Full Metal Jacket

Other mistake: When the sniper fires her rifle at Joker after his rifle jams, she fires at him and strangely no shell casings are ejected. A few bursts later and her rifle does eject shell casings.

Jack Vaughan

Other mistake: Private Pyle seems to be just as large in the bathroom scene with Hartman as he is in the Jelly Donut scene. In reality, it's just the same actor, but in the film's plot it implies he went through 12-22 weeks of boot camp under Hartman without ever losing any weight, even though Hartman was specifically trying to get him to.

Moose

Other mistake: In the first PT run if you look at their boots you see they have their trousers bloused, this doesn't happen in boot camp till week 3 or 4. In the next scene they are at drill and no bloused trousers.

Full Metal Jacket mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Gomer Pyle is in the toilet with his rifle and after shooting the drill instructor, Pyle sits down on the fourth toilet seat from the back of the room. In the next shot where Pyle kills himself, he is sitting on the third toilet seat. You can see this already from the front shot of Pyle when he kills himself because there is a rise in the wall next to the third seat, which is visible through the whole scene. It is more obvious in the following shot where you can see the row of toilet seats and Pyle sitting dead on the third one. (00:43:00 - 00:43:35)

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Trivia: While R. Lee Ermey has received high praise for his role as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, Ermey himself stated that Hartman is an inept drill instructor because Hartman not only physically abuses the recruits, which is never allowed, but also because any drill instructor would have noticed that Pyle was having a mental breakdown.

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Chosen answer: A Drill Instructor is always mad at the recruits in order to forge discipline. Private Pyle was the biggest screwup in the unit, thus creating more work for him.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: It also promotes unity and brotherhood against a common enemy, the drill instructor.

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