Revealing mistake: When Sheriff Justice tells his son to take the handcuffs off the man, you can see they are already open.
Visible crew/equipment: All throughout the movie lighting reflections can be seen in Buford T. Justice's sunglasses.
Continuity mistake: In one scene Buford T. Justice comes up on a long line of cars stopped on the highway due to an accident, so he proceeds to pass the line of cars on the right berm of the road. He pulls up alongside a green Cadillac at the front of the line and stops just as a local cop walks up to his car. The shot changes to the passenger side of the car, but the green Cadillac is nowhere in sight when it was there just one second earlier. If the line had began to move there wouldn't have been enough time for the Cadillac to get out of the shot from a dead stop.
Visible crew/equipment: When Buford T. Justice is telling off the young officer when he is pulled over for driving his "evidence", as Buford heads back to his car a light and two crew-members are reflected in the back of his car.
Character mistake: When Carrie says to Bandit "are we doing 110? We're doing 110!" there is a shot of the Trans Am's speedometer. The needle is pointing to 110 on the kilometers per hour dial. On the miles per hour dial, the needle is pointing to a number between 65 and 70.
Continuity mistake: When Bandit jumps the bridge, the cop car following him goes into the water and appears to be floating before the camera switches to the cop car behind. When that one reaches the bridge, a pile of rubble is in the river from the bridge collapse that was not there in the previous shot.
Factual error: When they are only 4 miles from the end, after Frog asks if the Bandit had been expecting all of what was going on, the Bandit picks up the mic, keys up, and calls for the Snowman. The Bandit does not let go of the key, yet you hear Snowman's reply. That is impossible. You need to let go of the key. Bandit then continues to talk on the radio.
Character mistake: In the scene where the Bandit convinces Snowman to go with him to Texarkana, Texas, to get the beer, he says, "It's only 900 miles there and 900 miles back." In fact, it is only 557 miles between Texarkana and Atlanta, meaning they could cover the 1114-mile round trip in the pre-determined 28 hours in an average speed of 40 mph.
Suggested correction: Actually, it's a 684.3 mile trip between Jonesboro, Georgia and Texarkana, Texas, then 673.5 miles back to the Lakewood Fairgrounds in Atlanta, for a total of 1,357.8 miles, and a total time of 22 hours, 10 minutes, figuring fueling and food.
Continuity mistake: During the final scene as they are heading down that two-lane blacktop to the fairgrounds, Reynolds and Reed have a conversation over the CB radio. In the wide shots, the two lane road curves around tree-covered hills. In the close-ups of Reynolds, you can see the interstate highway through the rear and side windows. No hills, no trees, no winding road.
Continuity mistake: When Buford T Justice is chewing out the trooper on the road at the accident, there is one point when you can see that all the cars have passed. A pickup truck is heading toward them, no other vehicles. Then it cuts to another angle facing Buford, and you see the tail end of a tanker truck that was not in the previous shot.
Continuity mistake: Pay attention to the location of the trailer's wheels on the Bandit's truck. They change position several times during the movie from being at the very rear of the trailer, to being slid forward, towards the truck.
Continuity mistake: Just before the car jumps the bridge a driver view shows an aluminium airbox sticking through the bonnet and a shiny instrument panel in the car, just before jumping into the football field, same view, they are different.
Revealing mistake: Just after the once local police officer has rolled his car, it shows another police car on the highway. This police car then does a hard turn left. When he does, you can see skid marks from previous takes in the exact spot that he turns.
Other mistake: Bandit and Snowman are traveling to Texarkana, TX to pick up the beer. Texarkana is in the extreme East border of TX. When you see Sheriff Justice pull up to the guys trying to steal parts off Frog's broken down car, you see "Montague County Sheriff" on his police car door. Montague county is in Northern TX, about four hours away from Texarkana. Bandit and Snowman didn't travel that far into TX to pick up the beer, why would Sheriff Justice be so far away from his jurisdiction?
Other mistake: Just after Bandit and Snowman leave home for the trip to Texarkana they have to drive through some rain. As the Trans-Am approaches the camera there is someone in the passenger seat even though Bandit is alone in the car and they haven't picked up Frog yet.
Factual error: After the Bandit starts negotiating the challenge, he says that hauling beer east of the Texas state line is bootlegging. Actually, Texarkana is a city on the state line border of NE Texas and SW Arkansas. The city is divided in half on the main north/south street called State Line Blvd. The double yellow lines in the center separate Texarkana, Texas on the west side from Texarkana, Arkansas on the east side. Texarkana, Texas is located in Bowie County, Texas which is a dry county (meaning no alcohol sales or consumption except through/inside private membership in organized, officially recognized organizations, i.e. VFW, Rotary, Elks, etc. - transportation, or distribution of alcohol are allowed). Therefore, there would be no Coors distribution center in Texarkana, Texas. With that in mind, hauling beer east of the Texas state line from Texarkana, Texas to Texarkana, Arkansas is not bootlegging. Hauling beer west of the state line of Texarkana, Texas from Texarkana, Arkansas is not considered bootlegging if it is performed by a licensed driver working for a licensed brewery or distributor of a licensed brewery during that person's normal working responsibilities and duties of said employment (federal interstate trade). Other than that, it is bootlegging if a private individual buys alcohol in Texarkana, Arkansas and then transports said alcohol into Texarkana, Texas (which happens 1000's of times a day).
Suggested correction: At the time of the movie, Coors was only available in the states west of Texas because of the alcohol content of Coors at the time, Coors was 6.0 not 3.2 so hauling Coors east of Texas licensed, commercial or not WOULD be bootlegging.
Suggested correction: The road the OP is referring to is State Line Ave, not State Line Blvd. I've crossed the road in question several times on Interstate 30.
Continuity mistake: When being chased at the Mulberry bridge, as Bandit turns to run for the jump, he turns the wheel, turning the car. A second later, his foot is shown hitting the brake, and the car then is shown starting the turn.
Continuity mistake: After the first major chase of the film, where the police car ends up in the lake backwards, there is a shot of the Trans Am power-sliding around a dirt corner as it gets back on paved roads to continue on. During this shot, it is plain to see that the entire three-piece front spolier (from each front wheel and under the bumper) is completely missing, probably torn off by the uneven ground while shooting this sequence.The immediate next scene shows the entire spoiler back in place as if nothing happened.
Factual error: In Texarkana at the distributor, the boxes presented are boxes for bottles (as cans are shipped in "flats"), there are usually approximately 64 cases to a pallet (8 cases to a layer - 8 layers high). 400 cases of bottles would only be 6 full pallets plus a little left over on a 7th. It certainly would not be stacked to the roof of the trailer all the way to the tail.
Continuity mistake: Throughout the film, Sheriff Justice's CB radio antenna keeps disappearing/reappearing.
