Goofs
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Anachronisms (32) |
Audio/visual unsynchronised (2) |
Character error (2) |
Continuity (12) |
Crew or equipment visible (3) |
Errors in geography (2) |
Factual errors (21) |
Miscellaneous (6) |
Incorrectly regarded as goofs (14) |
Revealing mistakes (11) |
Spoilers (1)
Anachronisms
When Sharon Tate was talking to the girl at the box office of the movie theater in Westwood, you can see the Starbucks sign for half the scene before it was covered up. Starbucks was founded in 1971.
When Cliff drives home on the freeway and just before taking the off-ramp there is a clearly visible numbered exit sign. California was one of the nation's last holdouts and did not use numbered exit ramps until 2002; the movie takes place in 1969.
In the movie Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski attend a party at the Playboy Mansion. Although there was a Playboy Club in LA in 1969, Hugh Hefner did not relocate the Playboy Mansion from Chicago to LA until 1971 making the couple's attendance there erroneous.
Pan Am did not introduce the Boeing 747 until January, 1970, over five months after the Tate murders.
The movie takes place in 1969 and shows the Pussycat Theatre on Hollywood Blvd., but the Pussycat Theatre did not open at that location until late 1974. It was called the New-View Theatre in 1969.
When Cliff drives his Karmann Ghia convertible through Hollywood at night on the way to his trailer, he passes an illuminated Subway sandwich shop. The first Subway on the West Coast was opened in 1978 in Fresno.
When Sharon and Jay are listening to a record, the phono cartridge/stylus on the turntable is an Audio Technica AT3600. This particular cartridge was not manufactured until the 1980s.
The watch Cliff can be seen wearing throughout the film is a Citizen Challenge Timer, aka Bullhead. Despite the film being set in 1969, the movement found in this watch wasn't released until 1972, with the rounded variant Cliff wears following slightly later.
When Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate arrive at the airport, they collect their baggage from a belt conveyor which did not exist at that time until 1971 when the baggage handling system was invented.
Sharon Tate drives a Porsche 911 in 1969, but the car shown is a 1973 model.
The 73 had black horn grills, All 911's before 73 had chrome horn grills.
The theater marquee shows Lady in Cement with a GP rating. The GP rating wasn't introduced till early 1970. Also star Raquel Welch's name is misspelled.
While Cliff and Rick are driving early in the film, Joe Cocker's version of "The Letter" is heard, presumably coming from the car radio. The record was not released until April 1970, more than one year after the action of the film first takes place.
When the Manson girls were finished scrounging through dumpsters for food, a fourth-generation Ford Econoline van can be seen driving through an intersection in the background. That particular generation of Ford Econoline wasn't made until 1992, and the movie takes place in 1969.
The movie takes place in 1969. Pandora's Box was demolished in 1967, but in one scene, Cliff is driving past it in LA.
When Cliff is driving on the highway, A sign for Citibank is visible.
In February 1969, Marvin Schwarz warns Rick Dalton that he might end up playing villains of the week on The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., and Batman. All of these TV series had already been canceled before the events of this film. "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." and "Batman" went off the air in 1968, and "The Girl from U.N.C.L.E." was canceled in 1967.
When Dalton first meets the little girl actor and sits on the set porch with her while she's reading a book, he pulls out a pack of Parliament cigarettes and lights one up. The Parliament pack had a much different design in 1969. The one shown came out many years later.
The California black and yellow plates in use at the time were three letters followed by three numbers. The black and yellow license plates with combinations of numbers and letters in each group of three shown on Sharon Tate's Porsche and Rck Dalton's Cadillac are the reissued plates used today.
A couple of times, the new slimmer version of LED street lights are visible in the background. These were introduced around 2010 and were not around in 1969.
The 101 (Hollywood) Freeway is shown with concrete K-rails in the center divider. In 1969 the old-style steel barriers were still in use.
When on the set for Lancer, several modern intermodal containers are in the background being used as offices. These weren't available for decades later.
Characters make reference to the movie Hell River which came out 5 years after the film setting.
When the two leave the parking lot after Rick cries, you can spot a curved windscreen VW Beetle in the parking lot, while in 1969 there was only the flat screen type in production.
We see Polanski use a French coffee press. The device was invented in 1929 but the design we see here looks like one from the 80s.
C.C. & Company came out in October 1970. It is unlikely a trailer would be running in theaters early in 1969.
The rear bumpers on Tate's Porsche 911 are US market-only black rubber that were only used one year, 1973, to conform with New Federal bumper regulations and very different from the ones used in '69.
While Sam Wanamaker did, in fact, direct the first episode Lancer: The High Riders of Lancer that episode aired on September 24, 1968--five months ahead of the events depicted in the film.
The pilot of Lancer premiered September of 1968. The film shows them shooting it in 1969.
A number of the cowboy hats are styled improperly, with the front of the brim being totally horizontal. This style would not appear for at least thirty years.
When following Sharon Tate's Porsche on Wilshire Blvd. approaching S. Beverly Glen Blvd., you can see Sinai Temple on the corner ahead. The huge Torah sculpture on the exterior of the building was added in 2001.
When the opening titles of Rick Dalton's mid-sixties western 'Tanner' are shown, the titles are set in ITC Benguiat, a font which would not come into existence until the late 1970s.
Polanski uses a french press coffee maker very prominently. The model resembles a famous shape from company Bodum, but Bodum had his first french press on the market in 1974 (and even that one didn't look like the one used in the movie, which is probably from the early 1980s).
Audio/visual unsynchronised
(at around 19 mins) Cliff Booth is driving off from Rick Dalton's home, in Cliff's own car, a VW Karmann Ghia -68. He drives off with the car's engine in low gear/high revs. However, the sound is not that of a typical air-cooled VW four cylinder boxer, but more that of a sports car with a conventional engine. Because for the actors' ease; the car had a 2.5 l Subaru four cylinder water cooled engine installed, with a manual valve body, reverse pattern transmission, and that's the sound recorded.
When Cliff Booth arrives at the Spahn Ranch shadows show that the different angles of the scene are shot at different times of the day.
Character error
On The Green Hornet set, Bruce Lee talks about Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston. Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali on March 6, 1964, 2 1/2 years before The Green Hornet aired. There is no way Bruce Lee would have referred to Muhammad Ali as Cassius Clay in late 1966.
George hits Cliff right in the arm despite being blind.
Continuity
The dog is a female throughout until the attack scene at the end. When the dog jumps up onto Rick's wife's bedroom door, you can clearly see the dog is male.
During lunch with Schwarz, Dalton's drink changes from a mixed drink, to water, to a glass of wine.
When the dog attacks Tex it bites him in the right wrist, indicating that it either severely injures it or - at the very least - bites of the shirt around his wrist. When Tex later attacks Cliff with the knife in his right hand we see that his wrist and shirt are perfectly intact.
Rick's hair is mussed up in the make-up trailer and seconds later perfectly combed back in the same shot.
When family member "Sadie" Atkinson falls in the pool, towards the end of the home invasion/fight scene, you see blood pour out of her into the pool, but when Rick gets the flame thrower and comes back there is no blood in the pool.
The rear view mirror of the Cadillac disappears and reappears from shot to shot. (This is common in many productions, for obvious reasons, especially for camera shots from the rear of the car looking forward, as is the case here. Production also often remove headrests, although in this movie most of the cars predate headrests.)
When Stacy parks his horse across the saloon, the horse is standing in the shadow. Then in the next shot, the horse is standing in the sun.
In the Spahn Ranchhouse, after Cliff Booth enters, on a table against the far wall is a famous bronze sculpture by Remington. It is facing to the right. A minute or two later it is facing to the left.
When Rick plays the hostage scene with Trudi, he has the revolver pointed at her head. It switches from her temple to her neck between shots.
In the scene in Cliff's trailer, Cliff drops the contents of one can of dog food into Brandy's empty bowl, but when we see the contents of the second can drop into the bowl, the first can full of food has disappeared and the bowl is empty again.
When Rick Dalton returns from Europe, someone is shown unpacking mugs, white with different colored ink. But the same mugs are shown before in the first half hour of the movie.
When Cliff fights Bruce at the beginning of the second bout, Cliff begins to throw Bruce to his left, but Bruce hits the car after being thrown to Cliff's right.
Crew or equipment visible
When Cliff drives Pussycat to the ranch, a mic hidden under the driver's sun visor of the Cadillac is clearly visible in some shots.
During the spaghetti spy movie sequence at 2:00:54, as the car is jumping the bridge, a six foot tall steel jump ramp can be clearly seen.
When Cliff is beating the snot out of the Spahn Ranch hippie who knifed his tire, two ranch hands can be seen in the corral behind them tending the horses, and completely unconcerned about the plight of their friend.
Errors in geography
The city lights seen at night in the background from Rick's house are those of the San Fernando Valley. Such a view would not have been possible from Rick's Cielo Drive residence, next to Sharon Tate's house, up in Beverly Glen. According to IMDb, the site for filming Rick's house was 10969 Alta Vista Drive, Studio City, which overlooks the San Fernando Valley, thus explaining the erroneous (though photogenic) view.
When Cliff picks up Pussycat, he says she's hitching up and down Burbank Blvd. He then gets on an on-ramp to US 101 Northbound. The 101 has no on- or off-ramps on Burbank Blvd and the ramp he uses is off Hollywood Blvd.
Factual errors
During his fight with Cliff, Bruce Lee is depicted with the longer hairstyle he sported in the early 70's and not the short haircut he had during his time on The Green Hornet.
When Cliff throws Bruce into the Lincoln's door, the crumpling of both the doors in that location is ridiculous. That amount of damage would not have occurred anywhere on the car let alone where the two doors meet. In real life only one of the doors would have been barely dented if that. 60's cars, especially Lincolns, used far thicker metal than is used today.
When the date shown is a Sunday in February, KHJ is playing on the car radio, with Robert W. Morgan on the air. Morgan didn't work on Sunday (usually), as he was the morning drive jock Monday through Friday.
Smoking a cigarette dipped in LSD would not have a psychedelic effect. However, the filter of the cigarette would have easily absorbed a very potent dose of blotter acid which would provide the intended effect as soon as Cliff placed it in his mouth.
When Rick, Francesca and Cliff are returning from Rome, they are seen in one of the tunnels that were used to connect the gates at LAX to the curb. (Currently, the tunnels are closed to the public and are located two levels beneath the current-day terminal concourses.) Cliff is seen pushing a cart fully loaded with their luggage. In reality, then, as now, baggage claim was located by the curb so they couldn't have had checked baggage while in the tunnel.
Janet describes Bruce Lee as "the series lead". This is not true. He played the sidekick of the Green Hornet, who was played by series lead Van Williams.
The sign at the Van Nuys Drive-In misspells the name of Raquel Welch as Racquel.
The Playboy Mansion had not been yet bought by Hugh Hefner during the period of this movie, Hugh Hefner lived there from 1974 until his death in 2017. Playboy Enterprises acquired the home from Louis Statham in 1971 for $1.1 million.
After meeting with Schwarz, Rick and Cliff are driving home when they stop at an intersection where they see a group of hippies. Also visible is a white WALK light and a green traffic light directing traffic to flow through the intersection. Cliff waits three seconds then makes a right turn on red. This movie takes place in 1969, the right turn on red law went into effect in 1980. Also it is illegal to proceed through a lit WALK sign.
Cliff drives a Karmann Ghia, but when he's driving, it sounds like a V8, not an air-cooled four cylinder Volkswagen engine.
According to the list of The F.B.I. episodes on Wikipedia, while an episode of FBI did indeed air on February 9th, 1969 (the date Rick Dalton & Cliff Booth watch Rick's guest appearance in FBI together) it was the fifth-season episode "The Maze", not "All the Streets Are Silent", which was the 11th episode from Season 1 and originally aired November 28th, 1965.
The on-screen claim by Janet that Bruce Lee was the "series lead" in The Green Hornet is incorrect. He was the sidekick. Those of a later generation might think otherwise because much of the art for Green Hornet promotional materials for re-runs was shifted to featuring Lee once he became famous in his own right. The star, who played the title character, was Van Williams.
Cliff is seen driving past Pandora's Box immediately in the vicinity of the Capitol Records Tower in central Hollywood, but the nightclub was located miles away at the eastern border of the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood.
After the sunset scene on August 8th, Sharon Tate and her friends go to the El Coyote Restaurant, it's nighttime and the narrator says that it's 7:00 p.m. Actually, on that date, twilight in Los Angeles started at 7:47 p.m. Sunset in Los Angeles at 7:00 p.m. doesn't star until mid-September, and civil twilight until early October.
When Cliff Booth enters the house at the Spahn Ranch, a rat can be struggling while being stuck to a glue board trap. This type of rodent trap was not introduced until the early 1980's.
The flat on Cliff's car would not have been able to be changed, since there was no jack to lift the car and get the old wheel off and put the new one on.
During the beginning when the two arrive at the meeting place with Schwarz, after Rick climbs out of the car a whole bunch of cigarette butts fall out along, and in the next shot where the shoes of Cliff are shown, with Rick's in the back, the butts are no longer on the pavement.
The ambulance attendant gets in the front seat with the driver. He would be required to ride in back and look after the patient.
The side view shots of the 747 in 1969, the time frame of the movie are actually of a 747-400 which didn't have its first flight until April 29, 1988. The difference can be seen in the longer bulge of its upper cabin. The original 747 was much shorter.
When Rick & Cliff drive into the Casa Vega restaurant in their yellow Cadillac, the license plate is "8NJ09H". That is a fake California DMV plate number as plate numbers back in the 60's were composed of three numbers & three letters, like 842HJG.
The Manson threesome approach the house carrying butcher knives. In truth, they were given Buck knives with folding five inch blades.
Miscellaneous
The TV antenna is a modern style unit with new type cable used for digital reception.
In the scene with posters of the (fake) Italian movie "Uccidimi subito Ringo disse il Gringo", the movie title is mispelled: "UccidiM suGito", which does not mean anything in Italian language.
The term "bounty killer" is taken directly from Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns as a nod to Italian audiences who would not understand the term"bounty hunter". TV censors of the day would not have approved as a series lead who is specifically identified as a killer. I may also be noted that, with the exception of a few random and familiar terms such as "loco", "muchacho" and the like, full sentences of Spanish dialogue would not have appeared in a western TV shows of the day. This is not due to bias but to the fact that much of the American audience wouldn't have understood it. In those days, Spanish was not the default second language taught in American schools. Other options were French and German (holdovers from previous generations).
No cameras are seen in the opening interview, although they're front-facing both Rick/Cliff and the interviewer.
This is actually indicative of a film director versus a television director setting a scene.
When DiCaprio uses the ice tray he reveals that he was not familiar with the aluminum ice cube trays of the 1960s. As everyone of the day was very aware, the ice sticks to the metal blades, making it very hard to open. If you pull too hard, the handle could break off. The standard practice was to run it under the tap for a few seconds, pour off the water, and then open it. In 1960, anyone over the age of ten would know this. (In 1969 Quinten Tarantino was only six.)
When Booth picks up Pussycat hitchhiking, he guesses that she's heading for the Spahn Movie Ranch when she mentions Chatsworth. This would not have been anyone's first guess before the murders because the Iverson Movie Ranch just north was many times the size, and way more famous than Spahn.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs
Cliff is given a cigarette said to have been dipped/laced in acid (LSD), but smoking anything dipped in LSD would not work because when lit on fire the fire would destroy the LSD. LSD can not be smoked, it only works when eaten/or when liquid LSD is dropped in the mouth, or very very powerful LSD can sometimes be absorbed through the skin. PCP and embalming fluid are the drugs that work when dipped, dried, and then smoked. People would dip/lace a cigarette in PCP or embalming fluid and then sell them on the street. The LSD-dipped cigarettes were sold on the street (in broad daylight) by hippies looking to make a buck (or in this case, 50 cents). They couldn't care less whether they actually worked. The cigarettes could have been dipped in anything; saying it was LSD as a new way to get high was a sales trick. They just wanted the money. Whilst it is true that a cigarette dipped in LSD would not do anything, the cigarette does seem to get Cliff stoned. It could however have been dipped in PCP or other substances which could be inhaled when smoked, and the hippy girl was just calling it LSD because that was the fashionable drug at that time.
A bus drives past showing an ad for the show Combat!. That show went off the air in 1967. This incident is probably not a goof. The ad also said it was being shown back to back on Channel 11. At that time, Channel 11 was an independent station and their schedule was filled with reruns, of which Combat! may well have been one.
Quentin Tarantino is known for adding deliberate continuity errors into his movies. There are several examples in this one but the most obvious is as James Stacy comes over to talk to Rick on set. Initially he is bare-headed and his cowboy hat hangs down his back. There is a sudden edit jump and now the hat is on his head.
You can see a Tora! Tora! Tora! poster in the background at the studio. In fact, filming began in December 1968, and posters for films currently in production are common on studio lots.
George Spahn's house was not on top of a small hill, but behind the western set. The hill idea was intentional.
Cliff's flat tire at Spahn Ranch appears to be changed with a black spare tire, but as Cliff removes the tire and rolls it to the front of the car, you can see that the camera is being shown the back of the wheel. Whitewall tires only have the white band on one side of the tire, so the back side would always be black.
When Cliff is fighting with Bruce, in the second round of the fight the extras have disappeared. However, it was Cliff's flashback of the fight, and it was obviously intentional, possibly showing Cliff as an unreliable narrator.
Sharon is shown from behind in the car with Polanski with no scarf, then shown removing the scarf.
Actually, she is wearing her scarf on the frontal part of her head, thus not showing from the rear view.
Early in the movie, Cliff (Brad Pitt) and Rick (Leonardo Di Caprio) are talking while Cliff is driving. He turns on Cielo Drive, and as they approach the road, a mural with a face suspiciously resembling Jack Nicholson in The Shining is in front. That movie, of course, was not made until ten years later. However, this is NOT a mural of Jack Nicholson in The Shining. It's obviously a mural of Rick Dalton (DiCaprio's character) outside his house.
When Rick Dalton forgets his lines in "Lancer" and rants to himself privately in his trailer afterwards, the placement of the cowboy hat on its mannequin hat stand changes throughout the entire sequence.
It is explained by the fact that the scene in edited in jump cuts so DiCaprio could improvise his lines freely in every take without worrying about continuity: so he could have thrown or moved his hat in between "cuts".
Although the average temperature in L.A. in February is 69°, quite often Southern California experiences February heat waves, even into the 90s.
When Cliff is driving Pussy to Spahn Ranch, he tells her the prison system hasn't gotten him yet and that if it did, it wouldn't be for sexual relations with a minor. In the next scene, Cliff tells Tex he once spent two weeks on a chain gang in Texas.
However, he could have lied to Pussy or Tex.
When cliff is walking away after visiting George at the ranch, Pussy is upset and she clearly uses a step to leap on top of the broken VW. If she was really going to step on the VW Bug, it would have been the front fender and she obviously could not.
However, there could well be using an old box on the ground as the place is filled with scraps.
When Jim Stacy approaches Rick Dalton, he is carrying his hat in his left hand until he says, "We're real glad to have a pro like you playing the heavy on the pilot," and Jim's had suddenly appears on his head, without any cutaways or angle changes to explain it.
Not actually an error. Notice that every time there is a jump cut like this, and there are several, Tarantino adds a clicking sound to indicate that this is an intentional jump.
Revealing mistakes
When Cliff is driving the Caddie, just before he sees Pussycat for the third time and picks her up, the speedometer on the car can clearly be seen at zero despite the fact he's driving down the road, revealing the process shot.
As Cliff is driving Rick through the streets of LA, in the background you can see green lights indicating the street was closed for the shot as otherwise, Cliff was just driving through red light after red light after red light.
As Cliff is approaching Rick's driveway to repair his antenna, the actual real life address for the property that was used for the Tate house is visible on the face of the sidewalk. The address is 19074 Alta View Dr, Studio City, CA.
When Cliff is fighting Bruce Lee, he throws him against a blue car, damaging the doors on that side. Just before the impact the rear door is already visibly partially crumpled, revealing the skin of the doors to be a soft malleable material that gets pulled back into the damaged shape when the actor hits.
In the flamethrower scene with the Germans, you see Rick initially facing the Germans and then you see in the Iron Balcony a structure with a correct swastika. But when in the shot you see the balcony from the Germans' perspective, then the swastikas are flipped or mirrored. You can check that because there is a banner/flag with the big swastikas hanging to the left and right of the balcony. The swastikas should be 'normal' when facing up to the balcony.
When Cliff takes Brandy for a walk on the night of the Manson Family attack, the headlights of the car Tex Watson drives are reflected in another car at the end of the street until Cliff reaches that place, revealing that the car was parked rather than actually driving up the street to make sure the driver hit the right mark.
At about 1h21min you can see Cliff driving around, but the speedometer is visible an clearly shows 0 mp/h.
Obvious fake and changing side-burns on Pitt's cheeks especially visible at 15'29".
When her friend visits Sharon, she says at the gate "...and the baby" but the crib she grabs from the car is obviously empty (and way too light to be holding a baby).
When in the trailer, DiCaprio is looking into the mirror and the audience can see his face, revealing that he is indeed looking directly at the camera, breaking the fourth wall while attempting to let us think he is looking at himself.
At 1:58:20 a PAN AM Boeing 747 is shown with three top deck windows. While this number is correct for the first model of 747-100, the top deck should be much shorter. The aircraft seems to be a 747-300 with 17 of its 20 windows digitally removed.
Also, the date on the screen shows 20 August 1969 but the first 747 wasn't flown by PAN AM until 5 months later.
Spoilers
Factual errors
When Rick is roasting Sadie with the flamethrower she is screaming throughout, and the screams are clear and crisp. The first breath she took would have scorched her vocal cords, throat and lungs, and every subsequent breath would have made it worse, resulting in a much more ragged and diminishing sound.
