- Revealing mistakes: When Mallory and Miller are sitting in the truck below the guns, they use a small flashlight to illuminate the map. As they move the flashlight across the map, the circle of light stops but the flashlight continues to move for a moment after the circle of light stops moving; Mallory quickly moves it back. This shows the flashlight is not the light source on the map.
- Continuity: When Stavros rips open Anna's dress to look for the scars on her back, medal ribbons appear and disappear on his uniform between shots.
- Revealing mistakes: At the start of the film, we see a plane coming in for a crash-landing on an air strip. As the plane heads in, we see another plane, which looks like a bomber, defying gravity and quite clearly suspending itself in mid air. A few moments later, as the plane lands, a second bomber is seen clearly suspended in mid-air.
- Continuity: In the shot establishing the outdoor cafe, a waiter is seen serving two men at a table. This exact shot is used again later to establish that the action has returned here. Other shots a re-used as well.
- Continuity: When Miller puts on his German uniform, the sleeves are too short. As the group leaves the German headquarters, his uniform fits perfectly.
- Revealing mistakes: When the saboteurs push the captured German truck off the mountain road, a pyrotechnic triggering cable attached to the rear of the truck can be seen dragging across the road surface.
- Factual errors: Oberleutnant Muesel calls SS officer Sessler by the rank of "Hauptmann". This is a German Army rank, equal to Captain, but was not used by the SS. The equivalent SS rank was "Hauptsturmführer," or "head storm leader". Sessler's collar insignia is that of an SS Hauptsturmführer.
- Revealing mistakes: On SS officer Sessler's uniform, shoulder boards, as well as the "German Eagle" emblem on upper left arm, are missing.
- Audio/visual unsynchronized: Aboard the motorboat, Maria makes a statement directly to Andrea, leaving him room to answer her. In the audio, he answers, "Yes." In the video, he nods, and his mouth stays shut, lips not moving.
- Anachronisms: In the opening sequence at the airfield, Mallory looks out toward smoke rising from a crashed plane. The film takes place in 1943, but on the right side of the shot a c.1960 pick-up truck is clearly visible.
- Continuity: The steering wheel on the second truck the saboteurs hijack and use throughout the remainder of the film, is on the right, indicating it is a British, not German, vehicle. But in the scene immediately following their taking the truck, as Maria, Mallory and Andrea watch the bombing of the nearby town from the truck's cab, the steering wheel is suddenly back on the left.
- Continuity: When James Darren has his final showdown with the German officer, there is a brief shot of the officer walking towards Darren prior to either firing. In this scene the officer's uniform already shows the bullet wounds which he has yet to receive.
- Factual errors: When the Germans are searching the gun positions for explosives, German soldiers are using mine detection equipment and 'sweeping' the tracks leading up to the guns. This is a useless activity since the detection equipment is a metal detector and would give off a signal due to the steel rails.
- Continuity: Toward the end of the film, when the big guns are firing at the British convoy, the two guns fire consecutively, not simultaneously. However, after the second firing, the camera cuts to the convoy, and we see two splashes in the water, one on each side of the ship.
- Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Anna regains consciousness at the ruins and sits up in fear, Maria grabs her and tells her, "They're friends - our friends." She then repeats the phrase "Our friends" in Greek, dubbed in on the soundtrack, while her lips clearly form the words "Our friends" in English.
- Revealing mistakes: When a German truck is driven to a spot where there is an ambush waiting, a grenade is thrown and the truck blows up. However, you can see the truck move slightly, where the film crew have moved the original truck, and then put in a dummy or mock-up truck which can be blown up.
- Continuity: When the Mallory team arrives by boat at the British Army post at 1600 hours on the first day, Mallory clearly has his briefcase handcuffed to his right armed as it had been at the Middle East airfield office. A few minutes later, while walking around on the dock, waiting for Major Baker to arrive, the briefcase is clearly no longer on his right arm, but then reappears again on his right arm just a few seconds later.
- Anachronisms: After the team has scaled the cliff the Germans respond to an alarm jumping on trucks and driving towards the mountain. When driving off the you can clearly see printed Dodge on the back latch of one truck. Germans did not drive Dodge trucks in the second world war.
- Revealing mistakes: After the boat sinks and the unit is stranded on the island, Mallory begins to climb the cliff face. As the camera pans to the top, we see stars in the night sky above, even though it is raining profusely.
- Factual errors: In the opening moments, the guns of Navarone are shown firing interspersed with footage of ships sinking. One of the ships shown exploding is the British battleship HMS Barham, which was not hit by coastal artillery but was sunk after being torpedoed by a German U-boat.
- Factual errors: Most of the light cargo/utility vehicles (including the one dropped off the cliff) are not German in origin. The majority of the vehicles appear to be Dodge T214 and T215 series vehicles, manufactured in the USA, and passed on to the Allies through the Lend-Lease act - but not the Germans.
- Factual errors: The 6x6 armored cars which appear repeatedly throughout the movie are not German SDKfZ series vehicles, but rather, American Ford M8 'Greyhound' armored cars, which were used by the Allies, but not the Germans. In addition, the tanks featured in the film appear to be American M24 Chaffee light tanks, which not only weren't in service in Germany, but did not enter production until 1944.
- Factual errors: On the "2nd day, 07.30 hours" there is a scene on the boat at harbor in which Col. Stavros' shadow is directly beneath him, not off to the side as it would be at 7:30 am.
- Continuity: As Mallory and Miller are carrying explosives towards the guns building, just before they close the steel doors, their shadows change from being almost underneath them to being well to one side.
- Factual errors: Most of the "British" destroyers in the rescue convoy at the end of the film are American surplus WWII ships that had been transferred to the Greek navy.
- Revealing mistakes: When Mallory and his team get inside the German compound, one of the German soldiers is clearly heard saying "Vas Gibs?" that is essentially 'pig' German and he would most probably have said "Was is los?" Also a few minutes later another German soldier clearly says "Gayenze back" which is more 'pig' German and he would probably have said "gehe zuruck".
- Continuity: The ascent of the cliff and most of the action atop it all take place in a driving rain, but when Andrea throws the German sentry off the cliff in the midst of the storm, there is no rain at all.
- Continuity: When Miller goes to tell Mallory about Franklin's injuries, Pappadimos and Brown are seen in the background standing by the unconscious Franklin, and Pappadimos starts to turn to his left to go to pick up his rifle. But in the close-up, as Brown expands on Miller's description of Franklin's medical needs, Pappadimos is suddenly back standing next to Brown, then turns to his right to go retrieve his gun.
- Factual errors: "German" squad marching past in the British style (quick march, arms swinging high) when the allied team steals the truck after escaping from German custody.
- Revealing mistakes: A number of instances of "screeching tires" sound effects when vehicles are on gravel roads.
- Continuity: In the briefing about the mission, Mallory is seen examining a photograph of the cliff on Navarone. The shot looking at the photo shows him holding it in his left hand, with a magnifying glass in his right. But in the shot immediately following, of Mallory at the table, he is holding a cigarette, not the magnifying glass, in his right hand.
- Continuity: In the prologue, the guns are shown firing, and as they do large clouds of smoke are emitted all around the bases of the guns. But after a couple of seconds the smoke abruptly disappears and the area is clear again.
- Continuity: When Miller brings coffee to Franklin and Mallory in the wheelhouse, he opens the door inwards. But when he leaves (and Mallory after him), the door opens outwards.
- Continuity: There is a close-up of the bride dancing in a circle during the wedding that is re-used a second time.
- Factual errors: In the fight scene where Pappadimos is shooting at a German officer, the officer is using a Sten SMG which is British made with the magazine on the left side. German MP_38/40 magazines were located on the bottom.
- Revealing mistakes: The mouth of the cave is much narrower than the cave itself. This would limit the the range and field of fire of the guns.
- Revealing mistakes: The "German" patrol boat that intercepts the team's decrepit fishing boat is actually a British HDML (Harbour Defence Motor Launch).
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Goofs below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- Continuity: SPOILER: When Miller is slapping the grease on the pole, his hands are covered with a very thick layer of it, but when he puts the rat on the cannon supposedly a few minutes later, his hands are completely clean. There was not time to clean his hands so thoroughly.
- Plot holes: SPOILER: Franklin is tortured by the Germans and then injected with the truth drug scopolamine, giving up the false "information" regarding the objective of the operation. However, there was no need for the Germans to torture Franklin in the beginning since they already "knew" what the team's objective was. Supposedly the Kurdish laundry boy, Anna, or both had already had the opportunity to inform the Germans of the operation and its objective. That is why the German officers Poesel and Sessler interrogated them as to the whereabouts of the explosives only, not what the explosives were to be used for, when the team was captured in Mandrakos.
- Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: Obvious use of miniature fortress when it explodes in the climactic shot near the end of the film.
- Continuity: SPOILER: As Pvt. Spyros Pappadimos is shot a stone block is shifted along the top of the wall he slumps onto. When his body is shown a few moments later, the block is back in place.
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