Creating a full-length feature film is a monumental task for any director.
In the storm of actors, set designs, production assistants and the cameras catching them all,
the finished movie is just a tiny glimpse of the actual work – and talented people
- that goes into making it.
Usually, it’s the editor’s job to make sure that what’s outside of each shot stays
there – but they’re only human.
Which means some truly incredible mistakes can make it into the final product for our
viewing pleasure.
Here are Screen Rant’s Movie Mistakes That Slipped Through Editing.
The Bourne Identity
Matt Damon’s role as a CIA Assassin suffering from amnesia singlehandedly re-defined modern
spy thrillers, showing Jason Bourne to possess superhuman levels of stealth and battlefield
awareness.
When he first arrives on land after being rescued from the sea by a fishing crew, he
quite literally disappears into the surrounding city, illustrating how effective his innate
ability to remain undetected truly is.
Until viewers take a closer look at his disappearance, and notice the pair of extras attempting – and
failing – to conceal actor Matt Damon ducking behind the truck driving across the set, with
his feet and bright red jacket clearly visible.
Maybe another take would have been wise.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
By the time the Chamber of Secrets rolled around, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were
already each other’s worst enemies.
So it’s no surprise that when the children of Hogwarts began their training in magical
duels, the two wound up crossing wands.
As always, Harry winds up getting the better of his foe to the delight of the students
present.
The students, and the camera man who the director either didn’t notice, or somehow assumed
audiences wouldn’t spot.
How this unplanned cameo wasn’t defeated by some editing magic is beyond us.
Back to the Future
Aside from the questions of time travel and parallel universes, Marty McFly’s trip backwards
and forwards through the decades is home to several small mistakes or inconsistencies.
But it’s the most inconsequential error that has become the most well-known – and
frankly, the most unsettling.
When Doc Brown returns with his family in tow in the final scene of the trilogy, his
youngest son offers a gesture that once noticed, can never be ignored.
Most accept that the young actor was simply signaling that he was in need of a washroom
break, but we’re not buying it.
They don’t have toilets on time-traveling trains?
Jurassic Park
The fact that Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur adventure has aged better than most other
special effects-driven films is usually credited to Steven Spielberg’s use of real dinosaur
models along with completely CGI creatures.
But that decision didn’t come without a few drawbacks.
No fan will forget when a pair of raptors pursued the movie’s child stars through
the park’s kitchen, but it turns out the dinosaur models were less graceful than their
CG versions.
Apparently needing a crew member’s hand to help keep their balance.
The Hurt Locker
It isn’t just dinosaurs that can use a hand from an off-screen crew member.
In this story of a bomb disposal team deployed during the Iraq War, soldiers on the ground
had more to worry about than just explosives.
When investigating an enemy-controlled warehouse, someone on the film’s set decided that star
Jeremy Renner needed some help moving through a curtain of plastic sheeting, putting his
entire hand into frame.
Why the shot wasn’t cut a moment sooner is a mystery, meaning it’s entirely possible
it was missed altogether.
Gladiator
In a film as massive as Ridley Scott’s Roman epic, audiences are willing to overlook some
small mistakes.
But the director put that theory to the test, peppering the movie with too many mistakes
to count.
There’s the crew member who somehow stumbled into a shot as hero Maximus greets a Roman
horse, Barbarian extras who decide to take a break in the midst of a fierce battle, an
exposed air canister used to flip a chariot in the Roman Coliseum, and the downright awful
body padding used to protect one actor from arrows and swords.
But nothing beats star Russell Crowe’s famous question, posed after he singlehandedly wiped
out multiple opponents.
It’s taken as a political statement for those watching the fight, but it was clearly
directed at the camera crew visible in a wider shot.
Jaws
When word first breaks of a man-eating shark off the shores of Amity, everyone in possession
of a boat takes off in search of the bounty placed on the great white’s head.
The chaos that follows is a nightmare for Police Chief Brody, but is clearly perfect
for the filmmakers.
Apparently, director Steven Spielberg got so captivated by the excitement, he assumed
audiences would be as well, leaving the entire camera crew’s boats visible in the middle
of frame, revealing to audiences exactly how they had captured the shots shown immediately
beforehand.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Given the number of extras used in the first Indiana Jones adventure, and how large some
of the movie’s action sequences were, a mistake or unfortunate error is impossible
to avoid.
Take, for instance, the reflection of the entire camera crew in the cockpit of a Nazi
aircraft, or the infamous ‘gun vs. sword’ sequence starring the world’s worst butcher.
But the film’s most ridiculous mistake is also its most ironic.
To make sure their Tunisian backdrop resembled 1936 Cairo, the crew famously removed over
300 TV antennas from surrounding rooftops.
That level of dedication pays off in the finished film... until a man wearing blue jeans and
a t-shirt strolls through the background just minutes later.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The second chapter of Peter Jackson’s fantasy trilogy begins with three of the Fellowship
stumbling into the land of Rohan, leading to a tense introduction with Eomer, a noble
soldier and ally in the rest of the story.
An embodiment of honour and dignity, Eomer ends the standoff by giving his new allies
horses and sending them on their way.
Unfortunately, allowing his entire sword to slide out of its sheath in the process.
Clearly too embarrassed to acknowledge the mistake, we can only assume he left as quickly
as possible to find a suitable replacement.
Frozen
Just because animated films are created a single frame at a time, that doesn’t mean
mistakes won’t slip by just as easily.
One of the most well-known sequences in Disney’s smash success Frozen stars the magical Queen
Elsa, embracing her powers with a performance of the award-winning song “Let it Go.”
In all the excitement, it seems the artists decided to let the laws of physics go as well,
allowing Elsa to let down her hair, and have it pass from front to back, phasing through
her left arm in the process.
The ability to control ice and snow and create an eternal winter is one thing, but we have
to draw the line somewhere.
Those are some of our favourite movie mistakes that seemed to slip by the filmmakers unnoticed.
Are there any we missed?
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