The Fast and the Furious (2001) - 85 mistakes

Revealing: In the final racing scene, when Dominic's car hits the truck and flips in the air, you can clearly see the stunt driver's helmet as the car turns in the air.

Continuity: If you pay attention to the Supra at the end of the movie when he's chasing the dirtbikes, and when he's racing Dom you will notice that it switches from clean to very dirty many times.

Continuity: When Jesse is going to race Johnny Tran at Race Wars for pink slips and Johnny Tran pulls up in his Honda 2000 (which is really an S2000) Tran has on a black, long sleeved shirt. When the camera goes from side to front view, Tran has on a black tank top.

Factual error: In the opening scenes when Brian goes back to the shop, he demands that he needs some nitrous to boost his low top speed.  Well I'm sure that most tuners will agree that more horsepower doesn't equal more top speed, it only contributes IF you have a transmission that can handle it and distribute it.  I was sure they'd had some type of car advisors on the film....

Continuity: In the opening hijack scene, the semi obviously has two sets of rear wheels on the trailer, but when it comes to the scene where the black Honda is under the trailer, there is only one set of rear wheels.

Visible crew/equipment: When Mia sees Brian coming into the house, she looks down at herself and decides to change. When she takes off her shirt and throws it at the camera, look at the mirror and you can see the cameraman's elbow just coming into shot for a few frames.

Continuity: At the end of the movie, when Brian shoots the guy on the motorcycle. He gets out of the car and clearly shuts the door before crossing the street, but when he runs back to the car, to chase Dom, the door magically appears open.

Continuity: After Dom parks his car in the garage after the first race, and walks outside, the cop car that comes down the hill is a Ford Crown Victoria. When the cop car turns around in the middle of the street it's a Chevy Caprice. Easiest way to spot the difference? First car has wide lights, the second one doesn't.

Other: At the end of the first race scene with the four cars, Brian spins out. As he spins out you can see that the Asian guy in the white car comes toward him, but when Brian completes the spinout the white car doesn't pass him.

Continuity: When Dom's girlfriend goes to race the Jamaican guy at race wars, you can clearly see she has Sparco racing seats, but when it shows the Jamaican rev his engine, it flips back and you can see she now has factory seats.

Visible crew/equipment: In the end when Brian jumps onto the semi truck to save Vince if you look closely at the back of Brian's (Paul Walker) pants you can clearly see the safety cable that holds him onto the semi truck.

Continuity: In the last scene with the three black Civics, the spoiler on the car Dom is driving is different at the beginning of the scene (when Vince jumps off the back for example) than at the end (when he spins out).

Visible crew/equipment: When Brian picks up Dom he runs away from cops. He drives between two cop cars and then jumps. When you look carefully you can see a ramp for the car.

Continuity: Near the end, when Brian is chasing the guys on motorcycles, one of the motorcycle drivers shoots at Brian in his Supra. As he does they show Brian drives past the same brown Ford Thunderbird twice.

Continuity: There is a scene near the end of the movie, where the hero is chasing the two guys on motorcycles that just shot his friend. At one point, first the motorcycles, and then the car leap over a hill on the street. You can clearly see two ramps at the top of the hill, one for each motorcycle.

Revealing: When Brian is maxing out his car in the parking lot at the beginning of the film, when he spins out his reverse lights are on.

Continuity: At the end of the opening credits when the freight is being placed on the truck, you can see the large support beam that goes across. In the next shot when the civic goes under the car, the support beam is gone.

Continuity: In the race between the four cars, you see Brian after his first shot of NOS pass Edwin, but in the next shot you see him pass the same person again.

Continuity: Near the end when they have the 3 black cars, Dom is trying to get the other guy off the truck. When they switch to a camera shot in front of the car Dom has a brown sleeve, but when in the car he is wearing a white tank top.

Continuity: When Brian and Mia are driving in the Supra at night to follow Dom and his team to stop them, the background never changes. After every cut, they're driving past the same hill...

Continuity: After the street race at the start, Leon alerts everyone that the cops are coming. While everyone is scattering you see a closeup of Brian running around to the door of his car and opening it, then a bird's eye view of his car with no-one near it. Then you see other people running and getting into their cars, then you see Brian run up to his car, open the door again and get in.

Continuity: In the last truck and 3 cars sequence, when Letty's slides under the rig before flipping her car, the camera starts shaking around, but you can clearly see that Vince is momentarily not on the side of the rig.

Continuity: When the three Civics are hijacking the truck at the end you see inside Letty's Civic which is basically stock. When she goes off the road and rolls you see the inside is stripped and has a full rollcage.

Continuity: The final hijacking scene was shot on Dominigoni Parkway Road. You can see where they pass the same background a few times. In the beginning of the scene they pass over the same bridge twice. You can also see where they switched from traveling east to west and vice versa.

Continuity: During the final hijacking scene, Dom pulls in front of the truck so Vince can get pull out the passenger side windshield with his harpoon gun. However, if you look closely right before Vince shoots his gun for the first time, you can see that the passenger side windshield is not even there. The glare coming off of the driver side windshield makes it very easy to see the difference between the two.

Continuity: This mistake occurs during the first racing scene between the four guys. It happens after Jesse and Ja Rule look under the hood of Brian's Eclipse. As soon as Brian says 'Am I worthy?' and he is in the middle of his sentence, it cuts to a different camera angle and shows Brian smiling but not moving his mouth while his words are still being said.

Continuity: When Dom and Brian are racing the train, the train numbers on the front of the train appear backwards. As soon as they cross the train, the train numbers appear forward: 3134.

Continuity: At the first race when the cars are driving up to the start line to begin, the car furthest ahead is Brian's car (the green one), then it is Ja Rule's car (the red on with the yellow flames), the white car is third, and behind everyone is Dom's car (the red one). When the cars break at the start line, somehow the order of the cars reverses and Dom's car stops first while Brian's stops last and blows over the line.

Visible crew/equipment: At the end of the third act, when Diesel and Walker line up at the lights to drag the quarter mile beside the train tracks, you'll notice the reflection of two crew members appear in the back of the side view mirror of the Charger as they approach it to get the steadicam close-up of Diesel telling Walker that on green, he's going for it.

Continuity: At the last truck hijacking scene Letty's rear window is shot. When she pulls up again there isn't even a scratch on the window. A second later with a shot in the car the window is broken again and another second later it hasn't got a scratch.

Continuity: At the scene where Johnny Tran pumps oil into the mechanic's mouth, the shirt of the mechanic changes from REALLY wet, to almost dry in every shot.

Continuity: In the beginning of the movie when Brian drives the Eclipse, if you watch closely he redlines then shifts to second. The problem is that when they show the over head picture he shifts into second once again.

Continuity: When all the cars drive to the race at the beginning, a Honda Accord Estate with its bonnet off, pulls up and you can see the yellow Skyline parked next to it, but after that it shows the Skyline pull up and then the Accord is not there. Then when the pizza bloke pulls up, the Skyline and the Accord are parked together again in the same position.

Revealing: At the beginning of the movie when it shows the first heist, when it shows the Civics going by, you can see a shadow of the truck/automobile that the camera is on.

Continuity: In the scene in which Jesse is shot watch his legs. In the first shot his left leg is crossed and under his right leg. In the second shot both his legs are stretched before him.

Revealing: In the truck chase towards the end, Leon says "I got her, you get Vince off that truck." While he speaks he is speeding along, yet his rev counter and speedometer read zero.

Revealing: In the opening scene when showing the truck full of Panasonic goods, there are products to the ceiling on the left and right, but very little in the center. Trucks are always loaded uniformly to prevent load shift damage, especially the type that would have occurred during the hijack from the swerving side to side.

Continuity: In the scene where Dom, Leon and Letty arrive at that place where Brian and Mia are calling the ambulance to rescue Vince, you can see that the car whirls up some dust so the front of the car is covered in dust. In the next shot, however, the car is clean again.

Continuity: In the scene where Dom pulls up to the street race with his team, he clearly has indiglo gauges. When the 4 cars actually race, Dom glances at his speedometer, and...no indiglo.

Deliberate "mistake": During the final scene, where Dom and Brian are dragging, you clearly hear that the Dom's car is straight piped. When the Charger (Dom's car) is spinning, you see that the car has a complete exhaust system.

Continuity: In the scene where Brian is with the Muse, Tanner and the FBI watchdog in the safe house kitchen, Muse makes a smart crack about pulling himself (bizarrely dubbed to "get off" in some versions) over Mia Toretto, then Brian pushes Muse very forcefully to the left of Tanner, but Muse ends up landing on the floor to the right of Tanner.

Continuity: At the end of the film when, Dom knocks the Chinese guy off of his motorbike. In the previous shot if you slow it down you can see that it's a street full of houses to the left and right, but these suddenly vanish and are replaced by a big hill which the Chinese guy rolls down.

Visible crew/equipment: In one shot where Dom is trying to get Vince off the truck there is a very nice shot of the side of Dom's Civic in which you can see the camera people.

Continuity: During the scene at the Diner when Brian is asking Dom for a slice of the action on how he makes the extra cash for car parts etc. Right as Brian says "Now whatever it is you're in on, I want in on it to", we see Dom with a grin on his face, the camera then cuts to a closer view and the expression on his face has changed.

Continuity: At the end of the first race, when Dom enters the parking lot, the first shot we see of the car it is already some distance up the ramp, but in the next shot we see the car has just entered the parking lot and is at the bottom of the ramp.

Continuity: When Brian pulls up in the warehouse alley in his Eclipse look at the car to his left. If it looks like Hector's car with no hood and the same chrome engine and graphics on the windshield, that's because it is. But when Hector says "That's mine." he points across the lot and the car is still next to them.

Continuity: In the scene where Brian goes back to Dom's house for the first time, Dom gives him Vince's beer. They show him lift his shirt and wipe the beer off, then they cut back and they show him again lifting his shirt up and wiping the beer off.

Factual error: Dom makes fun of Brian after winning Brian's car in the first race scene. Dom says that Brian was "Granny shifting, not double-clutching like you should". Double-clutching is primarily used by truckers that don't have good synchros on their transmissions or road racers that need to match their transmission speed to the engine speed while downshifting through turns. Granny shifting, as Dom seems to define regular shifting, is actually faster than double-clutching in a drag race, so it's a good thing that Brian was "granny" shifting. The writer, who is clearly absent of any true racing or automotive knowledge, may have been thinking of power-shifting when he wrote Dom's lines, but the two types of shifting are NOT interchangeable and Dom saying such a thing is clearly a mistake.

Revealing: When Torreto is trying to get Vince off the trailer, you can see the stunt driver's long-sleeve black shirt while switching shots, instead of Torreto's short-sleeve white shirt.

Continuity: When Brian pulls up in his red pick-up truck, note the distance from his truck to the car in front, this distance is is reduced somewhat when you look in the background in all following shots.

Continuity: Close to the end of the film, when Vince jumps on the truck that they're hijacking, Vince's head goes from above the front, to level with the grill in subsequent shots.

Continuity: Right at the end when Vin and the rest are preparing to rob the final truck, Vin says something like "Let's go." A duffel bag of equipment comes flying at him, presumably from another person, that Vin catches in mid-air. In an immediate overhead shot from Vin's back, he has the bag in his hand but there is no one anywhere near him who could have thrown the bag. The closest person in maybe 25 feet away. The shallow angle that the bag arrived and the heavy equipment in it shows that it was a close throw of a few feet at most.

Factual error: In the first hijacking, one of the Honda Civics slips under the truck's trailer to avoid the road crew. Trailers with that much ground clearance do not exist. The trailer has been modified to ride much higher than normal to make this stunt possible. The modifications to the lowered Honda are not sufficient to fit beneath an un-altered trailer.

Continuity: In the scene where Brian is chasing Johnny Tran, he stops the car and shoots Johnny. Johnny spins out and falls off the bike. While he falls off the bike you can see a shopping cart on the side of the road, but when Brian runs over to see if he is dead, the cart is gone.

Deliberate "mistake": In the race with the four cars in the beginning, if you look inside Ja Rule's car you can see it's not him.

Other: In the scene where the cops get prepared before arresting Johnny Tran, a cop inserts a clip into his M16. If you watch the rifle's inside, you can clearly see the green plastic thing that is in the end of any clip, hence the clip is empty.

Other: At the climatic railroad grade-crossing scene towards the end of the movie, the black locomotive (A modernized EMD GP40) is moving entirely too fast for the track's curvature and the height of the rails. The track's rail are of light gauge, for yard rails and switching only. (You see the container yards in the background of the final scenes.) The camera shots also show a zig-zag curve in the railroad tracks – which would definitely be taken at a lower speed. You actually see the locomotive rocking at one point. Good dramatic movie scene – suicidal railroading. Furthermore, the locomotive's driver would have seen a sign for "grade crossing" ahead of the crossing and slowed his train down according to railroad regulations. He would have made two long blasts on his horns, a short and then a long – not a continuous tone as played back in the movie. When a grade crossing is just after a curve – there are severe speed restrictions in effect – 5mph or less – so there is a hope that the train can stop or slow down, should someone cross the tracks at the wrong time. The interior shot of the locomotives cab is wrong. The interior cab of a locomotive is not symmetrical. The old standard cabbed EMD's have two windows in the center where-as the interior shot only shows one center window. The locomotive's parked windscreen wipers are also not shown from the inside.

Revealing: When Leon is told to go and get Letty after she is pushed off the road by the lorry, you can see skidmarks on the road from previous takes.

Visible crew/equipment: When the Civics are trying to take the last lorry, you can always (well almost always) see stage lights in the black paint of the Civics.

Continuity: On the very first race (in where Ja Rule takes part in the event), Dom (Vin Diesel) is driving a red Mazda RX-7. After the drivers line up on the starting line, Dom lifts up the passenger seat cushion to his Mazda to reveal a nitrous oxide system with a spinning nozzle and two gauges. Immediately after you see Dom spin the nozzle open, the camera does a close up of the nozzle and gauges in the next shot. Note how the gauge frames extended out from the surface (a good distance) then turn completely flat for the close up, even the nozzle gets shifted from one side of the guages to the other.

Continuity: When Brian gives Mia a Snapple to drink, she takes a drink of it. Her hand position and the label of the bottle change from the shot from Mia's front and the side shot of them both as she is taking a sip.

Continuity: Close to the end when we see Brian in his orange car speeding down the road, if you notice Leo parked his car on the side of the road, but when it cuts to a front view of the road when we see Brian's car pass the camera, Leo's car has vanished.

Continuity: At the beginning of the film when we see Brian and Vince fighting, they are first fighting in front of Brian's truck, then in front of the car, then back to the truck.

Continuity: During the first race, Brian's cars hood pin wires appear and disappear.

Continuity: The smudges and blood-stains on Dom's shirt in the end change a lot during the scene.

Continuity: In the scene of the "race wars" when Jesse runs against the Johnny Tran's Honda S2000, at the moment when Jesse pushes his NOS button, his car has a red racing steering wheel, maybe a MOMO wheel, and three gauges on the "A column" (at the left of the windshield column) of his Jetta. When the shot changes to Jesse when he says "ha," the red MOMO wheel becomes in a grape Jetta wheel without NOS buttons and the gauges disappear from the car.

Continuity: When Brian has picked up Dom from the first race, the Chinese guys drive up behind him. If you notice out of Dom's window it is a blue motorbike that appears, in the following shot the motorbikes on Dom's side are both red.

Other: In the scene where Vin Diesel's Dodge Charger crashes, the blower is bolted on the bonnet. That is impossible because the blower is actually bolted onto the engine and it should shake with the engine's movement.

Continuity: When Brian pulls up to Dom's garage towing a red car, Jessie looks under the hood, and the shot from inside the car shows Jessie in one shot with his arms down, in the next shot, he has them up or crossed.

Continuity: At the end of the film when the Chinese guy is shooting at Brian's car, if you watch closely in the background, the street changes from having lots of cars on it to none or hardly none at all.

Continuity: After Brian and Dom start to run from the cops, they go around a corner. If you look in the rear windshield, the chasing police car goes right through the intersection, the camera goes to a different shot, and the police car crashes.

Continuity: When Brian and Dom get pulled over by Tran's gang, there is a shot of both Brian and Dom getting out of the car and shutting their doors. Then it cuts to a shot of Lance taking off his helmet. If you look in the background, you can see Brian getting out of his car again, and shutting his door again.

Continuity: When Brian is topping out his car in the stadium parking lot at the beginning, it looks like he's shifting and steering with the same hand, as the shot is reversed. Easiest way to tell is the "Sparco" on his seat is backwards.

Continuity: In the scene where the cars are hijacking the truck with the harpoon, it shoots through the windshield, leaving a big, shattered hole. When it cuts back to the truck again, the windshield is fine.

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene with the race with the Dodge Charger, the Dodge hits the truck, flips over, and the air filters sticking out next to the air intake disappear. In fact, the car used in the flip is a replica, with a fake intake stuck on top of the bonnet.

Continuity: Watch the scene where everyone is scrambling to run to their cars after Leon yells "Cops.". When Mia runs and gets into the passenger seat of Letty's purple 240SX, you can see that the driver is not Letty. The driver looks nothing like Letty (hair and face are different)

Revealing: In the first race, Brian is going at 140 Mph but his hood clip cable is straight in the air and is not moving.

Continuity: During the first race scene Brian uses NOS to take over the guy next to him in the red car. You can see Brian taking over the red car, then it cuts to inside the red car, and Brian is taking over it again.

Other: When the first trailer/truck is hijacked and the harpoon is shot in through the window into the seat, you can see the driver is very clearly looking out the side window next to him instead of looking at the hijackers in front of him. It's almost as though he doesn't know that the others are there! He also looks incredibly relaxed and not at all worried about the fact that a guy is climbing up a rope into his cabin when there is a lot of expensive video equipment in the back of his trailer.

Factual error: When Brian tops out his Eclipse, it spins out. A car should not spin out at top speed. A car will either reach a drag limit or, in this case, hit the engine's fuel cut off, and should continue straight. He did not jerk the wheel to make the tires loose traction, nor did a tire blowout. Imagine if a magazine editor tested the top speed on a Viper, he would be spinning from 186 MPH. No one would be testing top speeds on cars if this event occurred.

Plot hole: In the first street race, you see 4 people shift into 1st gear, but when the Latino guy says go, Dom shifts into first gear. That would mean there were 5 cars in the race, but there were only 4.

Continuity: While Brian is running the Eclipse through the stadium parking lot, he shifts and the car jumps from 120 mph to 140 mph in about one second.

Continuity: In the scene with the motorcycle chase they jump off the same hill twice which is in West Hollywood, once they go down the hill and turn the corner they are magically in San Pedro.

Audio problem: In the first hijacking scene, where the Honda Civic darts under the trailer, you hear the car shift up 3 times. Each time, it pulls high revs, yet the Civic doesn't move forward (at one point it almost goes under the rear wheels of the trailer) or crash into the back of the main tractor unit. Surely, with the performance of these vehicles against a laden truck, shifting up three times would have caused it to hit the tractor unit.

Continuity: In the scene where Dom is pulling his red RX7 into the garage after the first race is broken up by the cops, he is making a right turn into the garage. When they cut to the front of the car pulling in the garage, his left signal light is on, meaning he made a left turn into the garage.