Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) - 78 mistakes

Continuity: At the beginning when Indy is talking to Spalko, his hands keep alternating from being in his pockets to just resting at his sides between shots.

Factual error: In the warehouse scene, the lights and other metal objects are affected by the box's magnetic field. Yet the soldiers easily lift the box into a metal truck to load it and slide it forward. If the box's magnetic field was as strong as suggested, it would have dragged the soldiers forward as it was magnetically attracted to the truck, and it would have taken much more effort for them to slide it onto the truck bed once it was stuck there.

Visible crew/equipment: When the female Russian is descending the cliff, you can briefly see the harness cable that is holding her up right next to the rope on which she is climbing down.

Factual error: The movie supposedly is set in 1957, yet Mutt's motorcycle is based on a 2000 or newer Harley Davidson softail, showing the modern-day controls and Twin Cam motor, instead of the panhead motor that would have been the period-correct engine for 1957. It also has a front disc brake - you can see the master cylinder on the handlebars. Again, out-of-place on a 1957 bike.

Factual error: The 1950s kitchen scene shows a sink faucet "Dishmaster Model 87" which wasn't manufactured until 1987. The 1950's "Dishmasters" were different.

Continuity: In the beginning, when the trucks are being stopped at the Army gate in Nevada, one of the guards raises the bar immediately, but in a new shot, it is down and stopping the cars from continuing.

Continuity: After Indiana and team fall off the disappearing stairs as they make their way into the lost city, they are walking around in the water. But when they step through the next door into the treasure room, all are completely dry.

Factual error: Indy and Mutt fly to Nazca, Peru. Nazca is only 4 hours away on bus from the capital Lima, yet the city they show on the movie is Cuzco, which is 24 hours away from Lima. Cuzco is on the east side of the country, Nazca is on the west coast right next to Lima. Also, back in 1957 only Lima had an airport, yet they show a Nazca airport that didn't exist.

Continuity: When Indiana and Mutt are in the diner, at the start of the scene there is a pretty blonde girl sitting at the counter just past the corner. A moment later, her seat and the one next to it are occupied by the two Russian guys in suits, and she is talking to a guy with glasses who was earlier by himself. Not enough time had passed for that to change.

Factual error: When Indy and Mutt are flying to Peru, a Pan American Aircraft is shown. It is an Antonov AN-2. Pan Am never flew this Russian aircraft! Also, the shot is backwards; the writing on the aircraft (airline name and registration) read backwards.

Continuity: When Indiana Jones is locked in the chair at the Russian camp, there is a reel-to-reel tape recorder machine running to Indy's left. When you first see it, the amount of tape on the left reel is low. Then, when Irina Spalko walks in, she goes over to it and flicks a switch. As the camera moves out, the tape on the left-hand reel is suddenly nearly equal to the one on the right.

Factual error: The movie shows Mayan warriors talking Quechua in the Peruvian jungle instead of showing Inca Warriors.

Continuity: In the tent, Indy's wrists are tied and he's facing the crystal skull. From one angle his hands are clenched fists, but from a different one they hang loose. The difference is noticable because the angles keep swapping and the hand positions are not continuous.

Continuity: When Indy and Irina are standing in the foreground analyzing Ox's drawings, look over Indy's shoulder and you will see Ox, Marion and Mutt standing up and moving forward. After the scene cuts a couple of times, a soldier asks them to stand up and move forward again.

Factual error: In the church, you can see modern brass panic bars on the doors.

Continuity: In the forest car chase, towards the end of Mutt's sword-fight, we see Indy driving a car behind Mutt. It cuts to Mutt picking up the skull and then back and Indy's car has disappeared. Then, as Mutt falls off the car, magically Indy appears in time to catch him.

Continuity: Just before the Russian backhands Indy in front of the warehouse at the beginning of the film, his hands are crossed behind his own back, but immediately in the next shot, they're crossed in front of him.

Factual error: When Indy is getting decontaminated after the atomic explosion, the workers are using the M17 protective masks. These masks were not in use until the late 1960's.

Continuity: During the beginning chase with Mutt and Indy, the bus goes from next to them in one shot to behind them in another.

Continuity: When Indy and Mutt first meet in the diner scene, look out the window behind Indy. A group of leather-clad bikers are sitting and talking on their motorcycles. They vanish and reappear at least three times during the scene.

Factual error: In the scene where they are flying to Peru from US, they fly over a "map" of a Central America region and the country of Belize is shown. That country was the British Honduras until 1973. It was then renamed to Belize.

Factual error: During the motorcycle chase seen (which was filmed in New Haven, CT) one can see modern yellow traffic lights covered in burlap in a few of the scenes.

Continuity: In the jungle chase scene, Indy and the others blow up the front-running plough machine. They then continue to drive around in a ploughed jungle alley. They should be hitting a lot of trees.

Continuity: After visiting Ox's jail, Indy arrives at the ruins and it's pitch dark. He enters the burial room several minutes later and sun beams are now coming through the ceiling.

Factual error: When they fall into the water, while the stairs disappear, the skull splashes twice.

Continuity: When the gang arrive at Akator, and Indy pulls the first rock from the wall and sand starts pouring out, Mutt runs out from that shot to find himself a rock but in the next shot, when Indy says to Mac, "Go get your own!(rock)", Mutt is suddenly back in the shot and runs off to find a rock, again.

Continuity: When Mutt slams his fist on the table in the diner, the ketchup and mustard bottles fall over. When the shot pans to Indiana's back, the bottles are standing up again. He then tells Mutt to sit down and the camera pans back to Mutt. The bottles are lying down again and Indiana picks them both up.

Continuity: In the opening scene with the drag race, the lead car in the caravan speeds ahead in response to the challenge. In the next scene, the caravan turns right and the challenger continues straight. At this point, the entire caravan is together despite the fact that the lead car would have been far ahead by that point.

Factual error: During the fight in the rocket engine testing facility, the countdown timer has electronic digital numerals. In 1957, the countdown timer would have had flipping numbers, which are mechanically changed as the timer counts down, or a nixie tube display. See films like Fail Safe and Goldfinger for examples of such clocks or timers. LED's weren't even invented until 1962.

Continuity: When the civilian car is chasing the military convoy approaching the Nevada test site it crosses the convoy between the third and the second truck. It then passes the next two trucks on the left. In the next shot it is again behind the first truck.

Continuity: After the duel between Mutt and Irina Spalko, Mutt falls down into the car with Indy and yells, "She's getting away!" as she is seen driving off. However, in the following shot when they are driving near the edge, Irina comes from behind them.

Visible crew/equipment: After everyone has fallen into the water beneath the obelisk and the skull has been retrieved, Indiana is leading everyone out of the water and a prop light can be seen on the big rock spike behind Mutt.

Continuity: When Spalko climbs a hanging vine to escape the large, marauding ants, one jumps on her leg. As it crawls up, she smashes the squishy bug between her knees (you can hear it splatting), but there's no stain or body parts left on her very clean pants.

Factual error: The hotrod in the opening chase scene has a Chevrolet engine in it, even though it is a Ford car. That was not uncommon to do in the fifties, but the speed equipment on the engine would have not existed in 1957, as it was not until the early to mid-sixties that market speed parts were produced for the small block Chevy engine, something that the car in the shot is equipped with.

Continuity: In the scene where the two cars collide frontally in the warehouse, Mac is shown inside the car and immediately afterwards he is shown standing outside the car, while Indy climbs the ceiling woodwork.

Visible crew/equipment: In the beginning of the film when Indy uses his whip to disarm one of the Russians, when he "uses" his whip to pull the gun away, a wire can be seen on the end of the barrel to pull it up.

Continuity: When Indy and Mutt meet in the diner, the spoon on the table changes its position between shots.

Continuity: In the shot where Mutt is on the front of the car sword fighting Spalko, when the shot changes he switches to the back of the car, still fighting her.

Visible crew/equipment: Just as the alarm goes off at the bomb test site, you can see a man walking reflected in the window behind Indy. There is not supposed to be anybody else there.

Continuity: When Mutt and the Russian woman are fighting in the normal view, you see the the AK-47, but when it changes to overhead, it disappears.

Continuity: When Spalko is talking to Indy at the start, there are four Russian soldiers behind her who have their guns pointed at Indy. When Spalko says, "order of Lenin," and walks a few steps away from Indy, the soldiers raise their guns to let her pass. It then cuts to a shot of Spalko over Indy's shoulder and their guns are pointed at him again. It then cuts back to a profile shot of the pair and the guards once again have their guns raised.

Factual error: In a shot of the exterior atomic test homes, we see child dummies playing on a Slip-n-Slide. That toy was not introduced by Wham-O until 1961.

Audio problem: When Irina and Mutt are sword fighting in the jungle, the blade strikes all make echoing sounds.

Revealing: When Mutt is riding his motorcycle the first time he meets Indy at the train station, his hand is pulling in the clutch as he rides. But with the sound and speed of the bike, the clutch would have to be out.

Factual error: In the wedding scene, the minister uses the modern, politically correct "I now pronounce you husband and wife" instead of the traditional "man and wife" - unheard of in 1957.

Continuity: When the civilian car escapes the oncoming car, the three trucks of the military convoy are missing. Only the three small vehicles are on the street.

Revealing: When taking over the Nevada test site, the head Russian drops to tie his shoe as four soldiers pull out machine guns to kill the U.S. guards. Both soldiers on the right run out of ammo, yet keep moving their guns as though they are still shooting.

Continuity: In the university classroom scene, Indiana turns to the dean and says, "Yes?" He is holding the chalk with both hands and his elbows are bent. In the next shot, both arms are at his side. This is seen on the DVD.

Continuity: The Russians arrive at the Nevada base and salute the guards. The one on the far right is very close to the barrier, next to where the corner of the house is; half a second later he is several meters behind and walking towards the barrier again.

Continuity: The drawing that Ox makes in front of Indy differs between shots: Watch the shape of the sun.

Continuity: In a close-up, Indy removes the mask from one of the mummies and is holding it about a foot away from its face. In a shot from further away, Indy is holding the mask three or four feet away from the mummy's face.

Continuity: When Jones is strapped to the chair in the tent Irina uncovers an alien to shows him. She then covers the alien with the cloth, but when the camera moves to a wide shot the soldier at the other side of the table does the same thing.

Factual error: Indy mentions to Mutt that his riding with Pancho Villa was "the fight against Victoriano Huerta". However, that referenced episode of "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" took place in 1916; Huerta had already abdicated the presidential office the year before in 1915. During Indy's time with Villa in 1916, Villa was actively engaged *against* the United States due to the US' support of the Carranza regime in Mexico. So by joining Villa at that time, Indy was fighting against his own country, not Huerta.

Continuity: The CCCP emblem on the back of Irina Spalko's uniform appears and disappears between shots, most notably when she is descending off the cliff and we get a clear view of her back-minus the emblem.

Continuity: Indy, Marion, Mutt and Oxley are all perfectly dry within minutes of stepping out of the water at the bottom of the retracting stairs in Akator.

Other: In the scene when they are all inside the temple with the skeletons, the Russian woman takes the skull and walks up the stairs directly in front of the creature. Yet there are no direct steps. All steps leading up to the skeletons are a little off to the left and right, and there are two sets of them.

Factual error: At the beginning of the movie where the convoy stops at the gate to the military base, the fence has "Razor Wire" on the top, not the period-correct barbed wire. Razor wire came into use in the late sixties by some industries, but the military did not use it until the eighties.

Visible crew/equipment: As they are running away from the ants, you can see a rig of stage lights under the jeep Col. Spalko's crew was driving.

Other: In the warehouse scene when they're standing around the crate containing the heavily magnetized alien, all metal objects like guns and other items are pulled towards the magnetic force field. But Indy, who is standing next to the crate, has a bag with a metal strap that stays still when it also would've been pulled towards the alien.

Other: When Indy escapes on the rocket powered cart, it is slowed down by a pool of water on the tracks. The only problem is that when this happens in real life, it's almost the same as slamming into a wall, and therefore Indy should have been flying several feet away from the rocket powered cart. You can actually see the chair that the test persons before him used, and it has double seat belts on it.

Continuity: In the beginning when the Russians are talking to Indy, his shirt is tucked, then in another shot it's untucked, then it's tucked again. This continues for about 3-5 shots.

Continuity: Before Indy finds the crystal skull, the mummy's head has a piece of cloth on its forehead. In a wide shot immediately afterwards, this cloth disappears.

Continuity: After the main characters have been thrown out of the "lost city" by the rapidly rising waters, they are completely soaked (quite natural, as they were submerged in the well). But after everything dies down, all of the characters' hair and clothes are bone dry.

Continuity: When Col. Spalko begins cutting the leather covering the alien corpse in the casket, no straps are seen. In the close-up shot a strap is suddenly visible.

Factual error: In the warehouse when Indy and the Soviets open the crate with the alien's body, all the overhead lights are pulled towards it. If the magnetic field was that strong, the lights also would have been pulled towards the box before it was opened. (Put a toy car on top of a table and pull it with a magnet from under the table to see the field in action).

Continuity: Right at the start when the Russians pull Mac out of the car, they throw Indy's hat on the ground and there is a close-up shot of it where you can see Mac's feet right next to it. It then cuts to a relatively wide bird's-eye shot over the car as it is surrounded by Russian soldiers and there is nobody near the hat - Mac isn't even in the shot.

Revealing: Right after the nuclear explosion and Indy comes out of the refrigerator, the scene changes to an airfield with two cars driving across the screen. The cars are obviously CGI, as the first one turns despite the wheels still pointing straight.

Continuity: During the scene where Indy and Mutt first find the skull and they are having a conversation about it. Indy is holding the skull with the face pointing to his right. As the camera changes back it is facing to his left, then it changes back again.

Continuity: Indy's mostly buried in the quick sands and he is handed a snake. Half a second later, when he has just managed to grab it he isn't buried as deeply.

Continuity: When Indiana and Mutt are in the diner, notice the coffee cup Indy has on the table. In one shot, he has it in his hand. In another, his hand is not on it. This happens twice with the different camera angles.

Continuity: When Indy is held captive in the Soviet's tent, Mac enters and they have a conversation. Indy then turns his head to his left, looking straight at Mac. Just before Indy makes his threat about what he'll do to Mac when he gets loose, there is an angle change, and Indy is suddenly staring straight ahead, with no time to turn his head in between shots. He then turns his head back to look Mac in the face again.

Continuity: After the nuclear explosion when Indiana Jones is thrown into the air inside the fridge, in one shot the doors are closed, then open, and then closed again.

Continuity: In the beginning when Indy's hat is thrown from the trunk onto the ground, it faces the 9 o'clock postion. But when Indy reaches to pick it up half-a-second later, it faces the 12 o'clock direction.

Continuity: Indy's head position and hairstyle keeps changing in the shots after the test jet comes to a stop.

Continuity: In the diner scene between "Indy" and "Mutt," Indy's shirt-collar points are smooth under his jacket lapel in some close-up shots, but in others one collar point is curled up.

Continuity: During the chase above the waterfall, the assault boat has its machine gun snapped off. When the assault boat goes over the waterfall the gun is visible again for a few seconds. The gun is gone when they get to the bottom.

Continuity: Throughout the whole movie, Irina's hair seems to be kept absolutely pristine, even when she is flung from cars. This is very noticible at the car chase in the military base when she is thrown from the car by Indy. One minute, a few strands of hair are slightly messed, then they are fixed again. It is likely, however, given the many other nods to films of that period, that the "concrete hair" effect is a deliberate decision.

Continuity: During the diner scene between Mutt and Indy, Indy initially starts talking and wraps his hand around the mug in front of him. The shot cuts and his hand is off to the side, and the next pop cuts and his hand is on the cup again.