National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) - 65 mistakes

Continuity: When the Griswold's are driving to the tree farm, they are being harassed by the rednecks in the truck.  Several shots of the front of the truck show only two passengers, but one view of the truck through its rear window shows three passengers.

Other: At the beginning of the movie, when the Griswold family are in their car under the wood truck, everybody panics but not Russ, who sings or something like that.

Continuity: At the beginning of the movie, the Griswold family makes marks in the snow when they arrive at the tree which Clarke wants. A shot later, the marks are bigger even though they haven't moved.

Revealing: When Clarke and Ellen are in the bed and Clarke's hands are sticky, you can see that he actually grabs her hair to give the illusion that they are stuck.

Visible crew/equipment: I've noticed in a couple of scenes where Chevy Chase and Beverly D'angelo are standing in the front hallway of their house: you can see the wooden rafters of the ceiling of the set in the dining room.

Revealing: When Clarke is puting christmas lights on the top of his house, the ladder falls but stays at the same angle.

Revealing: When Clark starts to set up his Christmas lights, there is a scene where the ladder collapses. If you look closely you can see the wire coming out from under his jacket to keep him from falling forward.

Continuity: When Clark Griswold is on a ladder putting Christmas lights up on his house the trees in the background are green and leafy, (not evergreen trees), indicating summertime, although there is snow on the ground and it is supposedly winter.

Continuity: When Clark is outside hanging the lights, he staples the sleeve of his shirt, under his wrist, to the eaves of the house. In the next shot, as he is pulling, the shirt is stapled over his wrist.

Continuity: When Clark is holding the gutter, it bends and ice is thrown from inside of it. The problem is that you can't see any ice during the first shot when it bends, and also that the ice goes in the wrong direction.

Revealing: When Clark falls from the top of his house, he grabs the gutter. It bends and a icicle is thrown from it to his neighbor's house. You can see the thread which guides it.

Continuity: When all the family is outside to see the christmas lights, there is an aerial shot of them. Clarke starts to say "Joy to the world" before you actually hear him say it.

Continuity: When Clark is outside at night rigging up the lights, it seems as though the moon is a little too large in the sky.

Other: Another note about Clark's falling through the ceiling and onto his son's bed: Take note of the shot of him in the attic after falling through the ceiling. He's standing on the upper bunk of the bed now, but from the shot in the attic, he's only down to his knees or so. Assuming his home's ceiling joists are 8 inches or so, then the mattress of the upper bunk would have to be no more than, say, 10 inches from the ceiling for that much of him to still be in the attic while standing on the bed. I've never seen a bunk bed whose upper bed gave you less than a foot of space between mattress and ceiling!

Continuity: When Clark is outside, trying to get the lights to work, Ellen comes out the door, pulling a sweater around her shoulders. First it is on one shoulder, then both, then one, and at the end of the scene she has it on properly, with both arms in the sleeves.

Factual error: Clark has too many lights on his house causing the city to go dark. There is a scene where the power plant needs to boost their output. There is a close-up of a guy flipping the switch. Look at the way they spelled auxiliary - auxilliary.

Continuity: In an early shot of the outside of the house, the motorhome that Eddie and family show up in is parked in the driveway. The problem is, they don't appear until much later in the film.

Continuity: When Clark finally opens the christmas lights, he has the wires in his hands. The shot later, when all the family comes, the wires are not there and his arms are wide open.

Continuity: After Eddie et al arrive at the Griswolds, "Snots" is introduced. When everyone else has gone into the house, Clark is left outside with the dog. A shot shows the dog at Clark's side, and if you look at Clark's sleeve, he's wearing a sweater, but actually has on a windbreaker. At the end of the movie, Clark's wearing the sweater. Apparently the shot was taken of him and the dog, and edited back into the film early on.

Continuity: When Clark and Eddie are standing next to the Christmas tree drinking eggnog, when Eddie walks over to the decoration and knocks it over, in one shot his glass is less than half full and in the next it is almost completely full and he takes a gulp.