Magnum Force

Visible crew/equipment: After Callahan removes the bomb from his mailbox, he looks up at a man on the nearby stairs. As a car drives by on the street, the lights from it cast the shadow of the boom operator onto the wall.

Continuity mistake: Motorcycles used by traffic officers throughout the movie are Moto Guzzi V7 850. In the scene on the docks, two officers arrive on Moto Guzzis, but the moment they ride up the narrow ramp, they suddenly ride Triumph Bonnevilles. The two Triumphs are slightly different. Trained eyes can tell that the traffic cop and Callahan use them interchangeably, switching back and forth a few times. (01:45:45 - 01:52:55)

Visible crew/equipment: After the pimp is stopped by the policeman on the motorcycle and shot, the camera pulls back showing the pimp's arm lolling through the car window and the reflection of the camera crew moving about on the back, driver's side wing.

More mistakes in Magnum Force

Trivia: Clint Eastwood was initially asked to direct, but declined. Ted Post, who had previously directed Eastwood in Hang 'Em High, stepped into the director's seat. However, interviews with Eastwood have indicated that he and second unit director Buddy Van Horn actually directed more of this movie than Post did, due to a number of creative differences. Eastwood and Van Horn would go on to direct the final two entries in the Dirty Harry series, Sudden Impact and The Dead Pool, respectively.

More trivia for Magnum Force

Sunny: What does a girl have to do to go to bed with you?
Harry Callahan: Try knocking on the door.

Lieutenant Briggs: Suppose they panic and start shooting?
Harry Callahan: Nothing wrong with shooting as long as the right people get shot!

Question: I understand the concept of spelling mistakes and an editor accidentally missing them, especially for an unknown actor's name. But how did "Callahan" end up getting misspelled when it was spelled correctly in the first film? Has any reason been given? Or if there someone with general knowledge of how end credits are produced, is there no editor?

Bishop73

Chosen answer: The error didn't necessarily start with the makers of the credits. It could have crept into the process at any point. Whoever typed up the names to give them to the technicians who made the credits could have misspelled the name.

Question: I'm not sure if he already suspected them at the time, but why exactly did Harry want to take Davis and Sweet to arrest the gangster?

JohnShel91

Answer: Because Davis and Sweet demonstrated keen interest, skill and knowledge of firearms (particularly of Harry's .44 Magnum) when they first met. They were flattering Harry, probably in anticipation of inviting him to join their death squad. Harry was impressed and asked for them specifically, even though they were rookies, but he didn't suspect them of being the vigilante killers at that point.

Charles Austin Miller

Yes, he did suspect them. In fact, he suspected Davis from the moment he found out that Davis was the one who reported Charlie McCoy's death. He confirmed his suspicion about Davis after he compared similarities between bullet that killed one of the victims and the one he purposely misfired from Davis' revolver during shooting competition and retrieved it afterwards. He explained it all to Early Smith right after raid on Palancio (and thus unwittingly sealed his partner's fate).

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