The Terminal (2004) - 45 mistakes

Revealing: About 30 seconds into the movie, when the camera is panning down the flight status board, the letters are flipping through to form the correct words. However, the board is digitally animated, and some of the sequences of letters scrolling (such as one square going from L to M to N) loop without making any sense, like in the line above the yellow "The /Terminal" (U, V, W, U, V, W, U, V, W.).

Continuity: After the CBP agent smashed the potato chip bag with the apple, the shot is switched from beside the agent to Viktor's viewpoint. The number of chips and distribution of those chips on the desk change.

Continuity: When everybody in the airport is saying goodbye to Viktor before he steps into New York, one shot shows Dolores and Enrique with their arms around each other. But in the next shot, Dolores is walking towards Enrique and then they put their arms around each other.

Continuity: In the scene in Dixon's office, where he's trying to explain to Viktor that his country has fallen in a military coup, he uses an apple and potato chips to make his point. When the bag of chips pops open it sprays broken bits of chips all over Viktor's torso and lap. Although Viktor does brush some off, in the next shot he stands up to leave and there are no chips on his clothes or lap. You could believe he brushed them away off camera, but don't even see any on the floor around him.

Continuity: During Dixon's attempt to get Viktor to claim fear of return to Krakhozia, the phone cord and files on Dixon's desk change.

Deliberate "mistake": When Viktor is window shopping for a suit to wear on his date with Amelia, he aligns his head with the reflection on the glass to see how he would look in the suit, however, this is the view that the camera (shooting from an angle) has of him, his own view would not match up his head to the suit, it would be off to one side. Also, when he moves from the first suit to the second, he looks down to the floor, this would be to stand on a pre-placed marker which would align his head with the suit.

Deliberate "mistake": When Amelia and Viktor are talking for the first time and she asks hin out for dinner, look at the people behind Viktor. One of those men is actually Stanley Tucci wearing a tropical suit, when Stanley Tucci is the actor playing the bald bad guy who owns the airport.

Continuity: When Viktor is eating crackers with ketchup/mustard/mayo, he puts a "sandwich" together and gets ready to take a bite. In this shot, there are three crackers in the "sandwich" and mustard on the top. When the shot changes to show Dixon standing there, there are five crackers in the "sandwich" and no mustard on the top cracker.

Audio problem: When Viktor is celebrating the end of the war in Krakozia in the bar, we see Amelia approaching the bar. As she does, we hear Viktor give a loud "Krakozia!" Watch his mouth when he does. By this time, we have a clear view of his mouth and his cry of "Krakozia!" comes before his lips make the appropriate movements.

Continuity: When Viktor is making his cracker sandwich we see a closeup shot with a lot of packs of ketchup, relish and mustard in front of the mustard and cracker layer he just made. The camera then switches to a wide shot and the packs are no longer in front of the napkins but off to the side.

Continuity: When the retiring official and Dixon are walking together and talking about the yacht, the objects in front of the wall on the left change completely between a side shot and a front shot. They walk past copiers, but the next shot shows a desk and file cabinets.

Visible crew/equipment: When Viktor is being asked to say he is afraid of his country, you can see a man with silver-colored headphones (a crewmember) reflected in the window.

Visible crew/equipment: When Viktor is in Dixon's office with the stuffed fish, you can see the reflection of a crew member on the window behind him.

Continuity: When Viktor takes Gupta's mop to clean up the food on the floor, you can hear it is supposed to be wet, the sloshing sound in the bucket and the sound of water hitting the floor, although you can see that there is no water on the floor and that the mop is dry.

Factual error: At the end of the movie Viktor checks out of a hotel on Lexington and gets a cab to the airport. Then we see Viktor in the cab in Times Square. Times Square is several blocks west of Lexington, and the airports are to the east.

Continuity: This mistake occurs on Viktor's first night of sleeping, before he takes the chairs apart, after he sees the news and all that stuff. When he is trying to get comfortable in the row of chairs, in the first shot, he is stretching and places his fist under his chin. In the shot IMMEDIATELY after that, is hands are folded neatly and resting on his lap.

Continuity: In the scene towards the end where Gupta stops the plane, it's clear and sunny. At this point, Viktor immediately starts walking down towards the exit. By the time he makes it, it's snowing, and it looks as if it had been for some time.

Continuity: After Viktor has to resort to eating crackers and sauce again, Amelia waves in his direction. After he stands up, her boyfriend Max bumps into him and knocks the cracker sandwich out of his hand. We can see the splat of sauce on the ground with broken crackers mixed in. A few seconds later they have a shot of Viktor looking down at his spilled lunch and the crackers, which are whole, and sauce look much different than they did in the previous shot.

Deliberate "mistake": The driver's licence "Viktor" has does not belong to him. When he hands his visa claim to the officer, he's using a driver's licence to fill all the forms. The licence is actually a driver's permit of The Republic of Belarus. It belongs to totally another person(Gulinara Nadyrauna Gulina, she is not Slavonic at all), the permit is issued in Homel, a southern Belarusian city, on 30/07/1997- probably this person either has lost it or it was taken away for some reasons, but it is still valid(30/07/2007). However, the Cyrillic and latin letters do not match at all, as one can notice- surname Gulina is much shorter than Navorski, even given the fact that Cyrillic and latin writings differ, it should not be so.

Continuity: When Amelia and Viktor are having dinner, Amelia gets three pages on her beeper. On the first page she opens her purse, looks at the page she just got puts the beeper back and snaps her purse shut with the purse sitting straight up. On her second page, her purse is laying down, open so you can see her beeper. She didn't move the purse or open it from the time she closed it, after the first page.

Continuity: At the end, when Viktor is leaving in the cab, the windows of the cab are wet with dripping, melting snow, but as the cab is shown driving down the road, its windows are completely dry.

Factual error: When Viktor tells the story of his father collecting the jazz musicians' signatures, he shows an old Hungarian newspaper clipping with Cyrillic text. Hungarian uses the Latin alphabet and not the Cyrillic.

Continuity: As Dixon is explaining to Viktor about the gap in the door guard on the escalator, Dixon's hand changes position in an angle change.

Continuity: When Viktor is asked to translate for the Russian man, he is holding the pills at one point while standing in the doorway. In shots from his left, he is holding three cases of pills in his left hand and one in his right. In shots from his right, he is holding two in each hand. This change happens several times.

Continuity: When Victor and Amelia are talking in the book store, Victor cleans her glasses with his handkerchief. In one shot he is putting his handkerchief away in his back pocket. Then in the next shot he is putting his handkerchief away again.

Continuity: As the CBP agent is explaining the bag of chips and the apple, Viktor says "Big Apple, Big Apple". Look at the desk and it is perfectly clean. There are no crumbs on the desk. Just before the CBP agent slams the apple onto the chips we can now see a few crumbs already on the desk.

Continuity: When Viktor and Amelia are having dinner in the terminal, Enrique fills her glass very full. However, in the shots with only Amelia, the wine level changes to be significantly lower, though she never touches the glass.

Continuity: When Gupta is walking away from Viktor after their first meeting over the trash can, Viktor's hands switch from in front of him to at his sides. He doesn't have time to drop them.

Continuity: Towards the end of the film when Gupta walks out onto the runway, you see Dixon sitting in front of the CCTV screens. He is seen raising his head to realise what is happening from two different angles in quick succession, never lowering his head back down in between.

Continuity: When the head customs agent is trying to explain to Viktor what is happening, he starts to unpack his lunchpail. The lunchpail is a bit away from him on the table, and he sets the food in front of it, including a rather large bag of chips/crisps. The angle changes, and the chips/crisps have magically moved to behind the lunchpail.

Factual error: When Viktor finally leaves the airport, there is a very nice shot of the NYC skyline. Unfortunately, you cannot see the NYC skyline from JFK airport, much less midtown.

Continuity: When Viktor is making his cracker sandwich he makes the mustard layer in the center of the napkin. This can be seen in he closeup shot. When the camera switches to a wide shot the mustard layer has moved to the corner of the napkin.

Continuity: When Viktor explains to Dixon that he mistranslated the Russian guy, he is holding the pills and smiling. In the shot right after that, when Viktor is in the background, he is not smiling, and his hands have changed positions slightly.

Visible crew/equipment: This mistake occurs in the scene with the crazy Russian medicine guy. In the last 3 over-the-shoulder shots of the Russian out of 4, you can see the shadow of various filming equipment on the left side of his shirt.

Continuity: In the scene where Amelia is on the phone crying, the shot before Viktor starts walking to her has him turn his head, and move his body a little. His head and body are not aligned, though. At the beginning of the next shot, when he starts walking over to her, his body starts out perfectly straight.

Deliberate "mistake": When Tom Hanks is picked up at the airport by a taxi, its license plate number is TX7943. Later when he is picked up at the Ramada Inn, he is picked up by a taxi with a different driver, different numbers on the top, but has the same license plate number.

Continuity: When the officer is trying to take Viktor's passport, Viktor's grip changes position on the passport from one shot to the next. The first shot he is gripping it more to the middle of the passport with his fingers underneath and in the last shot he is gripping it at the corner with his finger down the edge.

Continuity: When Amelia takes the "Sorry Phone Out of Order" sticker and sticks it to Viktor's shirt, it changes position in subsequent shots. She stuck it to his shirt with the sticker centered on the buttons of his shirt. In the next shot, the sticker is has the edge of the sticker over the buttons of the shirt and is not totally stuck to his shirt. After he saves her from falling on the wet floor, the sticker is once again centered and totally stuck to his shirt.

Continuity: When Dixon and Viktor are riding down the escalator the amount of foam in Dixon's Starbucks cup is a small amount at the top of the escalator but a much larger amount when they reach the bottom.

Continuity: When Viktor and Amelia are talking about Napoleon in Border's Viktor is cleaning her glasses. He hands them back to her and she takes them with her right hand. A split second later in the next shot she has the glasses in her left hand and is grabbing them with her right hand. She did not have time to move them to her left hand after grabbing them.

Continuity: When Viktor and his friends are celebrating the end of the war in a lounge, Amelia comes in and hands him a large envelope. In the next shot, they walk over to the bar and she hands it to him again.

Continuity: As Gupta runs up to the airplane near the end, the mop changes from across his body to pointing in front of him between shots. There is no elapsed time in which to do this.

Continuity: Right before the Russian starts begging Dixon, we see his arms and hands at his side. In the shot right after that, his hands are touching together in a praying form. There is no time for change.

Continuity: In the scene where Viktor first meets Amelia, when he advertises Payless Shoes, Amelia is going up the escalator. In the shot when he says "Sensible Heels", Amelia turns her head and keeps it turned until the shot changes. When the shot changes, Amelia turns her head again.

Continuity: As Viktor is first running around the airport looking for televisions showing information on Krakhozia, he heads for the staircase to the second floor. A woman in dark clothes and a light scarf is walking in front of the escalator and another woman in a tan sweater and black pants is walking down the stairs as he approaches, but they disappear in the shot from above.