Goofs for
The Truman Show (1998) More at IMDbPro »

• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: An 8-ball that appears to be on Truman's desk (and then disappears) is in fact in a basket on a cart.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: When Truman is sailing the yacht, in shots taken with him from the cabin camera, there is no apparent wake behind the yacht.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Christof touches the huge screen with the image of Truman sleeping, his hand casts a shadow. The control room is not sufficiently lit to cast a shadow. The huge screen, acting as a light source, would cancel out the shadow. This reveals that the scene was composited using a blue screen.
  
  

• Continuity: In most of the interior shots of Truman's car, the Ford Taurus has manual air conditioning. However, as he parks up outside his office, the close-up on the radio shows a model with electronic climate control.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): It is an enduring myth that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from space. The wall is narrower than the average highway and is visible only in low orbit from where all manner of other man-made objects can also be seen.
  
  
• Continuity: In the "Moon" room just before Truman's escape from the basement, Cristof enters the room and to the left we see a reflection of one of his employees sitting in a chair. Unfortunately, that employee has already left the chair in the prior shot.
  
  
• Continuity: Truman's Ford Taurus is actually three different models. The GL, the LX and the performance edition SHO. The models change frequently in the film. The wheels, interior trim, and exterior styling all have subtle (but noticeable) differences.
  
  
• Continuity: During his first encounter with the psycho Dalmatian, Truman shields himself with his briefcase. However, as the angle changes, his case is down by his side, yet the dog is still in position, jumping up.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When the neighbors are walking arm and arm in search lines, the audio is of footsteps marching in perfect synchronization. However, the people's heads are bobbing up and down out of synchronization, and when their feet are shown, they are walking out of step.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Truman is backing up from the "traffic jam", toward Atlantic City, Truman's driver side mirror shows a brace attached to the car for some kind of equipment.
  
  
• Factual errors: The boat Truman sails at the end of the movie has a gaff rigged mainsail, which requires two different lines, or halyards to raise. After the storm, however, Truman raises the sail by pulling on only one line.
  
  
• Continuity: When Marlon is restocking the candy bars in one of the vending machines, he works on filling up one of the rows. The scene switches to Truman talking with Marlon, and when the scene switches back to the vending machine, the row that Marlon had filled in is empty.
  
  
• Continuity: When Marlon is restocking the shelves he finishes the row with brown candy bars...takes two out of that row and turns to talk to Truman. When the camera angle goes back to the view from the inside of the vending machine, Marlon restocks the first row with three brown candy bars, he didn't have any other bars in his hands when he removed the two earlier.
  
  
• Continuity: When Marlon is restocking the vending machine, he pulls yellow candy bars out of a box to put into the second row, the camera angle changes and when it come back again there was much fewer candy bars in the second row, not to mention they are no longer yellow. They're brown, again the angle changes and when it switches back the bars are again yellow and there are much more of them.
  
  
• Continuity: When Truman makes Marlon leave work after stocking the vending machine there is no box full of candy. When Marlon was stocking we clearly saw the box, but there is no box when we see the aerial shot as they leave.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): While the movie takes place in fictional Seahaven Island, which issues its own fictional license plates, in the background you can see a very clear Florida license plate on a Purple Honda Civic.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The 'set' is supposed to be right behind the Hollywood sign/hills, but in the satellite view, the set is in the southeast LA region, 20 miles from the Hollywood sign.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: About 14 minutes into the movie, after Truman's dad has been shoved on the bus, Truman stands perplexed in the street. Behind him a white taxi drives by, and immediately after a silver car goes between Truman and the camera. The crew and equipment are visible in the reflection on the doors of this car.
  
  
• Continuity: When Meryl gets in the car with Truman and he drives off to the traffic circle, the above shot shows Meryl wearing her seat belt. A few seconds later as they are driving around the circle, the camera shot from within the car shows Meryl putting her seat belt on.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After the very end when Truman is walking out of the "globe," they cut back to Sylvia watching the show and in her happiness, she runs her fingers through her hair. Her left arm is fully blurred tattoos, with a horrible job of covering them up.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Truman states that Fiji is exactly on the other side of the Earth from Seahaven. ("You can't get any further away before you start coming back."). In fact, this is only true for a region in the African nation of Mali.
  
  
• Continuity: At the start of the final scene (when the boat comes to a halt), the shadows fall to the right. By the end of the scene the shadows fall to the left.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Truman takes his high school sweetheart to the beach, her "father" comes to get her. There is a shot through the father's button cam showing Truman backing away. Look at Truman's shirt and you will see not one but two human shadows. One is the father and the other is the "button" cameraman.
  
  
• Continuity: In the boat after the storm, Truman has a rope going over his thigh. A second later it is tied around by a big knot.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: After Truman sees his father as a homeless man there is a scene where he runs into a vehicle (before the dog runs past). This shot is from the ground looking up. Take a look at the reflection in the passing car, you can see the crew and equipment.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene just before Truman sees his dad as a homeless man, there is a woman in a white sweater holding a shopping bag in her right hand. When Truman turns, the bag switches to her left.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Truman notices Meryl's crossing her fingers in the wedding photo, the hand that is visible would be her right hand as she is standing on the right side of the photo looking at Truman who is on the left. The mistake is that Meryl's wedding ring is on the hand with the crossed fingers, which would be her right hand. (Although, seeing the "fictional state" of Truman's world, this may be a deliberate error made by the filmmakers, as it would agree with the "lie" of the crossed fingers.)
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Throughout the movie Christof repeatedly states that the show is in fact segmented into episodes, however this should be considered untrue due to the fact that the show is in fact broadcasting constantly around the clock, every day.
  
  

• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: SPOILER : About 37 minutes into the film, Truman and his buddy are watching both the sun and the full moon set, a scientific impossibility. It should be a "new" moon, since the sun is almost directly behind it. But since the sun and moon are artificial, anything is possible. Similar "errors" occur at other points.
  
  
• Continuity: SPOILER: At the end when Truman leaves the boat, all subsequent takes show him and his clothes completely dry, even though he has just survived a deadly storm.
  
  

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