The Italian Job (1969) - 25 mistakes

Continuity: When the 3 Minis are pushed off the coach, if you look carefully there is view shown briefly of the cars interior, which has red door pillars. When the shot reverts to the external view the cars colour is white.

Revealing: Towards the end of the movie throughout the Mini chase scene through the building, down the stairs and skidding around corners etc, you can see tyre markings from previous takes.

Visible crew/equipment: As the armoured truck is midway from the airport to the Fiat plant, the film crew is seen in the mirrored finish of the stripe running down the length of truck.

Revealing: When the police car crashes through the grating that was dropped down in front of it at the end of the tunnel, the occupants are dummies - they just bounce about in the same upright position whilst the car drives into the river.

Continuity: After the gang is pulled off the bank job, they race away in the three Minis - as they go through a tunnel at one point they roll up and down the sides of the tunnel. The mistake is that each car supposedly has two occupants, but on one shot of the cars in the tunnel, one car has only a single occupant - visible because the car following has his headlights on illuminating the car in front.

Continuity: When the car transporter is trying to break into the building, where they are transferring the gold from the security vehicle, a car drops from the transporter, lands on a police car, and the blue cover from the police light comes off completely in the first shot. But a second later you see the face of the policeman with the light in the foreground, which now has a jagged broken base left on the car.

Revealing: When the three Mini Coopers drive onto the coach, the first Mini doesn't have fitted headlights. It also has a brand new rear wheel fitted that is clean and the rest are dirty.

Continuity: Each of the Mini Coopers were fitted with three spot lamps on the front grille/bonnet in a triangle formation. In part of the chase sequence through the sewer, two of the Minis have sprouted three more lights - one under each headlamp and one in the centre of the grille under the three original spot lights.

Factual error: When the cars are in the garage being prepared for Italy, Freddie tells Charlie that the red Mini Cooper is having its differential worked on. The mechanic has jacked up the rear off the car and is working on the back axle, but Mini Coopers are front wheel drive. The differential is on the front axle on these cars and working on it would mean removing the whole engine/gearbox unit.

Visible crew/equipment: When the three Mini Coopers come out of the sewer and drive towards the coach, you can see 2 people in the coach. "Big William" and Mr. Toms who really drove the coach.

Continuity: The Minis at the end are pushed out of the bus with no rear windows, the Aston pushed over the cliff becomes a Lancia at the  last moment, and the Lamborgini pushed over the cliff is so toy-like - it doesn't even have an engine... [Regarding the Lancia, the comment is correct. However, it was a deliberate substitution. The Aston went over the cliff and spontaneously burst into flame almost immediately. The director felt that it looked too fake and the Lancia was substituted to make the stunt longer and more realistic.]

Continuity: When the Minis are going through the tunnel, the police car behind them has a set of lights which are the same as the Minis, which it did not have before.

Continuity: Right at the beginning, the red car goes into the tunnel and is blown up, yet when it is taken out not one part of the bodywork is charred, it is still a shiny red.

Other: When the Mafia are having a dinner party, the film cuts to Charlie Croker throwing his bicycle into the substation to cause a powercut. After the big explosion, the camera switches back to the dinner party and then all the lights go out. But before the lights go out, if you look at the end of the dinner table, there is a doorway, and you can see smoke coming from the candles which have already been lit before the lights go out. Within seconds of the power cut, these candles are brought in from doorway and another set comes in from the left-hand side. A little premature.

Continuity: When we see the computer tape on the tape drive just before it gets to the altered data and messes up the traffic light sequence, the tape is visibly twisted. In the next shot a few seconds later, it is straight again.

Continuity: When Charlie Croker breaks into the prison and meets up with Mr. Bridger in the loo, just before they leave, the toilet chain is pulled. It was already swinging.

Other: When the film about planning the job is being shown to Mr. Bridger in the prison: at the end of the film the mafia man walks right up to the camera to watch the English guy walk off. This seems a bit odd, him being able to walk right up to the camera and the camera operator still filming. Wouldn't he have wanted to keep the fact that he was watching them all the time a secret and not give the game away that the mafia were on to them?

Revealing: After stealing the Bullion the gang make off through a shopping mall. As the scene changes to show the Minis descending a staircase it can be seen that the door of the front Mini is wide open and the passenger is getting in as the car moves off. It shows that the car was stationary before the start of the shot and not actually descending the stair.

Continuity: When the Minis are practicing jumping, one of them goes tumbling onto its roof, but the other crashes into another car, denting its wing. Just before the impact, you can see that there is already a dent there where it has obviously already done the same stunt.

Revealing: When the mafia bulldozer is destroying the three cars on the mountain pass, the red jaguar E type has obviously been replaced with a wreck as it has accident damage on it that wasn't there in previous scenes, and away from where the bulldozer hits it.