TedStixon

Audio problem: When Yang is about to bring the Emperor to life, he says "Once this touches him, the Emperor will rise... to rule again!" When he says "to rule again!" his mouth is closed. It's a very wide shot, so you have to look closely to notice... but his mouth is definitely closed.

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: When she's first given the Eye of Shangri-La by her old associate, Evie is holding it and the box it came from in front of her is open. There's a few very quick cuts, and suddenly she's no longer holding it and the box in front of her is closed. There's no time for her to have put it away and closed the box between cuts, nor do we hear the box being closed. It seems like a few shots of her putting it away has been edited out to quicken the pacing of the scene. Regardless, it's a mistake.

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: When their old associate is first giving Rick and Evie the Eye of Shangri-La, watch closely when Rick says "Just out of curiosity, what is the mission?" After he delivers this line, there's an edit, and his facial expression completely changes instantly between shots.

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: When Alex and Wilson are exploring the tomb, Alex tries to run back to their dead associates, and Wilson grabs him. Right as Wilson says his last "Alex!" pay attention. In the first shot, his hand is around Alex's neck, but in the second, it's suddenly not. Additionally, Alex goes from facing forward to facing Wilson instantly between the same edit.

TedStixon

Audio problem: When the Emperor is about to show Juan the execution of General Ming, there's a wide shot, and he says the line "Come, I want to show you something." If you look closely though, his mouth is closed the entire line.

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: During the prologue, when the Emperor tells Yuan to rise, he lifts his left hand in a friendly manner. It then cuts to a shot from behind, and his arm is instantly down at his side.

TedStixon

Trivia: At one point in time, Rick was going to be killed off to make his son Alex the new star of the series, but this was (thankfully) changed early on in the writing process.

TedStixon

Trivia: Director Rob Cohen and his wife are among the couples dancing in the final scene. They're the bald man with a gray goatee and the taller brunette woman in the dark blue dress with white gloves. They're most easily visible to the left of Alex and Lin when they have their brief dialogue exchange.

TedStixon

Other mistake: In the final scene, watch the drummer in the band. He's not making any contact with the drums and is just miming it. Ex. He stops his drumstick about 2" above the cymbal every time he's supposed to hit it, even though you can hear a cymbal in the soundtrack. It's most noticeable when the brand briefly goes into focus as the camera passes between Alex/Lin and Rick/Evie. (He was probably told not to actually drum so the dialogue wouldn't be ruined).

TedStixon

Audio problem: During the final scene, when Mad Dog says "Evening girls! You're looking well!" and "Ooo! It's a fine night to be me!" his mouth isn't moving. They almost get away with it because his face is partially obscured for the first line, but you can still see that he isn't actually speaking.

TedStixon

Revealing mistake: When the Emperor attacks the village in the beginning after the assassination attempt, watch closely. During the fourth shot, a soldier hits a villager over the head with something and there's an audible sound... but you can see plain as day that the soldier was nowhere close to actually hitting the villager. He stops a good 3-4" away from actually hitting his head.

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: When Rick is trying to stab the Emperor with the dagger, in most shots, he's only using his right hand. However, if you pay attention, it's clear a few times that he's also using his left hand. You never see him directly holding the dagger with both hands. But you can briefly see his left arm bent and reached over near his right in such a way that he's holding the dagger with both hands beneath frame in two shots. It seems they tried to cut around him using both hands for some reason.

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: When the armies are charging at each other at the start during the final battle, there's a weird error. In the very wide shots, it appears the terracotta army are marching at a deliberate pace in perfect formation, but when it cuts to any closer shots, they appear to be chaotically running with no formation. It's most noticeable after Rick says "Welcome to the 20th century!" and the army goes form marching in unison to chaotically running and back several times over the course of 30 seconds.

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: When Rick and Alex are going through the guns at the mountain temple, Alex grabs the first gun and puts it in his left hand. When it cuts to the next shot, suddenly he's holding it in his right hand. The cut is instant, so there's no time for it to have switched hands between edits.

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: When Alex, Rick and Evie arrive at the museum, Alex asks his mom if she'd want to stick around and help him open the Emperor's coffin. Pay attention to the strap on Evie's purse. It changes position on her arm repeatedly between shots. For example, in one shot it's right around her wrist next to her hand, but in the next shot, it's suddenly way down her arm next to her elbow. The strap changes position between cuts at least three times throughout the scene.

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: When the evil general is addressing his soldiers near the beginning, pay attention to his second-in-command. (The woman.) Repeatedly throughout the scene, the distance between her and the general seems to change instantly between edits. Sometimes she's practically right next to him, sometimes she's about 5 feet away, etc. She also instantly turns from facing forward at the soldiers to facing sideways at the general between edits at one point near the end of the scene.

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: During the museum scene, when the evil general says "Once this touches him, the emperor will rise!" Watch Rick. In the first shot, he is turning his whole body to look at the general, but when it cuts to the wide shot, suddenly his body is facing away and only his head is turned.

TedStixon

Deliberate mistake: When Alex and Lin are secretly watching Rick and Evie being forced to open the Emperor's coffin at the museum, they are speaking to each other at normal volume. However, given how close they are to the bad-guys, there's absolutely, positively no way they wouldn't be heard. (Obviously it was done this way so that the audience could hear their dialogue, but it's still a mistake).

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: During the final battle, when Rick delivers the line "I really hate mummies!" and Evie responds with "Seems the feeling's mutual!" pay attention. In the first shot, Evie is about five feet behind Rick and is facing away from him, but when it cuts, she's suddenly standing right next to him (literally shoulder-to-shoulder), and is facing the same direction as he is.

TedStixon

Deliberate mistake: There's a very strange editing error in the final fight between Rick and the Emperor. After the scene cuts to Alex waking up, it cuts back to the fight. The Emperor hits Rick with a right hook, and when the camera cuts to Rick reacting, his head understandably flops to the right. But then the Emperor hits Rick with another Right hook... and when the camera cuts to Rick's reaction, his head flops to the left, in complete defiance of physics.

TedStixon

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.