Goofs

Alan Bernard drives to Midwich on a clear, sunny day when he stops to talk to a policeman. But in the next shot of the road, it's overcast and misty.

The action takes place in the 1950s (some characters are wearing medal ribbons for the Korean War), but all of Major General Leighton's campaign ribbons predate 1939; he has no ribbons for World War Two. He could have retired before 1939, but he would have been far too old to rejoin after the war.

The doctor says that the newborn babies still have their mother's blood flowing through them (so blood tests are meaningless). In fact, the fetus's circulatory system is totally separate from the mother's long before birth.

An abdominal X-ray is displayed which supposedly shows the fetus of a pregnant woman. Not only is there no fetus, the X-ray isn't even that of a woman, as the pelvis is obviously that of a man. There is, in fact, the faint outline of a fetal skeleton on the X-ray. The head/skull can be seen on the left side, followed by the rest of the fetal skeleton.

A soldier walks into the zone of unconsciousness wearing a gas mask and a tether rope, immediately passes out, and is dragged back out by his mates. But the supposedly unconscious soldier is clearly holding his head up off the ground as he is dragged along headfirst on his back.

Just before the credits, there's a long crane shot that ends in the trees. It's obvious that the crane snags a branch on its way up, because a branch suddenly snaps into the frame. They follow the shot with a brief view of other branches waving around, as though to cover the mistake... but the first branch was *not* blowing in the wind.

Near the end, when Alan and Anthea are going away, Gordon tells Anthea that the time is 8:15. The cuckoo clock on the wall also shows 8:15 but the pendulum of the clock is not moving.

When the soldier wakes up he freezes. The village people do not. They get up like after a little nap.

(around 38 minutes) The shot of the girl with the glowing eyes being held in the mother's arms reveals that one half of the shot is a still image, while the other half is a moving image. In the portion with the mother on the right side of the frame, the background moves independently of the background behind the little girl. For a brief moment, a little portion of the girl's right arm is duplicated between the two halves of the shot.

At 5 mins in, or immediately after the titles end - Alan says, "Ah, but this is what puzzles me sir, I've also tried the vicar, the general stores and the Post Office. I can't get any reply from any of them", which suggests that he tried three times, but the operator of the Midwich exchange was unconscious and so his local operator would have reported back that the Midwich exchange wasn't replying and so no calls could be made to Midwich. That means just one call, not three.

Also, he says "the general stores and the Post Office", as though they are two different places, but he couldn't have rung two places because the Post Office is also the General stores. See at about 2m 45s - the sign, "Post Office & General Stores". It is one property and would have only one telephone number.

As everyone begins to wake up, Alan starts to walk towards the bicycle and bus victims. As he passes in front of the camera, the shadows of the crew and equipment appear on him.

Thirteen seconds in. Try as they might hiding in the shadows of the tree you can spot four distinct shadows of camera crew panning visible on the sides of the passing sheep. (They're all wearing hats.)

The "candy in the puzzle-box" shows that when one child learns anything, they ALL learn the same thing. Yet, towards the end of the movie, all the children gather together in the classroom for instruction . . . ONE child in the classroom would suffice. The others could be learning other things or engaging in other pursuits. This is addressed in the book, if not in the film. All the girls and boys learn what an individual girl or boy learns, but a local man who gives them lessons and film shows finds that they prefer to attend lessons as a group instead of as two individuals who will impart the information and images to the others. He surmises that the children get more satisfaction from a personal experience than they do from a relayed experience.

The man who drives his car into the wall is identified as Edward Pawle. His brother, James (Jim) Pawle, storms out of a courtroom because no one will accuse the children for causing his brother's death. Walking away from the courtroom, Maj. Alan Bernard then mentions "the death of James Pawle," a death that had not yet occurred at the time of this statement.