Plot hole: The sergeant tells Stone that he only has to listen for a bell for an important communication coming through and will then alert the rest of Wildfire. Yet later, Dutton notices a message already printed out. So at a facility this important, the sergeant just ignores the machine if it prints out a message and doesn't ring? He has to have clearance to read them or they wouldn't print out where he is. It's a bit too convenient for the plot that he wouldn't visually check each message to make sure.
Grumpy Scot
22nd Jan 2012
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
22nd Jan 2012
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Visible crew/equipment: When Stone and Hall fly over in the helicopter, the mark for the positioning of one of the 'corpses' is visible. There is a thick black line perfectly outlining the right side of the body. It's the one the camera centers on as Stone talks about the birds spreading the disease.
22nd Jan 2012
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Revealing mistake: During the helicopter flyover several 'corpses' are seen lying in a depression in the dust where they fell after dying (imagine a 'snow angel' to see what I mean). However, there are no footprints leading up to any of them. Any soil loose and powdery enough to form a depression when a body lands in it would hold footprints. And if there was a strong enough wind to erase footprints it would have piled some of the dust up against one or more sides of the body.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: Unless you are suggesting that the production crew dropped the actors into place from a helicopter, the configuration you see is obviously possible in real life. The actors playing the corpses walked to their positions for filming.
Or more dust was laid down by the production crew once the actors were in place, presumably to cover the crew tracks which would have shown a lot of activity, and had the side effect of covering the actors' prints too. They either didn't realise or didn't think it was worth recreating the steps.
26th Jun 2004
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Continuity mistake: When Stone and Levitt are examining the capsule, the angle of the camera changes each time the camera goes to a higher magnification. However, the following shot shows the camera mounted straight up and down with no joint to pivot for an angle change.
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