Goodfellas (1990) - 39 mistakes

Factual error: In one scene we are introduced to Idlewild Airport in 1963. We're shown a couple of aircraft in flight and one of the aircraft is a Boeing 747 in the livery of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. The Boeing 747 didn't enter commercial service until 1969.

Revealing: In the scene where Karen is too afraid to accept free clothes from Jimmy and speeds off, the yellow NY state license plate falls from the parked car to reveal the modern white one underneath.

Continuity: When Henry Hill is in jail and talking with his wife, the child is playing with a stack of coloured toy blocks. The order the blocks are stacked in change in different shots.

Continuity: When Tommy is having a go at Henry in the Copana bar about saying he's a funny guy, the shots from behind Tommy, Henry has his left elbow leaning on the table with a cigarette in his hand. In the reverse shots(behind Henry) his arm is down. This continues throughout the "How am I funny" speech.

Continuity: The scene in the restaurant where Joe Pesci messes with Ray Liotta saying, "What, am I funny, am I a funny guy to you?"  watch the drinking glasses on the table. The drink levels are going up and down with and then without ice.

Continuity: In the same scene, the actors walk past the rear of an easily identified 1965 Chevy Impala. Occasionally Chevrolet introduced vehicles early, but never two years early.

Continuity: When Jimmy and Henry are talking to Morrie and the camera angle is behind Morrie you can see him holding the phone at his shoulder, when the camera angle switches he has the phone at his ear. Then the phone suddenly disappears when you can see both of his hands and then it comes back again right before Jimmy strangles him with it.

Continuity: In the scene that Karen is too afraid to take the clothes and the license plate falls off, there is a shot of the windshield which is close enough to reveal the fake registration sticker made for the era in which the movie was represented.  The problem is though that not only is it obvious that the sticker is applied on the outside of the window, but the current sticker (inside the window) is larger than the movie prop and can be seen as a "frame" around the other.

Continuity: As the wiseguys in prison are about to have dinner, there are two loaves of bread on the table. The following shot one of the loaves disappears.

Continuity: In the scene after the 'robbery' of the suitcase of cash by Henry and Tommy, Pauly, Jimmy, Henry and Tommy are all celebrating their success, laughing etc. with the suitcase of cash on a table. While Pauly is telling Henry to tell anyone who asks that he won the money playing craps in Vegas, Jimmy is standing quite some distance to the left of Henry.When the camera closes in on Henry and Pauly, Jimmy has moved positions - he is now directly behind Henry's right shoulder (on the left of shot). This is obviously for effect so Jimmy can be seen laughing in the background.

Continuity: It's the scene where Henry and Karen are visiting some friends and they have their children with them. Henry starts to greet his friends, he is then carrying a big brown teddybear in his hand. Then Paul starts talking to him about Billy for a while, when the camera then is behind them as they walk away Henry is holding a little pink teddybear and he had no opportunity to switch.

Continuity: When Tommy shoots Spider in the foot and he goes down, Henry is playing cards at the table, then in the next scene Henry is helping Spider up, then the very next scene Henry is back at the table watching Spider crawl on the floor.

Continuity: In the scene where Henry pistol-whips Karen's neighbor, Henry is driving a 1966 Chrysler, when it 1964 at the latest. We know this because at the end of the movie it says that Henry and Karen were divorced in 1989 after 25 years of marriage. That means they were married in 1964.

Continuity: In the scene where Pauly talks to Henry and the restaurant owner about Henry's possible involvement in the restaurant biz, Pauly is talking (with the cigar clearly in his hand and it cuts away to him saying "No?" with the cigar jammed directly in his mouth.

Continuity: When Henry is in prison, Karen comes to visit him and drop off goods she smuggled in. They begin to argue while Henry is holding his daughter and Karen starts placing all the goods on the table. The camera angle switches to just a view of Henry's hands gathering the goods and if you look carefully, you will notice that BOTH of Henry's hands are collecting the goods. This would be impossible considering he is holding his daughter in one of his arms. Once the goods are collected, Henry is seen holding his daughter again.

Factual error: Early in the film, when Henry Hill is selling Pall Mall cigarettes out of a car trunk and is arrested, there are UPC price codes visible on the cartons of cigarettes. UPC codes were not used on products in the 1950's when the scene is taking place. They were introduced in the mid 1970s.

Continuity: After Henry beats up Karen's neighbour with his pistol, he puts the gun in Karen's hand. In the close up the gun is resting in her palm, but in wide shots of Karen and Henry she is holding the gun more by its barrel.

Other: Morrie gets whacked by Tommy with an ice pick. After that, Morrie is dead and lifeless. Soon after, Frankie Carbone (post Jimmy leaving) exits the car. When he does,the car light comes on and you can see Morrie blink.

Continuity: Whilst Jimmy is choking Morrie in the wig store the phone suddenly rings and the shot changes. Between shots the way Morrie is standing has all of a sudden changed. Instead of leaning back, he is bent forward. The way he is holding the phone whilst being choked changes as well.

Continuity: When Henry is in prison and he comes in to the kitchen with food in a bag, he first passes some bread to Paul. In one shot he picks up 2 jars and a bottle of wine. The next shot he is carrying the same food but suddenly has a loaf of bread in his hands. When the camera angle switches we now see Henry in front of the table about to sit at the table but now has no food in his arms.

Continuity: When Paulie is first introduced the long shot shows him holding his cigar next to his waist. The shot changes to a close up, and he is now holding the cigar up near his chest.

Factual error: In the scene taking place in 1963 at Idlewild airport, there is a 1965 Chevy Impala that was not made until late 1964.

Factual error: When Henry and Karen are racing to Karen's mother's house when the helicopter is following them, the driveway Henry pulls up in has a 1982 or newer Pontiac Bonneville, but the scene was supposed to take place in 1980.

Continuity: In the scene when Spider is killed by Tommy, Jimmy is with his arms wide open just the instant before Tommy pulls the trigger. But in the next shot, when Tommy fires the gun, Jimmy is with his arms down.

Revealing: When Stacks Edwards (Samuel L. Jackson) is shot by Tommy (Joe Pesci), the blood spatter very clearly comes from offscreen to the right.

Continuity: The scene where Karen pulls a gun on Henry uses two different guns, one blue and one nickel between the various camera shots.

Continuity: When Paulie and the others are in prison and preparing dinner, there is a vase on the table where they will eventually eat dinner. The vase is filled with fresh basil at the beginning of this scene but disappears and re-appears throughout the scene.

Audio problem: In the scene where Tommy shoots Spider in the foot we hear 7 gunshots from what appears to be a 6 shot .38 revolver.

Continuity: When Henry has just showed De Niro the guns and he's in his car, you see him light up a cigarette. When the shot changes the cigarette has vanished.

Continuity: In the scene where the guys go to Florida to "feed the guy to the lions," the lion first shown is a male with a huge mane. When seen upside down the 1st time it's the male, but the second time it's a female, no mane, slightly smaller, lion. They never show more than 1 lion in the pen, either.

Audio problem: In the bar scene where Tommy gets enraged at Billy Batts, at one point Billy says "Salute Tommy" but his lips does not move.

Continuity: Henry and Jimmy are eating in a diner waiting for word about Tommy being "made". When Jimmy goes outside to make the call to find out, there is a car parked outside the diner, at this point, the car's window is open. When Jimmy starts kicking over the phonebooth and Henry comes outside to join him, the car's window is closed.

Continuity: While Henry and Jimmy are beating up the guy in the car, Henry is holding a gun up to the guy's face. A few times during the scene, it changes back and forth from the gun pressed right up against his face to the gun a little away from his face.

Factual error: When Henry Hill is at the doctor's office, the doctor gives him 10 mg Valium pill which is brown. In reality, Valium 10 mg is light blue and has a "V" shaped hole in the center of it.

Continuity: After Karen has been with her girlfriends, she is talking to Henry about what is going to happen if he gets killed, at that point Henry is folding his pants by the closet, when the camera angle switches he is suddenly very quick on his knees in front of Karen.

Continuity: When Ray's girlfriend is showing off her apartment to her two girlfriends they walk down the hall to the bedroom. The camera then changes to them entering the bedroom door and the order of girls has changed.

Factual error: When Henry is being followed by the helicopter, he almost slams into another car. Henry's car has a brake light in the back window, but they didn't start that until the mid 80's at the earliest.

Continuity: When Henry and his girlfriend enter the Copacabana avoiding waiting in the line, their way through the catacombs of the nightclub is prolonged artificially because they exit the kitchen by the same door they entered it. The scenery is changed a bit by moving some racks and a curtain but you can tell it's the same because they pass the same firehose on the wall twice.

Continuity: When Karen is at the the Hostess party, and Jimmy Conway's wife is talking about Jeanie's family, if you look at the lady she's applying make up to, she crosses begins to herself twice. One when the camera is one her and Jimmy's wife, then again when the camera is just on her.