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Michael Douglas and Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction (1987)

Goofs

Fatal Attraction

Edit

Continuity

Alex rips Dan's shirt open. We hear buttons pop and cloth rip. When he buttons it the second time, the shirt is not ripped anywhere and all the buttons are present.
The newspaper clipping about Stanley Forest's death was from 1959. Alex had mentioned that her dad died when she was 7 and at another point says that she is now 36 years old. Based on dates on the unused opera tickets, we see that it is 1986, putting her birth year at 1950. Thus, she would have been 9 years old in 1959, not 7 years old. Also, the clipping says that Mr. Forest was 42 when he died, but the man in the photo appears to be around 60 years old.
Immediately after their first date at the restaurant, where Alex tells Dan that they're "we're two adults," the scene immediately shifts to Alex's apartment where she and Dan are heavily involved. They later go dancing and when they return to her place, Dan asks, "Do you live here?" (or something similar). Why is he surprised when he just spent the night with her there?
When Dan is getting dressed after having sex, Alex is still in bed and her breasts are exposed. Then the covers are up to her neck, back to the foot of the bed, and then to the side where she's once more covered.
When Dan puts on his headphones to listen to Alex's tape, he has them on correctly, with the cord on the left. Immediately, the headphones are incorrect, with the cord on the right. I suspect he put them on correctly, but found the cord on the left constrained his angle toward the camera and ability to turn to his wife. (The director should have just re-shot the previous 5 seconds!)

Factual errors

When Dan listens to Alex's tape is his study, it is clearly not the same one he listened to in the car as her tone of voice is completely different, and she repeats some of the words she earlier stated in a differently phrased manner.

Incorrectly regarded as goofs

When Dan speaks to Beth about Ellen missing school, Beth says, "She's only five years old. What's she going to miss, trigonometry?" While eating dinner at Alex's house later that same day, Dan tells Alex that he's "got a six-year-old girl".

However, even a loving father can be slightly wrong in stating the age of his child.
If Alex met Dan a "few weeks before" at the Japanese party, as she stated when pretending to be interested in the sale of his apartment, there is no way her pregnancy could be detected so soon. It normally takes at least 5-8 weeks for a woman to realize something is different with her body.

The term "few weeks before" is imprecise enough that this could easily refer to two months, which is well within the time frame for a person to find out they're pregnant.

Revealing mistakes

While Dan is in his attic study listening to a tape, Beth can be seen reflected in the window, waiting just out of shot for her cue.
When Alex and Dan come back to her apartment after going dancing on Saturday night, the freight elevator appears to be ascending several floors to her apartment. The next day when they are eating dinner in her apartment, it appears that the apartment is only one story above the street level when you look out of the window.
Alex slits her wrists after she gets angry with Dan. Later on, when she goes to meet with Beth about buying the apartment, she has a wristwatch on one arm and a set of bracelets on the other. However, in a shot before Beth gives Alex their phone number, the bracelets fall farther down Alex's arm, and you can see that her wrist is smooth without any scarring.
Before the final scene, there is an outside shot of the Gallagher home. It is supposed to be late Fall (Christmas decorations seen while Beth is driving, Ellen practicing for her Thanksgiving play) yet the trees outside the home are all in full bloom.
When Alex calls Dan in the middle of the night, from where she is we can clearly see that it is broad daylight, although it should be 2:00 in the morning and dark outside.

Crew or equipment visible

As Beth walks into the kitchen to look at the boiling pot, the cameraman can be seen through the living room window.
Reflected in the window that the librarian pushes the cart past.
Equipment is reflected in the car windscreen as Dan sees off his wife and child on their first trip into the country.

Plot holes

Boom mic visible

When Dan is in the police station, the reflection of the boom mic is visible in a plaque on the shelf behind the lieutenant.
On the windshield of Dan and Beth's car before Beth and Ellen leave.

Character error

Having a "bad miscarriage" does not mean one cannot be pregnant. On the contrary, it shows that it is absolutely possible.
Being a qualified lawyer, dan wouldn't need to seek legal advice from the police regards his relationship with a mentally unstable woman he's just had an affair with.

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