Deliberate mistake: When a man bumps into pole, it sounds as if a truck had crashed (which makes it funnier), but in reality he just bumped his chest.
Continuity mistake: While Mr. White is trying to open the bingo ball, from the side shots the lady is watching the ball. From the front shots she is watching him. This keeps taking place every time angle angles.
Continuity mistake: The fireman on the right points at the lake and lowers his arm. In the next shot it's up again.
Continuity mistake: The two firemen pointing at the lake are standing close to each other. In the wider angle they are much farther away.
Continuity mistake: After Clark Kent smashes cake on a man's face, the amount of cake increases in the close-up, especially on his neck.
Continuity mistake: When a man tries to pick up the toy penguins, a close shot shows them walking, but on the wide shot they are standing still.
Continuity mistake: In the beginning, when Gus is waiting on the queue of the employment office, the amount of papers by his feet changes between the close shot and the wide one following.
Continuity mistake: In the employment office, the crushed Coke can jammed between the iron bars changes position between shots.
Continuity mistake: After Evil Superman was done melting the mirror in the bar he slowly stood up from the stool to leave the place. The immediate next shot from the sidewalk right outside the bar shows a pedestrian approaching, and as he walks by the establishment Superman can be seen through the window still sitting down at the counter.
Continuity mistake: The location of the staircase leading up to the supercomputer's control console changes. When they first enter the computer, it is at the back of the computer behind a lot of electrical machinery and circuits. When Ross comes down to try and get the screw out of Gus's mouth, the staircase has moved right next to the entrance of the computer (where Vera gets turned into a robot later on).
Continuity mistake: The firetruck's ladder Jimmy climbs up during the chemical plant fire changes between shots. In the first shot its a white-framed ladder at a pretty shallow angle. The ladder in the second shot changes to a black and orange one which is at a much steeper angle and the rungs are spaced further apart. Also in the second shot he is much closer to the top of the ladder than the first shot, and there is no way he climbed up the ladder that fast.
Plot hole: During the supercomputer's destruction, the 3 electrical probes that are sending lightning to the overhead pylons to draw electricity from them are no longer flashing. So where is the electricity coming from to sustain the computer's lighting system as the fluorescent tubes are still working?
Continuity mistake: When Vera is getting sucked into the computer, she has white gloves on. Seconds later, during her robot transformation, there is a full screen close up of her hand without any glove. Then, when Vera emerges from the wreckage of the computer a few minutes later, she has her gloves on again.
Answer: There were rumors that Hackman was angry with the Salkind Brothers (the producers) for firing director Richard Donner, though Hackman later disputed saying that. His explanation, though he may have been downplaying the real reason, was that he had a number of other movie projects at the time, and he also did not wish to continually play the same villain in an ongoing movie series.
raywest ★