The Hitcher (1986) - 24 mistakes

Revealing: When Jim hits the brakes in his stolen patrol car, the two pursuing police cars turn and flip over and over. As they roll, the 'roll cannon' is visible on the underside of one of the cars (a round steel tube in a hole in the floor) and at left, the two cannon slugs from both cars bounce down the road. This device fires the slug downward, and the force behind it lifts the car when the slug hits the road, launching the car over.

Continuity: Towards the end of the film, the bus that Jim sneaks on to changes from two rear axles to one.

Continuity: Just after John throws Jim's keys back to him, Jim is driving along the road and gets hit from the back by John. Jim spills coffee on his cheek and neck, but in the following shot nothing is there, and he couldn't have wiped it off between shots.

Continuity: When Jim pushes John out the car, in the shot where John is lying on the road, his head is on the road's white stripe, yet when it cuts to a closer view, his chest is on the white line, not his head.

Other: The Hitcher reverses his pick-up truck out of the gas station after he drops the lighted match. His wheels, wheel arches and perhaps the underside of the truck would have been soaked in petrol as he drove over the pumps, as would all around them, as they were gushing. He was burning rubber do this manoeuvre. This would have ignited the petrol on his truck.

Factual error: Towards the last scene, Howell and Hauer share the same shotgun (Ryder to take pop shots at Jim in the jeep, Jim to ultimately fire three shots to kill Ryder). The shotgun used can hold at most seven or eight shells, not the 12 or more that are fired between Ryder and Jim starting from when Ryder escaped the bus.

Continuity: In one scene C. Thomas Howell almost runs head-on with an 18 wheeler, but just misses it. However, the truck clips the car he is driving and clearly takes the bumper clean off. The next driving scene shows the bumper back on the car.

Revealing: When the two police cars flip over if you look close you can see that at least one of the people in the car is a dummy. The one dummy is wearing a hat that appears to stay on his head even when the car flips.

Continuity: When Jim is driving along the road, the car with the boat on the back passes him. When John appears, Jim pulls out onto the other side, and the road is just flat with sand and grass, yet when it cuts to a face shot of Jim there are now large mounds of mud, or something, at the side of the road.

Continuity: During the scene where Ryder has a knife to Jim's throat and is asking him to repeat "I want to die", you can see through the passenger window behind Ryder that morning is starting to break. About a minute down the highway when Jim and Ryder come upon the construction zone, it is now black as night again.

Continuity: When John has just dived into the Sheriff's truck from the prison truck, and tells Jim to drive, Jim accelerates, then brakes hard, to throw John through the windshield. As Jim brakes, John's left hand is holding the shotgun, and his right hand is holding Jim's lapel. In the next cut, as John goes through the windshield, the shotgun is in his right hand.

Continuity: When Nash is talking with Jim in the restaurant where she works, she is holding a flask in her left hand the puts the flask down, but in the following shot it appears in her right hand.

Audio problem: Halsey tries to get the family in the station wagon's attention by honking his horn. After the near-collision with the bus, the horn honks in a different note.

Revealing: When Jim is at the first gas station trying to reach a phone, he walks outside and John crashes through the garage at the side, if you slow it down you can see that the door to the garage is made with cardboard or paper, or some other soft material.

Factual error: All the police officers are described on the cast as 'troopers', but those who arrest Jim at the diner and those who pull him off the bus are actually deputy sheriffs, not state troopers. They are not wearing uniform, are not driving cars with state police badges, are wearing stars instead of police shields, the place where he is taken after being arrested has 'Sheriff Station No.7' written on the outside wall, and the name of the sheriff's department can be seen when he is being photographed.

Continuity: When Jim is being questioned at the police station, the guy phoning Jim's brother has his hand on the phone or by the phone, then he moves his arm away, but in the following shot his hand is still on the phone.

Continuity: When Jim stops for coffee in "Roy's Cafe," John sits opposite him, and if you watch closely in one of the shots, the plant behind Jim gets knocked over, yet a few shots later it's back upright standing in its container.

Continuity: C. Thomas Howell has a mole-like thing on the left side of his chin, that appears, disappears, and fades between shots.

Continuity: After Jim picks up John, they see a VW Beetle that's on the side of the road and its position changes in the next shot.

Continuity: When Jim is being asked questions in the police station, the cop with the blue denim jacket puts his hands on the chair in one shot, then they're not there in the next shot, but back in the shot after.