Animal House
Animal House mistake picture

Continuity mistake: During the parade, Flounder dumps the bucket of marbles towards the camera, and they are all clear glass marbles. When the ROTC members slip and fall on them, the marbles are red, blue and yellow. (01:38:25)

Continuity mistake: When Pinto and Flounder attend the Omega rush party, a tasteful piano piece is playing. Niedermayer catches the eye of the brother at the piano, who smiles back over the keyboard. Soon thereafter, Niedermayer points out two important Omega brothers, who are standing in conversation across the room: Terry Auerbach, captain of the swim team, and Carl Phillips, editor of the Daily Faberian. The music has not stopped, but, when Carl turns to the camera, we see that he's the same guy who's supposed to be playing the piano. (00:03:15 - 00:04:55)

Myron

Continuity mistake: When Neidermeyer is yelling at Flounder about his pledge pin, Neidermeyer is spitting the P's in Flounder's face. When this happens, the camera is on Neidermeyer and if you look at Flounder, (even though it's his backside), you can see his eyes close everytime he's spitted on. However, afterwards, the camera changes to Flounder instantly, and his eyes are wide open (as if they never closed at all). Nobody's eyes instantly open THAT quickly after being spat on.

Continuity mistake: When the Deltas are leaving the student court on masse, you can see Bluto followed by Flounder exiting the hall as Vernon shouts "I'm calling your national office." After several more seconds of Vernon shouting and Greg frantically slamming his gavel, it cuts to a shot of the doorway with Bluto and Flounder just walking up to it and stopping to grin at Vernon. They would've been long out of the room by then.

Continuity mistake: As Niedermeyer chews out Flounder in the close ups, the long shots from Boon and Stratton's view of the action shows Niedermeyer mounted on his horse, then back to the close up of Niedermeyer dismounted, continuing to chew out Flounder.

Continuity mistake: From Double Secret Probation DVD - "When Bluto is placing the ladder outside the sorority house, there is a large awning between the two windows and it would be impossible for him to "jump" the ladder from one window to the next." (00:38:29)

Animal House mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the cafeteria "I'm a zit" scene, Bluto picks up the mashed potatoes with his right hand, but the very next shot shows him placing it in his mouth with his left hand. (00:34:50)

Continuity mistake: When Pinto and Flounder visit the Omega house in the opening of the movie, notice the girls coming down the stairs. In the first shot they are there, the second shot they are not, then they are. (00:03:00)

Continuity mistake: After Stork pushes the drum major off camera to the right and seizes his baton, the scene cuts to a longer shot where he leads the band in the same direction. The drum major has disappeared. (01:36:30)

Continuity mistake: When the Deathmobile lines up across the street to take out the grandstand, the car reaches the grandstand about three times before it actually rams it. Even after one shot if the car reaching the grandstand, it cuts to D-Day yelling "Ramming Speed!" and then the car is seen back at its original position on the other side of the street.

Continuity mistake: The candle on the table appears/disappears when they're at the bar where Otis is playing, especially when the big dude removes the table to "dance with their dates". (01:16:40)

Continuity mistake: In the parade sequence only a few smoke sticks are shown to be shot into the crowds, but when the DeathMobile emerges through the smoke you can see dozens of billowing smoke sticks aligned across the ground. (01:39:20)

Continuity mistake: When Larry meets Karen Allen's character at the frat house, she offers him a beer. When you see the back shot of Larry, he is holding the beer glass in his right hand. When it switches to a frontal view of Larry, he is holding the glass in the left hand. (00:07:30)

Continuity mistake: When they're at the man's house who offers them some pot, you can see that he's petting a Siamese cat. But when he stands up to go put the blinds down, the cat is gone and he never moved it off his lap. (00:22:50)

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Bluto is watching the pillow fight through the window, when Mandy comes in the room and the girls stop to talk to her, every time the camera cuts from Bluto to the girls the girls have changed positions in the room. (00:38:50)

Continuity mistake: When they take Flounder's car to go pick up some chicks, Otter puts a can of beer on top of the car. In the next shot the beer is not on the car anymore. (01:08:05)

Continuity mistake: When the authorities and moving crews are clearing all of the junk out of Delta House, we see a workman with a hammer removing the fraternity symbols from the house's upstairs railing. However, the symbols are not in the correct order: They read "Delta Chi Tau," and the workman is removing the "Tau" from the end. Moments later, we see the workman still removing the fraternity symbols, but now they are in the correct order, "Delta Tau Chi," and he is removing the "Tau" again, but removing it from the center.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When the Dean is on the phone in the middle of the night, his drunk wife gets her feet tangled in the phone cord, then falls off the bed, pulling the receiver off the hook. In the next shot showing her giggling on the floor, the phone cord is no longer visible.

Animal House mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the Fraternity house is being taken down, the Greek letters switch places. (01:06:05 - 01:06:55)

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Hoover: They confiscated everything, even the stuff we didn't steal!

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Trivia: Faber college, where the movie takes place, was actually the University of Oregon in Eugene.

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Question: Near the end, when Dean Wormer and Mayor DePasto are in the grandstand, officially launching the parade, there is an elderly gentleman in the background (also in the grandstand, about 2 levels up, on the left side of the screen) who is making odd, excited gestures and comical facial expressions. His appearance and odd mannerisms are so striking that he draws my attention away from the dean and the mayor every time that I've seen this film, and that's a lot of times. Surely, director John Landis must have been aware of the gentleman and his antics in the background through multiple takes, so it would seem Landis intended the peculiar distraction. Who was that gentleman, and was there any significance to his appearing in the scene?

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Sometimes these things get left in because it's simply the best take. (The child covering his ears before the gunshot in "North by Northwest," for example.) It could also be that John Landis cast the extra because he wanted someone with goofy expressions in the crowd. He simply could have told the extras "Ok, be excited that you're at a parade," and that's how this extra did it.

Captain Defenestrator

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