Prop or Not? 7 Continuity Mistakes in Films & TV

by Tom Simpkins

The minds behind television and film often have to juggle hundreds of decisions, both creative and technical, and so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the odd mistake slips through the cracks here and there. These are often labelled continuity mistakes, cases where even if dozens of people give a scene the final thumbs up, any number of factors can cause even seemingly obvious errors to crop up.

Fatigue, rushed deadlines, even a lack of focus on set; these elements can often combine to create a veil across editor’s and director’s eyes, as well as anyone double checking the film before it appears in cinemas. Whether it’s an actor doing something stupid or an innocent prop out of place, these continuity mistakes can do serious damage to the audience’s suspension of disbelief. As prop masters themselves, Spur Creative knows plenty of times this has happened, even in blockbuster classics and immensely popular television shows.

Honorable Mention- Star Wars: Stormtrooper Hitting His Head

While now a legendary part of the beloved first Star Wars films, A New Hope, this honorable mention isn’t so much of a continuity mistake as it is a blunder that accidentally made its way into the final cut of the film. During the scene that R2-D2 and C3P0 are in the Death Star’s control room, three Stormtroopers charge in in what was originally intended to be a serious, intimidating style...Only for the Stormtrooper on the right to bang his head on the door as he entered.

Reports state that the actor in the suit was feeling under the weather and flustered in the suit that day, failing to fully notice the set and unceremoniously knocking his noggin. Many have argued that this move began the establishment of the Stormtroopers as less of fearless, cut-throat space Nazis and more of bumbling henchmen. Whatever the result, the moment became immortalized in film history, even seeing additional goofy sound effects to the head-bonking in later editions.

North by Northwest: Scene Spoiling Extra

While not a well-known film by today’s standards, North by Northwest is generally considered a classic film that many hold dear in their heart. A Hitchcock film worthy of watching, North by Northwest may be recognizable to many in the form of general pop-culture parody references (a handful of parodies of the scene where the protagonist is being chased by a crop duster plane in a field springs to mind) but the twist ending may be lesser known to most audiences. Spoilers for a film that celebrated its 60th anniversary last year, but at a scene set at the Mount Rushmore visitor center, the protagonist Thornhill is acting as if he’s going to turnover Kendall, the female lead, as a spy yet suddenly she shoots him in the gut with a handgun. 

Where the continuity error comes into play is the fact that this moment is literally spoiled by an extra in the crowd; a young child. Clearly tired of taking the same shot over and over again, next to a loud gun blast no less, the child puts his fingers in his ears moments before the gun goes off. Whether the extra was supposed to be prophetic or merely wanted to save his hearing, the kid is left in the shot, scene ruining precautions and all.

The Simpsons: Predicting Maggie

In a twist that only The Simpsons could pull off, this continuity mistake was actually pointed out by one of the show's producers, Matt Selman. Most of the episode “And Maggie Makes Three” in season six is a flashback to the time in The Simpsons household before Maggie was born, yet in a bizarre case of continuity chaos, the very scene where Marge tells Homer that she’s pregnant with Maggie, there’s an actual picture of Maggie hanging up on the wall behind them. 

Funnily enough, this wasn’t the only issue like this in the same episode; there are two consecutive flashbacks that show Homer ripping his hair out over the news that Marge is pregnant with Bart and then later, pregnant with Lisa. In both of these flashbacks, Homer passes a framed photo of Lisa in a pink hat, suggesting that The Simpsons home either came with those ominously similar photos or, more likely, the setting that they’d used for five series beforehand were good enough for this episode too.

Game of Thrones: Coffee Cups

One of the most recent cases of negligence that seemed to perfectly personify just how rushed and shoddy the production was of the show, the last series of HBO’s Game of Thrones was riddled with continuity errors and real life products that did little to help viewers become emerged in the world of Westboros. The most infamous case of this were the inclusion of Starbucks coffee cups left in scene during the celebration of the Night King’s defeat.

Sure, there was the embarrassing rubber sword during The Battle of the Bastards, the oddly placed laptop charger during Stannis’ death and the odd choice to keep a seemingly stone-breakingly-strong wight in a wooden box, but this mistake was much more of a focal point due to just how steep a decline the show had undergone in this last season. Some even took to joking that Starbucks is essentially everywhere nowadays, but no one expected them to set up shop in a fictional kingdom.

Friends: Ross’ Ever-Changing Birthday

Sometimes we can let important details slip our minds. Even friends we’ve known for years can seemingly have birthdays that elude us, which is why sneakily checking out their Facebook pages every now and then can make the difference between looking like a bad friend and being a legend. However, Facebook wasn’t around in the 90s or early 00s, so the many times Ross’ birthday came up throughout the series were hard to verify.

Hindsight (and a binge watch of each series) though reveals that not even Ross knew his own birthday as he often cites a different date for his birthday, no less than three times. His canonical birthday is May 12, 1967, yet in one episode he says that his birthday is some time in December, in episode 104 (episode 4, season 1) he says that it is October 20, while in episode 902 (episode 2, season 9), he changes the date to October 18.

Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark: Reflection of a Cobra

This infamous mistake is a rare case not born from laziness or stupidity, but for the safety of Harrison Ford. In the well-known scene that finds Indy face to face with a room full of snakes (“Snakes, why does it always have to be snakes?”) the early showings of the film blatantly featured the reflection of the cobra in question that was seemingly ready to strike at the world’s most hands-on archaeologist.

This is due to a glass screen being placed in front of Ford and the live-cobra as, understandable, the actor didn’t want to risk actually being bitten by the snake (and presumably, the many others there as well) and yet the reflection couldn’t be edited out at the time. Later re-released amended this issue, but early versions of the film still show a mirrored snake coiled and hissing at Indy. 

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace: Everything

The cult-classic Darkplace is listed as a horror show, with the creator introducing each episode in a manner akin to a documentary, yet in reality it’s more of a B list horror, comedy “mockumentary” hybrid. Of course, much of the humor comes from the glaring errors in terrible editing, shoddy writing, atrocious acting and, yes, many continuity issues. Many times during scenes it will cut to testimonies from ‘the actors’, often discussing (and harshly rebuking) any criticisms allegedly received over the show’s runtime. 

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is a masterclass of what not to do when producing a television show; frequently displaying actors looking at the camera, moving around the set during cuts and even mishandling of props with visible strings and clearly being thrown around the set.