Goofs

Incorrectly regarded as goof: At the very beginning before Popeye and Cloudy go into the bar, it is dusk. When they leave the bar to chase the drug dealer a few minutes later, it's mid-day. It actually only appears to be dusk as the street is located under a low overpass. Blue mid-day skies can be seen at the corners of the frame in some shots.

When Popeye Doyle is on the roof looking for the sniper, he sees him on the street below running full speed away from the building. Popeye has to run down about five flights of stairs, yet when he gets out of the building the sniper has made almost no distance whatsoever.

During the cat-and-mouse in the subway station, Popeye orders a grape drink from the snack bar, but seconds later on the train, he has a candy apple instead.

In one of the chases on foot, Popeye removes his coat and hat. The next shot shows him coming down some stairs with his coat and hat on.

Doyle and Russo search the bar for drugs, turning up lots of items that they throw onto the bar, yet when they leave (at around 29 mins), the bar is clean.

When Cloudy visits Doyle at his apartment, and Doyle cannot answer the door, Cloudy uses the "credit card" method of unlocking the door, except that technique can only be used on a spring loaded door lock, not on the dead bolt lock above the door knob, he appears to unlock.

When Doyle and Charnier are at the Grand Central Shuttle, a subway train departs, then returns on the same track with completely different car numbers on it. On the Grand Central Shuttle, each train only runs on one track, making it impossible under normal operation for trains to switch tracks.

On the New York City subway, a two-buzz highball is normally given only when a train departs from a terminus, makes an unscheduled stop, or has to add or drop cars along its route. It is not given during normal stops along a route such as Bay-50th St.

In the beginning of the movie when the Frenchman is shot in the face, his face is instantly a mess of blood. In reality, an entrance wound from a pistol shot would've been a neat little hole and thus would've taken awhile for the blood to cover his face.

The deal is for 60 kilos of heroin. When the Lincoln is being broken down in the police garage, it's found to be 120 lbs. overweight, but 60 kilos = 132 lbs.

When Doyle and Russo arrive at the scene of an accident with their Supervisor and Federal Agent, they attempt to persuade their supervisor to keep them on the case. A shot of a deceased woman is shown when she is taken out of the wreckage prior to Doyle's and Russo's arrival and the exact same shot is re-played after they arrive on scene.

When Popeye first appropriates the car for the car chase, he makes a U-turn to follow the train. Before he makes the turn, you can see the circular U-turn rubber marks on the asphalt from the prior takes.

The powder blue Mercury that plows into Doyle's car at the intersection is the same car Doyle attempts to stop after he descends the elevated train steps before the beginning of the chase.

When Popeye is on the roof looking for the shooter, he spots the rifle along with some shell casings. As he runs over to have a better look, he puts his gun away in his right pocket. He then looks over the side and spots the shooter. As he turns to run, you can see the gun is now back in his right hand, with no time allowing him to reach in his pocket.

When Popeye stops the damaged commandeered car, bystanders are shown in the background watching the shot.

When Cloudy goes into Popeye's apartment Popeye is handcuffed to his bed. Cloudy asks him where his keys are-meaning his handcuff key. But being a fellow cop, Cloudy has his own handcuff key which, as every cop knows is universal and would easily unlock Popeye's handcuffs, so he didn't have to ask for Popeye's key.

In the first subtitled-French scene, the subtitles misspell "accommodate" as "accomodate".

During the subway chase, there are brief moments where you can see both of Doyle's hands on the steering wheel while the car horn is sounding.

When Popeye is entering the building with the sniper on the roof, the same audio of people talking can be heard twice in a row. "Oh yeah, there must be a sniper on the roof" and "There is one."

When Popeye is shot at from the sniper on the rooftop, he ducks behind a tree then runs over an hugs the wall to get to the entrance. As he gets close to the entrance after passing the two Spanish children in the window, if you listen very closely, you can hear a man in the background chatter from the crowd saying the same line twice: "Is there a doctor around? There must be a doctor around, THERE HE IS!" This line is said twice just before Popeye hops the railing of the steps.

When Russo is undercover as a customer inside Sal's diner, he flirts with Sal's wife from across the counter. Their words do not come close to matching their moving lips.

Early on in the movie, a Frenchman is shot. The "blood" is coming from a clearly visible hose at the bottom of the screen, which squirts red paint at the actor's face.

When the cars turn a corner during one of the car chases, we see a tape in the background closing off the street, and a policeman who is watching the shoot.

(around 1 hr. and 1 min.) The camera's reflection can be roughly seen on the subway's window, when Popeye gets on the subway following Charnier.

Camera's shadow visible on Popeye during the car / train chase scene.

When Cloudy and Popeye are chasing a suspect in the beginning of the film, it is possible to distinguish the camera's reflection and shadow over several cars; following after the suspect.

The car/train chase passes the same school four times, twice in each direction.

During the subway chase scene, Popeye asks the token clerk "What's the next station towards Manhattan" (Since Popeye lives in the area, he should know this). The token clerk correctly says, "25th Avenue". On his way to catch the train, Popeye passes stairs up to the elevated, so Popeye drove past the "next' stop. But when he does stop, he is at 25th Avenue.

The car/subway chase takes place on the West End branch of what (at the time) was the B train. Yet the train was marked as an N train, which normally runs through the Sea Beach section of Brooklyn.

As Henri and his associate are waiting for the Lincoln at the garage, the police are literally tearing the car apart before finding the drugs. Shortly after finding the drugs, Henri is told his car is ready. It would have taken days to put the Lincoln back together and it would not be plausible for the police to find an exact duplicate of the car and replace the drugs in such short time.

Popeye is on the roof of the apartment building from where the sniper had shot at him when he looks down and sees Nicoli, the sniper, exiting the building and running away. Popeye is then seen running out of the building and within, roughly, the same distance horizontally of the fleeing Nicoli as he was vertically when looking down at him. However, based on the adjacent building, the roof from which Popeye spotted Nicoli is approximately ten floors up, which means that Popeye had to either run down ten floors in the stairwell or take the elevator. Either way, such a time-consuming descent would have given Nicoli an almost insurmountable "lead" by the time Popeye reached the ground and exited the building.

It would be impossible for Charnier or Nicoli (his henchman) to find out Doyle's address to assassinate him, especially in such a short time. They would've needed the help of the local mobsters Weinstock and Boca, but that would be futile, since they didn't even know Doyle's name.

It makes absolutely no sense for Doyle to commandeer a car to chase the sniper--risking countless lives on the street--when he saw the sniper take a train and could simply call the police to catch him at wherever the train stops.

The first test by the chemist came from a large bag of heroin that he jokingly pretended that he was going to take with him. Since this they're testing the same type of heroin as smuggled in the Lincoln for purity, how did this particular bag get into the country.

It is never explained exactly why Sal drives the Lincoln Continental packed with millions of dollars worth of heroin from the garage and parked it on the street where it could be vandalized, as it almost was.

While searching for the drugs inside the Lincoln, Doyle and his associates take apart the interior of the car immediately (which would have little hiding space for drugs, and also would be very difficult to repair later). They leave the most obvious (and easiest to repair or replace) hiding spot, the wheels, to the last.

When the train conductor goes to the driver's cab with some of the passengers, Nicoli has already shot a policeman on the train. If the conductor had seen Nicoli go past him, he should then be suspicious of him and take care in approaching him. Alternatively, if the conductor had walked past the shot policeman whilst making his way to the front of the train, and didn't encounter the shooter before reaching the front, it would be clear that he is in the driver's cab and should not be approached. To then approach Nicoli who is holding a gun - especially after being told to keep back - is incredibly reckless.

When Devereaux is being led to his car, Cloudy comments that the car is in perfect shape, saying to him, "You must lead a charming life." But Cloudy should have said "charmed life," which means "lucky." There is no term "charming life," and, even if used literally, would make no sense in this context.

At the police garage (which is a no smoking zone), Cloudy is seen smoking a cigarette while the oil is being removed from the Lincoln.