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)
Continuity mistake: At one point D'Artagnan reaches the Duke of Buckingham, who is on a hunt. He has just killed a stag and his hands are covered in blood. D'Artagnan rides up and offers him a note from Queen Anne. He wipes his palms with a cloth before he takes the note, but his hands are still covered with blood up to and above the wrists. When he reads the note, he and D'Artagnan take off on foot for his castle where they go into a private room behind the walls. Suddenly it is apparent that his hands are perfectly clean right down to his scrubbed fingernails and, without explanation, the plot-heavy sequence continues.
Continuity mistake: The swords of the animated statue of Kali are different from the swords used in the close-up fight scenes.
Continuity mistake: When the guy with the snake is shot, Baron Samedi reappears and you can distinctly see the bloke holding the snake again.
Continuity mistake: Close-up interior shots show that Gator's brown Ford has a Hurst floor-shifter and manual transmission. But when he arrives at his parent's home, he very obviously puts the column-mounted automatic shifter into 'Park'. (00:17:10)
Continuity mistake: During the fight scene with Oharra, Bruce Lee was actually cut quite badly on the hand. In later scenes in the film he can actually be seen with a bandage round the injured hand.
Continuity mistake: In the final scenes where Sheriff Pusser drives a police car to the Lucky Spot, just before he arrives, in the long shot of him driving down the highway, the patrol car has red lights on it's roof. When he arrives and drives the car through the bar, the car has blue lights.
Continuity mistake: During the fight between A no 1,and Shack. Shack is cut with the ax, the ax head is coated with "blood," as A no 1 is setting up for another swing you can see the ax head behind his head, it is still "bloody," but as he starts the swing, the ax head is shiny and clean, and then it's bloody again.
Continuity mistake: As the blue sedan turns onto the street where the children are playing, the street is entirely in shade. But after the children begin reacting, the car approaches in full sunlight. (00:56:20)
Continuity mistake: During the first gunfight between The Gunslinger (Yul Brynner) and Peter (Richard Benjamin), The Gunslinger is seen being shot in the middle of the body from the back. But, when you see him a second or two later, the shot is well over on his right side.
Continuity mistake: Having received the Colonel's big knotty stick, Shaft is cupping his special pouch; you can see it turn around (look at the strings). (00:34:50)
Continuity mistake: For the infamous closing scene, a van of drug-runners fire a double-barrelled 12-gauge shotgun straight into the windscreen of Officer Wintergreen's Electra Glide motorcycle, killing him. In the full front view, the gunfire virtually explodes the windscreen, shattering it on all sides all the way to the frame. Camera cuts to a side view and we see Wintergreen topple off as the motorcycle keeps traveling down the road. In this profile shot, the windscreen is no longer exploded, but now has a neat 4-inch hole in it.
Continuity mistake: As the two gorillas watch the approaching humans, one gorilla raises the telescope, then after the angle change, raises it again.
Continuity mistake: When the prisoners in the confinement holes talk clinging from the bars at the top, Jim Brown's hands are one bar apart in the overhead shot, 2 bars in close-ups. (00:00:50)
Continuity mistake: When Rizzo and the sailor wrestle atop the building, in the views from outside the building Rizzo has the lead pipe pressed against his ursine neck, while in the shots from the terrace it's further away. (00:05:40)
Continuity mistake: When Ray and Alex incapacitate the last of the 4 cops, he flips on the ground wearing his hat. When they approach him to finish him off, his hat is at distance. (00:10:00)
Continuity mistake: The attachment to the minisub is inconsistent. It is an open hook first then as it's being lifted it becomes an enclosed shackle looking quite different. Plus a figure now appears on the roof. Ben Gazzara has just gone below. (00:57:42)