Face/Off (1997) - 77 mistakes

Visible crew/equipment: In the shootemup scene at the hangar, at the beginning of the film, Castor Troy shoots an agent in the stomach and the agent flies back - you can see the wire pulling him backwards.

Continuity: At the end of the film, when Nicolas Cage and John Travolta are lying next to each other in the ambulance, there is no blood on Travolta's shirt collar and suddenly, between shots, the collar is covered in blood.

Continuity: When Sean and Tito first drive the Hummer onto the runway, the jet is a mere short distance away, coming towards them. In the following shots, the distance between the Hummer and the jet has increased tremendously, for the ensuing drama to unfold.

Visible crew/equipment: At the Walsh Institute, after Sean gives his ring to Tito, when the stainless steal sliding door closes, the camera and a crew member, or likely the director, is seen looking behind the camera lens in the glass window reflection.

Continuity: On the chopper, when Sean Archer points his gun out the window, in the shot facing him the window to his right is a double slide type. In the next shot, from inside the chopper, his arm is through a single window that flips down.

Continuity: On the speedboat, when the anchor comes loose from the boat's bow it takes with it a large chunk of metal and leaves a gaping hole, but next shot, as the anchor falls to the water, the huge hole is gone leaving only the bullet holes on the surface.

Visible crew/equipment: When Sean (as Castor Troy) is doing the ‘water skiing’ thing, trying to hang on to the speedboat’s chain, in the close-up the harness he wears is visible under his wet white shirt.

Continuity: When Cage and Dubov are making their escape, Dubov falls over the rail and Cage catches his gun then tries to save him. In the last shot before Dubov falls, Cage is holding on to the very last tip of the gun, but in the wide shot he is holding a lot more of the barrel.

Continuity: When Castor (as Sean Archer) is speared, as he stands there singing morosely his shirt is drenched in blood, but when he is next seen in the ambulance that blood on his shirt has vanished. Additionally, the cuts on his face produce blood trails which smear, when he is first speared, but in the ambulance his face is cleaned up and the blood trails are thin and neat.

Visible crew/equipment: At the L.A. Convention Center, just before Castor Troy (as Sean Archer) disarms the bomb, there are a few shots of all the extras evacuating the area. In the interior shot, that looks out through the glass doors onto the street, the tracking crane arm with a seated camera operator and camera on its platform is visible as it shoots an exterior crane shot of all the extras, which was seen among the previous shots.

Revealing: In the big speedboat scene near the end, when Cage is hanging off the side of the boat the stunt double is obvious in wide shots, where the entire boat is visible from above. He has big long sideburns, which are in stark contrast to Cage's short hair, visible in closer shots. At various other points in the movie, stunt doubles appear of much different physical builds than the two actors, with markedly different hair colours, and I seem to recall that at least one of them had facial hair.

Visible crew/equipment: When Sean first visits the Walsh Institute, he, Dr. Miller and Dr. Walsh walk in front of the circular glass window to view the ear reconstruction. In the next shot facing them, the reflection of a boom operator holding the boom pole is visible on the glass in front of Dr. Miller and Sean.

Continuity: When Sean Archer is flying the helicopter to keep the plane from taking off, Castor Troy shoots the helicopter windshield three times, but there are four bullet marks.

Visible crew/equipment: On the runway, two shots after Castor Troy says, “This is a big gun. Fly the f*ing plane,” there is a side shot of the Hummer. As the camera pans in closer, the reflection of a crew member on the filming vehicle, which moves beside the Hummer, becomes visible at the Hummer’s back end, just before it cuts away.

Revealing: When the FBI agent asks Archer , "Sir, why are you upset? Its only Pollux Troy", you can see discoloration of a lump on his forehead which is makeup covering the blood pack for when Archer shoots him right after.

Revealing: At the boat scene when Archer is holding on to the red boat and is skiing on the side, you can clearly see the waterproof boots he is wearing.

Continuity: After the second speedboat explodes, when Sean (as Castor Troy) pulls the speargun trigger, Castor (as Sean Archer) grabs the spear shaft before it can unload. As he grips the gun, the problem is that in some shots the slings are still loaded, but in other shots they are not.

Continuity: After Castor Troy is told they are being followed on the runway, there is a close-up of Sean Archer and Tito in the Hummer and the rear view mirror is gone. It is back in all the other shots.

Visible crew/equipment: During the raid at Dietrich’s, when Sean (as Castor Troy) hangs on to the chain then grabs hold of Pollux, in the close-up Pollux’s safety wire is visible in front of him. (This is not Sean’s safety wire, as seen in the following shots.)

Visible crew/equipment: When Sean sees himself for the first time as Castor Troy, he takes the coat rack and slams it into the tri-fold mirror. The right side mirror is knocked back, and both the cameraman and camera are briefly visible in the reflection.

Continuity: On his own computer, Sean looks up his son’s file, which states the boy died immediately and his date of death was September 9th, 1991. When Eve and Castor (as Sean Archer) are at the cemetery, the date of death on the headstone is September 24th, 1991.

Visible crew/equipment: When the red boat has hit the barrier and Castor Troy and Archer fly through the air, you can see a wire attached to the front of the boat just for a split second, then when it falls in the water and explodes.

Continuity: When Castor (as Sean) grips the speargun, in the following close-ups, the sling ends (with its wishbones) differ - just note the rings around the rubber ends.

Continuity: After the jet crashes into the hangar, Sean Archer runs up the back end of a police cruiser, whose three blue flashing lights are completely shattered. In the next shot facing him, when he reaches the car’s roof, two of the blue lights have repaired themselves.

Continuity: After being told that Pollux was released from prison, Sean Archer (as Castor Troy) shouts that he’s Sean Archer, then grabs hold of the bars above him, with three bars between his hands. Next shot, as the guard’s foot is on his hand, there are only two bars between his hands before he lets go.

Visible crew/equipment: When Sean (as Castor Troy) shoots Castor (as Sean Archer) with the speargun, when the spear is finally unloaded, in the side shot there is a thin guide wire pulling the spear tip towards Castor (as Sean).

Revealing: In the scene when Castor Troy kills Agent Winters the sky is blue. There is only one cloud just above the fuselage. This cloud doesn't move, at least not that fast as it should as the jet is near take-off speed. The aircraft stands still when the actress falls out of the jet. In the ensuing shot, when the dummy falls out, the sky is overcast and the aircraft moving again.

Factual error: In the hangar scene when Castor and Archer point their guns at each other, if Castor's gun was really empty the slide would be locked back.

Continuity: After leaving the Hummer, when Sean gets into the chopper the cabin interior changes in the following shots. This includes the windshield, hand grip, wall, etc.

Continuity: During the prison breakout, when Dubov falls over the railing after being shot, in the first overhead shot he falls backwards, but next shot he falls forward (chest down).

Continuity: At the airport hangar, after Castor reloads, in the close-up Sean is kneeling beside a crate with a large black/white SCI air freight sticker. In the overhead shot, when Castor Troy aims the gun at Sean, the sticker is gone. Debris also disappears.

Continuity: At the hangar, when Castor Troy is blown backwards in the turbo tunnel he hits the wire gate, and the metal bar, about 3-4 ft long, breaks off and begins to fall with him. Next shot, he lands on the floor, but the long bar does not. It just disappears.

Visible crew/equipment: When Buzz and Wanda stand in the outer room, in the first shot, the camera pans around and faces the agents’ TV, showing the video feed of Pollux in the interrogation room singing about his tiramisu. On the agents’ TV screen, the reflection of the crew’s rather large black square screen is visible (on a stand) in front of the windows (to block window light and view of the crew/equipment) and just as the camera faces the TV head-on, a crouching crew member begins to stand (seen at the left side of their TV screen).

Continuity: After the surgery, when Sean (as Castor Troy) breaks the center mirror of the tri-fold mirror, what remains are the two side mirrors and white backing within the center frame. When Tito grabs him as he starts cursing, in these close-ups the reflections seen are as if all three sides are still intact.

Continuity: At Erehwon prison, during the cigarette incident, Sean (as Castor Troy) is knocked down, and while on the floor the side bar of his left magnetic boot breaks and the entire boot begins to fall off, but it’s intact when he crawls to get the cigarette.

Continuity: During the speedboat chase, when Castor Troy (as Sean Archer) shoots up the white speedboat that Sean (as Castor Troy) drives, there are numerous bullet holes on its starboard side. Four shots later, when he hits the box on the rear seat, those bullet holes on the starboard side are gone.

Audio problem: When Karl is trying to push himself on Jamie, you can hear her screaming when the shot is outside the car, and the screaming continues when the shot's showing both of them, but she isn't screaming.

Continuity: When Cage is rolling down the runway he appears to be controlling the direction of the aircraft by turning the yoke. An aircraft is controlled on the ground via rudder (vertical stabiliser) controlled by the feet of the pilot, and nosewheel steering, also controlled by the feet (rudder pedals) of the pilot (sometimes also with a steering wheel on the side of the cockpit). Moving the yoke simply alters the position of the ailerons, which will not steer the aircraft on the ground.

Audio problem: When Castor wakes up from his coma, he reaches up to his face and pulls out the nose plugs that fed him oxygen. Strangely enough, his heart monitor stops beeping when the plug is removed.

Continuity: In the boat scene when the white boat crashes through the police boat you can see the front of the white boat shatter and then it's okay again.

Revealing: In the speedboat crash where the film is slowed down, there is a medium shot of Troy and Archer flying through the air. It is very obvious that neither are the true actors.

Continuity: When Castor (as Sean Archer) grabs the speargun shaft before it can unload, he takes a piece of glass and begins to cut his face. The broken glass has a small circular piece missing from the edge, but from a different camera angle that small piece is more intact than the previous shot.

Continuity: After the incident with Karl, when Castor (as Sean Archer) and Jamie are in the living room, he opens the cigarette case and offers her one. The way he holds the case noticeably differs between shots.

Revealing: Just as the red speedboat heads toward shore, before it crashes, the white and red truck cranes are on the dock and the white crane arm is angled backwards over the dock. In the shot facing the speedboat, as it explodes, that crane arm is now angled the opposite way, over the water, since it was used in the stunt.

Revealing: At Erehwon, Sean (as Castor Troy) is given steel magnetic boots to wear, for the prison's important security feature. There is a close-up of these heavy duty boots during his 'exercise'. Then, when he is taken to the clinic there is another close-up, and there are a number of changes to the boots style. More importantly, one of the side "bolts" has fallen off, revealing that it was merely glued on the prop boots.

Continuity: After Sean types “case closed” on Castor’s file, Dr. Miller walks into Sean's office and holds out Pollux's Zip Disk for Sean to take. In the next close-up, the Zip Disk has flipped over and faces the opposite way.

Continuity: When Castor Troy (as Sean Archer) says, “Every time you’ll look in the mirror, you’ll see my face,” he proceeds to cut his face. The first cut he makes is straight down the side of his right cheek (viewer’s left) and later that cut is curved and closer to his nose. This may appear to be a mistake at first glance; however, Castor's facial expression is different in the two images. When he made the cut, the cheeks were pulled away from the nose; in the second photo, the muscles are relaxed, moving the cut closer to the nose.

Continuity: At the office, when Sean is given the bottle of wine for a job well done, the way the bottle is held, first by the assistant and then by Sean, differs between shots.

Continuity: After Sean looks up his son’s file on the computer, and types “case closed” on Castor’s file, he rubs his head with his right hand in the close-up, but next shot he is rubbing his head with his left hand.

Continuity: When Castor Troy opens the jet door, the wall behind the cockpit differs when he pushes Agent Winters onto the runway, and the rest of the shots.

Continuity: At their home, when Sean tells Eve that he has one last assignment we see his scar. At the Walsh Institute, before the surgery, there is another close-up of the scar, but it differs from the previous shot.

Continuity: When Castor Troy (as Sean Archer) turns off the video-cam and walks into the interrogation room with Pollux, the Coke has two straws, but next close-up there is only one straw as he turns off the microphone.

Visible crew/equipment: After Castor is captured at the airport hangar, when Sean pulls into his driveway the crew is reflected on the vehicle’s surface.

Continuity: At the airport hangar, when Castor hits the wire gate in the turbo chamber, the top of his head is well below the metal bar. But, when the emergency shut-off is pressed, his unconscious body has sat itself up, because now the bar is at shoulder level.

Continuity: During the runway pursuit, there is a shot from behind Castor Troy as he fires on Sean's chopper, and there are four bullet holes on the windshield. In Sean's close-up the four bullet holes change position.

Continuity: At Dietrich’s, when the firing begins, Sasha grabs a woman and they both start running up the stairs, but a few shots later when Sasha yells, “Cas, be careful with him,” she and the woman are still downstairs.

Continuity: When Jaime is screaming, Castor Troy (as Sean Archer) walks out to the front yard and the back tires/end of Karl’s car is on the sidewalk, but when Karl is dragged out, the car is farther up the driveway.

Revealing: When Castor is pushed into the blowing heat from the plane engine by Sean and is thrown back, the man that lands against the grill is so obviously the stunt double; he has a different hair cut than Castor and really doesn't look anything like him.

Continuity: When Troy (as Travolta) is about to defuse the bomb, watch the timer, it goes down too slowly for the time elapsed. It shows 1:14 and 28 seconds later it only shows 1:04, not 0:46 as it should.

Continuity: When John Travolta's daughter slams her bedroom door in his face, from one shot it nearly closes, but in another shot he blocks it when it's still got a long way to go.

Continuity: When Castor arrives at the airport, behind him there is a parked car in front of the building which on it reads "Welcome to Southern California International Airport", that disappears and reappears.

Continuity: When Castor Troy first arrives at the airplane you see another business jet in the back (you see the red engine coverages). Few seconds later there is a different aircraft with a propeller and no jet anymore.

Visible crew/equipment: When Cage throws Pollux through the ceiling window, the support wire is seen in front of Cage as he's hanging from the edge.

Continuity: In the scene where Cage and Travolta are fighting on the dock, Cage stabs Travolta with the speargun (before he fires it). If you look at the spear after Travolta is stabbed, there is blood on it. Then in the next shot, the spear is suddenly clean.

Revealing: When Cage is shooting Travolta with the Uzi type weapon in the room with mirrors, the gun has no muzzle flash in several shots.

Continuity: When John Travolta is shot on the carousel at the beginning of the movie, the shot enters his back near his collarbone. When the camera moves back a second later, the bullethole is much lower.

Continuity: At the church, just as the shooting is done with, Eve is leaning down with her hands covering her head. Then, in the close-up she uncovers her head and sits upright to look around, but in the next shot, she's still leaning down covering her head.

Deliberate "mistake": When they fight in the hangar and Troy is thrown back by the jet engine, his face and other parts of his body should have been burnt quite heavily. Such a jet engine has temperatures higher than 450°C about 5 meters away, and Troy is even closer than that.

Visible crew/equipment: When Pollux falls through the glass roof, you can see his harness pulling him back.

Other: When Troy (as Archer) goes to defuse the bomb, the #1 key lights up before he even presses it.

Continuity: During the cemetery scene where they visit the son's grave, you see a wide shot of them walking between the stones. There are leaves on the trees and neatly trimmed grass. When we see a close up of the stone and the plaque in the ground, a hand reaches down to brush the leaves off so they can read it, and there are dead leaves all around - but there were no leaves on the ground in the wide shot.

Visible crew/equipment: When Sean gets into the chopper and takes off, next shot is of the chopper flying towards the camera and it is not Travolta flying it - the chopper pilot wears head gear and a mic.

Continuity: When Troy (as Archer) arrives home for the first time, he's walking around his wife. When he says her name, his right hand is held up. From a different angle as he moves to her right, his hands are by his side.

Continuity: Slow-mo the shoot-out sequence in the church with Shawn, Caster, the Daughter, the Wife, the Girlfriend, and the other 3 bad guys. You don't need to look carefully to see that the exact same footage is used twice at different times to show a flowerpot exploding. Also, a bad guy gets shot and falls the exact same way twice at different times. He doesn't even fall at a different camera or body angle. These two mistakes blow by very fast when you see it in normal motion, so it's best to slow it down to see them.

Factual error: In the scene in the hall where there are is a circle of mirrors where Castor and Sean engage in a shootout, there is a mistake as the FBI agent fires at Castor. The FBI agent is holding an M16 or M4 assault rifle with an M203 40mm grenade launcher. He fires two consecutive shots within a second of each other. This is impossible as the M203 attachment only holds 1 shell at a time and would take at least 5 seconds to grab another round and reload and fire again.

Other: At the prison, when Sean Archer (as Castor Troy) is talking to Pollux Troy to find out where the bomb is, Pollux hands him a cigarette. Never lighting the cigarette, in the next shot the cigarette is lit and he is smoking from it.

Continuity: When Sean (as Castor Troy) stabs Castor (as Sean Archer) in the leg, the type of speargun actually changes between shots, it is an entirely different model. The spear tip differs as well.