Apocalypse Now (1979) - 390 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: 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: On the boat they offer a joint to Captain Willard who approaches them clean-shaven and dry. He wants nothing to do with them and goes back to his work but in the next shot he's dripping wet and needs a shave.

Other: After Captain Willard walks through the front door of the burnt out French plantation dock there's a close-up of Chief Phillips at the wheel the boat. He turns around and looks right at Chef and says, "Lance".

Continuity: At the funeral Chief Phillips picks up the flag from Clean's body holding it between his fingers about two inches in on each end. In the next shot he's holding it on the edges and the flag is reversed with the stars and stripes on the right.

Continuity: The old gentleman sitting across the table from Hubert de Marais says, "Maybe in the future we can make something with the Vietminh" and the gentleman to the left of Roxanne replies, "Don't you understand". If you look closely the cigar that he just put into the ashtray in the previous shot, along with its smoke, has disappeared.

Continuity: Chef says to Captain Willard, "We'll go up there, but on the boat, okay?" and you can see orange smoke blowing from right to left across the screen towards Lance. In the next shot of Lance in the water with Chief Phillips' body there's no smoke.

Continuity: Captain Willard tries to stop him from shooting but Chief Phillips yells, "you son of a bitch" as he pushes the captain to the floor. In the next shot the captain is up and holding onto the roof of the boat with his left hand.

Continuity: Dennis Hopper Says, " these are all his children, man, as far as you can see" and we see a large leaf covering Chef's head and held on with a rubber band. Then when Dennis Hopper says," the man's enlarged my mind…. do you know that if is the middle word in life?" there's a different leaf on his head that has much more green in it.

Continuity: After he decides to decline the offer to spend some time with the bunnies Chief Phillips picks up some tools off the roof of the boat. In the next shot he's already on the floor of the boat turned around and ready to go down the hatch to work on the engine.

Continuity: As they sit in the boat at Kurtz's compound discussing what they should do, Captain Willard tells Chef about the air strike and hands the radio to him with the antenna standing straight up. In the next shot as he grabs it the antenna is folded over.

Continuity: Clean starts out to the left of Captain Willard, then just before Colonel Kilgore lands he's behind the Captain chasing his helmet. In the next shot as the helicopter lands he's now in front of the Captain.

Continuity: Before they leave the Do Lung Bridge Captain Willard yells to Chief Phillips, "Just get us up river". When he does this he's sitting down but in the next shot as the boat pulls out he's standing up.

Continuity: When Colonel Kurtz says, "And they call me an assassin," the statue in front of the TV casts its shadow on the left of the picture tube. The lighting doesn't change throughout this scene but the next time we see it the shadow is one quarter of the way to the center of the picture tube. Later the shadow moves back to the side of the TV again.

Continuity: Roxanne prepares a pipe for Captain Willard and says, "It was the morphine he took for the wounds he suffered in his heart." The shadow of her left hand falls on her face as she holds the needle over the flame. In the next shot, however, the lighting has changed and the shadow is now nowhere near her face.

Continuity: As Dennis Hopper gets the captain some water we see a wide shot of five bamboo cages with a guard standing between them. In the next shot as Dennis Hopper turns around from the fountain the guard is facing the opposite way and is now talking to the prisoner in the cage that was on the left (now behind them).

Continuity: Colonel Kurtz leaves after he finishes reading the Time articles and there's a close-up of Captain Willard's face and chest. He's soaking wet in the close-up but in the next shot, as he collapses trying to leave the room, his face and chest are dry and there isn't as much dirt on the left side of his chest.

Continuity: As the PBR backs out of Kurtz' compound the person at the controls is wearing a shirt. Lance is sitting on the front of the boat so the only other person that could be at the helm is Captain Willard who is not wearing a shirt in the previous or next shots.

Continuity: During the arrow attack Captain Willard orders Lance to take control of the boat as Chief Phillips is shooting. When we first see him at the helm look at Lance's head, he doesn't have the broken arrow in his hair. In the next shot he does.

Continuity: The gentleman in the tan jacket to the left of Roxanne is eating when Hubert says, "You don't understand our mentality". In the next shot he's reaching over and pouring a glass of wine for her.

Visible crew/equipment: After Clean is killed there's a shot of Lance sitting on the back of the boat holding a mirror in his right hand. This is not the actor Sam Bottoms but a longer haired thinner stand-in who's not wearing the black wristwatch that Sam wears in every other scene in the movie.

Continuity: As Lance dances around with the purple smoke canister there's nothing in front of the helm of the boat under the radar dome. Later as the rocket attack that kills Clean starts a helmet appears there.

Continuity: As Chief Phillips orders Chef to, "Check what's in that vegetable basket," the Vietnamese woman runs past and hands him papers that he takes with his right hand. In the next shot as he pushes the woman the papers are in his left hand.

Continuity: Captain Willard reads Kurtz' file and narrates, "Late Summer, Autumn 1968" as Clean drums in front of him. At first Clean has both sticks on the helmet than in the next shot the right stick is on the helmet and the left is hitting the boat.

Continuity: As Chef shows Chief Phillips and Clean the picture in his Playboy magazine of Miss December you can see the USO stage behind them. In the previous shot of the boat leaving one of the six tall lipstick statues on the upper left of the grandstand was knocked down. Now as the boat departs all six statues are standing.

Continuity: As Captain Willard and Lance run away from Colonel Kilgore, their boat is coming towards them with no colored smoke behind it. A few seconds later we see it again with green and purple smoke behind it.

Continuity: Martin Sheen's fingers are shown many times in close-ups of him reading files such as after the "Satisfaction" surfing scene. They all look the same except for when he picks up Kilgore's death card. The thumbs on this person's hands are much longer than we see throughout the movie and are not Martin Sheen's.

Continuity: At the beach party LColonel Kilgore stands up and says, "This is the first of the ninth, Air-Cav, son". If you look closely when he stands up the map that they were just looking at is gone. The colonel was holding it, but he doesn't have it nor does Captain Willard.

Continuity: On the boat as they look for the B-52's, Lance says, "There they are," standing in the center of boat under the flag. In the next shot, Clean is standing in that spot.

Continuity: As Captain Willard walks up to Lt. Col. Kilgore's helicopter there's rain on the windshield. In the previous shot we see the windshield as the helicopter lands and it's dry.

Continuity: On the boat Captain Willard reads newspaper clippings about Colonel Kurtz' and thinks to himself, "38 fucking years old…" and he is sweating profusely, with sweat dripping off of his face and neck. However, his right hand is perfectly dry when he lifts a flashlight and moments later a cigarette.

Visible crew/equipment: Captain Willard is on the right side of his bed dancing and he sticks his right fist towards the camera. Watch the bedspread closely as he pulls his fist back and you can see the shadow of the camera moving on the bedspread.

Continuity: During dinner Hubert de Marais starts to rattle off all of the places in the world the French have lost wars. In the next shot the wine glass in front of Captain Willard goes from one quarter full to three quarters full between shots.

Continuity: After the helicopters land on the beach at Vin Drin Dop a soldier yells, "I'm not going, I'm not going" and we see huts that were blown up and burned down earlier in the scene untouched and as good as new.

Continuity: Captain Willard shreds all of his notes on Colonel Kurtz and narrates to himself, "but the thing I felt the most, much stronger than fear, was the desire to confront him". In a wide shot of the boat we can see that the flag that covered Clean's body is back on top of the PBR.

Continuity: Kilgore watches from the beach after he calls in the napalm attack on Vin Din Dop. We see a large explosion but the three fighters never actually drop any napalm they just fly over.

Continuity: Captain Willard and Lance run away from Lieutenant Col. Kilgore and the captain says, "get the f&% outta here". As this happens a helicopter is flying towards the colonel and two soldiers are helping an injured soldier. The camera cuts away for three seconds then back to a wide shot of the colonel again and the helicopter and the injured soldier have disappeared.

Continuity: At the Playboy Bunnies camps Lance picks up the second barrel of diesel fuel with both hands as he takes it off the boat. In the next shot both his arms are wrapped around it.

Continuity: After they first meet Captain Willard looks at Dennis Hopper and says, "Take who away?". The red wind spinner to left of the Captain is in tatters, but a few seconds later when Dennis Hopper walks back to the front of the boat it's back together again.

Continuity: No one has touched it, but when the General passes the roast beef to Jerry, the pepper shaker, which was just next to the salt shaker in front of him, has been moved to the other side of the table.

Continuity: As Harrison Ford hands the Captain a picture of Colonel Kurtz note the salt shaker and spoons to the right of his plate change. The salt shaker disappears and the spoons are suddenly side-by-side when the Captain places the photo on the table.

Continuity: As Captain Willard smokes his cigarette ,Dennis Hopper says, "I'm curious. I'm very curious. Are you curious?" The captain has the cigarette between his lips pointing upward, but the in the next shot the cigarette is pointing downward and the ash is longer.

Audio problem: On the boat after they offer the joint to Captain Willard, Clean says, "All right, that's great" and his lips don't match what he's saying.

Continuity: Colonel Kurtz drops Chef's head into Captain Willard's lap. At first the head has no blood on it but in the next shot when the captain realizes what it is Chef's face has blood all over it.

Continuity: During the arrow attack Chief Phillips grabs a machine gun and starts shooting. At first he and Chef's guns are both pointing in the same direction, starboard. In the next shot one gun is facing one way and the other is facing the opposite way.

Continuity: The Frenchmen playing the accordion walks away from Captain Willard into the other room and trips over something. Look closely at the table because two shots later everything will be different. The fruit in the fruit bowl is entirely different, the flowers and the lazy Susan have been moved and some of the wine and water in the glasses are at different levels.

Continuity: As they begin to break out of the fog bank Chief Phillips says, "Lance on the 50s". Lance doesn't move from where he is on the roof of the boat but Chef goes to the machine gun twice between shots and points it in different directions each time.

Continuity: The gentleman sitting next to Roxanne in the tan jacket gets up and says, "Look, this is the truth, an egg, the white left, but the yellow stays". If you look closely the lazy Susan in the center of the table holding the oil and vinegar has been rotated between shots without being touched by anyone.

Continuity: After the gentleman in the tan jacket says, "The white left, but the yellow stays". Look closely at the plate that he drops the egg into as the two pieces of bread change into pastry between shots.

Continuity: After Roxanne sits down to the eat she says something sweet in French that makes Hubert de Marais chuckle, and also makes the amount of wine in his glass decrease between shots.

Continuity: The gentleman sitting next to Roxanne in the tan jacket gets up and says, "Look, Captain," and Roxanne reaches over with her right hand as she holds her cigar in her left. In the next shot she's sitting with both hands on the table and the cigar in her right hand.

Continuity: After the gentleman in the tan jacket spills the egg into the plate, between shots Roxanne goes from having her right hand on the table to having her right hand near her mouth holding her cigar.

Continuity: As he first spots the French plantation from the bow of the boat Captain Willard's watch reads 12:45. Then when Chef puts his rifle down it's 4:00. then two shots later as the captain walks forward towards the Frenchmen it's 5:50.

Continuity: After leaving the Do Lung Bridge everyone sits around reading their mail from home. Lance takes the canister of purple smoke and proceeds to throw it overboard as he says, "Hot potato. Hot potato." In the next shot he has the canister in his hand again.

Continuity: After he sees the sampan Chief Phillips says, "A junk boat Captain. We're gonna take a routine check," and Clean goes from aiming the 60 caliber machine gun behind him to not even holding it at all between shots.

Continuity: As they come along side the sampan Chief Phillips says, "Look in that forward hooch, bring the people out of there." Clean slips on something and spins the machine gun "Canned Heat" towards the sampan as he ties the boats together. In the next shot the machine gun is spun to the left pointing away from the sampan. This reversal happens several other times.

Visible crew/equipment: Just before the Playboy helicopter leaves the USO show there's a shot of the stage from behind the audience and you can see the shadow of the cameramen moving from left to right on the shirts of the soldiers.

Continuity: Clean hammers on the helicopter door and says, "I got my rights, man." He's in direct sunlight when you see him from inside the helicopter and not in the shot of him on the outside.

Continuity: The guy on the second patrol boat that throws the flare onto their roof starts out wearing a dark green beret, but in the next shot, when we see him up close, he's not wearing any hat at all.

Continuity: Clean tunes in his transistor radio to AMVN and we hear it continuously playing in the background as Captain Willard goes from standing with his shirt on looking at Chief Phillips as he pilots the boat, to sitting shirtless looking at pictures of Colonel Kurtz between shots.

Continuity: When Lazaro's boat initially approaches, the guy on the front has a flare in both hands that he's just about to ignite. When they cut to the next shot he doesn't have anything in his hands.

Continuity: Chief Phillips gives the helm of the boat over to Chef as Clean continues with his story. Lance takes the plastic covering off of the top water-ski then in the next shot it's covered again then uncovered in the shot after that.

Continuity: Chef and Clean pull Lance entirely into the boat. Than Captain Willard says, "Don't leave without me "as he runs to steal the colonel's surf board and we see Lance's legs dangling over the side as he is pulled into the boat a second time.

Continuity: As the chopper pilot circles the courtyard he says, "We've got wounded down there" and a yellow flair is in the center of the courtyard. In the next shot of the soldiers running around down below we see the center of the courtyard but the yellow flare is not there having been replaced by a Vietnamese hat.

Continuity: Harrison Ford goes over to the tape recorder to play a tape of Colonel Kurtz' voice and the food on the captain's plate changes completely. At first there's a serving of roast beef with a roll next to it, than when we see it again there's less roast beef and pees and carrots where the roll was.

Continuity: After he cuts his hand on the mirror Captain Willard rubs his face with his bloody right hand. In the next shot as he attempts to poor a drink into his mouth only his thumb is bloody and there is no blood on his face.

Continuity: Near the beginning of the movie when we first see Chef's tattoos up close the tip of the serpent's tongue on his left arm is entirely red. Later in the movie before he gets onto the Vietnamese sampan we see it again up close and the tip of the serpent's tongue is green.

Continuity: The camera pans left as Colonel Kilgore has a beach party for the men at the end of the day. If you look closely at Lance he has two cans of the beer to the left of him, a Schlitz and a Budweiser. In the next shot the cans are reversed.

Continuity: Before the Medevac helicopter explodes in the Vin Din Dop courtyard its main rotor is rotating at full speed. In the next shot as it explodes the main rotor is barely turning.

Visible crew/equipment: As he looks out to the surfers Lt. Col. Kilgore says, "It's gonna blow this place out, it's gonna ruin it… it's the napalm that's what's doing it" and a mortar shell soon explodes in the water. If you look closely behind the surfer on the left you can see the explosive device floating in the water before the explosion.

Continuity: When Clean fires his machine gun on the Vietnamese sampan Captain Willard ducks for cover then pulls his pistol out of his holster and holds it straight up in the air. In the next shot he takes the gun out of his holster again.

Continuity: Just before the warrior throws his spear at Chief Phillips there's a shot of Lance at the helm of the boat and we see the right side of the arrow in his hair pointing straight out and the left side pointing upward. In the previous shot both sides of the arrow were pointing straight out.

Continuity: During the napalm attack there's one group of men marching on the other side of the bay. The next time we look over there right after the explosions there are two groups of men marching.

Continuity: Hubert de Marais says to the Captain, "because life, sometimes is very cruel, as you can see" as he hands him a plaque. At first he's holding it with his left hand then when he gives it to him, he's using both hands.

Continuity: There have been many shots of the surfboards as they flew to Vin Din Dop and they were all on the skids of the helicopters, now when Colonel Kilgore says, "do you wanna surf, soldier" we see the surfboards placed next to each lengthwise through the helicopter with their fins sticking out the side doors.

Audio problem: On the beach Colonel Kilgore takes the radio phone from one of his soldiers and calls in the napalm attack on Vin Din Dop. If you look closely at his lips they do not go along with what he's saying. This happens again two shots later when he sends the Vietnamese woman and her baby to the hospital by helicopter.

Audio problem: Colonel Kilgore takes the megaphone and says to the surfers, "Okay give it a try guys, one goes left and one goes right "and his lips do not match what he says. In these several shots he's saying a lot more than what we hear.

Visible crew/equipment: Captain Willard says he made a deal with the playmates for all the guys and Chief Phillips says," you got some mama's in there?". You can see all the stage lights reflecting off their raincoats.

Visible crew/equipment: On the boat while reading Kurtz' file Captain Willard recalls Harrison Ford saying, "and follow every order, however ridiculous" while having lunch with the general earlier in the movie. If you look at the close-up of his eye you can see a cameraman and another person's reflection as they stand in front of him.

Continuity: In the first close-up shot of the soldier wounded in the Vin Din Dop courtyard there are two medics working on him. In the next shot there is a third kneeling by his left leg in the exact spot where the cameraman just stood in the previous shot.

Continuity: When Captain Willard climbs onto the top of the boat and again when he shakes Dennis Hopper's hand we see no rips or tears on his green T-shirt. But when he says to Dennis Hopper, "Take who away?" there's a huge rip in his T-shirt under his right arm.

Continuity: Dennis Hopper speaks a little too loud to Captain Willard while Colonel Kurtz is reading his poetry and he gets mad and throws a bowl of bananas right at them. In the next shot they both duck but nothing comes flying their way, no bowl and no bananas.

Continuity: Captain Willard and his two escorts get out of a helicopter and walk up to the guard post on the way to see General Corman. The soldier in the front is carrying some yellow papers in his right hand. In the next shot as they pass the guard the papers are in his left hand.

Other: The soldiers show Captain Willard his new orders, which are visible to the audience. Note there is no mention of Captain Willard anywhere on the page.

Continuity: Captain Willard enters the temple after he kills a guard and there's a great shot of him holding the machete as it glistens in the light. He just slit someone's throat not two seconds before and there's not an ounce of blood on the blade and it's not even the same machete he was holding three shots ago when we see his silhouette in the festival lights. The first machete we see has a thinner blade with a hook on the end of it and a different handle.

Continuity: As Captain Willard stands in front of him the shrunken head hanging off Lieutenant Colby's rifle is not this same one we saw several seconds ago when the captain first set eyes on him. The second one has thicker darker hair and is attached to the rifle differently.

Continuity: When the soldiers lower Clean's body into the grave they're all standing. In the next shot they're all crouching.

Continuity: Chief Phillips yells, "You son of a bitch" as he shoots wildly. After he says this and Lance guns the engines look closely at the back of the boat because Chef is not at his machine gun. In the next shot he reappears where he should be firing the rear machine gun "Canned Heat".

Continuity: Approaching the sampan Chief Phillips says, "These boats are running supplies in this Delta," and Captain Willard is holding Colonel Kurtz' folder it is left hand. In the next shot he's not holding anything in his left hand and using it to lean on the boat.

Continuity: As Captain Willard stands in front of Lieutenant Colby his hair is soaking wet with sweat dripping off of it. Several seconds later as they look at the severed heads on the steps his hair is dry.

Continuity: One spear is thrown and it goes through Chief Phillips horizontally, but in the close-up shot of Captain Willard a fraction of a second before the impact we see the spear in a vertical position in front of the captain's face.

Continuity: As Captain Willard tries to get Chief Phillips to stop the men from firing he says, "They're just little sticks. They're just trying to scare us". Watch the Captain's left hand closely as his rifle becomes arrows between shots.

Continuity: After they leave the French plantation Chief Phillips maneuvers the boat through some thick fog and says, "I said I can't see a thing captain I'm stopping this boat, I ain't riskin' no more lives". When he says this line he's looking directly at Captain Willard but in the next shot his head is turned as he looks over towards his right.

Continuity: As they begin to break out of the fog bank Chef says, "watch it over here, chief, got a stump". Here he's helping Chief Phillips steer the boat with a long pole that he places back on the floor of the boat after the uses it. You can see that it's not hanging over the right side of the boat behind Chief Philips but at the beginning of the arrow attack it's back extending out over the side. Then a few shots later as Captain Willard runs to the back of the boat to stop Chef from firing it's gone completely.

Continuity: As captain Willard, Lance, and Chef stand on the dock they hear the voice of a Frenchmen shouting at them. If you look closely at Chief Phillips on the bridge of the boat, he doesn't have a rifle in his hands but in the next shot he does.

Continuity: Chief Phillips yells, "Lance, cover the captain" and we can see the shadow of the flag waving behind him on the floor the boat. In the next shot the flag is motionless.

Visible crew/equipment: As they pull away from the Do Lung Bridge, look closely and you can see water spraying up and turbulence from the propellers of the camera boat in front of them.

Continuity: We see a close-up of Lance's face as he talks to Chef on the front of the boat at they approach the Do Lung Bridge. The camouflage makeup around his chin and left cheek is different as he walks across the bridge with Captain Willard.

Continuity: Captain Willard's is not carrying a holster when he approaches the bridge and talks to Chief Phillips about him not pulling over the Vietnamese sampan or when he's tying his shoes as he sits on the front of the PBR. He never leaves the front of the boat to get his gun but as Clean starts machine-gunning the sampan he's wearing his holster.

Visible crew/equipment: Just before the Playboy helicopter takes off from the stage the first stuntman who hangs off the skid runs up, taps on the window to signal the pilot, than reaches down for several seconds as he attaches a cable to himself. You can see the second stuntman as he holds onto this cable with his right hand when he pulls the first stuntman's pants down.

Continuity: Lance's Playboy bunny gets up and runs around after she's startled by Clean when he taps on the window. She accidentally knocks over a casket with a body in it. The first time we see the body there's nothing behind it in the casket but some dried blood. When we see it again four shots later the blood is gone and the body has some bandages or tape lying behind it's left arm.

Visible crew/equipment: Inside the helicopter Chef says to Miss May, "Miss December has black hair". As the camera pulls back it's shadow can be seen on the rear seat.

Factual error: Captain Willard recalls back to lunch at General Corman's and we hear Harrison Ford's voice say as he points to a map, "Now he's crossed into Cambodia". The town he's pointing at (Ban Me Thout) and the one above it are in the Central Highlands in the middle of Vietnam and not crossover points anywhere near Cambodia.

Continuity: A little old Vietnamese woman wearing a bright red scarf around her neck is feeding bullets into the machine gun. Six seconds later as the machine gun is blown up her stunt double is not wearing the bright red scarf.

Visible crew/equipment: In the helicopter after Colonel Kilgore talks to Lance he says, "My boys love it" and you can see the silhouette of the crouching cameraman in his sunglasses.

Continuity: While discussing surfing at the beach party Colonel Kilgore says, "We'll pick your boat up and put it down like a baby where you want it." The cigarette he's smoking here gets longer between shots.

Continuity: Captain Willard picks up one of the death cards that Lt. Col. Kilgore threw on a dead body and it's the seven of hearts. This is not one of the cards that Kilgore threw down though. As he was naming each one as he threw it and Captain Willard was walking close behind him.

Revealing: When Marlon Brando throws Chef's head to Martin Sheen, you can see Chef's head breathing in the close up shots.

Visible crew/equipment: At dinner as Harrison Ford says, "Now he's crossed into Cambodia…" you can see the cameraman's reflection moving in the background to the left of his head.

Continuity: As Clean says, "I gotta tape from my mom," we see a rope tied around the cleat on the starboard side of the boat. He doesn't go near the cleat as he listens to the tape but the next time we see this spot, right when the attacks starts, the rope is gone.

Factual error: In the scenes where members of the boat crew are wearing berets, they are worn incorrectly. Both Clean and Chief Phillips have their berets with the insignia over the right eye with the rest of the beret slanting over the left ear. That is the manner in which the French armed forces wear berets. The US and British forces wear them with the insignia over the LEFT eye with the rest of the beret slanting over the RIGHT ear. Ask any Ranger or British soldier.

Continuity: When Clean sits down in the back of the boat and opens up the tape from his mom, notice the order of the bullets in the machine gun to the right of the screen. When we first see them they're all packed in order, three shots later as he reads the letter they're uneven though no one has touched them.

Continuity: During Clean's story about a Vietnamese lieutenant Chef puts up his picture of Miss December behind Chief Phillips and its raining and his hat is wet. In the previous and next shot it's not raining.

Other: During the arrow attack Chief Phillips says to Captain Willard, "you son of a bitch, you f@$". The closed captioning here is wrong and indicates he says "you bastard".

Continuity: No one goes near them but as Chief Phillips tries to kill Captain Willard the pile of arrows on the floor of the boat to the left of Phillips' head are rearranged differently between shots.

Continuity: During the arrow attack as Chef is firing the rear machine madly Captain Willard walks from the front to the rear of the boat to try to stop him. Just as he swings into the back part of the boat he slips and falls backwards. In the next shot he's up and running toward Chef.

Continuity: When Colonel Kilgore shows Lance the surf as they fly over the beach he says, "look, good six-foot swells" and his surf board is not on the side of his helicopter as it is in the next shot when they land.

Continuity: In some shots of the helicopters as they approach Vin Din Dop they're above the clouds, but in successive shots they're at or near ground level.

Continuity: Right after the napalm explosion there's a wide shot of the beach as Colonel Kilgore and the two soldiers with him look across at the destruction. We also see Lance sitting alone in the crater and Captain Willard is nowhere near them. They cut away to the PBR for three seconds then back to the crater and the Captain is sitting next to Lance again.

Visible crew/equipment: Kilgore points at the jets as they approach the tree line just before the napalm explosion. Look closely above Lance's head as some stage equipment makes a very quick appearance.

Visible crew/equipment: In the shot of Captain Willard and Lance joking about the colonel Lance says, "how am I going to shoot him the next time he comes around?". Look closely between the two actors as an equipment shadow moves from left to right than back again against the trees behind them.

Continuity: As they start to eat with General Corman there's a hat hanging on a cabinet behind and to the right of the general and both doors are closed behind it. The next time we see it the right door of the cabinet has been opened but no one went near it.

Continuity: When Clean first walks up to the sergeant about fuel for the boat there are two posters in the window behind him. The first time we see them their lit up but the second time six seconds later they're not and the blinds behind them haven't been touched. The only thing that's been changed is the stage lighting.

Other: Soldiers are already crashing the stage as Bill Graham gets the helicopter crew to rev up the engines but the two Green Beret security guards that are watching the girls have quite a delayed reaction and act as if nothings happening at all.

Continuity: Clean points right at Chef, at the wheel of the boat, as he continues to tell his story and says, "don't do her like that". In the next shot he's not pointing anymore and his right hand is resting in front of his face.

Continuity: When the bunnies are dancing there's a close up of playmate Sandra Beatty and as a soldier yells, "take it off" it's raining. In the next shot it's not.

Continuity: As the soldiers crash the stage the two rifles that the playmates were using in their dance have disappeared from the stage.

Continuity: There's a shot of two injured soldiers in wheelchairs sitting front row dead center as playmate of the year Carrie Foster is brought out to the audience. There's another soldier crouching between them who disappear between shots.

Continuity: Just before they leave the USO show the helicopter pilot on the left goes from looking at the controls to looking at the camera between shots.

Continuity: Two other patrol boats pass them on the river going the other way and Chief Phillips yells over the megaphone "is that you Lazaro?". The guy whose pants fall down has a cigarette in his mouth, and his pants are down further in the front as the boats approach. In the next shot after they pass by, he has no cigarette in his mouth.

Continuity: In a close-up Chief Phillips he says, "sampan off the port bow" and we see a kaki green T-shirt hanging next to him at the right of the screen. A couple of shots later Captain Willard says, "what up chief" and Phillips takes the T-shirt down. In the next wide shot of the boat the T-shirt is back.

Continuity: Chef asks his playmate, Miss May, to put on a black wig as they sit in the helicopter. When he first reaches for the wig it's on top of a Styrofoam head but in the next shot he reaches for it again and it's on a small table to the right of the Styrofoam head.

Continuity: When Captain Willard shoots the injured Vietnamese woman on the sampan, the T-shirts that we saw before draped over the metal bar in front of Chief Phillips are no longer there even though no one goes near the spot.

Continuity: Dennis Hopper stands on the back of the boat and says to Captain Willard, "Yeah, well, they think you've come to uh - , to take him away". If you look to the left of the screen you'll see a piece of seaweed hanging off the roof of the boat. When Dennis Hopper walks back to the front of boat it's gone.

Continuity: Just before the Medevac helicopter lands in the Vin Drin Dop plaza, a soldier machine guns 13 urns sitting next to the building on the left of the courtyard and the building also explodes. In the next shot of the medics working on the injured soldier the 13 urns are back and the building hasn't exploded yet.

Continuity: Colonel Kurtz sits reading articles from Time magazine facing the captain and the sun is behind him shining right into the doorway. When we first see Captain Willard locked up in this room he's facing Kurtz and the beams of sunlight are coming in from his left, which is 180 degrees in the opposite direction from the shots of the colonel.

Continuity: When Kilgore's chopper lands, Captain Willard is holding his rifle with the strap around his left shoulder so that the butt comes up above his head. In the next shot he's holding it in his left hand and the strap is not around his shoulder anymore.

Continuity: In the shot of a priest saying the Lord's Prayer, we see smoke rising from an attack by a flamethrower behind him. In the next shot there's no smoke until the flamethrower fires again.

Continuity: When the Captain asks the Chief for the binoculars the boat is standing still but in the next shot as the Captain is watching Kilgore's men they're moving rapidly towards the shore. However, in the next shot, a close-up of the Captain, the ship is back in the same place and standing still.

Audio problem: Sitting on the boat listening to the B-52 strike, when Clean says, "Charlie don't never see 'em or hear 'em, man." his lips do not match his words.

Continuity: As the helicopters first attack there's a long shot of the Vin Din Dop beach and we can see the Viet Cong huts and none of them has a flag waving in front of them. In the next shot of the same spot we see two bright red communist flags.

Other: When Chief Phillips tries to kill Captain Willard there's a shot of the captain's back in the bright sunlight. If you look closely at the center of his back below his right shoulder there's a pressure mark similar to what you see on a hot summer day after a person gets up from sitting in a beach chair for a while. On the PBR we see Martin Sheen's character standing for a long time throughout the entire scene, but he was definitely sitting for a while before this particular shot was filmed. The pressure mark is not in the previous shot.

Revealing: As Captain Willard takes his second swing at Colonel Kurtz there is a "spark" superimposed against the wall behind his head, which is to depict the contact point of the blade to the wall. However, the blade is actually resting on the Colonel's back, nearly a foot away at that time.

Continuity: As they listen to the Frenchmen on the plantation dock, Chef picks up his rifle from the side of the boat. Note this spot and the bloody footprints there, which appear and disappear between shots.

Continuity: Just before Colonel Kilgore gets into his helicopter, he says to the trumpet player, "All right, Son, let her rip!" His left hand moves from being in front of his belt to being at his side between shots.

Continuity: When the soldiers come to the door with Captain Willard's new orders a green piece of paper (money) appears behind his gun lying on the table under the lamp. It's there in the close-up but not when they first walk in. The other pieces of paper in front and to the left of the gun are also moved.

Continuity: When Dennis Hopper says, "The heads, you're looking at the heads, sometimes he goes too far, he's the first one to admit it" look at the two cameras around his neck. At first the lenses are both pointing outward then in the next shot he turns around and the left camera lens is pointing at the ground.

Continuity: Captain Willard sits down at Colonel Kurtz' typewriter after he reads the manuscript and as he moves into the light we see that his right shoulder is covered with mud. To shots later as he emerges from the temple the mud is not there.

Continuity: When they first approach Dennis Hopper we see the water on the left side of the boat past where Lance is sitting and there are no flames on it. After Hopper jumps on the boat and goes to shake the captain's hand we see an oil slick burning in the middle of the water.

Continuity: Dennis Hopper says, "Zap 'em with your siren, man. Zap 'em with your siren," as they get close to shore. At first there's no smoke and unarmed natives behind him and the smoke changes to red in the close-up. Then in the next close up there's orange smoke and armed troops behind him.

Continuity: As Chief Phillips falls to the floor of the boat Captain Willard's left hand is around his armpit. It is the next shot his left hand is near the head of the spear.

Continuity: After Dennis Hopper walks around to the other side of the bamboo cage Captain Willard turns around to look at him. Now both his upper and lower lips are parched but when we saw him in a close-up before when Dennis Hopper said, "he likes you, he really likes you" only the captain's lower lip was parched.

Continuity: As Lance prepares Chief Phillips' body for burial at sea his left foot is on the side of the boat. In the next shot of Chef talking to Captain Willard, Lance is already in the water.

Continuity: As they approach Kurtz' compound Captain Willard climbs up to the top of the boat. As he's climbing there's no helmet hanging off the light pole in front but in the next shot as he reaches the top a helmet appears.

Continuity: Lance's facial makeup changes between shots. The area around his eyes and nose changes in the three seconds it takes for Dennis Hopper the jump onto the PBR.

Continuity: After Chief Phillips is speared he falls to the floorboard of the boat. As he falls Lance is not at the helm of the boat where he just was a second ago and where he will be in the next shot when we see his legs.

Continuity: Hubert de Marais continues to speak to Roxanne in French. As she looks at him intently her expression changes and she goes from having her hands at her sides to unfolding her napkin again between shots.

Continuity: Before the napalm attack we see a shot of the spotter plane flying over Vin Drin Dop and the place hasn't been attacked yet even though the battle has been going on for a while. There's no smoke and the bridge is still intact.

Continuity: After she sits down everyone is eating and Roxanne breaks the silence saying something in French while holding her napkin. At first she holds the napkin with the frills up but in the next shot the napkin is reversed with the frills on the bottom.

Continuity: As Chef and Clean sit on the back of the PBR reading their mail, we see Lieutenant Kilgore's surfboard wedged between the machine guns. It's there until the shot when we see Clean after he's been killed, where it disappears.

Continuity: Just after the rocket attack that kills Clean starts there's a close-up of Lance manning the machine gun in the front of the boat. The Vietnamese spray this area with machine gun fire and chip away a lot of the green paint to his left under the radar dome. The next time we see this spot the paint is untouched.

Factual error: The date on the top of Chef's letter from Eva says, "Sept" with the year conveniently whited out. If the letter was written in September of 1969 she couldn't have known about Manson who wasn't arrested until December 3, 1969. This also dates the movie as taking place sometime in 1970.

Other: The map that Harrison Ford points to as Captain Willard recalls back to lunch at General Corman's is an altered prop. The name of the fictitious "Nung River" has been stamped on to the pre existing map of Vietnam using a different colored ink. The actual name of the river can be seen slightly to the left of the stamped in name.

Continuity: Chief Phillips Orders Clean down onto the sampan to help Chef with the injured Vietnamese woman. We hear Clean talking to Chef as they lift her body but the next time we see the Vietnamese woman Chef is the only one there and Clean is back up at his machine gun.

Continuity: The Vietnamese fishermen hand Chef the two small pieces of paper that they had in their hands. He reads the first one for a while then grabs the second one from the guy in the middle, leaving them with no papers in their hands. The next time we see Chef two shots later he has only one piece of paper in his hands and is now grabbing a new large identification paper that none of the three had before.

Continuity: After the boat docks at the Medevac Captain Willard gets out and walks around and it's clear from the wide shot that there's only one helicopter there. When he comes back to tell the guys about the arrangement with the bunnies we see a close-up of this helicopter and it has yellow tipped rotors. The helicopter that Chef and Miss May are in later in the scene is different as it has white tipped rotors.

Continuity: As the soldiers crash the stage Bill Graham ignites the smoke canister and the flashing green running lights above and under the left door of the helicopter are off. In the next shot, as he gets in, they're on.

Continuity: As he spots the sampan Chief Phillips says, " Clean get on that 60" and the machine gun on the back of the PBR is aiming left towards the shore. In the next shot "Canned Heat" is pointing directly behind the boat.

Continuity: As the boat docks at Hau Phat it's not raining and we see several motorcycles parked at the right of the dock. In the next shot it's raining and the handlebars of the motorcycles have been covered.

Continuity: As "Satisfaction" plays in the background Clean dances behind Chief Phillips as he controls the boat. In the next long shot of Lance water skiing past the Vietnamese on the shoreline Clean is not there.

Continuity: As Captain Willard sits in the boat looking at pictures of Colonel Kurtz the shadow of a metal bar slowly goes from left to right across the pictures indicating that the boat is turning. In the next shot of Clean dancing to Satisfaction we can tell by looking at the sky that the boat is not turning but going straight ahead.

Continuity: After the napalm attack we see the back of the PBR as the men prepare to continue up the river. Later we see the back again after the scene at the Do Lung Bridge and the boys have a different boat, which now has three lights on its back section.

Continuity: When the helicopters first attack Vin Din Dop we see eight in formation attacking from the beach with the bridge on the left. One second later we're in a helicopter attacking from the other side of the bridge and we can see the entire beach. From this angle we should be able to see all eight helicopters, but we don't and we also don't see any smoke on the beach from the explosions in the previous shot.

Continuity: When we first see Captain Willard in the movie he's looking at the ceiling fan spinning above his head. There's only one fan above his head yet we see two different fans in the scene. The first ceiling fan has a different motor and the acoustic tiles show signs of water damage not seen on the second fan.

Visible crew/equipment: As the Captain takes the binoculars from the chief and first holds them up to look at the shoreline and Colonel Kilgore you can see the reflection of a crew member in the binoculars' lenses.

Continuity: At the dinner table General Corman tells Harrison Ford to, "Play that tape for the captain please" and we see a close-up of his watch and it reads 4:37. It's late for lunch but when Harrison Ford brought the can of Budweiser to the general it was lunchtime as his watch read 12:35.

Continuity: In the beginning of the movie as Captain Willard dances around his room there's a red and white can sitting on the left of his mirror. It's there for two shots but then in the next shot when he busts the mirror it's not there and we see a box instead.

Continuity: During the beach party Captain Willard shows a map to Colonel Kilgore who says, "it's hairy, got some pretty heavy ordinance". We can see behind the captain and the closest person is about fifteen feet away but in the next shot a soldier drinking a beer is behind the captain and Chief Phillips appears walking up behind the colonel.

Continuity: Chief Phillips says, "Lance take a 16 on the bow" and we see him walk to the front of the boat past the spot we're Captain Willard was hiding for cover during the attack that killed Clean. The molding was blown off by machine gun fire during the attack but now it's good as new.

Factual error: There are two factual errors in the helicopter attack scene - for the time frame of the war. First, the helicopters carrying troops would not have been armed with rockets or miniguns, these helicopters were called "slicks" and would only had door mounted machine guns. The helicopters armed with the rockets and miniguns were "gunships" and would not have been carrying troops. Second, a Huey is shown carrying in the Navy river patrol boat (PBR) slung beneath it. At over 16,000 lbs., a PBR weighs over four times more than a Huey of this era could have lifted. (Regardless of the REASON why these mistakes occur in the film, they are STILL mistakes.)

Other: The comment about covert missions into Laos where everyone had foreign weapons and uniforms, etc., is bull. Many, many, men went into Laos, just like my Dad did fully equipped on UH-1A choppers with American gear. The recon teams he inserted and extracted all were outfitted with American gear. I haven't found anyone that could accurately estimate how many, but a lot. The only one to come back from my Dad's last mission 21MAR70 said they had maps, radios, uniforms, sidearms, fully equipped choppers with rocket rounds, many spare barrels and boxes of ammo for the 60s. No foreign anything in either of the pairs of choppers or teams going in or out for any trip. He is still listed as MIA so I have done lots of research to verify every aspect of what they were doing trying to piece together what happened that day, including receiving DOD updates every time they declassify anything about the mission, about every other year. I have talked to people on both choppers including those who rescued the guy that came back. No foreign materials were used at any time. Not saying it didn't happen during the war, but it was not something that they did during Operation Prairie Fire from what he remembers.

Continuity: In the first shot of them having dinner at the French Plantation a Vietnamese waiter speaks to the woman at the right of the table. In the next shot he's speaking to the man sitting next to her.

Continuity: The Vietnamese woman on the sampan has her hair in two ponytails when Chef shoves her. It's in disarray when she falls then in one ponytail as she is shot by Clean.

Continuity: The large bell shaped radar antenna is missing in several of the long shots of the boat as they go up the Nung River. It was there when the roof caught fire and we see it back again when they meet up with the Playboy bunnies (redux version).

Continuity: When the soldiers crash the stage the pink "Playmate of the Year" sign in the back is moving from the wind and then stationary between shots.

Continuity: As they stand on the French plantation dock we see the front of the boat a lot and the chipped paint from the rocket attack in the previous scene has been repaired. There's also a camouflage shirt under the radar dome that sometimes has a T-shirt next to it and sometimes doesn't.

Continuity: The Frenchmen with the accordion asks Captain Willard, "Do you know anything about Dien Bien Phu?". If you look closely at the doors in the other room, most of the lower shutters are closed. The next time we see them all as the Frenchman playing the accordion stands behind the captain and says, "Dien Bien Phu, okay" all the shutters are open even though no one goes near them.

Continuity: Just as the rocket attack starts on the boat Chef is reading his mail and says, "hey Lance ". Look closely at the bullets on the machine gun right behind him, they're all draped to the left of the gun, no one has touched them but in a previous shot they were draped to the right the gun. The M-16 has also been moved.

Audio problem: Lance is singing while he's in the water with Chief Phillips' body and his lips do not match his vocalizing.

Continuity: Chef says to Captain Willard, "I'm short and we gotta go up there so you can kill one of our own guys?" as Lance pulls Chief Phillips' body off the PBR and into the water. In the next shot he's already several feet away from the boat.

Continuity: Chef says to Captain Willard, "I thought you were going in to blow up a bridge or some railroad tracks or something" and he has something strapped around his waist. He never touches it but ten seconds later when we see him again it's strapped across the middle of his chest.

Continuity: Roxanne continues to prepare the pipe for Captain Willard and says, "he would rage and he would cry, my lost soldier, and I said to him there are two of you". In the shot of them from the foot of the bed Roxanne's head is almost touching the captain's but in the next shot over the side of the bed she's about a foot away.

Continuity: As Chief Phillips yells, "you savages, come and get it" Captain Willard grabs him with his right hand to try and make him stop shooting. In the next shot he's holding him with both hands.

Continuity: One minute into the attack on Vin Din Dop one of the helicopters flies over the schoolyard. This aerial shot is taken around mid-day as there are no shadows visible in schoolyard, unlike the first shot of the schoolyard at the beginning of this scene, which was done when the shadows were long.