The Hitcher (2007) - 30 mistakes

Continuity: After the initial fight scene in the car with John Ryder, after he is thrown out of the car, the next shot shows the car driving off at normal speed, outrunning him. But in the next shot, he is shown coming to his senses and the car goes by him again as if he, when falling out of the car, tumbled very fast in front of the car when in fact he should, just as anything falling out of a moving car, tumble backwards. So there is no way for the car to go by him after he was pushed out.

Continuity: When Jim is locked in the Police jail cell, during the scenes as he yells and talks to Grace, his hands are either up gripping the bars or down by his side.

Continuity: When Grace is in the interrogation room, the size and colour of the big bruise on her right shoulder keeps changing.

Audio problem: When Jim and Grace steal the sheriff's car and drive out of the parking lot quickly, the tyres of the car squeal on the ground, however the ground is just dirt and dust so the tyres shouldn't have squealed.

Continuity: In the scene when the police are chasing after Jim and Grace, Ryder suddenly pulls up and shoots one of the policemen. Then two of the cruiser cars collide and skid down the road. During this scene the metal barriers on the sides of the road keep disappearing then reappearing.

Continuity: When Jim and Grace are driving away from the police in the stolen sheriff car, they are shot at and the back tailgate and left wing mirror are broken by gunshots. But in following shots you can see both parts of the car completely intact again, the broken, fixed, etc.

Revealing: The opening shot of the movie shows a rabbit hopping up from the bank of a road and then being hit by a car. You can, however, tell that the rabbit is not real because as it moves up the bank, none of the grass moves as the rabbit bounces through it.

Continuity: When Grace notices the doorknob of the interrogation room unlock itself, she walks over and turns the handle to the right. But in the next shot the door opens to the opposite way it should have, judging by the direction she turned the handle.

Revealing: When Jim and Grace are driving along in the stolen sheriff car, away from all the police cars and Ryder, the car's back window is shot and completely shatters and fragments. Yet in a following shot we see Jim look into the rearview mirror, and he gets a clear view of behind. The back window was shattered and cracked however, so he shouldn't have got that nice clear view.

Continuity: When we see the dead bodies of Harlan and the policeman laying in the office as Lt. Esteridge is looking at them, you can clearly see the "dead bodies" breathing.

Continuity: From just after Ryder hits the windshield and is being kicked out of the car by Jim, to when we see him laying on the road, the size and position of the cut on his forehead (that he got from slamming into the windshield), changes.

Continuity: When Jim is sitting in the back with the father of the family that Ryder murdered, the father is dying from his stab wound. During the entire scene, the amount of blood on his chin keeps decreasing then increasing back and forth, and the pattern of it keeps differing as well.

Continuity: When Jim and Grace are in the petrol station, while Grace is using the bathroom, Jim is talking to the clerk. During the whole scene, the dampness of his tee-shirt keeps changing. In some shots it is completely wet, while in others the shirt only has damp patches.

Continuity: Jim wakes up after his nightmare, sitting in the front seat of his car. In the first shot the wing mirror on his side is positioned perfectly straight. In the very next shot though, the mirror is suddenly angled upwards at the sky.

Continuity: When Jim is outside the petrol station standing by his car, he is eating a hotdog. In the first shot he takes a big bite and there is just a small piece left. In the next shot when he takes a second bite, the remaining hotdog is now bigger than previously.

Continuity: When Grace runs into the diner bathroom, she pulls out several paper towels from the dispenser. After she has grabbed a handful you can see that half a paper towel is visible sticking out of the dispenser. In the next shot the paper has vanished and no towels are visible.

Continuity: After Ryder has been kicked out of the car, in the shot as he rolls to the ground in the background you can see the car driving off - and you can see Grace grabbing the door to close it. But in the next interior shot, Grace is still in the backseat and she then proceeds to climb into the front seat and close the door, again.

Continuity: When Jim and Grace start their car journey, Grace needs to go to the bathroom. During the conversation, as the shots change the position of the watch on Jim's wrist keeps changing, as does his head position (either looking at the road or at Grace.)

Factual error: When Jim is driving the car and slams on the breaks just before hitting Ryder, the car is thrown forward - during all these scenes, although it is very rainy and windy, the raindrops run down the windshield as if the car is stationary. If the car was driving at a very fast speed and it is windy, the raindrops should be blown upwards on the windshield.

Continuity: As Ryder is grabbing Grace by the face and pointing his knife into her cheek, during the whole scene as this continues, Grace's hair is repeatedly either covering her face or is pulled back under Ryder's hand.

Continuity: At the start when Grace is running across the campus to Jim, the items she's holding rearrange in her arms between shots (note the grey blanket which is over her left arm, then under her right.)

Factual error: There are two instances when Jim and Grace are not wearing seatbelts and are involved in big car accident scenes, but don't even fly forward from their seat an inch. The first is when Jim slams the break on and sends Ryder headfirst into the windshield. The second is when their car goes flying off the side of the road after dodging the lorry.

Continuity: When Grace is getting changed in the car, she pulls on a pair of jeans and then pulls her blue shirt off over her head. In the first shot she is pulling it over her left side of her head. In the next shot she is pulling it off over the right side.

Continuity: When Ryder begins to threaten Jim in the car, Grace carefully turns her cell phone on. Between shots the way she is holding it changes.

Continuity: As Jim and Grace are driving down the road, a dragonfly splatters onto their windshield. Between shots the size and shape of the splatter changes, and continues to as Jim attempt to wash it off with a bottle of water.

Continuity: After John Ryder is kicked out of the car they pull over to rest and you notice the windshield is smashed on the driver's side, but as they leave in the morning it's as good as new.

Continuity: Right after Jim has his nightmare while sleeping in the car, he looks around for Grace, who is standing outside the car looking at scenery. When Jim sees her, she has her arms crossed over her chest. The next shot, with Jim walking around the car, she has her arms by her side, and immediately after, the shot with Jim approaching her, she has her arms crossed again. All this took place in about 2 seconds, not enough time to drop her arms and recross them exactly the same way as the first shot.

Continuity: Near the end of the movie, when Jim and Grace break into the motel room to clean up and rest, they enter the window of unit 12, with the door to the right of unit 11. After Jim has left the room, and Grace is woken up, she leaves the room through the door, which we now see is unit 11, the door on the left.

Continuity: Right after the initial fight scene in the car with John Ryder, after he is kicked out of the car, and Grace gets back into the front seat, she reaches behind her and locks the passenger door. In the next shot, when she is looking for her cell phone, the door lock is not depressed. Some older Cutlass 442's had lock barrels that were higher than normal, or were screwed on less than others, but this appears to be a fully extended lock barrel.

Factual error: During the police chase, the helicopter calls in a car approaching at speed behind the police cars, but he calls it a "late model Trans Am." The Trans Am is an early model at best, as it is a 79 to 81 second generation (of 4) Trans Am. A late model Trans Am would be more accurately described as one of the fourth generation models built until 2002, and look nothing like a 79 to 81, even from the air. It might be considered a character mistake, except that police are generally knowledgable about the make and style of cars from various years. If the pilot or passenger of the helicopter were able to identify it as a Trans Am, they should be able to identify it as an older model, not a late model.