then starts shooting at the window.

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Visible crew/equipment: When McClane enters Holly's office, a crew member is reflected in the mirror.

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Continuity: When the blonde baddie is about to kill the man in the front desk, his fringe changes from neat and combed to slightly messy from one frame to the other.

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Visible crew/equipment: In the first scene of the Christmas party when Takagi steps out of one the offices and greets couple of his guests, the camera pans left to show the orchestra and other guests. A huge shadow of the camera and its operator is being shown in the backwall, then the stagelight gets moved to light a different area and the shadow is gone.

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Revealing: When the hostages are running down the stairs after the C4 explosion, a large, fist sized chunk of concrete falls on an older man's head and he just runs straight on.

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Continuity: After he climbs out of the air duct, John McClane's shirt goes from white to green. The dirt and grime from the air duct would cause discolouration only where the shirt comes in contact with the duct. However, his shirt is uniformly green including places that wouldn't make contact and it is impossible for all surfaces to make contact even in small areas.

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Factual error: Throughout the film, characters are able to break through on radio transmissions and speak to the other person talking, and the other person would hear them. In reality, they would have to wait until the first transmitter un-keyed the radio before any other discernable radio traffic could have be heard. (A good example of this is the scene where Ellis is giving up McClane.)

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Continuity: When he's climbing down the vents, the strap unties, and Bruce Willis falls. He misses the vent he was reaching for, and falls past the next one, so we assume he catches the third one down. However, after he flicks off his lighter, the camera pans up from the lit vent to Karl, and we can see that he somehow grabbed and climbed into the vent he definitely fell right past in the shot from above.

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Continuity: Takagi is sitting on the chair facing the door of the room when he is shot. In the next scene, the same door is splattered with blood, yet the glass structure which should be splattered with blood should be the glass window behind Takagi, not the door which he is facing.

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Other: Near the start of the film, when John goes to meet his wife at the office block, there is a party going on and a small orchestra playing. When Gruber and his gang enter, the orchestra are still there. Gruber locks down the building, and takes the guests hostage. Where does the orchestra go after that? They are never seen again, even when the hostages are taken to the roof.

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Continuity: At the start in the limo, when Argyle is listing all the features of the car, the bear is dead centre of the back seats. The very next shot is in the rear view mirror, and the bear's now over by the window.

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