Duel

Duel (1971)

7 pictures since 13 Apr '21, 19:46

(16 votes)

Duel mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: When David's car gets stuck on the bus bumper, the next shot is of the bus' black bumper and the side of the car. At the top of the black bumper there are two people seen in the reflection. The person on the left turns and takes a step to the right.

Duel mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When David Mann is at the cafe, the waitress brings over his sandwich and water. He immediately drinks all of the water, yet when the shot changes to above the table, of him looking at his sandwich, the glass of water is completely full again.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: There is an empty glass next to the full glass.

The mistake is valid. David drank all his water before getting his food and asked the waitress for another glass of water and aspirin. She then brought him the food, aspirin, and 2nd glass of water. He drinks all the water after taking the aspirin and sets the empty glass down. In the next shot he's holding a glass with water. There should be two empty glasses.

Bishop73

Duel mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When David has the accident and crashes his car against the fences, he steps out of it and closes the door, but when he comes back to go on his own way, the car door is inexplicably open. (00:26:49 - 00:42:52)

Duel mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the movie where David begins to take advantage over the truck driver, and he turns on right towards the climb also breaking the cartels and fences, the weather changes in two shots: it's cloudy before and sunny immediately after.

Duel mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When David returns on his way after sleeping, he first wears his glasses in a shot, but when he suddenly brakes after seeing the truck stopped on the side of the highway, his glasses are gone. (01:03:07)

Duel mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After the truck tried to make David's car hit by the train dabbing it from behind, the car has a dent on the right rear light, but in a following scene, the dent has vanished. (00:53:09 - 00:54:30)

Duel mistake picture

Continuity mistake: While David is sitting at the table in Chuck's Cafe, the ashtray is unused, but moves around the table several times. Cutlery changes position too, in two different shots.

Wendy D

Visible crew/equipment: When Dennis Weaver is in the cafe a shadow of a cameraman is cast across the table he is sitting at. The shot then changes to a wider angle to reveal that there isn't anyone near him who could have cast that shadow.

More mistakes in Duel

David Mann: Come on you miserable fat-head, get that fat-ass truck outta my way.

More quotes from Duel

Trivia: Steven Spielberg "interviewed" over 100 trucks before finding the forboding, evil looking one for the movie.

The_Iceman

More trivia for Duel

Question: When the character was at the cafe and the truck was there, but he didn't know who the driver was, why didn't he just go and wait by the truck, smash the windshield, fill the gas tank with sugar or water, slash the tyres?

Answer: At that point in the film, the protagonist David Mann is ready to confront the truck driver. When he sees the old Peterbilt truck outside, David mistakenly assumes the truck driver has already entered the diner, so he confronts a likely suspect that he sees at the counter (but he has misidentified the man). The misidentified man takes offense and punches David out. By the time he recovers his senses, David sees the old Peterbilt truck leaving the parking lot. Which means the actual homicidal truck driver never entered the diner in the first place and was waiting outside the whole time. If David had first gone outside to the Peterbilt, there was a good chance the waiting homicidal truck driver would have killed him right there, and the story would have abruptly ended. So, David's misidentification of the truck driver allowed the film to move ahead into its next act.

Charles Austin Miller

Yes, I get why the filmmakers did that, but I still think it is a plot hole. If the Dennis Weaver character was afraid of getting killed by the truck driver, I doubt he would have confronted him in the cafe.

More questions & answers from Duel

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