Goofs
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Audio/visual unsynchronised (2) |
Character error (2) |
Continuity (21) |
Crew or equipment visible (2) |
Errors in geography (2) |
Factual errors (1) |
Incorrectly regarded as goofs (1) |
Revealing mistakes (6)
Audio/visual unsynchronised
In the last part of the movie, Phil is seen playing the piano on stage at the party. As he finishes up song before going and talking to Rita, the piano in the soundtrack is playing a glissando (running a finger rapidly down the keyboard) while Phil is still playing as he was before. Finally, at the last run, Phil's hands match the sound.
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As Phil walks off the stage after performing the piano number, two background actors behind him are visibly 'fake clapping', but there is no clapping sound to accompany it. Whilst this is a technique used on set when recording dialogue, so the background actors' clapping does not get recorded by the actors' microphone, for some reason the sound editor missed this or decided not to dub it with 2 people clapping, giving this strange looking result.
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Character error
In the Bavarian restaurant, a poster appears on the wall reads "Alles Gute Zum Erdhörnchentag". This is supposed to mean "Happy Groundhog Day", but is, however, a mistranslation because "Erdhörnchen" means "Gopher". The poster should have read "Alles Gute Zum Murmeltiertag".
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At the beginning of the scene where Phil and Rita talk in the Bavarian restaurant, a waitress crosses carrying 4 large steins of beer. She sets them on the table behind Phil and Rita. Watch as she walks away from the table. She touches the shoulder of the older gentleman seated at hat table and leaves foam on the top of his jacket sleeve.
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Continuity
The outside of the car while Phil is driving with the groundhog.
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During the police chase when Phil is being chased down the railroad tracks, the police car has a rotating light bar. In close up shots the police lights flashing behind the vehicle are clearly strobe lights.
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As Phil is about to drive the truck over the edge, Larry is filming and Rita is watching; her hair is protruding in many places. In the next shot, her hair is neatly pinned in place.
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On the first day Phil wakes in the hotel he looks out of the window and sees certain cars moving and turning. The next day he looks out of the window again and sees exactly the same cars etc as though it is exactly the same time, but the time is different which we know because the radio show that we can hear is at a different point.
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As Phil is walking toward the town plaza and he rounds the corner and passes by the old beggar, a number of shops can be seen over his shoulder to the right of the screen. This scene is repeated many times in the movie, and sometimes there are flags flying over the shops, while other times there are none.
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Since every day takes place on the same day there should be the same amount of snow every night. However, there are clearly some nights where there is a lot of snow and others where there is no snow at all.
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When Phil waits for Felix to drop coins so he can grab one of the money bags, his coat is open except for one shot where it is neatly closed.
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In the scene at the quarry the police car's overhead warning lights alternate between being on or off depending on the shot.
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When the three ladies with the flat tire are rolling to a stop, the pavement and tire are wet. In the wide shot and while changing the tire, the pavement is dry.
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As Phil opens the door to leave the Bed and Breakfast on the second morning he has no gloves on and his scarf is outside his coat. As he exits the Bed and Breakfast he is still holding the coffee but now has gloves on and his scarf is neatly tucked in his coat.
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The chocolates on the bedside table are in different positions as are the flowers in the arrangement. They should be exactly the same as they were on the first morning since Phil wakes up every morning (until the last) back on Groundhog Day in his room.
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During the police chase scene on the railroad tracks, there is a shot where the train's headlights illuminates the tracks in front of the Phil's car. In that shot we can see that there is no break in the tracks. In the next shot they veer off the tracks, via a road without any rail crossings, and escape.
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When Phil is being chased by a police car and the news van out to the quarry, he drives through a stone railroad underpass that is clearly too small for the news van to fit through. In subsequent shots, the news van still appears right behind the police car as if nothing has happened.
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During the police chase on the railroad tracks, the police car is following closely behind. When the car driven by Phil swerves to miss the train, the police car behind them would be destroyed by the train, but seems to have vanished.
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When the police are chasing Phil in the Cadillac convertible, he wrecks into a row of cars, the first one being a 1983 AMC Eagle wagon. In the next scene, the Cadillac is crashed against a small Chevy, and the Eagle is on the other side of the Chevy.
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Early in the film, Phil breaks a pencil in half and we see that it's back on top of the clock radio, intact, in the morning. Later in the film, the pencil is not on top of the clock radio. If everything were resetting the same way every day, then the pencil would always be there.
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During the final party scene, the engaged couple approaches Phil, and he introduces them as the newly-married "Debbie and Fred Kleiser." However, earlier in the movie in the diner, the indecisive bride-to-be is already introduced as "Debbie Kleiser," prior to the wedding having occurred, presumably prior to her having taken her husband's last name.
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When Rita identifies Phil after he jumped from the tower, we see that Phil's eyes are closed. In the next shot, as the blanket is moved to cover Phil, his eyes are open.
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When Phil wakes up with Rita at 6AM on Feb 3, his clock flips to 6:01 and then time stands still as several minutes pass.
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At the beginning of the movie, while the white van is going from Pittsburgh to Punxsutawney, the WPBH signs stuck on the van's sides move from near the back of the van to near the front (see the 4 semicircular holes above each sign).
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On February 3rd, when Phil and Rita are leaving the place Phil has been staying, the shots of the gate in the fence show the gate closed in the shots from near the building, but show the gate open in the shots from the street.
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Crew or equipment visible
As Larry films the flaming wreckage of Phil's truck in the quarry, the lights used to create the glow of the fire can be seen reflected in the lens of Larry's camera.
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Red lights used to simulate the glow of the flames of the burning pickup truck after it explodes after being driven over the quarry cliff, can be seen in the reflection on the lens filter on Larry's camera.
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Errors in geography
Sunrise in early February in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania is not until around 7:25 am, so at 6 am it would still be fully dark.
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During the opening credits, the news van is shown heading WEST on the Parkway East in Pittsburgh, and taking a ramp headed north on Ft Duquesne Blvd. To be accurate, to be headed to Punxsutawney, the van should have been driving in the other direction (East).
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Factual errors
At the beginning of the movie when Phil is giving the weather report he claims that if he had a choice of where he could be, he would choose Elko NV, because that was the location of the nations high of 79. On February 01, the day before Groundhog's Day, Elko would be very cold. It would not be a place that would have the nations highest temperature in February. The highest temperature in Elko NV in the last 75 years was 21C (about 69F) and that was late February 1905.
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Incorrectly regarded as goofs
We never see Phil try to leave first thing in the morning before the highway gets blocked, but that doesn't mean he didn't try, fail, and give up; there could be many things he tried that we don't see before he finally decided to settle down.
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Revealing mistakes
During the police chase with Phil's drinking buddies, no back-up lights are visible on the car tail lights while Phil is backing up the car to elude the police.
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When Phil is driving his car down the quarry ravine in a suicidal attempt, there is clearly no driver visible.
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While on his death binge, the pickup truck Bill and Phil uses to drive over the cliff clearly has no engine or drive-train components. The underneath shot is even depicted in slow-motion, and one can see clear through to the radiator.
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Phil's room in the Cherry Street bed and breakfast is on the top floor overlooking the street. The sizes and number of windows inside his room do not match any combination of those from the exterior shots, which is due to the fact that the interior shots were not filmed on location.
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In the beginning of the movie when Phil is reading the weather forecast. We can clearly see him standing almost against the blue screen which casts a very strong shadow. Yet in the preview window he appears clear on the projected background. In reality Bill Murray's shadow would have cast a terrible blue screen shadow that would have been impossible to remove using the chroma key.
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The north side of the plaza (filmed in Woodstock, Illinois) is shown when the insurance man appears. There is a store with a large "WOODSTOCK" sign, although the town is supposed to be Punxsutawney, PA.
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