Most mistake-prone directors

Below is a list of the directors whose movies have the most mistakes in them, together with a couple of the biggest bloopers.

1

Steven Spielberg - 2,822 mistakes

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: After Indy and Henry have escaped from Castle Brunwald, Indy jumps into one of the boats, pulls the motor starter cord and jumps back out, then just as he bends over to release the boat from the piling, right between Indy's legs the black covered arm of a hidden crew member appears from under the tarp taking hold of the throttle, steering the boat away from the pier. (01:02:40)

Super Grover

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: After Willie spits in Indy's face it cuts to Short Round running through the mine, and just as Shorty turns his head toward the camera behind him, we can catch a glimpse of something blue which does not belong in this dark dreary environment, at the right side of the screen. There is a tall spotlight and two crew members, one is wearing a solid blue shirt and a cap, and the other a blue/white striped shirt with white pants. (01:21:25)

Super Grover

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: This takes place in milliseconds and there's no way to see it unless you pause the image or play it in slo-mo. It should be under trivia.

Sacha

Right now I have it playing on Netflix, and there is no slow motion. The striped blue shirt is noticeable as it plays without any slo-mo. If something catches my eye onscreen, it is fair game to go back and rewatch what was noticed in the first place. And in order for me to confirm what I find, I do pause, and may take screenshots. By the way, I've seen this movie countless times over the years, and it was just a matter of catching that glimpse of the color blue because it popped out against the dreary surroundings. I'll leave it up to Jon whether to move it to trivia or not.

Super Grover

Fair enough :).

Sacha

2

Peter Jackson - 1,124 mistakes

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: After starting their four day journey through the long dark of Moria, a few shots later Gandalf pulls on his hat brim, and just as he walks (with Legolas close behind) to his left (towards the viewer's right), up some stairs, the black electrical cable leading from the staff to under the robe's left sleeve is visible, top of his hand near thumb (extended edition DVD). (00:19:30)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: Gimli is lying with his face under the water, after jumping off the Deeping Wall and landing on the Uruk-hai. In the close-up, the right arm that grabs Gimli's shoulder to help him out of the water is Legolas' right arm. Yet, in the wide shot, suddenly it is Aragorn helping Gimli to his feet, not Legolas. (01:11:10)

Super Grover

3

Michael Bay - 1,100 mistakes

Continuity mistake: The green Alfa in the opening minutes has its side, and mirror, wiped out by a lorry. For the next 5 minutes it then drives around in perfect condition. (00:05:43)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Sam is in his bedroom, after he finds the Cube sliver it falls and dramatically burns a hole through the floor into the kitchen. But Sam's bedroom is over the living room (there is nothing on the ground floor below Sam's elevated bathroom, and in the first movie Jazz hides in this open space), and the kitchen is actually located between the den and dining room, at the other end of the house. If they were to follow the actual floor plan of the house, the Cube sliver would have landed in the area of the piano in the living room, but where would the fun have been in that? (00:12:30)

Super Grover

4

Richard Donner - 1,084 mistakes

Factual error: When Clark speaks to Jor-El for the first time in the Fortress, Jor-El says "I will have been dead for many thousands of your years..." Fine in theory - Baby Kal-El travelled to Earth at above light speed so time passed differently for him. However, as such, wouldn't Jor-El have seen Earth as it was thousands of years ago? Which also makes there a problem with all the things Kal-El was taught during his voyage to Earth, as Jor-El references Einstein by name, for instance, and he would not have existed at the point when Jor-El sent him to Earth.

Continuity mistake: During the jail breakout, when Jake tries to open the ORV's door, in the shot facing Francis he is holding the gun in his left hand as he tries to open the door for his brother with his right hand. In the next shot facing Jake just before shouts, "I don't have the handle, open the lock!" Francis's gloved left hand is empty, and next shot, the gun can be seen in his right hand. (00:01:45)

Super Grover

5

Robert Zemeckis - 1,015 mistakes

Factual error: Though extremely modest by today's standards, the dress worn by Clara at the hoedown shows far too much cleavage for the time. No schoolteacher would ever wear a dress like that in the 1880s.

Factual error: Whenever the fire extinguisher is activated for a jet engine, that engine becomes inoperable. In the movie, the co-pilot first activates the extinguisher for the left engine, and 30 seconds later, for the right engine. At that point, both engines should be shut down. However, the engines are still operating (and revving up) and Whitaker even asks Margaret to apply full power, which is also audible. (00:23:00)

NoDouty

6

Francis Ford Coppola - 889 mistakes

Revealing mistake: When the new Pope is announced, the New York Times headline is shown, and 'Copyright 1990 The New York Times' is visible. The event took place in 1979.

mikederek

7

Chris Columbus - 865 mistakes

Home Alone mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Kevin goes to the grocery, he buys Tide detergent. While walking home, the two bags break, but no Tide detergent falls out.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Maybe he returned it.

No chance, we see him buy it and then use it in a later scene.

Ssiscool

Continuity mistake: In the first film, it is mentioned several times that Kevin is 8 years old. However, in this film it is stated that he is 10. When his parents are in the Miami airport security office, they say that he was left alone last Christmas. That would make him 9. Both films take place the same days, from about three days before Christmas until Christmas morning, so even if Kevin is born around Christmas time this is still a mistake.

8

James Cameron - 859 mistakes

Terminator 2: Judgment Day mistake picture

Continuity mistake: The T-1000 punches his body through the window of a helicopter to get inside. An instant later, the hole in the windshield is gone. (01:56:35)

Factual error: The lake that Jack told Rose he went ice fishing on when she was threatening to jump is Lake Wissota, a man-made lake in Wisconsin near Chippewa Falls (where Jack grew up). The lake was only filled with water in 1918 when a power company built a dam on the Chippewa River, six years after the Titanic sank. (00:39:05)

9

George Lucas - 849 mistakes

Star Wars mistake picture Video

Other mistake: When the stormtroopers break into the control room, the stormtrooper on the right of the screen hits his head on the door frame. On the DVD release they've added a thump when he hits it. (01:18:55)

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith mistake picture

Continuity mistake: On Utapau, when Obi-Wan faces off with Grievous, Grievous sends 4 MagnaGuards against Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan Force-pulls something from the ceiling to crush the droids. But in the ensuing fight between Obi-Wan and Grievous, the ceiling thing and crushed droids are gone.

10

Alfred Hitchcock - 835 mistakes

Continuity mistake: Before Tony leaves he closes the drapes. He then says he won't go out and will stay home. She says to go out, and he agrees, so he goes to the drapes and closes them again.

North by Northwest mistake picture Video

Revealing mistake: In the shooting scene in the Mount Rushmore cafe, a boy in the background puts his fingers in his ears, because he knows the gun is about to be shot.

11

Ridley Scott - 808 mistakes

Gladiator mistake picture Video

Visible crew/equipment: In the "Battle of Carthage" in the Colosseum, one of the chariots is turned over. Once the dust settles you can see a gas cylinder in the back of the chariot. (01:22:55)

Continuity mistake: In the shot of the alien's tail wrapping around the back of Lambert's legs right before it kills her, the floor is different to what it was before, there is water suddenly falling from the ceiling when there wasn't before and her trousers have changed from white to blue. This is because that shot was originally intended to be used when Brett was killed.

THGhost

12

Sam Raimi - 808 mistakes

Factual error: In the museum, Peter is filming in real-time moving biological specimens shot through 'the largest electron microscope on the Eastern seaboard'. You can't film live specimens in an electron microscope. The electron beam only works in a vacuum chamber, in which the specimen - invariably dead - is held. The microscope is identified as a scanning electron microscope, and nobody can fire an electron stream through air. The electrons will collide with gas molecules and scatter, ruining the image.

Spider-Man 3 mistake picture

Factual error: During the fight scene with Sandman in the armored car, the Terminal Tower can be seen in the background, which is a landmark in Cleveland, Ohio (where the scene was shot), not in New York City.

ctown28

13

Gore Verbinski - 764 mistakes

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl mistake picture Video

Visible crew/equipment: Just as Jack says, "On deck, you scabrous dogs," to the very left edge of the screen over Jack's shoulder is a grip crew member with a tan cowboy hat, white short sleeve tee shirt and sunglasses, just standing there looking out to sea. (02:12:35)

Super Grover

Revealing mistake: In the scene when the main character is in the library on the internet, she goes to a couple of websites. When the shot shows the URL up top, it is C:\windows98\mydocuments\etc.html. Instead of actually searching on the web they used a premade html page and accessed it from their computer.

14

Martin Scorsese - 711 mistakes

Factual error: While handling the ignition coil cable to the distributor cap, Joe Pesci tells De Niro that the timing chain needs adjustment in his truck. A truck of that year with an inline Chevy motor would not have a timing chain at all, instead this truck would be equipped with a direct drive timing gear. Even if it had a timing chain, it would be behind the water pump and a cover. It would have been a several hour job to replace, not possible to adjust it.

Casino mistake picture

Revealing mistake: Near the end when Ace gets into his Cadillac, in the first shot facing the front of the car, there is a protective glass in front of Ace (the same width as the windshield) with the dashboard in between that glass and the windshield. Note the vertical edge of the glass is visible at the right side, and the rearview mirror's sticker on the windshield casts a shadow onto the second glass. During the stunt, the flames on the dashboard are between the glass shield and the windshield, keeping the actor safe from harm. (02:46:05)

Super Grover

15

Tim Burton - 704 mistakes

Visible crew/equipment: When Pee Wee is chaining up his beloved bike you can see the long chain coming up through the bottom of the bike box. Full screen version only. (00:13:40)

Other mistake: In the beginning of the song about Augustus Gloop, computer generated Oompa Loompas can be seen running through the Chocolate Room, preparing to sing their song. In the DVD release, some Oompa Loompas can be seen running to places that no real person could possibly stand on. This mistake was later corrected in the Blu-Ray release.

throast

16

Wes Craven - 639 mistakes

Scream mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: At the end when Sidney's dad falls out of the closet, if you look closely you can see the hands of a crewmember who was in there too, pushing items out after him. (01:42:40)

Jon Sandys

Other mistake: On the back cover of Scream 3 in the Scream trilogy on DVD, the town of the original killings is referred to as Greensboro twice. The correct name of the town is Woodsboro, of course.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: I'm not "correcting" this per se, but I'm wondering if there should be either a separate type of mistake for things like DVD/Blu-Ray cases or posters (Ex. "Multimedia and Marketing Mistakes" or something like that), or if these things would be better classified as trivia? Especially since it's not something everyone can necessarily observe watching the movie itself. (Ex. My Blu-Ray and 4K releases don't have this mistake.) If not, feel free to downvote/delete this. I've just seen a few of these mistakes over the years here, and it always seems a little off to me since it's not something wrong with the film itself.

TedStixon

I agree these aren't valid movie mistake if the studio wasn't involved in the mistake. It could be trivia if only certain home releases had them. These mistakes are like when episodes are aired out of order creating continuity issues,, streaming services make changes, or closed captioning (not subtitles) gets something wrong. It can't be considered a mistake of the film or TV series.

Bishop73

It's tricky - largely, if I'm honest, because adding new types to the site is incredibly fiddly. :-) There's also room for endless debate about what's a "mistake", whether it's about assigning specific blame or just looking for interesting stuff. Likewise things that can only be seen in slow motion, which arguably warrant a category to themselves because there are plenty of them, but then the "mistakes" section gets cluttered. Becomes a user interface issue as much as anything! Will think.

Jon Sandys

I'm not disagreeing with this post, it's the only way I can reply. But yes, for the first run of the VHS and the DVD of Scream 3, there is that typo on the back cover. Now knowing that, is that version worth more money?

Probably not, the chances of there being a collector's market for it is slim.

Ssiscool

While misprints can sometimes add to something's value, I don't think this would necessarily make this release more valuable. Perhaps the VHS version just because there is something of a collector's market for VHS tapes now. But the movies have been released on DVD, Blu-Ray and 4K so many times, I don't see the DVD version being worth significantly more. (Unless you find a really weird collector who would specifically want THAT version.)

TedStixon

Yes, there is that typo. They were the first run of the VHS.

I didn't say there wasn't a typo. I was questioning whether a typo on the cover would technically qualify as a movie mistake, since it's not part of the actual film.

TedStixon

17

Roland Emmerich - 604 mistakes

Independence Day mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: When Dr. Okun is about to unlock "the vault", and says, "The freak show," a crewmember wearing a black and white striped shirt is hiding under the vault's floor, right behind Okun. (Only visible on fullscreen DVD.)

Super Grover

Other mistake: At the end of the film when they arrive in NYC looking for the library, we know that they survived because they are inside with a roaring fire burning. But where is the smoke up above, as Jack Hall approaches? There must be a chimney, or else they would have all died of asphyxiation.

kiazersoza

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: As already corrected, just because we can't see an outlet for the smoke doesn't mean there isn't one. White smoke against white snow is very hard to see.

Nik Rolls

But they were still burning the books, which meant the smoke should be black, if they stop burning the books, the smoke would have been white, which isn't the case in the movie.

Just looked at a boatload of videos of burning books, including one in a fireplace, and the smoke was indeed white.

18

Friz Freleng - 581 mistakes

Continuity mistake: When Sam points his gun at Bugs at Fort Knox, he says "But I can't take any chances!" and throws away the gun. In the next shot, the gun is back in his hand again.

Continuity mistake: When Bugs is at the theatre, you can see he a man sitting next to him when he finds his binoculars, but when Bugs sees Elmer in front of him, we cut back to Bugs and the man next to him has disappeared.

19

Richard Lester - 566 mistakes

Continuity mistake: There is a scene in the movie where the Beatles enter a limousine, I believe at the beginning of the movie. In this particular scene the Beatles are all dressed in suits and ties, but when the Beatles are filmed in the limo, John Lennon is wearing a turtle neck sweater beneath a blazer.

Revealing mistake: There are two times in the New York battle when you can see the actors are being filmed in front of a screen: 1. when Superman kicks Non, Superman in on film and Non is hovering in front of the screen. 2. When Ursa is flying towards Non and Superman with the flagpole, she is hovering in front of the screen.

20

Tony Scott - 558 mistakes

Plot hole: Had one or more locomotives coupled onto the real runaway's front engine, or even just been pushed by it, anyone aboard the "rescue" engine could have just walked to the unoccupied ones and shut them down - no copters or fireballs required.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Not necessarily. Some engines may not have a rear cab access (like Frank/Will's engine had). And even if the rescue engine did have a rear cab access 777's engine only had a side access stair which at the speed it was going is more difficult to climb over from the engine in front of it.

Actually 777's catwalk goes across the front, from side stair to side stair, but someone would have to leap over a rail or a chain to get onto it from the other engine. Why would there be stairs on the right side unless there was a catwalk to get to the door on the left side?

Factual error: The hat that Brad Pitt wears in the 1985 scenes is a Padres hat with navy, orange and white as the colours. In 1985, the Padres' colors were brown and yellow. The color change didn't come until late 80's or early 90's.