The Prisoner

The Prisoner (1967)

28 mistakes in Arrival

(3 votes)

Arrival - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: The Villager Rover attacks changes outfits several times between shots. He's wearing a striped sweater that turns into a pink jacket that turns back into the sweater, etc.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Revealing mistake: Though the Village isn't supposed to have automobiles (only the little "golf cart" transports), there are several parked cars visible in the shot of Rover floating down to attack the fleeing Villager.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Visible crew/equipment: In the foot-chase-on-the-beach scene, there are tracks in the sand from the camera crew's truck. They vanish and then reappear when the camera angle changes.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Revealing mistake: At one point, Rover rolls past the Village retirement home, but the film in this sequence was for some reason shown in reverse. Smoke from the building's fireplace is flowing back into the chimney instead of coming out.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Revealing mistake: When Number 6 first enters the bedroom, the light that hangs from the ceiling is moving as though someone has brushed against it. But there's no one else in the room.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: The maid comes back to Number 6's house for the feather duster she left behind. While they talk, the duster changes positions on the table all by itself.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Revealing mistake: Number 6 is supposedly flying the helicopter, trying to escape from the Village. There are shadows from the rotor blades crossing his face as he pilots the aircraft. But look closely at the top of the transparent cockpit bubble over his head: you can see the real copter blades - completely stationary and not moving at all.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: Watch the stone boat in the background as Number 6 and Number 2 discuss the oldsters having "every comfort." Between shots, the senior citizens vanish from the boat.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: Rover drags Number 5 back out of the water to the beach and drops him with his feet pointing toward the recovery vehicle. He starts to get up, but when the shot cuts, he's lying flat again and has changed orientation on the sand, his head now pointing toward the vehicle.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: The dwarf Butler climbs in to pilot the helicopter - but when the aircraft actually takes off, it's obvious that the pilot is a full-sized person.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: When Number 6 first wakes up in his new house in the Village, there's an ornately carved wood panel covering the window. When he stands, it has disappeared.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: The telephone kiosk Number 6 uses at the beginning changes both its shape and its location between takes. Sometimes it's under an archway: in other shots, it's next to the restaurant instead. And in some shots, the hood above the phone has square/straight edges, while in others, its edges are round.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: When Number 6 is looking for a map in the Village store, the shopkeeper wears a badge with 19 on it. A few shots later, his number has mysteriously changed itself to 56.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: Number 6 is looking out his window as the maid runs down the stairs. As he watches her, two tables in his apartment change places with each other between takes. A large table with a statue/sculpture on it switches positions with a smaller table on which his lamp and telephone rest.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: When Number 6 climbs to the top of the bell tower and looks down at the Village, the beach below him changes remarkably between shots. The sequence was obviously shot at different times of day, as the tide is in during much of the scene, but in several intervening shots, the beach sand is completely exposed.

Jean G

Number 6: Unlike me, many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment, and will die here like rotten cabbages.

More quotes from The Prisoner

Fall Out - S1-E17

Trivia: The bizarrely existential ending of the series, which answered none of the questions posed by earlier episodes (but rather seemed to say, "The answer is there is no answer!") upset viewers so much that Patrick McGoohan says he was forced to go into hiding. His phone had been ringing constantly and people who'd found his address were banging on his door to complain.

Jean G

More trivia for The Prisoner

Chosen answer: We were never told. In the series finale [Spoiler alert] Number 6 demands an answer to that question, only to be shown his own reflection.

Jean G

Answer: It's even more obvious than you think, you know who number 1 is in the very first episode. When 2 replies to the question "who is #1?" Change the way he answers from you are number one (in the monotone or accented answer to, "You are, number 6. The comma gives you the answer. #6 is #1. It's the tone of the answer.

Answer: The Prisoner was first shown on British television in 1967. I did not watch it then, but the series was was repeated on UK television in 1977, at which point it became a massive cult. Certainly, I was hooked. Well, ten minutes after I started watching The Prisoner, I was 110% certain as to who Number 1 was. In my opinion, the identity of Number 1 was so utterly, glaringly obvious that I could not understand how anybody could even ask such a question. I thought there was only one candidate for the identity of Number 1, and it was so plainly visible that nobody could even vaguely consider it to be anybody else. So, who did I think Number 1 was? you all ask. My answer? Himself! Patrick McGoohan (or rather, the character Patrick McGoohan played in The Prisoner) was Number 1. I was proved right. In Fall Out, the seventeenth and final episode, "The Prisoner" gets to meet "Number 1." Now this is a real "blink and you'll miss it" moment, but Number 1 has his face covered. The Prisoner pulls off the covering to see a mask, he pulls off the mask, to see himself! The Patrick McGoohan in Number 1's costume laughs in The Prisoner's face and runs away. Unfortunately, I don't know why Patrick McGoohan should be both The Prisoner and Number 1. I don't think anybody does.

Rob Halliday

More questions & answers from The Prisoner

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