The Pursuit of Happyness

The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

6 corrected entries

(6 votes)

Corrected entry: When Chris doing the Rubik's Cube is a tribute to "The Fresh Prince of Bellaire" episode where Will gets into Princeton by solving a Rubik's Cube.

Correction: This is just simply wrong. The movie was set roughly 10 years before "The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air" (check your spelling) The Rubik's Cube was a brand new toy back when this movie was set, in the early '80s. The Cube signified Chris' ability and willingness to never give up.

moviemogul

Corrected entry: When the cabbie is chasing Will Smith, the cabbie can't be seen entering the subway station using the stairs or the escalator, but pretty much appears to come out of nowhere.

Correction: You can see the cab slam on its brakes just as Will Smith is beginning to descend the stairs. So by the time the cab driver would've gotten out of the car and gotten to the top of the stairs, Will was already well into the station. Also Will Smith starts slowing down once he entered the station, as evidenced by him speeding back up again after the cab driver screams at him. The cab driver simply kept following the path Will took into the station until he saw him again; just because it isn't shown on screen doesn't make it a mistake.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Chris and his son are in the homeless shelter for the first time. The shot is where Chris is reading the book in his room using the limited light from the window while his son is sleeping. Chris turns a page from left to right. This would indicate that he is reading the book backwards.

dmgood99

Correction: Chris is reading the manual for the machine he needs to repair, and therefore it is totally plausible that he was flipping the pages backward, perhaps looking for the section he needed.

Corrected entry: Will Smith's son is given a basketball as a gift. Later on, when he tells his son they are gonna go back home, he says, "We are gonna get you home to your football."

Correction: Totally plausible as a character mistake. His concern wasn't the fact that it was one ball over another, just that his son was placated and felt important.

Kimberly Mason

Corrected entry: In the scene where Chris gives blood, the collection bag is labeled "Volunteer Donor" when he is is doing it for cash.

Correction: You still volunteer to give blood, even if you're paid. Like the American military; it's a volunteer armed service, but you still get paid for being in it.

Corrected entry: When Will Smith is taking his son to daycare and they are talking about nicknames he made reference to Bonanza and Love Boat as shows that he watches during daycare. I don't believe those shows were on during the daytime in 1981. And it wasn't a daycare that ran during the night too otherwise Will Smith wouldn't have been so worried about his wife/girlfriend picking up their son before dinner.

Correction: I remember watching Bonanza in the late morning/early afternoon when I was a child, around that same time. And, though I never watched it, there's no reason Love Boat couldn't have been on as well.

Phixius

Visible crew/equipment: When Chris is about to take his job interview he walks across the busy work area. Right after he turns left you can see a movie technician with a red cap behind Chris. He is quickly hiding behind a pillar when he notices that the camera is on him.

Den Plaza

More mistakes in The Pursuit of Happyness

Reverend Williams: The important thing about that freedom train, is it's got to climb mountains. We ALL have to climb mountains, you know. Mountains that go way up high, and mountains that go deep and low. Yes, we know what those mountains are here at Glide. We sing about them.

More quotes from The Pursuit of Happyness
The Pursuit of Happyness trivia picture

Trivia: In the last scene of the movie when Chris and his son are crossing the street and telling jokes, they pass a man in a suit who gives them a brief nod. This is a cameo appearance from the real Chris Gardner.

Steph_Jared

More trivia for The Pursuit of Happyness

Question: Why is the word "Happiness" in the title misspelled?

Answer: In an interview, the real-life Chris Gardiner, (played by Will Smith) explained that the deliberately misspelled word was written that way on the child daycare center's wall (representing how children can sometimes misspell words). Gardiner later interpreted it to personally mean that true happiness is not defined in just one way, there are many ways to be happy, and that was reflected in the alternate spelling.

raywest

More questions & answers from The Pursuit of Happyness

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.