Continuity mistake: Once Harry met his ex and her current partner, Sally in the view from behind moves her arm behind his - the movement can be easily spotted because of the lyrics sheet she is holding. But in the next shot, she asks him if he's OK, and a few seconds later, she is repeating that same movement. (00:59:15)
Continuity mistake: Harry is blowing off some steam with his friend, practicing swings. When he says, "Why can't you give me credit for this?" look at Bruno Kirby; his baseball bat switches hands, but he is still holding it with both hands and repeats the movement in the next shot. (00:43:35)
Continuity mistake: When Marie is going through potential available dates to pitch to Sally, look at Carrie Fisher's wrist, in particular when she mentions the second name, "Ken Darman"; the hands of her watch point to a different time practically every shot. (00:24:55)
Continuity mistake: Over lunch, Sally tells her two friends that she broke up with Joe. Meg Ryan's hair is conspicuously in front of her shoulders in the close-up but behind her shoulders in the wider angle. (00:23:50)
Continuity mistake: On the plane, the guy sitting next to Sally decides to be a bro to Harry hitting on her and switches places. A stewardess behind them vanishes in thin air as the shot changes. The two stewardesses keep disappearing / changing position throughout the scene. (00:18:15)
Continuity mistake: During the conversation between Joe and Harry, Meg Ryan's head position is inconsistent between angles, sometimes just for a subtle tilt, other times more conspicuously. For instance, when the two guys are entertaining awkward laughter before Joe introduces Sally to Harry, she looks in opposite directions. (00:15:25)
Continuity mistake: Sally is making out with Joe (Steven Ford) at the airport when she spots Harry staring at them. She taps Joe on the arm; in the next camera angle, her left hand is on his lapel, but it was nowhere to be seen earlier. (00:15:20)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the airport scene, watch out for the moment when Billy Crystal first walks by. Two blonde flight attendants are carrying their bags. Focus then on the black woman in a patterned dress that gets in frame from the left side. As soon as the camera angle changes, the same woman is seated, slightly out of focus behind Meg Ryan and Steven Ford. (00:15:20)
Continuity mistake: In the second part of the diner scene during Harry and Sally's drive from Chicago to New York, the waitress in pink appears at opposite ends of the diner in close-ups behind both Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, while a staff member in white carries a bowl from right to left behind Meg Ryan at least three times. (00:10:20)
Continuity mistake: In the 1977 diner scene, as Meg Ryan calculates how to split the bill, the keys on the table face opposite directions depending on the camera angle. (00:10:15)
Continuity mistake: During the first scene showing Sally Albright's peculiar way of ordering food (Rob Reiner notes in the DVD commentary that it was modelled directly on Nora Ephron's real-life behaviour), the water levels in Sally's and Harry's glasses change repeatedly between shots. (00:09:10)
Continuity mistake: During the first car ride scene Harry is spitting the seeds out the window. One of the shots shown of the car from the outside shows the window still up after he has rolled it down. (00:05:40)
Continuity mistake: When they are playing win, lose, or draw, Sally is trying to draw baby talk, and if you keep your eye on the drawing the baby looks different all the time and has eyes, and then doesn't have eyes, etc. (01:04:15)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Harry and Sally are having lunch in the diner (the orgasm scene), Harry's napkin is in his lap. You can see it when the camera angle is from the side showing both of them from the knees up. Every time that angle is used, the napkin is in a different place or altogether gone. (00:46:00)
Continuity mistake: Coming out of the diner, on the trip from Chicago to New York, when Sally starts opening the door from the inside she does so with her right hand and the purse in her left hand. The next shot is from the outside and now she is pushing the door open using her left hand with the purse hanging from her left shoulder. (00:10:32)
Continuity mistake: The interior scene on the airplane shows a 707, with the lights mounted on distinctive boxes underneath the overhead bins. The airplane shown landing is a 737, which had the interior lights mounted flush.
Continuity mistake: In the deli scene when Sally is faking her orgasm, the camera movies to Harry. You can see the waiter approaching. When the scene is over, the waiter again approaches to take the order from the other woman (Rob Reiner's mom). (00:46:25)
Continuity mistake: When Harry and Sally are at a restaurant having lunch (this is when she has the fake orgasm), if you look at Sally's sandwich when they show her from behind, you will see that where she has bit into the sandwich has changed. First the bite is on the right, then the middle, then the left, etc.
Continuity mistake: When Harry and Sally leave the diner on their trip from Chicago to New York, a blue Volkswagon pulls into the parking space next to them. During their dialog outside their car, the blue Volkswagon can be seen behind Sally in the first two shots, but is missing in the last shot of her. (00:11:20)
Continuity mistake: When the three women are talking in the open air restaurant, just after Meg broke up with her boyfriend, check the background scenery. It alternates between very cloudy, sunny, and dim and bright, even though the time passed is only seconds. (00:23:25)
Answer: Sally could be upset for having to drive Amanda's boyfriend, or it could be awkward because they don't know how to say goodbye. There could be a number of reasons why things appear tense between Sally and Amanda, just not explained.
That was a big question mark for me as well when I watched the movie, to the point that I had to re-watch the beginning because I was sure I had missed something; their behaviour doesn't make sense.
Sammo ★