The Last Samurai

Continuity mistake: In the final scene as Algren approaches the village, his horse is on his left. When he sees his girlfriend, the horse is on his right.

Continuity mistake: The first time Algren is eating with the family, there is a shot with the older of the 2 boys in the corner. He takes a bite of his food with his chopsticks at his mouth, but immediately after, his chopsticks are down in the bowl again, there is no time in between shots for him to put the chopsticks down.

Continuity mistake: When Algren is sitting down with the photographer and talking to him, the old man with the pipe's arm changes position in between shots(the old man is standing next to Algren on the right).

Continuity mistake: When Algren and the samurai leave the village on horseback for the final battle, all the remaining villagers line the road and bow to them. You see Taka getting back up and when the shot changes, she's coming up again.

Sereenie

Continuity mistake: When Katsumoto's son gets shot and Algren rescues him from the bridge, watch the dribble of blood on his lip; it keeps changing lengths from down to his neck, to not there at all, to on his chin.

Continuity mistake: During the training scene near the beginning, Algren is showing a soldier how to aim and fire a rifle-musket. The soldier is looking down the barrel and is about to fire, but the musket's hammer is down (uncocked). The shot changes to the coloniel and we hear Algren talk to him. This lasts for a few seconds that are devoid of sound effects (ie. a hammer being pulled back). The shot then changes back with Algren in mid-sentence and we see the hammer is now cocked and a percussion cap has been fitted.

Wubbman

Continuity mistake: In the ninja attack scene, when Tom Cruise stabs a ninja in the chest, in one shot the sword is poking out his back, but in the very next shot, it isn't.

MikeH

Continuity mistake: In the final scene Algren has his horse on his left. The horse changes to Algren's right when Algren confronts his girlfriend.

Continuity mistake: After Algren is defeated during the first battle with the samurai, Katsumoto says something to his second in command who kneels next to him, however in the next shot the same man can be seen kneeling down again.

Factual error: When we see the United States flag, it is the wrong flag. It has 43 stars, something the flag did not have until 1891.

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Algren: Your highness... if you believe me to be your enemy, command me, and I will gladly take my life.

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Trivia: All the ninja seen in the film were played by actual modern day practitioners of the ninjitsu arts. Allegedly this led to a running joke on set where if the ninja were rehearsing with a stunt double or an extra they would spontaneously perform a kill move (obviously stopping before actually hitting their opponent) then remind everyone they were only contracted to let Tom Cruise live through the movie. Everyone else, as far as they were concerned, was fair game.

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Question: Nathan told Katsumo a story about the Greeks fighting a much smaller army and ended up losing the battle. Can anyone tell me the story or where to find the details on the web?

Answer: The Battle of Thermopylae, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae for more info.

Myridon

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