Continuity mistake: When they first land on the island, the actors' positions change. In the interior shots, Satler is sitting to Hammond's left during the descent. When the copter door opens, Hammond is on the other side, his left side facing the door. They would not have switched places during the descent. (00:16:55 - 00:17:45)
Revealing mistake: When Tim is shocked off the fence as the power comes back on, the sparking effects are not where his hands are touching, instead the sparks are several inches away. (01:39:00)
Revealing mistake: When the T-rex is attacking the vehicle and he has turned it over, the camera pans round behind the T-rex and you see through its legs, the ground all around the base of the beast is dry, but it's been pouring with rain for a while. (01:05:45)
Continuity mistake: When Grant and Malcolm's car suddenly "just stops" you can see outside that they are in a thick dense jungle area. A few minutes later, the two parked cars are in a wide open area next to the T-Rex fence. (00:55:20 - 00:58:10)
Continuity mistake: In the opening scene Jophery is being attacked by the dinosaur in the cage and Muldoon is holding onto him while the workers shock the dinosaur. Muldoon's hat is on in one shot, then the camera cuts and it is off while the camera is dollying forward, then it is on again. This happens just as he is about to shout "SHOOT HER! SHOOT HER!" (00:03:00)
Other mistake: When Grant and the children are up in the tree, as Tim is telling his jokes the camera pans out and we get a wider view. In this shot you can see that Grant's boots are spotlessly clean, which is highly unlikely given the muddy ground, wet environment and his activities over the past few hours. (01:20:35)
Continuity mistake: When Grant grabs onto the electric fence, his hands are a short distance apart and there is a set of vertically positioned wiring in between his hands - the warning sign is also barely covering the "hole" in the wires. A couple of shots later, without letting go of the fence, his hands are much further apart and there are now three sets of vertically positioned wiring in between his hands. The angle of the wires also changes, and the sign is now well into the "hole", very near his hand.
Continuity mistake: In the opening sequence, just after Jophery has been grabbed by the Velociraptor, he gets dragged up in the air. Muldoon reaches up for him then, in the next shot, he reaches up for him again. (00:02:55)
Continuity mistake: When they are on the dinosaur's bones, one of the cords attached to the section that Lex is on comes out. The bone starts to fall and (for a fraction of a second) you can see that Lex lets go of it but in the next shot she is hanging on again. (01:51:45)
Continuity mistake: When Nedry gets lost at night, he crashes into a mud bank on the front end of his Jeep. When we get a shot of Nedry getting out of the car, he looks to see what stopped him. The obstacle has changed to a log caught on the back tyres. No more mud bank. (01:08:05)
Continuity mistake: In the badlands segment of the film, after Ellie, Alan, and Hammond enter the trailer. Hammond decides to open the bottle of champagne that Ellie, and Allen were saving. Hammond begins to buff a couple of glasses with a towel that magically changes to a pink towel in the next shot. (00:10:45)
Character mistake: When Nedry is stealing the embryos, an extra "n" is missing on the label "Tyranosaurus".
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Grant and the two kids start running from the Gallimimus you see a shot of them running toward the camera with the dinosaurs running around and ahead of them. In the next shot they are running away from the camera and there are no dinosaurs in front of them. There were a lot of dinosaurs in front of them, where did they all go? (01:31:05)
Continuity mistake: When the T-Rex is approaching, the lawyer runs into the bathroom stall and the roll of toilet paper is mounted horizontally. After Ian runs towards the bathroom away from the T-rex, in the shot of the panicked lawyer as he shuts the door the toilet paper is now mounted vertically, but when the T-Rex knocks down the stall walls, leaving the lawyer sitting out in the open, it is again mounted horizontally. (01:00:50 - 01:04:45)
Continuity mistake: When Nedry is trying out the shaving foam can, he puts some on his right hand. When the camera pans back after he's wiped most of it off on the pie, his hand is suddenly completely clean. He then pretends to wipe it off with a napkin anyway. (00:14:15)
Continuity mistake: When the baby dinosaur is breaking the egg, the eggshell is almost open on one shot, and starting to break with a different shape, in the next shot. (00:27:35)
Continuity mistake: Before the vehicles leave the compound Lex says to Grant, "She said I should ride with you cuz it'll be good for you." In this shot, Ellie's door on the second car is open with Malcolm talking to her. In the next close-up shot of her, the door is closed with Malcolm gone. (00:38:40)
Continuity mistake: At the start of the Badlands sequence, the palaeontologists are brushing-out a dinosaur skeleton. In the close-up shot, they are working on the head (someone 'picks its nose') and one of them has a red-handled brush. When we cut to a wide shot, there is only one person working on the head (the nose is still being brushed) and there is no red-handled brush in sight. (00:05:30)
Visible crew/equipment: When the two Explorers start off on the tour of the island and the vehicles reach the Dilophosaur exhibit, there is a shot of Lex, Tim and Gennaro, looking out their Explorer's passenger-side windows. Right above their heads, fastened directly above each window, are wind-screen covered microphones. Obviously placed there to pick up actor dialog, neither of these particular mikes are seen again before or after this shot. (00:42:20)
Continuity mistake: Hammond pours champagne into his glass and it's full of foam. After Grant says his line, when Hammond says, "...for the next three years." the foam is all gone. Foam from champagne takes longer to disappear. (00:12:25)
Chosen answer: Yes. The first opening day of Disneyland in California was catastrophic. The pavement was fresh and the sun was so hot high-heeled shoes actually sunk into the walkways. Counterfeit tickets were made, resulting in more people than the park had room for. They ran out of food and drinks. Bathrooms clogged and shut down. Many of the rides broke down on opening day. The Storybook Land Canal Boats had to be pulled by cast members in rubber boots. At the time, there were no guide rails for Autopia; some of the cars crashed into each other, making them inoperable. A gas leak in Fantasyland lead to the land being temporarily closed for part of the day.
David Yard