The Terminal

Continuity mistake: When the officer is trying to take Viktor's passport, Viktor's grip changes position on the passport from one shot to the next. The first shot he is gripping it more to the middle of the passport with his fingers underneath and in the last shot he is gripping it at the corner with his finger down the edge. (00:04:45)

luchador

Continuity mistake: When the head customs agent is trying to explain to Viktor what is happening, he starts to unpack his lunchpail. The lunchpail is a bit away from him on the table, and he sets the food in front of it, including a rather large bag of chips/crisps. The angle changes, and the chips/crisps have magically moved to behind the lunchpail. (00:05:30)

Continuity mistake: As the CBP agent is explaining the bag of chips and the apple, Viktor says "Big Apple, Big Apple". Look at the desk and it is perfectly clean. There are no crumbs on the desk. Just before the CBP agent slams the apple onto the chips we can now see a few crumbs already on the desk. (00:06:25)

luchador

Continuity mistake: After the CBP agent smashed the potato chip bag with the apple, the shot is switched from beside the agent to Viktor's viewpoint. The number of chips and distribution of those chips on the desk change. (00:06:35)

luchador

Continuity mistake: In the scene in Dixon's office, where he's trying to explain to Viktor that his country has fallen in a military coup, he uses an apple and potato chips to make his point. When the bag of chips pops open it sprays broken bits of chips all over Viktor's torso and lap. Although Viktor does brush some off, in the next shot he stands up to leave and there are no chips on his clothes or lap. You could believe he brushed them away off camera, but don't even see any on the floor around him. (00:07:05)

Cal K.

Continuity mistake: As Viktor is first running around the airport looking for televisions showing information on Krakhozia, he heads for the staircase to the second floor. A woman in dark clothes and a light scarf is walking in front of the escalator and another woman in a tan sweater and black pants is walking down the stairs as he approaches, but they disappear in the shot from above. (00:11:20)

Phoenix

Continuity mistake: When Gupta is walking away from Viktor after their first meeting over the trash can, Viktor's hands switch from in front of him to at his sides. He doesn't have time to drop them. (00:15:20)

Phoenix

Continuity mistake: This mistake occurs on Viktor's first night of sleeping, before he takes the chairs apart, after he sees the news and all that stuff. When he is trying to get comfortable in the row of chairs, in the first shot, he is stretching and places his fist under his chin. In the shot IMMEDIATELY after that, is hands are folded neatly and resting on his lap. (00:16:30)

MasterChief3624

Continuity mistake: When the retiring official and Dixon are walking together and talking about the yacht, the objects in front of the wall on the left change completely between a side shot and a front shot. They walk past copiers, but the next shot shows a desk and file cabinets. (00:18:45)

Phoenix

Continuity mistake: When Dixon and Viktor are riding down the escalator the amount of foam in Dixon's Starbucks cup is a small amount at the top of the escalator but a much larger amount when they reach the bottom. (00:24:05)

luchador

Continuity mistake: As Dixon is explaining to Viktor about the gap in the door guard on the escalator, Dixon's hand changes position in an angle change. (00:24:15)

Phoenix

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Viktor first meets Amelia, when he advertises Payless Shoes, Amelia is going up the escalator. In the shot when he says "Sensible Heels", Amelia turns her head and keeps it turned until the shot changes. When the shot changes, Amelia turns her head again. (00:28:30)

MasterChief3624

Continuity mistake: When Viktor is making his cracker sandwich we see a closeup shot with a lot of packs of ketchup, relish and mustard in front of the mustard and cracker layer he just made. The camera then switches to a wide shot and the packs are no longer in front of the napkins but off to the side. (00:36:10)

luchador

Continuity mistake: When Viktor is making his cracker sandwich he makes the mustard layer in the center of the napkin. This can be seen in he closeup shot. When the camera switches to a wide shot the mustard layer has moved to the corner of the napkin. (00:36:10)

luchador

Continuity mistake: After Viktor has to resort to eating crackers and sauce again, Amelia waves in his direction. After he stands up, her boyfriend Max bumps into him and knocks the cracker sandwich out of his hand. We can see the splat of sauce on the ground with broken crackers mixed in. A few seconds later they have a shot of Viktor looking down at his spilled lunch and the crackers, which are whole, and sauce look much different than they did in the previous shot. (00:36:40)

luchador

Continuity mistake: During Dixon's attempt to get Viktor to claim fear of return to Krakhozia, the phone cord and files on Dixon's desk change. (00:44:50)

Phoenix

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Amelia is on the phone crying, the shot before Viktor starts walking to her has him turn his head, and move his body a little. His head and body are not aligned, though. At the beginning of the next shot, when he starts walking over to her, his body starts out perfectly straight. (00:47:40)

MasterChief3624

Continuity mistake: When Amelia takes the "Sorry Phone Out of Order" sticker and sticks it to Viktor's shirt, it changes position in subsequent shots. She stuck it to his shirt with the sticker centered on the buttons of his shirt. In the next shot, the sticker is has the edge of the sticker over the buttons of the shirt and is not totally stuck to his shirt. After he saves her from falling on the wet floor, the sticker is once again centered and totally stuck to his shirt. (00:48:45)

luchador

Continuity mistake: When Viktor and Amelia are talking about Napoleon in Border's Viktor is cleaning her glasses. He hands them back to her and she takes them with her right hand. A split second later in the next shot she has the glasses in her left hand and is grabbing them with her right hand. She did not have time to move them to her left hand after grabbing them. (01:02:20)

luchador

Continuity mistake: When Viktor is asked to translate for the Russian man, he is holding the pills at one point while standing in the doorway. In shots from his left, he is holding three cases of pills in his left hand and one in his right. In shots from his right, he is holding two in each hand. This change happens several times. (01:10:20)

Revealing mistake: About 30 seconds into the movie, when the camera is panning down the flight status board, the letters are flipping through to form the correct words. However, the board is digitally animated, and some of the sequences of letters scrolling (such as one square going from L to M to N) loop without making any sense, like in the line above the yellow "The /Terminal" (U, V, W, U, V, W, U, V, W.). (00:00:30)

More mistakes in The Terminal

Viktor Navorski: Eat to bite... bite to eat, bite to eat, bite to eat, bitetoeat bitetoeat bitetoeatbitetoeatbitetoeatbitetoeat.

More quotes from The Terminal

Trivia: When Amelia does her makeup at the table while sitting with Viktor, she pulls out an Elizabeth Arden compact. Catherine Zeta-Jones, who played Amelia, is currently a spokeswoman for Elizabeth Arden cosmetics.

More trivia for The Terminal

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.