The Italian Job

Factual error: While Bridger is watching the film of the Mafia boss following Beckerman he signals for the film to be stopped so he can look at the close up shot of the man. He is watching a 16mm film shown through a bog standard projector - stop a film like that for more than two seconds without closing down the projector shutter (this doesn't happen - if it did the screen would darken instantly) and it will melt and catch fire. This doesn't happen.

Factual error: The amount of gold shown would weigh upwards of 12 tons. That's 4 tons per mini. No way! The density of gold is 19 times that of water; a cubic metre of gold weighs 19 tons. A whole Morris Mini weighed less than 700kg. If you can pay for it, put a block of 10cmx10cmx10cm of gold on the table and see if anyone can lift it.

Factual error: At the end on the coach the actual coach is not big enough to accommodate the 3 minis, the mini crews, the coach crew and the mini bus crew and the pile of gold. The first mini is parked right behind the driver and the last is literally touching the back doors also as we've seen not much room either side of the minis there simply isn't enough room.

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Mistakes

Plot hole: Why on earth do they drive the Minis up the ramps into the bus while it is moving? They are on a long, straight, relatively quiet stretch of road, but there are cars and buildings about. That ramp is going to make a noise like the sky coming down (we see sparks as it scrapes on the road) and they put on a display anyone would be, frankly, amazed to see. Don't they think one single person would call the police? Don't they think that reports of three brightly coloured Minis will be connected with the recent robbery? They cannot possibly think they have to load the Minis on the run in order to elude the police; they have lost the police cars and are no longer being pursued. Why not just park the bus on the hard shoulder and drive the Minis sedately up that ramp? An unusual sight, maybe, but nowhere near as clumsy, obvious and attention-getting as the way they do it. They are asking to be pulled over and arrested.

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Quotes

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Trivia

Trivia: Croker has just come out of prison and is met by Lorna who has stolen a Daimler to drive him home in. Croker finds a flag in the car and says "this car belongs to the Pakistani ambassador" which was true, in real life that car did belong to the Pakistani High Commission in London and was hired by the film company.

eric 64

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Questions

Question: What happened at the end? How did they get out of that fix?

Answer: We may never know. The ending was originally a set-up for a sequel, but the sequel never materialized.

Cubs Fan ★

Answer: Michael Caine himself once suggested in an interview that all they had to do was wait until the bus, the engine of which was still running, ran out of fuel. The fuel tank was at the rear of the bus, hanging over the cliff and so adding weight at that end. As it emptied, the balance would shift to the front and they would be able to move the gold forward. How they could then get it off the bus, or transport it from the roadside is another matter.

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