Animal House (1978) - 56 mistakes

Visible crew/equipment: When Bluto is watching the sorority girls have their pillow fight and he falls down with the ladder, you can see him land on a grass mat that is cut into the lawn. It's funny because you can see the grass push in.

Continuity: During the classroom scene, Donald Sutherland writes the word "Satan" on the board. In the first shot, the "t" in Satan in directly over the crease on the chalkboard. In the next shot, it is clearly on one side of the crease.

Factual error: The car Flounder drives is a 1964 model, built beginning late in 1963, but the events of the movie take place in 1962.

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene just prior to the food fight, as John Belushi goes through the cafeteria line putting the food on his tray (which moves frequently), note the cameraman's feet in the mirror over the food following him.

Factual error: In the scene where Pinto buys/shoplifts food from the grocery store and meets the Mayor's daughter, the cash register has an LCD display. A little too futuristic for a flick set in '62.

Continuity: When Bluto is looking through the window of the girls' bedroom, the shot from behind him shows his shoulders are just above the window sill. The shots from inside the room show him to be a lot higher than this.

Continuity: In the scene where Otter and Boon are hitting golf balls near the ROTC drills, Otter puts down the golf bag he is carrying and draws a club. The camera moves to the ROTC trainees, and when it comes back to the golfers, the bag is back on Otter's shoulder and there is no club out of the bag.

Continuity: During the toga party, the mustard stain on Bloto's toga, disappears and reappears.

Continuity: When the Fraternity house is being taken down, the Greek letters switch places.

Continuity: In the scene where Otter is making out with Shelly from Dickinson college, in the back of the car she is clearly shown with her bra off, and it his hanging on her right arm by one strap. When the guys come running out of the club seconds later to make their escape, Shelly is shown jumping out of the car and diving through the window of the car parked next to it, but her bra is now on and hooked as if it hadn't been removed yet.

Other: In the scene where the Mayor is giving his speech just before the parade begins, there is a man sitting in the bleachers behind him making bizarre faces and hilarious facial ticks in plain view of the camera.

Visible crew/equipment: Near the end of the movie during the parade riot and Bluto is trying to escape, he jumps up on top of a building. You can see one of the uniformed soldiers bending down to give him help up onto the awning.

Factual error: Boon is using a payphone and behind him, at the left of the screen is the front end of a 'coffin-nosed' 1974-78 AMC Matador sedan, a car built a dozen-plus years after the events of the film.

Continuity: During the Delta Rush Party, Pinto (then just a pledge) got a beer. Notice that, as the scene changes camera angles, the heads on the beers go up, down, and up again.

Continuity: In the cafeteria scene, Kevin Bacon's character sits down twice.

Factual error: When Karen Allen is in the kitchen she passes a fridge that has a Bicentennial sticker on it. The movie was set in 1962 and the Bicentennial didn't happen until 1976.

Continuity: When Stork and his associate step conspicuously onto the curb to watch the parade the pompom's yellow tassels face front. When the man behind them says, "Excuse me, my kid can't see," the purple tassels face front.

Visible crew/equipment: Look at the blank wall just in front of D-Day when he rides his motorcycle up the stairs of the frat house - it has the most obvious boom shadow you will ever see in a film.

Continuity: When Flounder and Larry arrive at the Omega house for the party, sunlight can be seen coming through the windows, although it was night when they arrive.

Continuity: Before the hearing, Katy and Boone are talking at the bottom (half) of a stairwell when Otter comes down with a briefcase in his right hand and he puts his left hand on Boone's shoulder. In the next shot the briefcase is now in his left hand with his right hand on Boone.

Continuity: During the parade, we see Nedermeyer leading the ROTC cadets, who are carrying M1 rifles. Later, during the riot, we see Nedermeyer take an M1903 rifle off a cadet and use it to shoot at Flounder.

Continuity: In the scene where Pinto is making out with the Mayor's daughter, as she sits up on him so she can unhook her bra, he starts to slide his hands under her bra right before she passes out and falls over. As she is falling he pulls the tissue paper out which hangs like streamers from his hands to elbows. After a quick shot to show her on the bed, there is a shot of Pinto now holding the tissue in little tiny balls in each hand.

Continuity: In the classroom scene, Donald Sutherland takes a bite of the apple and a split second later in the next shot, he has nothing in his mouth.

Revealing: When Bluto uses the banner to jump from the building, you can plainly see that his weight is being supported by a safety rope and NOT the banner itself, which is actually slack during the stunt.

Factual error: After trying unsuccessfully to call Katie at the all-night cafe, Boone questions where she could be at six in the morning. The scene occurs during broad daylight. If the time were accurate, this could not be so, since it occurred in November.

Continuity: When they show Flounder's face on the screen they throw beer cans at it and it gets soaked. When Otter gets up it is completely dry.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: When one of the Delta Frat Guys is drinking beer in the frat, in his close up he is holding a mug by the handle, in the reverse shot he is not holding the handle.

Other: When Pinto throws rocks at the mayor's daughter's window, the first two rocks bounce off the window and don't get her attention. The third rock supposedly breaks the window. If you watch closely, you'll see the rock bounce off the window while a glass breaking sound is heard. Likewise, when the mayor's daughter opens the window, it is intact.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: During the parade scene at the end of the movie, there are shots of the street that it will take place on, and there is a view of a (misspelled) "Homestead Ferniture" store in two different shots. When the parade is actually taking place, the store is changed to (correctly spelled) "Homestead Furniture". Several shots after that, it changes back to "Homestead Ferniture"

Continuity: 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.

Revealing: On the day the house is being emptied, after Bluto finishes the Jack Daniel's and tosses the bottle, there are no Jack Daniel's labels on it.

Other: In the Disciplinary/Probation Hearing scene, the State Flag behind the Council is that of Tennessee. On the Double Secret probabtion edition, narrator John Landis says "Faber College in Pennsylvania".

Continuity: 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."

Factual error: The Coca-Cola sign on the pop dispenser in the cafeteria has the "Dynamic Ribbon" device as part of the Coca-Cola trademark. The movie is set in 1962. Coca-Cola didn't start using the Dynamic Ribbon on its trademark until 1970.

Visible crew/equipment: During the scene where Otter is hitting golf balls at the ROTC cadets, Niedermayer is wearing a highly polished chrome helmet.  In at least one shot, you can see a movie light reflected in it.

Continuity: The scene where Flounder tosses the box of marbles into the street to trip the ROTC cadets during the parade. Look at the background parade audience as they go into fast forward along with the action of the marbles...

Continuity: When they are getting the girls from the other college, when the first girl comes down the stairs her broach is on the left of her top. When she is sitting down, the broach has moved to her right. It changes back to her left again after this shot and for the rest of the film.

Continuity: 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.

Other: In the scene where Mandy is writing down what is said during the Fraternity's disciplinary hearing, (Court reporting) no ink is actually coming out of her pen as she writes on her notepad. That is, the notepad remains blank even as she turns to a new page while writing.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: In the cafeteria, Bloto puts stuff on his tray. Before the cut his bunch of bananas are on the side of the tray. After the cut the bunch is on the other side.

Revealing: At the parade only one or two smoke sticks are shot into the crowds, but when the DeathMobile first emerges through the smoke you can see dozens of billowing smoke sticks aligned across the ground.

Continuity: 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.

Revealing: In the parade scene, not only are people wearing long hair and bellbottoms, but late '70s vehicles can be seen passing or parked in the background. Also in one shot, behind the marching ROTC, a camera rig can be seen in front of spectators photographing the parade.

Revealing: During the scene where the Delta boys are looking at slides of the recruits from the evening, Otter steps in front of the screen to defend Flounder. Notice that he is standing directly in line with the projector to the screen and there is no shadow on the screen nor is part of the slide projected onto his chest.

Factual error: Bluto crushes a beer can against his forehead. Steel cans are too strong to crush like that. Aluminium cans weren't introduced until approximately 1965, although the movie was set in 1962. http://www.cancentral.com/brochure/historyTimeline_f.htm.

Continuity: At the parade, Bluto uses the banner to jump to the street. In the next shot the banner is intact again.

Factual error: In the scene where Larry and the Mayor's daughter are on the football field, it appears to be artificial turf. Artificial turf wasn't invented until 1965, 3 years after the movie was to have taken place.

Factual error: You can see that the Jack Daniels that Bluto chugs is not real, because it foams. It was probably iced tea or something.

Factual error: Listen to the crickets chriping at the football field where Larry and the Mayor's daughter make out. It's fall, everyone has jackets on. It's much too cold for crickets to chirp that rapidly. (Or at all at that time of year).

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: 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.

Factual error: Mrs. Wormer confuses the meanings of "sensual" and "sensuous". Sensuous merely means appealing to the senses; sensual has sexual connotations. In other words, vegetables are sensuous; people are sensual.

Continuity: 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.