Full Metal Jacket
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Continuity mistake: In the opening scene, Gunnery Sgt. Hartman is making his speech and passes by Privates Cowboy and Joker on his way to the other side of the barracks. On his way he passes Private Pyle standing to the right of Private Joker. Later in the scene, when he rushes over to confront Private Joker and then moves on to Private Cowboy and then Private Pyle, Private Pyle is on the left of Private Joker. (00:02:00)

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Continuity mistake: After Cowboy and company hook up with Mother, there are seven soldiers. When Cowboy gets shot, there are seven against the wall, not including Cowboy.

posty

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

Suggested correction: Funny thing is, there are 8 whilst there should be 9. When they go to get Mother, Cowboy points out 5 to come with him, and then Joker and Rafterman volunteer to come along. That's 8. Including Mother that would be 9. But there are only 8 in later shots. I can count 8 at the 2:30 timestamp. What is even funnier is that at 2:02 there are only 6 running, not 8. And lastly, when they hook up with Mother, they are 6 in total against the wall (2:24). Maybe someone could confirm this for me so it can be edited.

lionhead

Actually, he tells four to come with him: No-Doze, Scutter, Donlon, and Rock. Joker and Rafterman join, so that should be seven going to mother, but only six are shown. There was an entry for that here, but it is under corrections, saying that the viewer is one of the seven, which is totally incorrect.

posty

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Continuity mistake: When Hartman is messing with Snowball, Joker quotes John Wayne. Hartman seeks out who said something. He grabs Cowboy by the blouse and pulls it upwards forcefully while questioning if he made the joke. Then Joker admits to making the joke. Hartman moves over to Joker, but you can see Cowboy's blouse is now bunched up at the top and no longer properly tucked in. After Hartman reprimands Joker, he moves back to Cowboy. Cowboy's blouse looks as if was never touched by Hartman. (00:03:40 - 00:04:40)

luchador

Full Metal Jacket mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Pvt. Pyle is on the rifle range with Gunnery Sergeant Hartman right behind him. When filmed from Pyle's right side, he is wearing a white wrist wrap/brace but the shot moves behind him and it is gone. Back to the right side and it reappears. (00:35:50)

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Trivia: R. Lee Ermey actually wrote all of Gunny Hartman's dialog himself. Ermey was involved in a serious car accident right before shooting, so Kubrick invited Ermey to come stay at his house in England to recover. While recovering Ermey read the script over and over, and he remarked that the Drill Instructor's dialog that was in the script was obviously the work of a screenwriter with a cliche imagination who obviously had no idea what boot camp was really like. So Kubrick allowed Ermey to re-write all of the dialog himself.

RJR99SS

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Answer: It was Gustav Hasford's idea. It happened in the original book that the story is based on, "The Short Timers."

Captain Defenestrator

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