Enemy at the Gates
Enemy at the Gates mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When we first see the wolf at the start it has got snow all over its fur. A few shots later the snow has vanished completely. (00:01:40)

Ssiscool

Enemy at the Gates mistake picture

Continuity mistake: At the start, when we see a close up of Vassili's gun, you can see a big clear knot just by the barrel end, a few shots later the knot is a lot smaller and harder to see. (00:02:30)

Ssiscool

Continuity mistake: When we first see the girl, her hair is swept to the viewers' left. In the next shot, just 2 seconds later, some is over her eye and there is a gap where the hair was. (00:03:30)

Ssiscool

Continuity mistake: When the boats come under attack from the Germans, we see a senior officer with a red band round his hat get shot and fall back into all the troops. A few seconds later, the same man is seen firing at the planes. Camera does another double cut, and gets shot again. This is not a filming technique to show the same shot from different angles as we see him shooting back after being killed the first time. (00:08:30)

Ssiscool

Enemy at the Gates mistake picture

Continuity mistake: During Danilov's escape sequence, there is a rollover of a vehicle. While the vehicle's wheels are still turning, the tyre tread is of a modern all-season radial. When you see the vehicle again, it is a tyre more fitting for the time period. (00:14:55)

Enemy at the Gates mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the beginning, when the political officer is crouching behind the wall, the bolt on his rifle is open, but when he leans up to fire, the bolt is magically closed. (00:16:45)

Continuity mistake: In the scene taking place at the fountain, Danilov's rifle has a round receiver. When he hands the rifle over to Zaitsev, the rifle has a hex receiver. When Zaitsev hands the rifle back, the rifle has a round receiver again. (00:17:30)

Enemy at the Gates mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Danilov first shows Vassili the leaflets that praise his exploits, the shot shows a leaflet coming off the printing press with four "x-ed out helmets", indicating how many German soldiers Vassili has killed. The camera follows the leaflet off the press, Danilov picks up the leaflet and hands it Vassili. The next shot shows Vassili looking at the leaflet, but now there are five x-ed out helmets. (00:20:30)

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

Suggested correction: The other X'd-out helmet is beneath Danilov's thumb. You'll notice that the border is wider and there is an additional text column on the left of the page beneath the helmet hidden by his thumb.

That other X under his thumb is from a 2nd printed leaflet. There's not an extra column of text or a 5th X. Plus, look how the first X lines up with the B, whereas what you think is the first X wouldn't be under the B.

Bishop73

Enemy at the Gates mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Jude Law and Joseph Fiennes are walking through the Soviet Headquarters and talking about how the sniper never relocates, in the first scenes, Jude Law has no bandage on his wound on his head, however in the later close up shot there is a bandage, this within a few minutes. There definitely is no bandage present in the first scenes. (00:45:20)

manthabeat

Continuity mistake: As Koulikov is shot while jumping the gap we see the blood spatter created lies along the dark line above the red writing. In the next shot it shows the spatter from another angle in which we see that it is now above the dark line where it was originally. (00:58:30)

Scrappy

Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film when the Russian troops are rushing headlong at the Germans, there is an obvious cut in one shot as several people shift places and one Russian just disappears.

Joel Amos Gordon

Continuity mistake: When Vassili is behind the chemical factory waiting for the Major to appear, the soldiers run out from under the train cars. The next shot shows the soldiers from behind, and if you look closely a horrible editing mistake was made. Some of the soldiers suddenly disappear, and then reappear.

Continuity mistake: During the scene where Vassili is hiding from Major König behind an old oven and trying to get his gun back by tossing his pocket knife at it and pulling the string, König shoots the string. The string breaks, but the bullet doesn't hit anything behind the string, as if it was stopped by the string!

Enemy at the Gates mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Before they attempt to trap König with the raised helmet trick, we see one of them light a cigarette. It initially appears to be very large and misshapen. When the angle changes, the cigarette has shrunk to more than half its previous size and is perfectly rolled.

Enemy at the Gates mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Vassili and his two friends go out to trap König by shooting telephone repairmen, their rifles are covered by hessian, when they are shooting the repairman the guns are uncovered, and when Koulikov and Vassili are on the way back and jump across the gap in the buildings their rifles are covered again.

Foff44

Revealing mistake: Midway through the movie, there is a long-shot of several characters walking outside between two gutted factory buildings. The camera pulls back, zeros in on the base of a huge chimney and pans upward to the very top - where two men in black and white checkerboard jackets are working.

More mistakes in Enemy at the Gates

Vassili Zaitsev: He doesn't know you exist, but at that moment you're closer to him than anyone else on earth. You see his face through the sign. You see whether he shaved or not. You can see whether he's married if he's got a wedding ring. It's not like firing at a distant shape. It's not just a uniform. It's a man's face. Those faces don't go away. They come back and they get replaced by more faces.

More quotes from Enemy at the Gates

Trivia: The film is based upon William Craig's book of the same name, yet the entire movie is based upon a sniper duel that covers no more than two pages of the entire book. German army historical records never mention an elite sniper named "Major Koenig" hunting Vassili Zaitsev at Stalingrad.

Scott215

More trivia for Enemy at the Gates

Chosen answer: Vasily Zaitsev (Jude Law) uses a 7.62 x 54mm Mosin-Nagant M91/30 rifle with a PU scope. Major König (Ed Harris) used a 7.92 x57mm Mauser Karabiner 98 K with scope. Law's scope was wrong as the model used in the film wasn't available until after the Battle of Stalingrad.

Grumpy Scot

More questions & answers from Enemy at the Gates

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