Basic Instinct

Continuity mistake: Back at Michael Douglas' apartment, Sharon Stone uses his ice pick to break up a big hunk of ice for their drinks. In front of her is a tray with various items and loose change in it, with a padlock and a piece of paper to left of it. Everything in the tray and the piece of paper move throughout the scene without anyone going near them. (01:03:55)

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Continuity mistake: When Michael Douglas walks into Jeanne Tripplehorn's office there's a large plant more than one foot to the right of the lamp by her window. Later in the scene this plant is moved to the left where it's almost in front of the lamp in her close-ups. (00:13:25)

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Continuity mistake: As Sharon Stone sits for questioning at the police station, the coffee pot on top of the coffee machine rotates throughout the scene without anyone leaving their seats. (00:27:10)

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Continuity mistake: When Roxy tries to run over Nick the left front light is broken off - in the next scene it is back on.

Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie when Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone relax in bed contemplating their future together and the black lamp on the left side of his bed changes the direction that it's pointing in throughout the scene without anyone going near it. (02:01:00)

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Continuity mistake: As she walks into Michael Douglas' apartment, Sharon Stone drapes her jacket over the center of one of his kitchen chairs. Later in the scene she walks over and gets the jacket and it's draped over the left side of the chair. (01:03:20 - 01:04:55)

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Continuity mistake: At the beach house Sharon Stone is sitting in direct sunlight as she speaks to Michael Douglas about Jonny Boz yet in all the close-up shots, even when he walks between her and the sun, she's never in direct sunlight. (00:11:00)

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Continuity mistake: When Michael Douglas first sees her at the beach house he says, "Miss. Tramell?". If you closely at the shadow cast by the railing it's obvious that at least an hour has gone by between shots as he walks down to talk to her. The lounge chair has also moved between shots. (00:10:50)

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Continuity mistake: When the detectives ask Catherine to go in for questioning, she has her hair down. Then, a minute later, she comes out with her hair up. Problems: one, there's no way Catherine could do that on her own, and no-one else is in the house; two, even if she could it would take much more than a minute, say thirty minutes.

kh1616

Continuity mistake: When Nick and Gus are waiting for Catherine to get changed, out of the corner of his eye, Nick sees Catherine step, naked, into a white dress, then, again, she steps into the same dress.

kh1616

Continuity mistake: As Sharon Stone sits through questioning, the retractable light on the right of the camera is moved to the side toward the end of the scene without anyone going near it. (00:28:40)

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Continuity mistake: In an overhead shot back at her house, Sharon Stone walks away from her pool towards her car which is in total shade. In the next shot as she gets in the car she's in sunlight. (00:39:35)

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Plot hole: This is another movie where the cops are too dumb to go out by themselves. The woman who icepicks the first victim (we see) to death would have left enough forensic evidence on the scene to convict her ten times over - skin, hair, sweat, saliva, vaginal fluid, possibly blood, and they all contain DNA in abundance. She had vigorous, sweaty sex with this man and she didn't clean up afterwards (and she couldn't have done so thoroughly enough anyway) so she's left calling cards all over the place. The killer also handled the icepick (which the police take away in an evidence bag) with bare hands - her prints would be all over it. She might as well have left a signed confession, but they can't even identify her. Sharon Stone, for instance, leaves her fingerprints (on the chair and fixtures in the police station) and her saliva (containing epithelial skin cells which are an excellent source of DNA) on the cigarette butt she discards, also in the police station. She went there of her own accord and these artifacts are legally accessible by the police. It is obvious to anyone that the women who had sex with the victim killed him, and Catherine is most certainly a suspect. They don't have enough to charge her but they would if they did a simple series of tests on the dead man's body - and if she didn't do it, that would eliminate her as a suspect. They don't even check.

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Nick: So where is this going?
Catherine: Ask me "What do you want from me Catherine?"
Nick: What the fuck do you want from Catherine?

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Question: Why did Catherine change her mind about killing Nick at the end? Obviously she was planning on killing him anyway, but she changed her mind only hours after ending their relationship when her book was finished and was of no further use. So why did she spare him? Was it because she fell in "love" with him?

Movielover1996

Answer: There's no definitive answer to this and the ending is deliberately ambiguous and open to interpretation. The audience is left to speculate whether or not Catherine kills Nick, or if she intended to kill him but changes her mind because she loves him, or intends to kill him at a much later time, and so on.

raywest

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