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Mistakes

Mary and Stan are lying on Joel's bed talking, with the plate of food between them. When the camera looks down on them, Joel's hand is on the plate. The shot changes at one point to a close up of Mary's face and Joel's hand is not there anymore, but reappears when the shot changes again. See more...

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The scene where Joel stumbles upon the memory of his visit with the doctor, even though there are two Joels, there are no special effects being applied. As the shot turned back and forth, Jim Carrey actually dashed behind the camera, switching from a standing up wearing a jacket and stocking cap, to sitting down wearing no jacket no hat. It's actually quite impressive. See more...

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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) - 17 corrections

starring Elijah Wood, Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo (add more)

Genres: Drama, Romance

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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While in Joel's memories there is a scene when Clem surprises Joel with her new hair color and that's when Joel starts calling her "tangerine". Since the memories are going backwards up to the time when they first met, Clem's hair is still orange when it should be a different color since she doesn't change it until later on. [The film shows Joel's memories of Clementine working backwards from when she left to when they met, so Clementine would not have this nickname yet. However, because Joel is conscious of his memories (as well as manipulating them consciously at the time) and had heard Patrick in the previous scene calling Clementine by this nickname, it's possible that he calls her "Tangerine" for this reason.]
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When Jim Carey is running back and forth on the sidewalk in front of some buildings and keeps ending up at the same street, the set lighting are visible in the windows. [Set lighting is usually far more flexible and controllable then lamps with low wattage bulbs. The reflections seen here are that of the lamp in Joel's apartment. It may be that Joel doesn't have his eyes fully closed, as with his aural functioning, where he is hearing the technicians talk as well as his own voice and ambience percieved in his mind. This happens when a person is not fully immersed in his dream, and the senses do not shut fully the outside world.]
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When Joel gets to his apartment to get ready for the procedure he closes his window shields. However throughout the movie the shields end up open again, so when Mierzwiak's wife comes, she can see them through the window. [Kirsten Dunst opens the shades when they're cleaning up for Howard to come there.]
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At the beginning, when Joel and Clementine meet on the train after their memories have been erased, Clem mentions she doesn't want jokes about her name, and Joel doesn't know what she's talking about. However, in the memory if them meeting for the first time on the beach, Clem says to Joel the same thing, and Joel sings "oh my darling, oh my darling, oh my darling Clementine." He should have known of at least the song on the train. [No he shouldn't. He had every thing that might trigger of memory of her erased. A song with her name in it would do just that. This was the whole point of putting that line in the movie; it's not a plot hole, it's a plot point.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
After Joel puts the gift on the stair banister, the bow keeps moving throughout the scene. When Carrie goes upstairs, the bow is on the far side from Joel. When she comes back down, the bow is now on the close side to Joel. This continues back and forth several times. [This takes place inside Joel's mind. All sorts of weird things happen there, so the bow on the parcel can do a little dance if it wants to.]
Edit Corrected by umathegreatstationarybear
The very first memory Joel has erased is his memory of going to the doctor to get his memory wiped. If that was the first thing he had erased, then he shouldn't know that she is being erased in the other memories. His memory of the procedure is already gone, so he should be going through the rest of the memories like normal or like he would if it was a dream. [He might have had the actual doctor's apointment erased from his memory, but not the memories of when he decided to have her erased. Thus he's still aware that he is erasing her.]
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In the whole first sequence of Joel meeting Clementine (i.e. on the train etc) her hair is a faded blue, with obvious roots. However as soon as they get to her house it has changed to a much darker, obviously newly dyed, dark blue. [It has to do with lighting. In daylight her hair looks faded blue but in a darker lighting it appears to be dark blue.]
Edit Time
At the Lacuna office, Mary (on the phone) tells one of their customers that she cannot have the procedure three times in one month. Problem is, when the procedure is done it also erases the memories of having the procedure done, so the woman on the phone wouldn't know she's had it before. These are supposed to be trained professional office staff and should not make such a blunder - the line was written for humorous value. [I wouldn't go so far to call the office staff "trained professionals". Maybe they are trained but not very professional. Drinking, smoking pot and having sex while you’re at work, is in my world a very big mistake. Bigger than the one on the phone, so it could happen.] [Additionally, we don't know what the customer was asking for - she may have had something quite elaborate planned, that she knew in advance she'd want three in one month.]
Edit Corrected by Palle Sorig Jensen
The level of the beer in the bottle changes without being touched in the scene in the Chinese restaurant. As this seems to be a normal memory, it is not reasonable to attribute this to the nature of the film either. [Actually, this wasn't a normal memory since Joel could hear the voices of the technicians in the background, so the level of the beer could easily change since his memory was being distorted.]
Edit
When Jim is walking on the beach at the start of the film, it is supposed to be snowing, and you can see flakes fall from the sky. Trouble is, there isn't any on the sand and you can't see any landing on it or on the sea. [Living in NY, I have witnessed many days when there is snow in the air but no accumulation on the ground. This is especially common when the air temperature is colder than the ground, as it would be near a large body of water.]
Edit Time
In the scene where Mary is leading Joel down the hallway to the doctor, Stan jumps out and scares her. Stan then says to Mary, "Sorry Kirsten..." [His exact lines are: "Sorry. Sorry. I was just...sorry." He never calls her Kirsten.]
Edit Corrected by Phoenix
Near the beginning when Jim Carrey is waking up Kate Winslet in front of her house (just before Elijah Wood makes his first appearance) Kate Winslet accidentally flashes her wedding band. [She is wearing rings on the thumb of her left hand (not a wedding band location) and on the ring finger of her right hand (also not a wedding band location). There is no ring on the ring finger of her left hand.]
Edit Corrected by Phoenix
The first scene when Joel is at the train station in Mantauk, it is snowing and there is snow all over the ground. Later, when he meets Clementine, and is back at the station later in the day, there is no snow anywhere. [Snow melts.]
Edit
While working on Jim Carrey's memory, Mark Ruffalo opens a bottle of Rolling Rock beer with a bottle opener. Rolling Rock has a twist-off cap. [Some people find that kind of twist-off cap hard on their hands, and use an opener. Also, it is possible he did not realize it was a twist-off cap, if he does not drink that brand of beer regularly.]
Edit Corrected by J I Cohen
It was crucial that patients of Lacuna Inc. remove all items that have a connection with the memory of the one they want erased. It seems like the dent in Joel's car would be a pretty significant connection, since it was part of the act that contributed to the final break up. [Yes, but as shown, a car dent can be explained away as "the guy parked next to me did it". A photograph would be more difficult to explain away.]
Edit Corrected by SexyIrishLeprechaun
Valentine's day appears to be a work day, seeing that Joel skips work. In actuality, Valentine's Day 2004 fell on a Saturday. [So, people do work on Saturdays and as we don't know what job Joel does it's quite possible for him to be skipping work on a Saturday.]
Edit Corrected by David Mercier
When Joel and Clementine are talking in the bookstore, you can see that the titles of books and section signs have been digitally erased. This is noticeable at points because the erasing of certain signs is not complete, partially revealing what was originally written on them. [This is supposed to represent his memory of the event being wiped clean. This happens throughout the movie as scenes of memories are nearing their end. Objects, words, colors from all around begin to slowly fade away, not everything all at once.]
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