Fatal Attraction (1987) - 65 mistakes

Continuity: One scene has Glenn Close in bed shot from profile, and the sheet in down exposing her breasts. The film cuts to a frontal shot and the sheet is up around her neck. When it cuts back to profile, the sheet is down again.

Visible crew/equipment: The boom mic is visible in the top corner of the Volvo's windshield, when Michael Douglas waves goodbye to his daughter on the street at the beginning.

Continuity: Glenn Close changes her dress from the shot where she gets up out of the tub to the next shot where she is shot. The bloodstains on the collar are different.

Other: After Dan visits his wife in the hospital, he goes to Alex's apartment. In the scene where he's chasing Alex and crashes into the glass door, shattering it, look closely at his face and you'll see it's not Michael Douglas but a stunt double. A few seconds later when they are struggling in the kitchen, look again and you'll see the same stunt double.

Audio problem: The dialogue that Michael Douglas hears Glenn Close saying when he walks into his apartment to find Glenn Close talking to his wife is the exact same thing that she says just before she leaves when Ann Archer gives her their phone number.

Continuity: While Dan [Michael Douglas] is listening to the Alex's [Glenn Close] tape in his car, Alex is following him in her car. They both have to drive through a toll gate and slow down so as to throw coins for the toll fee into a funnel. Observe Alex: As she is about to throw the coins, we see her in close up using her RIGHT hand. In the long shot, we see her LEFT hand depositing the payment.

Revealing: Near the end of the film when the wife is running a bath, Michael Douglas is down stairs making tea. As he walks in and out of the living room, in the background there is a curtain that is drawn open but there is no window.

Continuity: In the beginning, Michael Douglas tells Glenn Close that he has a 6 year old daughter. Later in the movie when Douglas is talking to his wife on the phone about the daughter missing school, she says "She's 5 years old, what is she gonna miss, Trigonometry?"

Continuity: Iron Couple Award: Not necessarily a mistake, but Michael Douglas and Glenn Close start their frenzied lovemaking in the kitchen as a clock reads 4:45, and they're still going at it when the clock later reads 6:15.

Continuity: At the end of the film during the final confrontation when Michael Douglas first forces Glenn Close into the bath tub only her ankles are over the edge of the tub however, in the very next shot her knees are dangling over the edge.

Visible crew/equipment: In the beginning of the movie as Michael Douglas runs to answer the phone someone has knocked the overhead lamp in his kitchen and set it swinging.

Continuity: In the scene where Michael Douglas is listening to the answering machine look at the towel to the right of the paper towel rack. It is moved the next time you see it.

Revealing: As Glenn Close is being choked, Michael Douglas is holding her throat very loosely.

Continuity: The amount of blood on Dan's face, when Alex slits her wrist, keeps changing.

Continuity: In the last portion of the film, the background shows autumn-leafed trees when Anne Archer drives downtown.  When the scene switches to the house, all the trees are lush and green in the yard.

Continuity: There is a lot less blood on the knife after Glenn Close flings it than there was in the shot before when you see her fall.

Continuity: The little girl appears to have been given a haircut after we see her at the empty rabbit cage, most apparent when we see her the following morning.

Visible crew/equipment: When Michael Douglas goes to the police for the first time, after he gets the tape, when he is talking to the policeman watch for the reflection of the boom mike to the right of the cop's head in the trophy plate. It's beautiful and in every shot.

Visible crew/equipment: When Michael Douglas leaves the car rental there is a guy across the street behind a bus conspicuously watching everything. 01:15:45.

Visible crew/equipment: When Dan reluctantly tells his secretary that he will accept Alex's phone call, if you look in the top left hand corner of the screen, you can see a boom microphone make a quick appearance.

Revealing: When Michael Douglas is listening to the "deposition" in his study, look closely at the background window. You can see Ann Archer's reflection in the glass, together with someone else (probably crew), just waiting for her cue to come in and surprise her husband.

Continuity: There is a scene near the beginning shortly after Michael Douglas and Glenn Close meet. They go to a restaurant and get caught in a rain shower on the way. When they sit down, Michael Douglas is soaking wet. The shot changes from Michael to Glenn and then back to Michael - suddenly he is bone dry. Then the camera goes back to Glenn and then back to Michael and he's soaking wet again.

Continuity: When Michael Douglas puts on Glenn Close's tape in the rental car, the radio is set at 97.1. When he removes the tape, it's at 107.9.

Continuity: At the end Michael Douglas is standing in front of his home with the door open in the background with the hallway illuminated. The camera angle now switches to inside the house, but he has to enter the house through a closed door.

Visible crew/equipment: While Michael Douglas is listening to the tape in the attic there is a reflection in the window of someone who looks to have long blonde hair, just above and slightly to the right of the lamp.

Continuity: Alex takes the cigarettes out of her bag twice when she and Dan have lunch in the restaurant.

Continuity: After Alex and Dan go dancing and go back to her apartment, she reaches up to get a door key from the top of an electrical box outside her door. She takes down the key in her right hand and then opens the door with her left hand. The key never goes near the lock or doorknob.

Continuity: In the elevator scene as you look down the shaft from above, the air is crystal clear with no smoke in sight. Then in a few seconds smoke appears near the windows but in the next shot when the elevator stops the smoke is gone.

Audio problem: There's no doorbell or buzzer sound when Michael Douglas presses the button on Alex's door.

Revealing: Inside Alex's apartment when the stunt double breaks the glass, you to see by the way it breaks that is untempered glass. This first mess is cleaned up and then they put down other stuff that looks tempered but isn't real glass at all.

Continuity: As a little girl is sitting on the couch with the dog, there is a book to the left of her which is gone in the next shot.

Visible crew/equipment: This is very tough to spot, but as Michael Douglas is in his kitchen talking to Ann Archer, if you look very closely above his head you'll see a quick tiny white reflection of a piece of equipment in the glass cabinet.

Visible crew/equipment: This is much easer to see on the VHS version. As Michael Douglas goes through the revolving door at his office, as it stops, you see the reflection of a crew member standing there.

Continuity: As Michael Douglas busts down Glenn Close's door, you to see from the outside it's not latched. But from the inside it is.

Visible crew/equipment: The shadow of a crew member goes across Michael Douglas' shirt as he's sitting on the couch reading in the beginning of the movie.

Continuity: In the party scene the people behind Stewart Pankin on the slow moving food line change it just a matter of seconds from shot to shot.

Continuity: As Michael Douglas listens to the answering machine, the green overhead lamp that is above the table in the beginning of the movie is gone.

Continuity: When Michael Douglas pretends to be hurt in the field, Glenn Close says, "My father died of heart attack," and she has a long earring dangling from her right ear. In the very next shot it's gone.

Continuity: In the very first scene we see Ann Archer pulling down a shade from afar with the curtains pulled to the side. Then we switch to her inside the apartment and see the curtains are already closed.

Continuity: The water level was almost but not quite overflowing the brim of the tub when Michael Douglas is pushed in, and the faucet was still running, so there should have been more water on the floor.

Continuity: Quincy is sleeping on the little girl and keeps changing positions on her lap.

Continuity: The part in Stuart Pankin's hair keeps changing in the party scene.

Visible crew/equipment: When the family leaves their apartment building you can see the reflection of a boom mike in the right door.

Revealing: In the final confrontation scene Glenn Close comes out of the bath tub and raises her arm, the scene cuts to the gun and when it returns to Glenn Close you can see the fabric of her dress has changed to a thicker one to accommodate and cover the squib needed for her gunshot wound.

Continuity: Playland, Rye NY in the spring, summer and autumn. Alex and the girl walking to the Dragon Coaster. It's spring with the leaves in bloom. Then in stock footage of a different roller coaster being pulled to the top, it's fall with the leaves a golden yellow. Then in other stock footage, the trees are a lush summery green.

Continuity: When Michael Douglas is listening to Alex's tape it's midday when he enters the East River Drive underpass and comes out the sun has clearly set. Alex's tape doesn't skip a beat.

Visible crew/equipment: A shadow moves to the left of the refrigerator when Glenn Close says "I'm pregnant I'm gonna have our child." Michael Douglas doesn't move out of his position yet.

Continuity: (DVD only) In the new ending, when Alex attacks Beth at the family's home, Beth has bruises and a cast on her arm, obviously a result of the accident she was in a few days ago. In the original ending, presumably taking place within the same time frame, when the cops come to question Dan about Alex's death, Beth is fine - no bruises, no cast, she doesn't even look tired.

Continuity: Early in the movie, there is a black clock on the wall in Dan's kitchen that reads 7:50. Later, when he is in Alex's apartment strangling her, the same black clock is now in her apartment and it, too, reads 7:50.

Continuity: At the start of the film we are introduced to Michael Douglas' family life. His wife is in the bathroom getting ready for their night out, Michael is sat on the couch reading and his daughter, Ellen, is sat on the chair watching cartoons. In one shot Ellen is sat on her own, but in the next shot their dog has magically appeared on her lap.

Continuity: When Michael Douglas comes home the first night after being a bad boy with Glenn Close, he is shown in the kitchen talking on the phone to his wife at a little after 8:30 AM. Not only does he talk to her, but he also has a whispery chat with his lover, walks all about the kitchen, sits at the table, and the time on the clock doesn't change once.

Continuity: When Michael Douglas is listening to a "deposition" (which is really Glenn Close calling him a faggot, etc.) using his ear phones in his new attic home (just before his wife comes up and finds him), the audio tape is not the same one as he was listening to minutes before in the car! The words are almost the same but the inflections are different.

Other: After Michael Douglas visits his wife in the hospital he drives into New York looking for Glenn Close. During the driving scene he is seen to move the steering wheel to the left, but the car turns right.

Continuity: When the phone rings as Beth paints, Beth puts her roller in the tray and goes to answer the phone. When she returns the roller is in a different position than it was before.

Continuity: In the famous bathtub scenes there's a close-up of Alex's feet with blood dripping on her right foot. Later when we see her in the tub the blood is in a different spot on her foot.

Deliberate "mistake": When Michael Douglas pretends to be hurt in the field, Glenn Close says, "You bastard," and her hair it not in the sunlight. In the very next shot it is.

Continuity: After Glen Close kicks Michael Douglas out of her apartment he's standing next to her bicycle holding his stuff. It can be assumed that he put the stuff on the bicycle seat because in the next shot his hands and the handlebars are empty. But later as we see him getting ready to leave again his stuff is the on handlebars.

Visible crew/equipment: You see the reflection of the cameraman right in the center of the tea pot as Michael Douglas makes Ann Archer some tea before her bath.

Continuity: Michael Douglas is going home to Mount Kisco the very very long way down Riverside Drive South. Again Alex's tape hasn't skipped a beat.

Continuity: In the scene in the tub, Glen Close's feet start out filthy, then they become clean as a whistle when she is flailing from her knees, then by the end of the scene they're disgusting again.

Continuity: When the little girl is playing in the back yard outside the rabbit cage it's winter, not a leaf in the tree she is under. In the very next shot as they get into their car all shrubs and trees in this shot have their leaves.

Continuity: In the first scene where we are introduced to Alex Forrest at the bar during the cocktail party, she is smoking cigarettes that are not lit. She continually dashes out ashes that aren't there and there is never any smoke coming from the cigarettes.

Continuity: When Glenn Close calls Michael Douglas in the middle of the night, his clock radio reads 2:13. In the next shot, without him touching it, the clock is dimmer and has been moved so we can't see the new time. Then about a minute later, the clock radio reads 2:20.

Continuity: Fred Gwynne's pipe jumps from his hand to his mouth when he and Michael Douglas walk up the stairs to his office.

Visible crew/equipment: In the library, right after Dan breaks into Alex's apartment, a cameraman's reflection is visible in a window as a librarian pushes a cart past it.