The Karate Kid

The Karate Kid (1984)

51 mistakes - chronological order

(13 votes)

Continuity mistake: At the very beginning, when we first see Daniel, he begins to talk with another lad. When Daniel and the other lad stop at the metal stairs to talk to an old lady, the other lad is resting his arm on the handrail and is also at the bottom of the staircase, yet in the following shot he is no longer resting on the handrail and is also a few steps up the stairs from what we saw in the first shot. (00:05:50)

The-Immortal

Continuity mistake: When Daniel and his mother are in their new apartment, Daniel goes over to the sink to fill up a bowl of water. The two items on the top by the sink appear in the first shot, then disappear in a shot from behind Daniel then reappear again in a shot from the front. (00:06:45)

The-Immortal

Continuity mistake: When Daniel and his mum are in their apartment unpacking, the mum has nothing in her hands in one shot, and in the following shot she has a small red case. (00:06:55)

The-Immortal

Continuity mistake: When Johnny is walking away from Ali, the shot cuts to Daniel lying down on the sand, and there are two guys behind him, one with brown hair and a red tie around his head and a blonde guy. In the following shot after the line "Where did you find this guy," the two guys are now shoulder to shoulder with the guy in the yellow shirt. (00:13:35)

The-Immortal

Continuity mistake: When Johnny and his gang jump Daniel at the chain fence, Johnny smashes the sign on the fence, yet in the following shot the sign is there again, then the shot after its broke again. (00:39:15)

The-Immortal

Continuity mistake: When Daniel and Mr. Miyagi are in the Kobra Kai Dojo speaking with the Sensai, in one shot the Sensai points at Daniel, who is standing beside Mr. Miyagi. Then in the following shot, when the Sensai is pointing his finger at Mr. Miyagi, Daniel is now standing behind Mr. Miyagi. (00:49:45)

The-Immortal

Other mistake: After Tommy's arm gets broken during the skeleton fight with Miyagi he appears days later in practice drill in Kreese's dojo, with his right arm in a sling. Huffing punches like the other Cobras, which would be impossible with his injury. (00:49:45 - 00:50:45)

eaglegrad16

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

Suggested correction: Tommy is only punching with his good arm, which is possible. The twisting of his hips makes it appear he is using both arms.

Continuity mistake: When Daniel and Mr. Miyagi pull up in Mr. Miyagi's car at his house to start Daniel's training, it cuts to an overhead shot. Mr. Miyagi gets out and walks around the front of the car, and passes the front of the car. Yet in the following closeup he is passing the front of the car again. (00:51:00)

The-Immortal

Continuity mistake: When Miyagi leaves Daniel a note to paint the house, the paint brush is visible in the background on the floor. The position of the paintbrush changes in the following shot when Daniel kicks the sheets off the top of the paint tins. (01:10:20)

The-Immortal

Continuity mistake: When Daniel comes back from the restaurant having just seen Ali with Johnny, Daniel sits down next to Miyagi. When Daniel says, "Banzai," he does not have his arm resting on the small table, yet in the next closeup his arm is now on the table. (01:24:25)

The-Immortal

Continuity mistake: When Daniel and Miyagi are in Miyagi's house, Miyagi walks away and comes back with a photo and hands it to Daniel. Daniel is holding the photo in his left hand on the corner, but when it cuts, he is now holding it with his right. (01:25:35)

The-Immortal

Continuity mistake: After Daniel's little party at Miyagi's, they both go outside and Daniel sits in the yellow car and Miyagi walks up. In the shot from the front Miyagi has his hands crossed leaning on the car door, yet from the back he has his elbow leaning on the door, then back to just his hands on the door. (01:35:15)

The-Immortal

Continuity mistake: In the final fight between Daniel and Johnny, there is a time when Johnny's head band falls off (after Johnny scores his second point). Right after it falls off, if you look quickly you can see it back on, then it goes back off. (02:00:50)

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

Suggested correction: That right unless there were a few bits of the scene cut where the referee gave it back to him.

Revealing mistake: When Daniel is running from Johnny and his gang after the bathroom incident at the dance, there's a lot of fog outside. If you look at one of the trees in the background, you can see that all the fog is being puffed out from behind the tree - obviously a fog machine.

The Karate Kid mistake picture

Continuity mistake: We first see from the inside of the door (and therefore backwards) the instructions that Mr. Miyagi leaves for Daniel to paint the house. In the next shot we see the same note from the outside - from Daniel's viewpoint. Clearly they are two different notes. The left & right arrows switch directions, the drawings of the hands change, the position of Miyagi's signature changes, and the placement of some of the exclamation points changes.

Matty Blast

Revealing mistake: When Daniel is about to paint the fence of Mr. Miyagi, Mr. Miyagi tries to catch a fly with chopsticks. Daniel tries as well. You can see that this "fly" is attached to a wire or a nylon string, moving like a pendulum and bounces as if someone's pulling the string.

Other mistake: In the semi-final where John Lawrence fights against Darryl Vidal, the female referee has major problems of what to do. When Lawrence gets his first point, the referee first raises her red flag (Vidal is wearing the red ribbon) but then swiftly changes her mind. And when Lawrence gets his third point, the female referee again incorrectly raises her red flag.

Revealing mistake: In the beginning where Daniel and his mom finally arrive at the new apartment, pay close attention to the wooden entry fence. Soon after Daniel's mother states, "This is the Garden of Eden," you can see Daniel's soon-to-be friend "Freddy" lining himself up behind the wooden fence prior to Daniel's mom opening the door.

[Miyagi karate-chops the tops off three beer bottles.]
Daniel: How did you do that? How did you do that?
Miyagi: Don't know. First time.

More quotes from The Karate Kid

Trivia: Daniel's Apartment is called "The South Seas," located in Reseda, CA.

More trivia for The Karate Kid

Question: Why does Daniel lie to Freddy Fernandez about his mother's job? He said that she worked with rocket computers, yet we see her working in a restaurant.

Socks1000

Chosen answer: He didn't lie. That was the company she was supposed to be working for. However, the company went bankrupt and she lost her job. She showed up at the restaurant at the same time that the hostess quit and was hired immediately.

More questions & answers from The Karate Kid

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.