Stand By Me

Stand By Me (1986)

64 mistakes - chronological order

(8 votes)

Continuity mistake: When Gordie shoots the garbage cans and runs off, he's still running when they get around the corner and he's not holding the gun anymore. He wouldn't have dropped it because it's in later scenes, and he didn't have enough time to put it in his backpack or give it to Chris because they were trying to get far away from the back of the diner.

Continuity mistake: In the opening scene there is a shot of a person sitting behind the wheel of the jeep. This is supposed to be Richard Dreyfuss, however it is not. The hairline is different both over the forehead and over the ear.In the very next shot you actually see Dreyfuss sitting behind the wheel of the vehicle and you can see his hairlines are much different.His hairline is receeding and there is no hair over his ears where in the opening scene the person has hair over his ear and on his forehead.

Visible crew/equipment: Part of a fluffy boom mike is visible at the top of the screen when they are arguing about crossing the bridge. [Edited in DVD]

Factual error: When the two drivers of the teenage gang are playing "Chicken" on a straight section of a two-lane highway, the center lines of the road consist of yellow hashmarks. Though the picture was set in 1959, center lines for passing zones on two-lane highways were painted white until 1971.

Factual error: Near the end of the movie, when the boys return to town, a garage door in the background is a modern metal roll-up type that was not available in 1959.

Continuity mistake: The train on the bridge is producing black smoke from its funnel, but in one shot it is producing white smoke.

Continuity mistake: In the tree-house scene near the beginning, the sleeve on Chris's t-shirt changes from being rolled up to rolled down. The most noticeable example of this is when they lift up the table to let Vern in and it cuts from a close-up to a wider shot.

Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the movie just after Gordie has scared off Ace and the gang, Gordie turns his head towards Chris when his friend repeats the "suck my fat one" insult. When the camera cuts, Gordie's suddenly facing forward again.

Neil Jones

Revealing mistake: In the train scene, River Phoenix's voice has suddenly changed and he looks older. This scene was obviously shot last, and he has started going through puberty. But in terms of movie time, he has gone through puberty in two days.

Continuity mistake: When Gordie jumps over the fence away from Chopper and they all realise he's not fierce, the boys start to tease him. While Teddy's saying "Bite my ass, Choppy" the dog bites through the fence and Teddy pulls away, and then in the next shot he pulls away again and jumps differently.

Continuity mistake: When Chris gives Gordie the loaded gun and it goes off behind the diner, they run away around the corner and Gordie get really mad Chris tricked him. Chris stops Gordie in front of a pale beige wall, and then when Chris tells him he didn't know it was loaded, they are in front of a glass window.

Continuity mistake: In the treehouse, Gordie has a hair dangling over his forehead. But at the end of this scene, when they decide whether or not to go get the body, Gordie says "Sure," and the hair over his forehead is gone and his hair is neat and combed.

Continuity mistake: Gordie's hair constantly changes throughout the film from floppy to gelled, i.e. in the scene on the trestle over the water he yells, "Train!" and his hair appears to be quite dry, without a parting. In the next short scene around the campfire, it looks perfectly combed and gelled. He can not have borrowed Vern's comb, since Vern lost it on the train bridge.

Continuity mistake: When the four are deciding whether to cross the swamp, Chris pulls off a nearby tree branch to test the deepness. First the branch is quite flimsy and has two ends like a "Y" shape, and then after Chris pokes it into the marsh it becomes thicker with no split end.

Continuity mistake: When the boys are up in the treehouse at the start of the movie, at one point Chris blows out some smoke into a cloud in front of him, but in the next shot it's completely disappeared.

Continuity mistake: In the first shot of the scene where Gordie has a flashback of his family at the table, we see two pieces of corn near his plate. In the next shot of Gordie's plate, the pieces of corn are gone.

Continuity mistake: The blood on Gordie's hand change from shot to shot when he finds the leech downstairs, from being over most of his three middle fingers, to the ends of his index and middle, then to being all over again.

[Gordie is dreaming about Denny's funeral.]
Mr. LaChance: It should have been you Gordon.

More quotes from Stand By Me

Trivia: The scene with the leeches on Gordie was based on a real life experience that Stephen King had. Mr King has stated that he even has the scar to prove it.

Karoo

More trivia for Stand By Me

Question: In the train dodging scene, why didn't the loco crew brake at all? They definitely saw the boys in front. I know that trains have very long stopping distances compared to road vehicles, but still. And why didn't the boys try to signal the driver to stop? I get it that they panicked, but still wouldn't that be the first thing coming to one's mind in such a situation?

Answer: No, it wasn't that big of a train. He didn't even attempt to get off the throttle. That's all it would have taken for the boys to make it fairly easy. It was a straight-away track, no chance of it derailing by hitting the brakes. Like the man said above, if trains derailed that easily, we wouldn't be using them.

Answer: Throwing on brakes that heavily gives the train a chance of derailing and the train still wouldn't stop in time.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: To add to the other fine answers, and as mentioned, any attempt to make a sudden stop could have resulted in derailment. The conductor knew the train was about to go over an elevated track, and if it derailed, it would have plunged into the deep ravine, killing the boys anyway, as well as those on aboard. The best he could do was blow the whistle, gradually slow the train, and hope the boys survived.

raywest

Can't agree with the arguments about derailment. If trains derailed so easily, they would derail all the time. The train had only 4 or 5 cars. It would not have needed miles to stop. Simply reducing the throttle would have resulted in significant slowing. Plus, they did not stop to determine if anyone was hurt. That is criminal behavior.

Answer: A train that size would have needed miles to stop, and rapid braking could have caused derailment. The engineer was blowing his whistle so he saw the boys; there was no need for them to signal. The engineer and the boys knew their only chance was to get off the bridge.

Brian Katcher

More questions & answers from Stand By Me

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