Ghostbusters (1984) - 35 mistakes

Continuity: At the end of the movie when everyone is waving to the Ghostbusters and Ray is backing up the car, on the light bar on Ecto 1, the outer lens is a solid blue light bar. When the car goes to drive away, it's a clear light bar with blue lens covers over each individual rotator.

Revealing: There's a scene where Dana's building is falling apart and stones and stuff are falling to the street below. One of the huge boulders bounces off a wooden police barricade in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.

Continuity: At about the middle of the film, when the Ghostbusters are rising to fame and are appearing on the front of newspapers and magazines, the photograph on the front of the New York Post is taken from the end of the film, just before the four of them cross the streams from their proton packs.

Visible crew/equipment: When Dana is "strapped" to the chair and pulled into the kitchen, you can clearly see the track in the floor upon which the chair is riding.

Revealing: In the earthquake scene where the road is cracked, you can see the cloth on the side of one of the cracks flapping in the wind.

Continuity: When the eggs pop out of her bag and start cooking on the counter, they're in different positions depending on whether it's a close up or wide shot.

Visible crew/equipment: When the eggs are popping out onto the counter in Dana's apartment, if you look closely you can see the the levers in the egg carton flipping each one out.

Visible crew/equipment: Towards the end, when the ground is shaking and breaking up, a police car falls halfway into a hole in the road. When the smoke clears a little you can clearly see two white poles, one on either side of the back left wheel, holding the car in place.

Continuity: The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man has a red bow tie on as he walks down the streets of New York, which disappears in one shot as the Ghostbusters fire at him.

Revealing: In the ballroom scene, when Slimer is flying around the chandelier, he disappears for a few frames when he reaches the far side. [This animation is mentioned in the DVD commentary. The film makers were generally unhappy with the entire animation and the fact that the representation of the apparition did not resemble those previous and that the movement was very unconvincing.]

Revealing: Near the end of the film when the Ghostbusters take cover in a small corner and come up with the "cross the streams" plan, look closely at Peter's proton pack, you can see that it is a foam "stunt" pack as there is a small sticking out part that keeps squashing against the wall behind him.

Revealing: In almost all the aerial shots of Dana's apartment block, the traffic on the ground is stationary (NB - this is explained in the SFX documentary on the Special Edition DVD/video - matte paintings were used for those shots)

Continuity: When the police car falls into the hole, if you watch the ground thats rising up in front of it, when it finally comes to a stop, you can see how light it is because it bounces.

Continuity: At 00:39:38, the Ghostbusters' logo in the right door of the car is looking to one side and then, a little bit later, it is looking to the other side (has changed its direction).

Revealing: When the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man is walking through the city, in several shots you can see outlines of people and buildings through the marshmallow man, who was added in optically.

Revealing: The first time the heroes use their proton weapons (in the hotel sequence), you can see (using slow-motion) that the rays don't actually come of the weapon, but from their target. The rays were "drawn" during post-production and, apparently, it's easier to start drawing from the target to the weapon. (According to MM rules the use of slow motion IS permitted for viewing something significant, such as a 'revealing' mistake.)

Continuity: When Winston gets hired, Venkman and Stantz have just come back from a job. They're covered in slime and Venkman's smoking. Ray gives Winston an armful of traps. We then cut to Venkman chatting to Dana after a rehearsal, so we assume it's later, maybe even a different day. After that scene though, we then cut back to Stantz showing Winston (wearing the same shirt) what to do with the traps, and Venkman talking to the guy from the EPA. Venkman's got the same slime pattern on his shoulder, and is still smoking. Looks like the Dana/Venkman scene was in the wrong place.

Factual error: At the very end of the movie, Ray is telling Louis about the Tunguska Blast of 1909, but the famous blast actually occurred in 1908. Given his oft-demonstrated levels of knowledge, he'd know better.

Revealing: As Dana's apartment crumbles apart to present the temple of Gozer, there is a tight shot of a gargoyle falling off an exterior corner. Carefully lined up with features on the gargoyle's face - but still readily visible - are the black strings that pull the gargoyle face off its mount.

Continuity: In the scene when they are emerging after the Stay-Puft explosion, we see Ray with marshmallow on his face and a small amount on his chest. He wipes his face, but in the shot following his apology for the burnt dog hair comment, his front side is completely covered in the stuff.