Miracle (2004) - 50 mistakes

Factual error: When Coach Herb Brooks is seen walking through the Olympic Village, Italian athletes are seen walking by with their green Olympic team jackets on. It says "Italy" on the backs of their jacket, but countries use their OWN language when putting their names on their jackets. Italy always goes by "Italia" on their uniforms.

Continuity: The fan who came out onto the ice and draped a flag around Jim Craig's shoulders (a cameo by the film's director, by the way) put it on upside-down. The camera cuts away, then cuts back, and it's right-side up.

Factual error: Rob McClanahan never actually cheap-shotted Jack O'Callahan to cost his team the 1976 NCAA championship, as described in the movie. McClanahan was a senior in high school at the time. Furthermore, although O'Callahan did have some hatred toward McClanahan, they never had a fight at any of the practices of the 1980 Olympic team.

Factual error: After the tie with Norway, Coach Brooks orders his entire team skate drills over and over again. Two of the players shown skating the drill, Buzz Schneider and Jim Craig, weren't on the ice on this occasion. Craig didn't play in the game, although Schneider did - he was ejected earlier and already dressed in street clothes when all that went down.

Factual error: In the exhibition game against Norway, Jim Craig is shown in goal for the US. It was actually the backup goaltender, Steve Janaszak, who played in that game.

Deliberate "mistake": It wasn't Mike Eruzione shouting his own name that finally convinced coach Brooks to stop making the players do sprints. It was Mark Johnson, who smashed his stick against the glass in a fit of rage.

Factual error: The Soviet Union had 9 shots on goal in the third period vs. team USA. In the movie's third period, the Soviets had 19 shots on goal.

Continuity: There is a scene during the training camp in which we see Herb crossing off players names with a blue pen. We can see him crossing the same name off twice in different shots.

Factual error: When Craig Patrick is reading off the names of the 26 players, he only reads 24. Furthermore, the two names he misses are those of Mark Wells and Neil Broten.

Factual error: In every single hockey scene the rinks are small, NHL-size rinks. In reality, Olympic hockey is always played on the bigger "European-sized" rinks. (TV footage from the 1980 tournament confirms this) Even the game in Norway is played on a small rink.

Factual error: The film was excellent throughout in duplicating the hockey equipment that the players used during the late 1970s and early 1980s - with one notable exception - the players are wearing CCM helmets from the late 1990's instead of the models worn in 1979/80.

Factual error: Equipment: mostly inaccurate. Locker room scenes show many shoulder pads from late 1980's/early 1990's (floating shoulder caps). Pants are modern, off the shelf CCM's. Goalie chest protectors are from later in the 1980's (at least). They should be the earlier type, such as a Cooper SB 95 and chest protector combination. Pre-Olympic gloves are modern (laughable) shiny vinyl, and the Olympic tournament gloves are simply current CCM pro gloves - right off the shelf, with a re-sewn cuff to make them look older. Also note that the finger wart colors are opposite the 1980 gloves - they should be top white, bottom red. As noted before, the helmets are modern. Opposing team gloves inaccurate/many spray painted early 1990's Cooper solid back roll gloves. In a scene from the Sweden game, there is player with gloves who's cuff-roll says "Koho," but the glove have CCM stripes. And Sweden's 1980 Jofa helmets were royal blue (standard Jofa colors), not navy blue.

Factual error: Jack O'Callahan was missing a couple of front teeth during the games. He had no missing teeth in the movie.

Other: Just before the second period against the USSR, we see a couple of shots of the benched Soviet starting goaltender Vladislav Tretiak. His hair is dry and combed, and there is no sign of perspiration, despite having just played the whole first period. After the game is over, we see a shot of the Soviet players watching the Americans celebrate. This time Tretiak's hair is wet and his face is sweaty. Shouldn't it be the other way around (i.e., hair is wet after playing one period, then dry after sitting on the bench for two periods)?

Factual error: After Baker scores the last-minute tying goal against Sweden, we see the opening of one of the ABC television broadcasts of the Olympics as it appeared in 1980. The specific arrangement of the Olympic Fanfare music we hear, however, did not exist until a few years later. It's an arrangement by John Williams that was made for the 1984 Olympics. The crash cymbals and chimes that accompany the opening tympani notes give it away.

Revealing: If you watch Herb's wife Patty drink her hot chocolate, it is very easy to see that the cup is empty.

Factual error: The Finnish team's uniforms (in the gold medal-winning game vs. the USA) were not gray; they were white with blue trim.

Factual error: The movie shows that in the third period there was a Slashing penalty to 16 (Petrov) at 2:47, which gave rise to the game-tying power-play goal by Johnson. The Slashing penalty was actually to 9 (Krutov) at 6:47, four minutes later.

Factual error: In the movie, Ken Dryden says something like, "In Madison Square Garden this team played very tentative hockey, very much in awe of the Soviet team. Tonight, they're playing like they're not in awe of anybody." He actually said that during team USA's 7-3 rout of Czechoslovakia.

Continuity: During the game against the Soviet Union, the US team ties up the score at 3-3. As Al Michaels comments on the tied score the crowd is panned and the scoreboard reads 4-3, which actually happens a few minutes later in the game. The digits are hard to read, but if you look closely enough, the mistake is detectable.

Factual error: Boris Mikhailov plays as a center in the movie, while in reality he was actually a right wing. Vladimir Petrov was the center.

Continuity: During the series of sprints that the coach makes the players do after the game against Norway, the number of players on the ice changes. This is especially evident during the first one they do in the dark (only about 16 or 17 skaters are shown instead of the original 21).

Factual error: The exhibition game at Madison Square Garden took place at 2:00pm, not at night as the outside shot of the arena depicts.

Other: The slow-motion face-off to start the third period is a neat effect, except for one problem: watch Mikhailov's stick - he hardly moves it. No hockey player can win a face-off without trying.

Factual error: The movie makes it clear that Jack O'Callahan's first game since his injury was the game against the Soviet Union. In actuality, he had some playing time in the preliminary game against West Germany.

Factual error: There indeed was a moment in the game (vs. USSR) where Jim Craig was shaken up, but contrary to what's shown in the movie, the hit did not happen as the Soviets scored a goal. Furthermore, if a goalie is that flagrantly knocked down and out so that a teammate can get a shot off, it should be a two-minute penalty for "goaltender interference" and the goal disallowed.

Factual error: In the movie, the players on the bench rushed onto the ice to celebrate the victory about 4-5 seconds after the final horn sounded. In the actual game, everyone had left the bench with 1-1.5 seconds still left to play in the game.

Factual error: A brief shot of the World Trade Center at night is shown right before the team plays the Russians in NY, which is just days before the 1980 Olympics. This shot includes buildings located in front of the Twin Towers which were not completed until well after 1980. This complex of four buildings are known as the 'World Financial Center' and are well known for their oddly shaped rooftops. In 1988 the 'World Financial Center', the Winter Garden and 'World Financial Center Plaza' officially opened.

Continuity: After Team USA beat Czechoslovakia, there's a scene on the streets of Lake Placid where Herb Brooks and his advisor are discussing why there is so much media covering the hockey team. Brooks makes the statement, "They've (USA) won two games." Actually at that point, they had won only one game, against the Czechs. They tied their first game vs. Sweden.

Factual error: In the medal ceremony, the teams face one of the ends of the ice, not one of the sides.

Other: What are the odds that a small arena in Norway would use the exact same scoreboard as the arena in Lake Placid?

Continuity: Herb's wife brings him a cup of hot chocolate at the outdoor skating rink. When she first gets there, both cups are steaming heavily. Just seconds later, neither cup shows even the slightest amount of steam coming out.

Continuity: After the coach's first argument with his wife, he returns to the bedroom to apologize. She's laying on her right hip and has to twist at the waist to see him standing in the doorway. He speaks, and the top of her head is in the shot the entire time. When the camera cuts back to her, she's now laying on her left hip, facing him square on. She couldn't have rolled over without causing her head to move or dip out of frame.

Factual error: At the start of the 2nd period, Al Michaels announces that the "Cone head" line is on the ice. In the actual game, it was the first line (Johnson/Silk/McClanahan) that started the 2nd period.

Continuity: At the skating pond, Herb's head is turned toward his wife as he says, "why can't we just leave it at that?" Right as he finishes that sentence, the camera cuts to a different angle and his head is instantaneously facing forward.

Deliberate "mistake": Herb is driving and listening to a speech by President Carter on the car radio. The radio that is shown is a GM Delco radio, but Herb was driving a Dodge.

Factual error: Al Michaels never referred to the Harrington/Schneider/Pavelich line as the "Conehead" line when announcing the game on ABC.

Factual error: In the movie, just before Mike Eruzione scored the game-winning goal, one of his teammates shouted "Rizzo," and passed the puck to him. That was not the case in the actual game. The puck inadvertently bounced over to where he was; no one intentionally passed it to him.

Factual error: In the movie, after Mark Johnson scores the last-second goal in the first period against the Soviet Union, the ref indicates that the goal counts and time has expired. Both teams therefore go back to the dressing rooms. In the actual game, the ref ordered the timekeeper to put one second back on the clock, and called the players (most of whom had already gone back to the dressing rooms) back out to the ice for a face-off, to make the end of the period official.

Factual error: Immediately after the victory against the Soviets, coach Herb Brooks did indeed leave the bench and go back through the tunnel. However, it wasn't to find a secluded place to rejoice. He simply had to go to the restroom.

Factual error: In the movie, after the USSR's first goal, the announcer *correctly* announces that the goal was scored by Krutov, who deflected the puck in. In the actual game, she incorrectly announced that it was the player who made the initial slap-shot. (Later in the game, Al Michaels pointed out the correction while doing the play-by-play.).

Factual error: The arena in the movie is way too small. The Olympic Ice Arena in Lake Placid had a capacity of about ten thousand, with an entire second level. The only "second level" the arena in the movie has is the small balcony at the end of the ice.

Factual error: The time clock digits on the scoreboard were not made up of individual round lights, as shown in the movie. They were made of illuminated bars, similar to the LED displays on alarm clocks.

Factual error: In the actual Olympic games, the ice looked nowhere near as immaculate as it did in the movie. The movie's ice is pure white, with vibrantly-colored blue lines, red lines, etc. Anyone who has seen the actual footage of the game knows that the ice surface is blotchy, very much like a pond.

Factual error: Colorado Springs location shots are completely off. Broadmoor World Arena had a very high, arched roof, wooden seats throughout and no press box even vaguely resembling that shown in the film. It was demolished in 1995 though actual photos are still available here: http://www.coloradocollege.edu/athletics/hockey/history/allbroadmoor/BroadmoorWorldArenaPhotos1.cfm Olympic Training Center was built on the grounds of an old military base, no rolling hills or heavy vegetation. In 1979 the old barracks, used as dormatories for the athletes, were very prominent and visible on the grounds.

Factual error: In the actual games, the referees had their names on the backs of their jerseys (none of the refs in the movie did).

Continuity: When Mike Eruzione shouts his own name to avoid doing another sprint, Coack Patrick reacts just before he shouts it.

Factual error: Even though Jack O'Callahan was injured and couldn't play until the medal round, he still suited up for each game and skated during warm-ups. In the movie, he's wearing a suit and tie while on the bench.

Factual error: Contrary to what the movie shows, goaltender Jim Craig actually did take the psychology test - the next day after he told the coach why he thought he wasn't necessary.

Factual error: Not every player at the Olympics wore Bauer skates.