On Golden Pond

On Golden Pond (1981)

9 mistakes

(3 votes)

Visible crew/equipment: When the boy takes the boat out for a ride by himself and is riding it around in circles, you can clearly see the helicopter's shadow in the center of the circle.

Continuity mistake: Watch kid drive Norman's power boat. He is at the steering wheel, and appears at the left and right side of the boat in the same scene.

Continuity mistake: When the boy is dropped off at the cabin, Ethel's sweater is zipped down. It goes to a close-up of her and the zipper is up. In the next shot, the zipper is down again.

Visible crew/equipment: In the last scene, as the camera pulls away, the helicopter's shadow is visible on the surface of the lake.

Revealing mistake: When Norman and Billy crash the boat, the side panel rips off of it before they hit the rock.

Continuity mistake: When Norman is helping his wife uncover the furniture in the summer cabin, she hands him some sloppily rolled up sheets that drag the floor. The camera never leaves them, but for a few moments it zooms in and you don't see below their waists. When the camera zooms out again, the sheets in Norman's arms are all neatly rolled up.

Audio problem: At the end of the happy birthday song to Norman, someone not in the room sings "and many more." It sounds like the mailman.

Factual error: When Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn are filling the boat up with fuel early in the movie, when the gas pump is shown, Henry Fonda is looking at the pump. $19.00 is the total sale but 29+ gallons purchased, at .67+ cents per gallon... The total sale should be over $19.43, probably closer to $20 but I can't read the fractions of gallons or cents. (00:14:10)

Continuity mistake: When Norman and Billy have an accident with the boat, they cling to a rock in the water, waiting for help. At the beginning, Billy is to the left of Norman, but then Billy is on Norman's right, and then it goes back to the original.

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Billy Ray: So, I heard you turned 80 today.
Norman: Is that what you heard?
Billy Ray: Yeah. Man, that's really old.
Norman: You should meet my father.
Billy Ray: Your father's still alive?
Norman: No, but you should meet him.

More quotes from On Golden Pond

Trivia: Henry Fonda won the Best Actor Academy Award for his role of Norman Thayer. At the age of 76, Fonda became the oldest winner in the Best Actor category in Academy history (his record was broken in 2021 by Anthony Hopkins, who won at 83).

More trivia for On Golden Pond

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