The Karate Kid (1984) - 39 mistakes

Revealing: When Daniel is about to paint the fence of Mr. Miyagi, Mr. Miyagi tries to catch a fly with chopsticks. Daniel tries as well. You can see pretty clearly that the "fly" is attached to a wire or a nylon string, moving like a pendulum and bounces as if someone's pulling the string.

Continuity: We first see from the inside of the door (and therefore backwards) the instructions that Mr. Miyagi leaves for Daniel to paint the house. In the next shot we see the same note from the outside - from Daniel's viewpoint. Clearly they are two different notes. The left & right arrows switch directions, the drawings of the hands change, the position of Miyagi's signature changes, and the placement of some of the exclamation points changes.

Revealing: When Daniel is running from Johnny and his gang after the bathroom incident at the dance, there's a lot of fog outside. If you look at one of the trees in the background, you can see that all the fog is being puffed out from behind the tree - obviously a fog machine.

Other: In the semi-final where John Lawrence fights against Darryl Vidal, the female referee has major problems of what to do. When Lawrence gets his first point, the referee first raises her red flag (Vidal is wearing the red ribbon) but then swiftly changes her mind. And when Lawrence gets his third point, the female referee again incorrectly raises her red flag.

Continuity: In the final fight between Daniel and Johnny, there is a time when Johnny's head band falls off (after Johnny scores his second point). Right after it falls off, if you look quickly you can see it back on, then it goes back off.

Continuity: When Daniel and his mum are in their apartment unpacking, there mum has nothing in her hands in one shot, and in the following shot she has a small red case.

Continuity: When Daniel comes back from the restaurant having just seen Ali with Johnny, Daniel sits down next to Miyagi. When Daniel says, "Banzai," he does not have his arm resting on the small table, yet in the next closeup his arm is now on the table.

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene when Miyagi and Daniel are about to get into Miyagi's truck and drive to the Cobra Kai Dojo, Daniel is yawning and to the bottom right of him the boom mike can be seen for a few seconds.

Continuity: After Daniel's little party at Miyagi's, they both go outside and Daniel sits in the yellow car and Miyagi walks up. In the shot from the front Miyagi has his hands crossed leaning on the car door, yet from the back he has his elbow leaning on the door, then back to just his hands on the door.

Continuity: When Mr. Miyagi rescued Daniel, he didn't hit Johnny in the face at all. The next day, however, Johnny had a black eye.

Deliberate "mistake": During the final match, Johnny scores his second point with a forearm to Daniel's side. However it is incorrectly announced as a kick to the side. Johnny was on one knee at the time and in no position to kick him. Also, you can see Johnny throw a forearm and not a kick.

Continuity: As Daniel gets out of his mom's car for his first date with Ali, his shoes are white. When we see him being introduced to Ali's parents, his shoes have changed to brown.

Continuity: When Daniel gets the spaghetti and sauce spilled all over him, his white pants are drenched with sauce all the way down to his crotch area. When he gets to Mr. Miyagi's house, he only has one faded streak of sauce on each leg and the rest of his pants are clean.

Continuity: Before the dance in Mr. Miagie's work area you can see the red shower curtain with the polka-dots that Danny wears to the dance hanging on the wall. After the dance, when Danny is in the work area after getting saved from the Skeletons, you can still see the shower curtain on the back wall.

Continuity: In the scene where Daniel is riding bike home from his mother's work and Johnny and his pals are chasing him on their bikes, they kick Daniel down the hill. As Daniel is rolling down the hill, you can see that it is a stunt double with no cuts on his face and when Daniel re-appears in the shot, his face is bleeding.

Visible crew/equipment: The first time Daniel goes into the Kobra Kai Dojo, when the camera is behind him, you can see a cameraman dressed in black in the mirrors at the other end of the room.

Audio problem: During the dance scene, when Ali and Daniel open the shower curtain prop and see the chicken running towards them, you hear Daniel say, "He's wild." But his lips do not match him saying that at all.

Continuity: In Daniel's first match, when he scores his first point, the bleachers are packed to capacity but just before the next point only 7 rows of seats are partially filled.

Continuity: When Johnny and his gang jump Daniel at the chain fence, Johnny smashes the sign on the fence, yet in the following shot the sign is there again, then the shot after its broke again.

Other: When Johnny is fighting in the competition at the end of the movie, his hair changes from being clean looking to looking sweaty, back to being clean.

Continuity: When Daniel is eating in the restaurant with his mother, from the exterior shot looking in the window, Daniel's hand is underneath his chin. But when it cuts to the inside of the restaurant, his hand is suddenly down near the table.

Continuity: When Daniel catches the fly with the chopsticks, he catches the fly in the middle of the sticks. When the shot changes, he now has the fly with the tips of the sticks.

Continuity: During the bathroom scene where Daniel is about to take revenge out on Johnny, watch as Daniel uncoils the hose - it is very long and has several obvious kinks in it. However, as he turns on the water and Johnny runs out, the hose is a perfect straight shot, and MUCH shorter (and water flowing through the hose would not do this).

Audio problem: At the Country Club Dinner Dance, the band is playing the "Fascination Waltz", but the conductor's baton is at a faster tempo.

Audio problem: In the external shot of "The Orient Express Restaurant" where Daniel's mum sits down and says, "Guess what? I'm going to be training as a manager.", her mouth isn't moving at all.

Continuity: When Daniel and Mr. Miyagi pull up in Mr. Miyagi's car at his house to start Daniel's training, it cuts to an overhead shot. Mr. Miyagi gets out and walks around the front of the car, and passes the front of the car. Yet in the following closeup he is passing the front of the car again.

Continuity: When Miyagi leaves Daniel a note to paint the house, the paint brush is visible in the background on the floor. The position of the paintbrush changes in the following shot when Daniel kicks the sheets off the top of the paint tins.

Continuity: When Daniel and Miyagi are in Miyagi's house, Miyagi walks away and comes back with a photo and hands it to Daniel. Daniel is holding the photo in his left hand on the corner, but when it cuts, he is now holding it with his right.

Continuity: When Daniel and Mr. Miyagi are in the Kobra Kai Dojo speaking with the Sensai, in one shot the Sensai points at Daniel, who is standing beside Mr. Miyagi. Then in the following shot, when the Sensai is pointing his finger at Mr. Miyagi, Daniel is now standing behind Mr. Miyagi.

Continuity: When Daniel and his mother are in their new apartment, Daniel goes over to the sink to fill up a bowl of water. The two items on the top by the sink appear in the first shot, then disappear in a shot from behind Daniel then reappear again in a shot from the front.

Continuity: At the very beginning, when we first see Daniel, he begins to talk with another lad. When Daniel and the other lad stop at the metal stairs to talk to an old lady, the other lad is resting his arm on the handrail and is also at the bottom of the staircase, yet in the following shot he is no longer resting on the handrail and is also a few steps up the stairs from what we saw in the first shot.

Audio problem: During the beach fight between Johnny and Daniel right at the time Daniel runs at Johnny and Johnny trips him for the FIRST TIME, you can see some of Johnny's friends holding Ali back as she yells, "Johnny, Stop It." But if you look close, it is easy to tell her lips aren't moving at that point.

Continuity: When Johnny is walking away from Ali, the shot cuts to Daniel lying down on the sand, and there are two guys behind him, one with brown hair and a red tie around his head and a blonde guy. In the following shot after the line "Where did you find this guy," the two guys are now shoulder to shoulder with the guy in the yellow shirt.

Continuity: When Daniel first moves into the apartment, he kicks the outside door open. Then we immediately see Daniel from the inside, and the positions of the pedals on his bike has changed.

Continuity: In the scene where Mr. Miyagi teaches Daniel defensive moves, Daniel blocks Mr. Miyagi's punches with his right hand on the 'paint the fence' move. Daniel then leaves his right hand high, in a defensive position. This shot is taken behind Daniel, over his left shoulder. The next shot, a side view with Daniel on the right of the screen, shows Daniel's left hand held higher, as if he'd used that hand all along.

Continuity: In the beach party scene when the boom box is thrown at Daniel he catches it with the speakers facing away from him, but when it was thrown the speakers were facing him.

Deliberate "mistake": I have participated in several amateur karate tournaments over the years and I have yet to see one that is full contact without any protective equipment whatsoever, especially one in which all of the participants are minors. All of the contestants should at a minimum have had mouth guards, gloves and foot pads.

Continuity: When Mr Miyagi saves Daniel from Johnny, you can see that its not Mr Miyagi jumping over the chain fence, but a stunt double.

Continuity: At the beginning when Daniel is playing soccer on the beach, he has a huge sweat stain on the back of his shirt right before he runs past Ali. Moments later, when he runs away from Ali, the sweat stain has drastically reduced in size.