Bird on a Wire

Revealing mistake: A shot of Mel and Goldie on the motorcycle in Michigan is re-used for a shot when they are supposedly in Wisconsin. They are driving along a curving, downsloping road.

Ral0618

Revealing mistake: In the struggle Goldie Hawn has with a bunch of chimpanzees, a single chimp is able to stir the rope an awful lot, with the rope having a leeway disproportionate to the weight attached - in fact it happens in shots where only the monkeys are shown, obviously taken when nothing or very little was attached to the part of the rope off camera. (01:38:25)

Sammo

Revealing mistake: In the close-up of the helicopter when Rach shoots it from behind the cart asking "Friends of yours, Jodie?" it already shows multiple bullet holes in the back. We saw Rach hit the copter just once before, and in the front to little to no damage. The damage appears to be gone when it takes off from picking up the gunman again. (01:06:10)

Sammo

Bird on a Wire mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When the "I'm in pursuit" guy splashes his bike into the cement, not only in the side view is there no fresh trace of Rick's bike (and the construction worker is even using his squeegee as if nothing happened), but in the POV shot you can even see that the bike is coming out of the alley into a solid well paved sidewalk. You can actually even see a camera crew (but this last part of the mistake is discernible just if you slow motion). (00:55:05)

Sammo

Revealing mistake: Rick and Muffy get jumped by the police as they return to her car, but during the arrest Rick frees himself from the cops. Notice when he kicks the cop in uniform; he falls down on a table in the close-up, even breaking it, but you see the same action repeated in the background when Gibson pushes down the cop, and it's different, with no table broken and the sitting woman already standing. (00:37:15)

Sammo

Revealing mistake: At the kid's birthday party, Sorenson approaches a window and peeks inside to see Diggs meeting with the Colombians. We are supposed to see a POV shot complete with reflection in the window glass, but it is an obvious superimposed image; the camera moves following Bill Duke's movements but David Carradine's head remains unchanged, hovering unmovable with the whole background. (00:05:30)

Sammo

Revealing mistake: Rick has taken over the wheel from Muffy: in one of the POV shots of the high speed car run down the streets of Detroit, a perfectly good view of Vancouver's Harbour Centre building appears at the end of the road. (00:39:05)

Sammo

Factual error: Mel and Goldie board a ferry. A visible sign states 'Detroit-Racine Ferry'. Detroit is on the east side of the state of Michigan but Racine, Wisconsin is west of Michigan, across Lake Michigan. The only water route to get from Detroit to Racine would be to circumnavigate the entire state of Michigan.

More mistakes in Bird on a Wire

Rick Jarmin: I haven't had a girlfriend for 5 years.
Marianne Graves: Really?
Rick: Yeah - Mr. Wiggly's been on bread and water for 5 years.

More quotes from Bird on a Wire

Trivia: When the agent pulls from the computer record Richard's file, an alias listed is "David Putnam - Columbia Pictures", employed from 06/04/1973 to 02/01/1975. That's an obvious reference to producer David Puttnam (two Ts), who had a brief stint as head of Columbia Pictures in 1986-87, not making many friends in the then Coca-Cola owned production company. (00:12:50)

Sammo

More trivia for Bird on a Wire

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