Continuity mistake: As Mitch starts to run out of the restaurant the angle of the drapes to the left of the old drunk at the bar changes between shots. At first it's spread out more at the bottom, then up close it hangs straight down. (01:24:40)
Continuity mistake: When the birds start to attack again Mitch starts to run out of the restaurant and the old drunk at the bar is asleep. In the next shot of Mitch at the door he's suddenly awake. (01:24:40)
Continuity mistake: The body of the gas station attendant moves to the left between shots, as Mitch runs to help him, and Mitch's position changes after he runs to help. (01:24:55)
Continuity mistake: As Melanie and the rest look out of the restaurant window the pencil in the ear of the waitress is in one place in the close-ups and another in the wider shots. (01:25:00)
Continuity mistake: We see the gas hit the tire of the orange car, but in the next shot it's nowhere near the tire. (01:25:15)
Continuity mistake: The orange car that catches fire, when the guy throws the match, moves between shots. When he lights up the cigarette there's a white parking line to left of the tire. In the previous shot it wasn't there. (01:25:15)
Continuity mistake: When the orange car explodes there is much more gas around especially under the guy's feet than in the previous shot. (01:25:30)
Continuity mistake: Two seconds after the orange car explodes quite a few people appear who were nowhere nearby a second earlier. (01:25:35)
Continuity mistake: The aerial shot of the fire is wrong. The two cars parked across from the exploding orange car are green on the left and white on the right. In the aerial shot they're both black. (01:25:45)
Continuity mistake: As everyone runs out of the restaurant, the bushes on the left of the building that were there before are gone. (01:26:10)
Continuity mistake: As Melanie runs into the phone booth from the restaurant the four poles that were around it when Mitch walks her to the restaurant after the gull attack have disappeared. (01:26:10)
Continuity mistake: As everyone runs out of the restaurant the fire is close to the telephone booth. In a previous shot when we saw the fire heading towards the gas station it was right next to the building on the other side of the road. (01:26:10)
Continuity mistake: When we saw the phone booth earlier in the movie it was sitting on rock now as Melanie runs inside it for protection from the bird attack it's sitting on asphalt. (01:26:15)
Continuity mistake: As Melanie runs inside the phone booth a black device has appeared above the telephone. In a previous shot as Mitch runs to help the gas station attendant we see inside the phone booth and that device is not there. (01:26:15)
Continuity mistake: The gas station fire in front of the pumps becomes much worse between shots as Melanie watches it from the phone booth. (01:26:20)
Continuity mistake: Melanie closes the door of the phone booth with her right hand pushed up against the window, and in the next shot her right hand is tucked up close to her body touching the center of the phone booth door. While inside, Melanie goes from leaning against the door to leaning against the opposite window between shots. (01:26:25)
Continuity mistake: The windshield of a blue and white car that crashes into a stop sign gets broken on the left side. In the next shot as Melanie looks at it up close from the phone booth it's not broken. (01:26:30)
Continuity mistake: A guy in the blue and white car that comes crashing towards Melanie in the phone booth throws a bird out of his driver side window. In the next shot as he fends off several other birds the window is shut. Then when he crashes into the orange car, it's open again. (01:26:30)
Continuity mistake: In a close-up of Melanie in the phone booth after a blue and white car crashes into the orange car look at the left side of the screen. You'll see the stop sign that the blue and white car just knocked over back up where it was seconds before. (01:26:40)
Continuity mistake: At the gas station fire the two fireman that lose their grip on the hose disappear between shots. (01:27:00)
Answer: The movie takes place in the 1960s, so presumably gas pumps worked a bit differently back then. This is also a small town and probably the gas station had not modernized. There may not have been automatic shut-offs, or if there was, it was faulty.
raywest ★
The automatic shut off is in the handle of the hose. When a person grips the handle they have to lift a levered switch to allow gas flow; the lever is spring loaded so that if it is released the gas will stop flowing. I have looked at older antique gas pumps and they are all the same; even the visible glass gravity flow ones. If that hose was dropped the the gas should have stopped flowing.
michael g