Apocalypse Now (1979) - 53 major mistakes

Revealing: In the major helicopter scene when Ride of the Valkyries is played, the actual tape isn't going over the playing heads.

Continuity: In the playboy bunny scene, the helicopter's main rotor keeps on starting and stopping.

Audio problem: As Playmate of the Year Carrie Foster is brought out to the audience carried by two Green Berets watch the band behind her closely. The bass player stops playing as he scratches his head but the bass on the soundtrack keeps going.

Continuity: As they pull up next to the Vietnamese sampan Clean runs to the port side of the boat in order to catch the tow rope. Chef is standing behind Captain Willard in middle of the boat and doesn't move and all. In the next shot Clean and Chef are both standing on the edge of the port side of the boat.

Continuity: After the helicopter attack when the chopper drops the patrol boat into the water, you can see the canopy and the radar type antenna break and collapse. When you see it again it's in perfect condition.

Visible crew/equipment: Just before Captain Willard shoots the injured Vietnamese woman on the sampan a crew member accidentally moves into the lower part of the shot as he crosses from the sampan into the PBR.

Continuity: The three adjoining huts on the beach with the communist flags in front of them explode twice at different times in the scene. Then they appear again undamaged in another overhead shot of the beach as a helicopter pilot says, "We're taking fire from the holes".

Continuity: After Lieutenant Col. Kilgore introduces Lance to his surfing buddies they all walk away and Captain Willard takes a drag from his cigarette holding it with his right hand. A band-aid appears on his right thumb between shots for the first time in this scene.

Continuity: As they watch Lieutenant Col. Kilgore's helicopter battle from their boat the captain says, "It was the air-cav. 1st of the 9th" and Clean appears in middle of the boat under the flag between shots.

Revealing: As the boat crew steps ashore to find Kilgore, the obvious shadows of two crew and their equipment are seen moving across the backs of the soldiers and then the raised netting slightly further away.

Continuity: Back on the boat after the tiger attack Chef, freaks out and yells, "Yes I've had it…" and the surfboard behind Chief Phillips' head moves about a foot to the left between shots as he says, "Tiger?".

Continuity: When the captain realizes that Chef's head is in his lap he moves around violently trying to get it away from him. We can see that both his legs are tied up with wire but in the next close-up of Chef's head on the ground the captain's foot is freely moving around.

Continuity: After the soldiers crash the stage Miss May Goes from having no one around her to having a bunch of soldiers surrounding her between shots.

Continuity: As Chef grabs the black wig it's clear to see that the window on the helicopter door has a strain crack going down the middle of it. It's there for two shots then when Clean hammers on the helicopter door the first time it's not broken. After he climbs up onto the helicopter and bangs on the front windshield he comes back to the side window a second time and it's cracked again.

Continuity: Before he talks to the sergeant about fuel for the boat Captain Willard looks out at the stage were the USO show is going to be held and it's not raining as it was in the previous shot of him walking on the dock.

Continuity: Right after the helicopter pilot says, "my tail rotors out, I've got control" they blow up the entire Vin Din Dop bridge ending with the side closest to the beach. In the next shot they blow up the same side of the bridge again closest to the beach.

Continuity: Inside the helicopter Chef poses Miss May with the black wig and says, "that's it, voila". The white bird sitting on his shoulder disappears between shots.

Continuity: Chef says, "I gotta remember, never get out of the boat" as he sits in front of Chief Phillips on the starboard side of the boat. In the next shot as they pull away from the tree they've been hiding under he's walking around on the other side of the boat.

Continuity: On the beach at Vin Din Dop Captain Willard steals the surfboard from Lt. Col. Kilgore's men and the tail rotor on the lieutenant's helicopter that just flew in has been removed.

Continuity: Approaching Kurtz' compound Lance starts drumming on two tin cans and if you listen closely they get the overdub wrong. At first we hear two distinct pitches, which are the actual sounds, picked up by the microphone but the last time he hits it we hear a third higher pitch which was overdubbed. There are only two cans not three and he doesn't change the way he's holding them therefore you can only have a maximum of two audible pitches.