Goofs for
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: Criswell's opening narration begins: "Greetings, my friends. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember, my friends, future events such as these will affect you in the future." A moment later, though, he is placing the same events in the past, telling how "what happened on that fateful day" must no longer be kept secret.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The grass wrinkles and the gravestones flap in the wind and topple over.
  
  
• Continuity: The white wicker patio furniture moves itself from the patio to the bedroom.
  
  

• Continuity: Day changes to night and back and forth in the same scene, many times.
  
  
• Continuity: When the police leave the station house to go to the graveyard, it's night and they pile into a black 1953 Ford. A shot of the police car driving on the road to the cemetery--in daylight--reveals that it has changed into a 1957 Ford (and just before the shot ends the car pulls over to the side of the road and the occupants start to get out, although neither the cemetery nor Jeff's house is anywhere in sight). A few seconds later, as the car pulls into the cemetery, it has metamorphosized into a black-and-white 1956 Ford, and it's nighttime again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Obvious double for Bela Lugosi (see trivia entry).
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the saucer flies across the cemetery in the beginning of the movie, actors knock over headstones as they fall.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The inside door of the small saucer is the same as the outside door (there is the same ladder on the left hand side of the hatch). Obviously the exterior walls of the saucer were inverted to provide the interior set. The hatch itself is the same as the hatch on the airplane cockpit, and in the interplanetary headquarters.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The controls in the cockpit are obviously fake.
  
  
• Continuity: Criswell's narration says it's sundown, but it's obviously broad daylight.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When one of the spaceships leaves the space station, it casts a shadow on it as it flies by.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The pilots in the cockpit seem to just be sitting on boxes, not proper chairs.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The flying saucers wobble as if being hung by a string.
  
  
• Factual errors: The tombstones are in the cemetery are too close together for there to be room for bodies.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The exploding rockets are clearly firecrackers set off in front of a backdrop.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Clay blinks when he is supposedly dead.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: None of the public that spot the flying saucers seem to be in much dismay or panic, and act very natural in some cases.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The priest at Clay's funeral is obviously reading from a cue card.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Three flying saucers and one mother ship are shown, yet the humans win the battle after destroying only one saucer because the Ruler recalled the other ships.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Clearly visible lines holding the flying saucers.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The scenes of the military attacking the flying saucers with artillery guns are obviously taken from stock footage of the Korean War. You can even see the thatched huts of a Korean village in the background, even though the action is supposedly taking place in California.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Jeff describes the saucer-shaped flying saucers as "cigar-shaped".
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The flying saucers cast huge shadows as they leave their "planet".
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Colonel Edwards, Lieutenant Harper and Jeff Trent confront Eros and Tanna for the first time in the flying saucer, white X's, used to indicate the actors' places on the set, are clearly visible on the floor.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Kelton and the second police officer hit the zombie Inspector Clay on the head knocking him unconscious, he falls to the ground dropping the passed out Mrs. Trent who the zombie captured in a previous scene. As Mrs. Trent falls, pillows placed on the ground to cushion her fall can be seen.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Zombie Vampira flinches when Inspector Clay fires at her.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Ghoul Woman attacks the two grave digggers, they are standing in broad daylight, but in the shot that shows her attacking them, she is in the middle of a pitch black night.
  
  
• Boom mic visible: Boom mic shadow is clearly visible at the top of the screen the first time the pilots encounter the flying saucers.
  
  
• Factual errors: Stock footage of rocket launchers is used to show the attack on the flying saucers, which are up in the air. The rocket launchers are ground-to-ground weapons. Also, one of the rocket launcher vehicles shown is a Russian 'Katyusha' truck, filmed during the Russian counteroffensive during WWII.
  
  
• Continuity: The aerial shots of the saucer make it appear to be round, but shots from the ground show it as having straight sides and square corners.
  
  
• Continuity: Stock footage shows a completely different cemetery.
  
  
• Continuity: While Kelton is in Clay's opened grave, the tombstone that fell in a few scenes earlier isn't there.
  
  
• Continuity: A man at the old man's funeral says that it's "getting dark." It's already pitch black.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Bela Lugosi walks off the screen, it's obviously a freeze frame--the swaying tree suddenly freezes.
  
  
• Continuity: Even though the old man walks into the street and gets hit by a car, his shadow is still on the ground.
  
  
• Continuity: A strong wind from the flying saucer's exhaust is enough to blow Jeff and Paula to the ground, but not to move their hair. This is true every time people get knocked to the ground.
  
  
• Continuity: When Jeff complains to his wife, Paula (Mona McKinnon), about having to hush up his UFO sighting, he calls her "Mona".
  
  
• Continuity: The shot of the Ghoul Man walking down a path towards the cemetery is repeated many times during the course of the movie.
  
  
• Continuity: Paula runs out of her house barefoot, but after she is chased through the cemetery and is picked up alongside the road, she is wearing shoes. Immediately afterward, the police discussing her case note that her feet were all scratched up from not wearing any shoes.
  
  
• Boom mic visible: Seen in shadow when the cockpit is lit up by the flying saucer.
  
  
• Factual errors: Tor Johnson's character, a police detective, is called "Inspector Dan Clay". Although San Francisco and a few other cities use the title "Inspector" for their detectives, virtualy every police department in California - and in Los Angeles, Burbank and San Fernando, where this was filmed - uses the title "Detective".
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The map on the wall of Gen. Roberts' office, which is supposed to be in the Pentagon, is clearly imprinted on the bottom left-hand corner with a large logo of the Santa Fe Railroad. Later, when the General points out something to Col. Edwards on the map, the words "Santa Fe" have been taped over.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Obvious doubles during the fight between Eros and Trent in the spaceship - they're the wrong relative heights.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Criswell is obviously reading the opening narration off of cue cards.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In one scene someone trips over a tombstone and causes it to wobble.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: One window inside the spaceship shows a cloudy afternoon sky. The window next to it shows darkness.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Eros forces the heroes to look out the window of the spaceship to see the Clay ghoul. One window shows gray mist; the window beside it shows complete darkness. In neither window can the Ghoul Man be seen.
  
  
• Continuity: When the stewardess is talking to the two pilots in the cockpit, the position of the clipboard she holds changes significantly between each cut - some eight or nine times.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Dr. Tom is walking through the cemetery in pursuit of Paula, he casts a shadow on the night sky backdrop.
  
  
• Continuity: In one scene two different screams come from Paula's mouth at the same time.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the stewardess enters the airplane cabin you can see light bleed around the cracks in the cabin wall on the left hand side.
  
  
• Continuity: When the police cars set out for the graveyard, it is broad daylight. When they arrive, supposedly a few moments later, it is pitch black.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the cockpit scene, the curtain separating the cockpit from the rest of the plane is rustled, and you can catch glimpses of the stewardess behind it. It's obvious she's waiting for her cue, even though she shouldn't be anywhere near the cockpit at that moment.
  
  
• Continuity: When the two military officers are listening to the "Eros" tape, the later cutaway shots of the tape player show the officer's hand resting on it even though in the shots of the officer it's clear that he moved his hand away after turning it on.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: As the camera moves back in the scene outside the house where Jeff tells Paula to lock the doors, you can hear the cameraman's footsteps while the characters are standing still.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the attack on the UFOs, the Military Officer with the binoculars casts a shadow on the "sky" backdrop.
  
  
• Continuity: In a couple of scenes, a police car is seen racing down the street with lights and siren. But the car that arrives on set has no lights or police markings on it.
  
  
• Continuity: In some scenes Jeff has a mole and in others its mysteriously gone.
  
  
• Errors in geography: It is mentioned that the Pentagon is in Washington D.C. It is actually in Arlington, Virginia.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The gravediggers apparently don't fill the grave we've seen before, they just throw the earth behind them, as if they started to dig a new hole. Still in the same position, their work is then declared to be done and they leave the place. There is no new or any other grave on the scene which is supposed to take place on the cemetery.
  
  
• Plot holes: The aliens are frustrated that the Earth people refuse to acknowledge their existence, yet go to extreme lengths to remain secret, such as killing witnesses.
  
  
• Continuity: Colonel Edwards had three rows of service ribbons when he was briefed by General Roberts. The upper row (a single ribbon) is crooked and ready to fall off. Apparently it did fall off, because in his next scene the upper ribbon is now missing.
  
  
• Factual errors: After General Roberts and Colonel Edwards finish their briefing, they salute each other. Air Force personnel do not give salute indoors unless reporting to a superior.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The mausoleum where the ghoul man was buried clearly was made of wood and had it door hung crooked.
  
  
• Factual errors: Police officers are generally trained in how to properly handle firearms - yet in several scenes they are seen to grossly mishandle them, such as using the barrels of their pistols to adjust their hats, scratch the sides of their heads and gesture at others, all while their fingers are clearly on the triggers.
  
  

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