Lethal Weapon (1987) - 72 mistakes

Continuity: When Riggs is out one night trying to locate Dixie the streetwalker, he shows her photo to strangers. But if you look, the photo is of an Asian woman. Bears no resemblance to the real Dixie we saw in an earlier scene.

Deliberate "mistake": Riggs handcuffs himself to the depressed businessman. They jump off the building but they're not handcuffed to each other anymore. They used plastic cuffs which could separate during the stunt in case anything went wrong. They break just as they jump, so they grab each other's hands to stay in contact.

Continuity: In the scene where the girl jumps to her death from the balcony, it shows her hitting the car towards the right halfway onto the windshield. Then in the next shot, it shows her laying right in the middle of the roof of the car.

Continuity: At the end, when Riggs is at his wifes grave, it's supposedly raining. In one shot you see Riggs' hair is dripping wet, and when you see him bend down to put the flowers on the grave in the next shot, his hair is dry, and in the next shot it's wet again.

Continuity: In the scene where "the General" and his driver were fleeing down the alley, the diver is shot. The general takes control of the wheel and carries on driving, but the car is in park...

Continuity: During the scene where the General is escaping in the car and Murtaugh shoots the driver. When the car is hit by the bus on the avenue you can see part of the device that makes the car flip over and roll away from the crash.

Audio problem: When Hunsaker gets shot through the window we hear the sound of a pane shattering, but there is only a small hole with a few cracks in the glass (not really typical for an ordinary window anyway).

Continuity: There is a scene where Riggs and Murtaugh are driving in a car, and the column shifter keeps going from park to drive and back.

Visible crew/equipment: When the car crashes into the bus and lands on its top, you can see a big square hole cut out of the car's underside.

Continuity: When Hunsaker's shot, his eggnog gets all over his tie and shirt. When the camera angle cuts to Murtaugh's reaction, Hunsaker's shirt and tie are clean and there is no eggnog pouring from the container. Also there is no hole of any kind in the glass door behind him in which the bullet made.

Continuity: The wet patches on the sleeve of Nick's t-shirt change when the family surprises Murtaugh in the bathtub. Actually, when they carried the B-day cake in, the t-shirt should have been dry in the first place as the water battle started only later.

Continuity: The Christmas illumination on the balcony of Amanda Hunsaker's hotel room is arranged in three different ways: In the first shot, before she takes drugs, it is attached to the side of the railing. When she steps out, the lights are hanging about 10 inches below the railing, like they are later when Murtaugh searches her room. And when she climbs up to jump the bulbs are directly hanging down from the railing.

Plot hole: Before Amanda jumps she climbs up some steps onto the railing without holding on to anything. However, in none of the earlier shots (or later when Murtaugh searches the room) there is anything on the balcony that could have served that purpose.

Revealing: After Murtaugh interrogates the little boy he walks away. In the background the boy raises his arm to wave after them but stops in the middle, obviously stopped by the crew, and smiles embarrassedly.

Continuity: As Riggs exits the car, he takes the cigarette out of his mouth. The camera angle chages to show him standing outside the car, handling his pistol, and the cigarette is back in his mouth, with no time to put it there and the audio indicates the shots are consecutive time.

Continuity: Just as his wife is about to smack Murtagh's butt at the oven, a small ladder is at the right, angled to face Murtagh's position. As the shot changes to get a bit closer, the ladder is suddenly more parallel with the cabinetry.

Revealing: When Murtaugh's car is going towards the meeting point, there's some extra dust coming from the right, caused by crew members.

Revealing: When Riggs and Murtaugh get into the car after Riggs bought a hotdog, there is a car waiting next to them with four elderly ladies who are all staring at the scene of the movie shooting.

Plot hole: One of the children is a witness that saw the man that planted the bomb in Dixie's house. He is said by a policeman to have been playing 'under the porch' and was close enough to make-out the Special Forces tatoo on the bomber's arm. Problem is, Dixie's house had no porch of any kind, and any other home's porch would've placed him too far to see such a small tatoo so confidently.

Continuity: When coked-up Amanda first looks down from the balcony, we see the ground from her vantage point. Were she to jump from this location, she would land on the huge awning below (the curved dark area). If she put real effort into jumping forward to clear the awning (and she didn't), she'd land just to the right of the lighted sidewalk, onto the grass. And if she were an olympic long-jumper and not high on cocaine, she might have landed on the red or black car parked at the curb. Under no circumstances could she have landed on the gray car, well to her left - yet she does.

Continuity: When Murtaugh clips on another target it's crumpled at the side. When it comes back after he has shot, it's clipped on straight.

Continuity: While working out the case at the shooting range, Murtaugh starts unloading his gun as the conversation's ending, and as the chat's been constant back and forth, we know there have been no cuts. He's only fired one shot, and Riggs has fired 9. When they reel in the targets however, Murtaugh's target has 6 holes, and Riggs' has 14 or 15.

Continuity: When Murtaugh is about to find the envelope with the porno tape he takes a can of beer from the fridge and opens it. When he is sitting down, the same can of beer is opened again audibly.

Continuity: Just before Hunsaker's shot, he's standing right in front of the window. When it cuts to a wider shot, he's suddenly a foot or two further left.

Continuity: In the scene where Riggs is chasing Joshua and is told by Murtagh to take a shortcut to catch Joshua, he is shown running in bare feet. After shooting at Joshua from on top of the freeway he then runs down the embankment and is shown wearing tennis shoes, but there is nowhere these shoes could have come from and he is never shown putting them on.

Continuity: (Director's Cut) As Murtagh later states (and Riggs does not correct him), Riggs' 9mm pistol has a 15 round clip and holds one more 'in the pipe' (barrel), yet when he took out the sniper earlier, he fired at least 19 rounds in a single, rapid sequence.

Revealing: When the bus hits the car, the car launches into the air, propelled by a special-effects 'roll cannon'. The cylindrical slug that is fired out of the bottom of the car is seen rolling ahead of the bus toward the bottom of the screen.

Plot hole: Murtagh and Riggs believe Joshua is going to Murtagh's home to kill his family. So they have two uniform officers in a patrol car out front of the house, seemingly guarding Murtagh's family. Magically, tho, Murtagh and Riggs have beat Joshua there, and are hiding nearby while the family has been removed. The uniform cops are apparently never told who is coming, what he's capable of, looks like, or is driving, as they are very accommodating when Joshua arrives, and are quickly executed. Considering the events prior, this situation is ludicrously inept. Murtagh and Riggs wouldn't just sacrifice two officers like that.

Revealing: In one of the first scenes of the movie you see Riggs in his trailer. He walks out of bed smoking a cigarette and taking a beer. When he takes his first drink of the beer some fluid is spilled. If you look at it, it is not beer. It's probably water, but definitely not beer.

Continuity: The bad wound on Murtaugh's left shoulder (the one which got salted) disappears when he and Riggs drive back to his house.

Visible crew/equipment: When Riggs and Murtaugh compare their targets, a crew member sneaks up behind Riggs and disappears in the next shot.

Continuity: Towards the end of the meeting between the General and Mendez, Mendez steps backwards and bumps into one of the General's men. He turns around and makes some jerky moves with both arms. The camera cuts to the General, and we see Mendez in the background colliding with the other guy once again in exactly the same way as before.

Revealing: When the General holds the lighter under Mr. Joshua's arm there is no smoke from burning hair at all.

Continuity: During the staged drug deal the items on the table move around. Check for example the little bag with the sample and the can in front of Riggs when he takes his wallet out.

Continuity: When Murtaugh steals some bacon from the tray there is about twice as much than in the shot before.

Revealing: Towards the end, when Riggs runs up to Murtaugh just after the car explodes, Riggs is carrying a large machine gun in his right hand. He runs up to the police barricade, but the police officer won't let him by until he shows him his ID. The police officer completely ignored the fact that Riggs was holding a large gun and could have been a criminal who wanted to use it.

Continuity: When Riggs is talking to Mr. Joshua before the electrical shock treatment starts, every time the camera shows a side shot the water is covering his head and face, but every time the camera angle changes to the front he is completely dry and the water is in the background nowhere near him.

Continuity: When Riggs sees the car with Mr. Joshua coming he pushes the hooker away and starts running, but when he is shot at it looks as if he was standing with his back to a shop window. Accordingly, his bullet-proof vest has holes in the front, but then his red jacket has only holes in the back.

Continuity: In the scene just after the jumper, Murtaugh pulls Riggs into a room and asks Riggs if he wants to die. He hands Riggs his pistol. When Riggs puts the pistol to his temple you can see and hear him cocking the hammer. After some arguing about the positioning of the gun, Riggs then puts the barrel unter his chin. While he's pulling the trigger the camera goes to a close-up of the pistol and shows the hammer pulling back, as he squeezes the trigger.

Continuity: When Riggs is standing in the schoolyard during the sniper scene, he is standing on a large rubber safety mat near the monkey bars. But the close-up of his feet shows he is standing on bare concrete (Director's Cut).

Continuity: As Murtagh is interviewing Hunsacker, Riggs waits outside on the grass. At one point, the area Riggs is standing still in changes from full sun to full shadow in seconds.

Continuity: When Amanda is first shown lying in bed, she is wearing her left shoe, but not the right. When she steps up onto the railing, the shoe is on her right foot, but this looks to be a mirror image, possibly on the sliding glass door - fair enough. But when she's lying on the roof of the car, she's wearing both shoes.

Other: When the General's car has turned turtle, there's a lot of white material on the road that looks like several square meters of carton sheets and whose purpose I'm not able to tell, but which certainly doesn't belong there.

Continuity: Shortly before the General's car gets hit by the bus the dead driver is leaning towards the side window. When the camera angle changes to inside the car his head is hanging forward.

Revealing: The hole in the windshield through which the General's driver was shot is not a hole but a round spot of cracked glass. Only before the car gets hit by the bus there is a shot of a hole big enough for a bullet to zip through.

Continuity: After Murtaugh shoots the General's driver the car is swerving around and the dead guy loses his sunglasses, but they jump back on his nose for the rest of the scene.

Visible crew/equipment: When Mr. Joshua's car knocks over the telephone post there are crew with equipment visible in the background.

Continuity: When Riggs and Murtaugh kick Murtaugh's front door open they must have damaged the lock, but when the door falls closed the lock sounds as if it is perfectly OK.

Visible crew/equipment: When Riggs walks up to Dixie's house the camera is reflected in his sunglasses.

Continuity: In the last shot before Amanda crashes on the car, the red car in front is parked in a different angle than when she is lying on the roof.

Revealing: Towards the end of the movie, watch the shots of the General in his car. Though he's supposedly speeding, the view we get through his rear windshield is of the ground going up and down, as if he was really just sitting in the car and pretending he was driving.

Other: Just after Danny Glover's shot the guy by the pool, Mel Gibson goes to handle the two girls. We hear all the exchanges between him and them offscreen, such as "don't move or I'll break your arms", etc., ending with him saying "Got 'em", and we hear a pair of handcuffs click. When we see the girls, they're either side of a tree, with the camera-side cuffs on a wrist each. But we only heard one set of cuffs (all while off-screen, so there's no reason we wouldn't have heard another set go on), and with only one set on, there's nothing to stop them running away.

Continuity: The first time we see Riggs he is lying in bed with a cigarette, almost finished, in his mouth. He gets up and goes to the fridge. When he opens it the cigarette looks like it has hardly been smoked at all.

Continuity: Director's cut (or extra scenes on Lethal Weapon 4 DVD): When Riggs is sitting there at the beginning of the movie, he is crying and looking at the picture of his wife on the right and wedding day on the left. Earlier in the movie when the picture was setting on the TV set his wife's picture was on the left and his wedding day picture was on the right. Not only that, but in at the start the pictures are in a folding frame. During the near-suicide scene they are not. [The first scene shows Riggs has damaged the frame, and says to the photo of his wife, "I'll buy you a new one." which explains the later changes.]

Continuity: When Riggs and Murtaugh are driving to the house in Beverly Hills to shoot the guy in the pool, Riggs is lighting a cigarette and then Murtaugh says "You're not gonna smoke in the car." Riggs answers "Yes, but I'm gonna roll down the window." In the previous shot you can see that the window is already rolled down.

Revealing: A short shot from inside the bus looking forward at the moment of impact shows a wall of water fires up onto the windshield. This 'water barrel' technique is used to lessen damage and injury on many public roadways, and is used here to save the bus for use in another take - the one when it actually does hit the car a split-second of movie-time later.

Continuity: The pattern of scars on Riggs' face changes when he comes to deliver his bullet to Murtaugh: The two cuts on his left cheek become three, and the lesions on his chin disappear.

Continuity: When Murtaugh meets the General's people in the desert the door of his car gets blown open by the helicopter. When he pulls out the grenade the door is almost closed again.

Continuity: When Murtaugh drops Riggs off in the desert it's sunset, but when we see the car in the next shot the sun is way up again.

Revealing: When Riggs walks up to the "Irish-Chinese" hooker it's raining quite hard, but not on him.

Continuity: When Riggs talks to the jumper his hair is either fluffy or stabilized with gel, depending on the camera angle.

Continuity: At the shooting range, just after saying "That's very thin", Riggs has his arms outstretched, semi-aiming his gun. Cut to a two-shot, and he's got his arms into his body.

Continuity: Their car goes round the corner and the police light falls off the roof and dangles, yet is back on the roof a second later.

Continuity: After Murtaugh teams up with Riggs they walk through a parking garage. A police car drives by them twice (at walking speed, with its lights on - in the garage), first in a closer, then in a wider shot, while the dialogue continues, ruling out any artistic intention of this repetition.

Other: When Amanda lies on the roof of the car we see the shadows of two people walking by, obviously taking no interest in the rather peculiarly positioned dead woman. Even in an uncompassionate City like L.A. one should expect that passers-by take at least a closer look at an accident scene like this one.

Audio problem: Mr. Jeremy's assault rifle at the end of the movie has a silencer at the end, but it is just as loud, if not louder, than Riggs's submachine gun.

Continuity: During the drive-by shooting it's raining heavily. When Riggs and Murtaugh leave the scene by car the streets are dry, but when they arrive at Murtaugh's house they are wet again.

Continuity: The lawn in front of Dixie's house turns completely into naked dry soil at the end of the scene, even at places where it should not be really affected by the extinguishing operations.

Continuity: The kids in front of Dixie's house change positions between shots when they shout after Riggs and Murtaugh, like the one with the baseball cap who sits up. Furthermore, this little guy can't help glimpsing at the camera for a second.

Continuity: When Riggs and Murtaugh walk toward Dixie's house before it blows up, they're wearing large clear glasses, almost like the safety glasses they were wearing at the firing range. After the house blows up they aren't wearing them anymore or even seen taking them off.

Plot hole: Before Riggs, Murtaugh, and Rianne enter the disco after they have killed or chased away their torturers, a man is casually leaning at the bar, with his hands folded in front and moving with the music. When the three protagonists come running through the door he immediately turns around and points a gun at them which apparently he was holding in his hand. One should expect that, in a public disco, even the bad guys keep their guns somewhat better hidden than just in their folded hands when they are not aware of any immediate danger. Furthermore, even the guests close to the bar don't hear the shot when Riggs shoots that guy, even though the music is not loud enough to cover the gunshot.

Continuity: A quick shot from the interior of the General's car looking at the approaching bus, a metal guard is seen on the front of the bus, painted white to match. It is not there in the shots before or after.