Full Metal Jacket (1987) - 35 mistakes

Continuity: In the opening scene, Gunnery Sgt. Hartman is making his speech and passes by Privates Cowboy and Joker on his way to the other side of the barracks. On his way he passes Private Pyle standing to the right of Private Joker. Later in the scene, when he rushes over to confront Private Joker and then moves on to Private Cowboy and then Private Pyle, Private Pyle is on the left of Private Joker.

Continuity: In the fire fight in the city near the end of the film, one of the men is firing a M-16 around a corner. As the camera angle changes he is seen firing left handed and right handed. Back and forth several times. Also in the same sequence the ammo clip in his gun keeps vanishing. One shot he has it and in the next there is no ammo clip in the gun and yet he hasn't moved.

Visible crew/equipment: When Cowboy, Joker, Rafterman and the other soldiers are running across the buildings to get to Animal in the final sniper scene, watch the foreground. If you freeze the movie right as they reach Animal, you can see they run by a boom mic and a crew member. A bicycle is also there (just to help you out).

Continuity: There's a scene where Sgt. Hartman goes to punch Pvt. Joker in the stomach. If you look carefully, he starts to punch with his left, then we instantly see Joker getting punched by his right.

Continuity: When D.I. Hartman dumps the contents of Private Pyle's footlocker on the floor, in the next few shots the layout of the clutter on the floor changes. Note that after Hartman confronts Pyle with the jelly doughnut and turns away, there is a clear path through the clutter for Hartman that disappears in subsequent shots.

Continuity: In the bathroom scene on the last night of boot camp, Pvt. Pyle is 'training' with a rifle. As he snaps to attention, the shot from behind shows him with legs slightly apart, a second later the shot from the front shows him with his legs perfectly together, yet he never moves.

Revealing: When the GI's are jogging through the training camp complex, singing "I don't know but I've been told..." you can see the British road junction markings on the tarmac underneath them. There is little evidence to suggest that there was any attempt to disguise or remove them.

Continuity: During the drill scene when Sgt. Hartman is asking Private Pyle if he knows the difference between his left and his right, watch the positioning of Pvt Pyle's cap. After being struck the first time, the cap is slightly cocked. After the shot returns to Pyle and before he gets struck for the second time, the cap is obviously cocked further over.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: During the "blanket party" scene, Pyle appears to be sleeping on two (wrinkled) pillows. When Cowboy covers his mouth Pyle is sleeping on one very neat pillow.

Continuity: Pvt. Pyle is on the rifle range with Gunnery Sergeant Hartman right behind him. When filmed from Pyle's right side, he is wearing a white wrist wrap/brace but the shot moves behind him and it is gone. Back to the right side and it reappears.

Continuity: During the graduation parade, if you look at the background you can see many large squad bay buildings with a few single trees in front of them, this scene seems to be shot at the actual Paris island. However when they show a close up of Joker's platoon in parade, the background changes to mostly trees, with only two or three small buildings behind them.

Continuity: After Lt. Touchdown has been shot, behind the tank, he falls to the ground with his rifle still grasped in one of his hands but when the marines move in to aid him his rifle has vanished.

Continuity: When Joker is talking to the general about his peace badge, it is there at the beginning of the conversation, but then disappears when Joker turns his back to the camera. It then reappears in the next scene when he is walking along with Rafterman.

Continuity: When Joker is riding along in the chopper we can see its shadow falling on the ground below, only it's the shadow of a Bell Jetranger, not the Wessex/UH34 he is supposed to be in.

Continuity: In the first Vietnam scene, while Joker is sitting having a drink, the same cars keep driving round and around behind.

Continuity: After Cowboy is hit by the sniper Animal Mother fires wildly and destroys part of the "My Toan" sign. A few seconds later you can see it is intact.

Factual error: 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.

Continuity: The shape of the beam of light coming from Joker's torch, after he enters the bathroom where Pyle kills himself, is different from the shape of the beam before he enters.

Continuity: In the part of the death of Cowboy, before he looks through the corner of the building to see the position of the sniper, there is a wall in good condition behind another wall which is broken. Later, when he goes back and starts to give orders, the wall that was in good condition is now broken without any reason for it to be and now the sniper can see Cowboy so she can shoot him.

Factual error: When 8-ball gets shot, in the shot which shows the platoon ducking near a wall with Cowboy, Joker and Animal Mother in the front, there are two weapon related errors. Cowboy's M-16 has a nickel (silver colored) firing assembly and Joker's M-16 has an A2 type pistol grip. The A2 types were introduced somewhere around the 80s, and nickel plated assemblies are rarely used (and were invented after Vietnam, too). The nickel assembly is visible at the beginning of the shot, and you can see the A2 grip when Joker is changing magazines (while Cowboy shouts cease fire).

Factual error: The first time I saw this movie was with my uncle who served in the Marines during the Vietnam War. He told me that the scene midday through basic training where you see the recruits running with their top buttons of their shirts open was incorrect. In the 60's, recruits were required to button their shirts all the way up until they graduated. After graduation, they would be allowed to "lighten up" and unbutton the top shirt button.

Factual error: In 1968 the USMC were still using the Sikorsky UH34/S58 helicopter (powered by a piston engine) but the helicopter seen in the film is the British version of the same aircraft, the Westland Wessex - gas turbine powered, it has a quite different nose shape from the original American version.

Continuity: In the scene where Joker and Raptor man are in transit on the chopper, we see the gunner firing out the cargo door. We can see out the cargo door that the ground is pretty far away, the chopper is obviously pretty high up in the air, so high that if there were people down on the ground it would be rather hard to see them. However the camera switches to the gunner's point of view shooting at people, and the chopper only seems to be about 20 feet off the ground.

Continuity: When the tanks are moving into the city with the Marines i.e. after meeting Private Cowboy, Animal Mother and the rest, they run into a firefight. When they stop shooting and are reloading watch the leader's ammo clip. It's missing in one shot of him, in the next he's ejecting the magazine and putting in a fresh one before shooting the two Vietnamese with it.

Factual error: Private Pyle would not have stayed with his original unit after failing so many tasks. If a recruit fails miserably at the basic tasks due to being lack of physical strength, they were separated and sent to a Physical Conditioning Platoon. It gives them another chance to physically improve or else be kicked out. No respectable DI would waste his time on someone like Pyle, especially during war time.

Factual error: At one point Joker is shown doing chin ups, with Hartman motivating him. Joker does three chin-ups, but not a single one of them was done properly. You're suppose to lock your elbows all the way out on the way down, and your chin needs to clear the plane of the bar. Joker never locks his arms out, barely gets over the bar. In reality Hartman would have been all over him about this, drill instructors are notoriously strict about proper technique.

Continuity: When Joker goes to see Cowboy and the squad are sitting in the temple, the dead Vietnamese's face can be seen without the hat covering it. When the photo is taken by Rafterman, his hat appears and is removed.

Factual error: In the sniper scene where Animal Mother disobeys Cowboy to go help 8-Ball and Doc, and Animal Mother peeks around the corner of a building to try and see the sniper and the sniper shoots at him, narrowly missing his face, the impact of the sniper's bullet on the wall and the sound of the gunshot occur a split second before the muzzle-flash in the distant window from where the sniper is shooting from. This would imply that both bullet and sound have travelled faster than light.

Continuity: When Animal Mother calls Cowboy to get the lone sniper, Cowboy chooses 4 guys to go with him: No-Doze, Stutten, Donlon and Rock. Then Joker and Rafterman say they wanna go too, so that makes 7 men (including Cowboy) but we only see 6.

Continuity: As the men get out of bed to attack Pyle, a close-up of Cowboy shows him looking to Snowball. Both are in bottom bunks. Between them we see a pair of legs lower and hang from a top bunk. The shot changes to a more distant angle and the legs repeat the motion.

Continuity: When Hartman punches private Joker you can see Hartman swing with his left hand in one shot and a split second later (angle from the floor) when Joker has been struck, Hartman's right hand has made contact and is pulling back.

Plot hole: When the Marines are navigating through the Paris Island obstacle course, Hartman is shouting "It should take you no less than 10 seconds to negotiate this obstacle!" In other words, the LONGER it takes someone to get across, the better?

Revealing: When Private Pyle shoots himself you can see that the blood splatters from the side of the screen instead of going straight back from the back of his head.

Continuity: When Joker and Rafterman are sitting outside in the first Vietnam scene, Rafterman has a pack of Marlboro Lights. Later, after he is robbed, he is seen walking through camp with a carton of Marlboro Reds. In the briefing room, later, he has Marlboro Lights again.