Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: As the boat crew steps ashore to find Kilgore, the obvious shadows of two crew and their equipment are seen moving across the backs of the soldiers and then the raised netting slightly further away. This isn't the documentary crew they meet shortly afterwards, who are further onto the mainland. (00:27:20)

johnrosa

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Suggested correction: In this scene, the boat crew immediately encounter a camera crew filming the soldiers. This is their shadows.

While they do encounter a documentary film crew, this does not happen until a few seconds after the mistake occurs. The shadows of the film crew are shown when they are walking onto shore, whilst the documentary film crew are shown more onto the main land. Plus, it seems a little weird Francis Ford Coppola would decide to randomly include shadows of a documentary film crew when the cameo doesn't happen until a few seconds later. Clearly this is the shadow of the camera and cameraman cast on them, and is a valid mistake.

Casual Person

Visible crew/equipment: At dinner as Harrison Ford says, "Now he's crossed into Cambodia…" you can see the cameraman's reflection moving in the background to the left of his head. (00:15:20)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: After Clean is killed there's a shot of Lance sitting on the back of the boat holding a mirror in his right hand. This is not the actor Sam Bottoms but a longer haired thinner stand-in who's not wearing the black wristwatch that Sam wears in every other scene in the movie. (01:54:10)

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Visible crew/equipment: Just before the Playboy helicopter leaves the USO show there's a shot of the stage from behind the audience and you can see the shadow of the cameramen moving from left to right on the shirts of the soldiers. (01:10:15)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: As he looks out to the surfers Lt. Col. Kilgore says, "It's gonna blow this place out, it's gonna ruin it… it's the napalm that's what's doing it" and a mortar shell soon explodes in the water. If you look closely behind the surfer on the left you can see the explosive device floating in the water before the explosion. (00:50:15)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: In the helicopter after Colonel Kilgore talks to Lance he says, "My boys love it" and you can see the silhouette of the crouching cameraman in his sunglasses. (00:36:50)

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Visible crew/equipment: Captain Willard is on the right side of his bed dancing and he sticks his right fist towards the camera. Watch the bedspread closely as he pulls his fist back and you can see the shadow of the camera moving on the bedspread. (00:06:50)

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Visible crew/equipment: Just before the Playboy helicopter takes off from the stage the first stuntman who hangs off the skid runs up, taps on the window to signal the pilot, then reaches down for several seconds as he attaches a cable to himself. You can see the second stuntman as he holds onto this cable with his right hand when he pulls the first stuntman's pants down. (01:10:20)

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Visible crew/equipment: As the Captain takes the binoculars from the chief and first holds them up to look at the shoreline and Colonel Kilgore you can see the reflection of a crew member in the binoculars' lenses. (00:24:35)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: On the boat while reading Kurtz' file Captain Willard recalls Harrison Ford saying, "and follow every order, however ridiculous" while having lunch with the general earlier in the movie. If you look at the close-up of his eye you can see a cameraman and another person's reflection as they stand in front of him. (01:18:35)

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Visible crew/equipment: In the shot of Captain Willard and Lance joking about the colonel Lance says, "how am I going to shoot him the next time he comes around?". Look closely between the two actors as an equipment shadow moves from left to right than back again against the trees behind them. (00:54:45)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: After Chief Phillips is speared if you look closely at his left shoulder you can see his shirt bunched up by the harness underneath that holds both ends of the spear to his body. Later you can see a blood bag underneath his tee shirt as he lies on the floor of the boat dying. (02:22:40)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: As they pull away from the Do Lung Bridge, look closely and you can see water spraying up and turbulence from the propellers of the camera boat in front of them. (01:48:40)

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Visible crew/equipment: Kilgore points at the jets as they approach the tree line just before the napalm explosion. Look closely above Lance's head as some stage equipment makes a very quick appearance. (00:48:50)

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Visible crew/equipment: After he tells him what his mission is Chef says to Captain Willard, "That's f***ing typical, shit, f***ing Vietnam mission". Look at the shoreline about 30 feet past the boat as a crewmember ignites a purple smoke canister. (02:24:20)

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Visible crew/equipment: Inside the helicopter Chef says to Miss May, "Miss December has black hair." As the camera pulls back its shadow can be seen on the rear seat. (01:28:20)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: Captain Willard says he made a deal with the playmates for all the guys and Chief Phillips says," you got some mama's in there?". You can see all the stage lights reflecting off their raincoats. (01:27:10)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: As they sit in the foxhole watching the surfers, Lance's helmet gets wet and you can see the reflection of two studio lights, and the crew standing between them, in it. (00:47:10)

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Visible crew/equipment: After the man sitting to the right of Roxanne gets up and leaves there's a wide shot of the table with Captain Willard at the right. If you look closely at his hair you'll see the shadows of crew members moving between him and the stage lighting throughout this shot. (02:11:15)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: As he gives the captain some water, Dennis Hopper says, "Why would a nice guy like you want to kill a genius?" Look closely at the ladle and you can see the reflections of two crewmember's heads moving in front of the main stage light, one on the left and one on the right. (02:43:00)

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Apocalypse Now mistake picture

Revealing mistake: In the major helicopter scene when Ride of the Valkyries is played, the actual tape isn't going over the playing heads. (00:37:29)

More mistakes in Apocalypse Now

Kilgore: I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

More quotes from Apocalypse Now
More trivia for Apocalypse Now

Question: This may sound a little crazy to the uninitiated, but does anybody have an alchemical interpretation of Apocalypse Now? I remember seeing pages from Coppola's screenplay that were annotated and made reference to transmutation.

Jack Vaughan

Answer: It should be noted that "transmutation" is a word Coppola has used to describe the film making process. Https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LFTQcwgq4CY.

Bishop73

Answer: Could you be a bit more specific? I can give a link to the screenplay if you wish. Http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/apocolypse.html I hope that helps.

lionhead

More questions & answers from Apocalypse Now

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