Goofs for
Full Metal Jacket (1987)

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• Continuity: The hand that Hartmann punches Private Joker with for talking behind his back.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene were Pvt. Pyle is on the range, the bandage on his right wrist is in and out of the scene.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Cowboy has finished asking for tank backup on the radio, he makes the common Hollywood mistake of saying "over and out" rather than the correct "out". "Over" means handing over to the other party to receive their transmission. "Out" means you have finished the conversation.
  
  

• Factual errors: In several scenes the bolt is open and the ejection port cover is open on the M16A1. This would mean the weapon is out of ammunition. Also in the same scenes the magazines are removed from the weapons. These are not appropriate conditions while in combat. Also the ejection port cover is commonly kept closed to keep the chamber as clean as possible
  
  
• Continuity: After Doc Jay and Eightball are killed by the Vietnamese sniper and Animal Mother yells to Cowboy that it is okay to move up the squad, Cowboy calls for Stunt, Dolon, Rock, and No-Doze to follow him while Joker and Rafterman choose to follow him on their own, a total of seven Marines, including Cowboy. In the shot that follows, however, only six Marines are shown moving ahead.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Doc Jay is in the far back of the squad yelling to Cowboy that he is going to bring Eightball in, his mouth doesn't match up to what he says.
  
  
• Continuity: Pyle's hat when he is being slapped by Hartmann.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Pyle's hat falls off from being slapped by Hartman, Hartman ends his tirade by telling Pyle to "pick up your f-ing cover." This was an ad-libbed line, since it wasn't intended for the hat to fly off, and since 'Vincent D'Onofrio (I)' clearly doesn't understand that "cover" is USMC-speak for hat. He replies, "sir, yes, sir!" but remains standing while the shot fades out.
  
  
• Continuity: When Hartmann slaps Pyle during the drill & comp scene, the second marine in formation behind Pyle is played by two different actors between cuts of Hartmann slapping Pyle with his right hand and Hartmann slapping Pyle with his left hand.
  
  
• Continuity: At the beginning when the Marines are being lectured and/or questioned by Hartmann by their bunks, Cowboy's, Joker's, Pyle's and I believe Snowball's bunks change position relative to one another. In fact, it seems that this is a constant continuity problem when the Marines are depicted in the barracks.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When crossing the crossing bars, the recruits are told that it should take no less than ten seconds to navigate this particular obstacle. He should have said that it should take no more than ten seconds.
  
  
• Factual errors: It is doubtful that Marines would identify themselves by their nicknames when asked by a superior to state their name. This error happens more than once.
  
  
• Continuity: When Pyle is on the range he reloads while Hartman is behind him. The magazine which Pyle finishes can be seen fully loaded.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Road markings indicate the filming location (England), not Parris Island.
  
  
• Continuity: The shape of Private Joker's flashlight beam as he enters the head to confront Pyle.
  
  
• Continuity: The hand Murphy shoots with when they attack Hue city.
  
  
• Continuity: When Crazy Earl holds his rifle up after the initial attack on Hue City, the magazine disappears between shots.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Before Private Cowboy's squad moves up to search for the sniper, Joker reloads his rifle. Between the scene where he reloads his rifle to the scene where he prepares to shoot the sniper, he doesn't take any shots with his rifle, but when he attempts a shot on the sniper, there is no ammunition in his magazine. While some people claim that Joker's M16 was out of ammunition when he attempted to shoot the sniper, in fact it was jammed, which was a common problem for the M16 in Vietnam.
  
  
• Continuity: When Eightball ducks behind the debris to inform Cowboy of their misdirection in Hue City, a handle on his back pack is seen leaning against his gun in one shot. In the next shot, the handle is nowhere to be seen.
  
  
• Continuity: Animal Mother's M-60 changes position between the shots where he tries to get the squad to help Eightball and Doc Jay.
  
  
• Continuity: Palm trees move unexpectedly.
  
  
• Continuity: The magazine on the rifle that the sergeant is using when they are going into the bombed-out area.
  
  
• Continuity: Animal's aimless shots blow away parts of the "My Toan" sign, but it is later seen intact.
  
  
• Anachronisms: A modern communications tower is visible in a shot of a helicopter taking off after they enter the city and it is being strafed by the tanks. Occurs during the scene of them being filmed by the film crew while they are sitting down waiting for orders.
  
  
• Continuity: When Hartman discovers Private Pyle's unlocked footlocker and throws Pyle's belongings on the floor, the position of the thrown items changes between almost every shot.
  
  
• Continuity: When Hartman inspects Private Pyle's rifle, he opens the chamber twice.
  
  
• Factual errors: Throughout recruit training, Joker wears wire framed glasses instead of government issue glasses like Cowboy's (although it is true that recruits with special prescriptions may have to wait for spectacles to be supplied).
  
  
• Factual errors: On several occasions, the word "repeat" is used while speaking on the radio. In the Marine Corps, the use of the word "repeat" on the radio is reserved solely for talking to artillery units to request a repeat of the last fire mission. The term used would be: "say again your last" or "I say again."
  
  
• Continuity: Animal's ammunition belts change length and position between shots during the initial sniper confrontation.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: In most scenes, the movement of Animal's machine gun and the ejected casings indicate that he's holding down the trigger, but the sound indicates that he's firing short bursts.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In some full screen video versions of the film, during a long tracking shot as we follow the troops into battle a crew member dressed in jeans can be seen lying in the rubble.
  
  
• Continuity: Blood disappears from Cowboy's face after he is shot.
  
  
• Continuity: Prior to the killing of Cowboy, you see the hole that the sniper shot through is covered. The hole is removed after "Cowboy's peek".
  
  
• Continuity: When Animal Mother peeks out from the wall and the sniper takes her first shot at him, the squib in the wall (to simulate the bullet impact) goes off before the muzzle blast is seen.
  
  
• Continuity: The silhouette of the helicopter flying over the jungle's treetops shows a "Bell Jet Ranger", however "Joker" and "Rafterman" are sitting in a Sikorsky UH-34.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Joker is on fire watch (where he finds Pyle in the head) he's using a modern Mag-Lite brand flashlight, which didn't exist at the time.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Animal calls to Cowboy to bring the squad in and find the sniper, Rafterman turns to Cowboy and speaks a complete sentence, but the sound has been cut and replaced with a comment by Cowboy.
  
  
• Continuity: When the marines are training and going over the obstacle with the two bars, Joker goes first and Pyle goes next. But if you look behind Joker when he starts, Pyle is not the next marine in line.
  
  
• Continuity: When Hartman shuts off the lights for the first time in the barracks, he uses the four switches beside him. But when he enters to awaken the privates using the garbage can, he uses the single light switch outside the barracks room.
  
  
• Continuity: The mud on Pyle's back changes when he's trying to navigate the obstacle in which he has to go up the parallel bars.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When the men are running forward and singing "eskimo pussy is mighty cold" a crew members shadow is briefly visible in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.
  
  
• Continuity: When Joker and his photographer travel by helicopter to report on the action at the front, there are several exterior shots of the trees rushing by underneath them. During these shots, the helicopter's shadow reveals a different, newer helicopter.
  
  
• Continuity: The direction of the smoke from the burning buildings changes between shots in the ruins of Hue.
  
  
• Continuity: When Hartman is reading out the marine placements after the graduation march, several of the marines change positions between shots.
  
  
• Factual errors: At the conclusion of the Colonel's questioning of Pvt. Joker in front of the mass grave, the Colonel salutes Joker. Apart from being improper for a colonel to salute a Pfc., salutes are not rendered in a combat operations area, due to snipers actively seeking officers as targets.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When the Sergeant is talking to Pyle and he is laughing there is a 180 break. Its goes from over the Sergeant's left shoulder in one shot and in the next shot the camera is over Pyle's left shoulder.
  
  
• Continuity: When Rafterman shoots the sniper to save Joker, some blood goes on her face, but in the close up when she's dying, the blood is gone.
  
  
• Continuity: Pvt. Pyle sits down on the fourth toilet to shoot himself in the head. It's the one right from where the toilet paper is. In the close-up that follows he's on the third toilet, left from the paper holder.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Joker and Rafterman meet Lt.Touchdown, camera shadow is visible in the lower left, on the road where the tanks go by.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Joker is walking along the road with the platoon leader from Cowboys platoon, the jeeps that pass are GMC 353s of WW2 vintage and not the M35s used by the US in Vietnam.
  
  
• Continuity: When the helicopter lands with Joker and Rafterman, the door gunner is gone.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the scene where "Joker" and "Rafterman" are flying in the helicopter, and talking with the door gunner, the helicopter they are in is a Sikorsky UH-34. The UH-34 had an internal combustion engine mounted above the troop compartment. However, the sound made by the helicopter is clearly that of a type powered by a gas turbine motor.
  
  
• Continuity: When Private Pyle is on the firing range shooting at the targets, the sergeant in the background walks up, then bends at the waist checking on accuracy. The next scene is an over-the-shoulder shot of Private Pyle. The next scene shows the sergeant further away walking up to his location in the first scene.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The flak jackets worn by the characters were M1969 Fragmentation Vest, while USMC in Vietnam wore M1955 Jacket, with a rope ridge on right shoulder and plates of ballistic nylon visible in lower torso.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene with the prostitute, just before Rafterman gets his camera stolen, in the background you can see a busy road. But you can also see that it is the same 3-4 vehicles, going around in circles.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the "Eskimo pussy is mighty cold" running scene, the squad runs past a red on white Yield sign. At the time this movie is set the Yield signs were the black lettering and outline on a yellow background.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In one scene in the movie, Sgt. Hartman is telling recruits that "Today is Christmas" then begins telling them about Christmas services. During the running scenes throughout their training sequence along the camp roads and through the woods, you can see the trees and other vegetation are in full bloom. Since their training is 8 weeks long, even in South Carolina during the December and even November, the tree's and vegetation would be bare and the grass would be brownish and it would be cold enough that the soldiers would be wearing their field jackets. The movie appears to be set most likely in the Spring or Summer.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the scene where the camp is attacked (during the "Tet" offensive), Joker loads the M60 with the ammunition belt and fires the weapon. He never cocks it as he should have done for the weapon to be able to fire at all.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the sniper has been alerted to Joker's presence and is firing her Kalashnikov rifle at him, no shell casings are being ejected as would normally be the case.
  
  
• Continuity: When Sgt Hartman asks Private Joker if he believes in the Virgin Mary, he is holding a billy club. A few seconds later, he strikes Private Joker with an open hand, the same hand that held the billy club a moment earlier. But he never dropped the club.
  
  
• Continuity: When Sgt. Hartman confronts Joker over his John Wayne imitation, Cowboy's shirt front is crumpled from Sgt. Hartman's grabbing it. Cowboy is standing at attention. Just after Hartman strikes Joker, the shirt front is smooth again, even though Cowboy has not moved.
  
  
• Factual errors: Several times, when questioned by Sgt. Hartman, Private Pyle refers to himself in the First person ("Sir, I don't know sir!"). In the Marine Corps, it is against regulation to refer to oneself as "I", "You", or anything in the First or Second person; that is considered disrespect and referring to oneself as the entirety of the corps as one person. Pyle should have been disciplined for such responses, but was not.
  
  
• Factual errors: On the eve of the Tet Offensive, Joker should have in fact cocked the M60 twice, once to put a round in the weapon and a second time to make sure that the belt feeds through properly.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: During the beginning of the sniper scene Cowboy tells members of his squad that they're moving up to Animal Mother to kill the sniper. As they approach the camera follows them from behind, then switched to a side view scrolling along, about 5-8 seconds into this sequence a member of the crew can be seen ducking low.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the end credits for music listings, These Boots Are Made For Walkin' by Nancy Sinatra misspells the last word of the song title (as "Walking.")
  
  
• Factual errors: The chrome Nikon FTN that is stolen from Rasterman would NEVER have been used in VietNam. First, the FTN metering head would be useless in a dirty humid environment like that. Second a reflective chrome body would never be used in a war situation as it could give away the photographer's position. Third, a noisy SLR like a Nikon F would also never be used for the same reason.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): During the Range Training scene Hartman asks if anyone knows who Charles Whitman was. When confirming the answer from Cowboy that he was the UT Austin Sniper he says that "Charles Whitman killed twenty people from a twenty-eight-story observation tower at the University of Texas from distances up to four hundred yards." He actually killed 17 people and only 12 were shot from the tower, 2 were killed at his house the night before, and 3 were killed up in the tower.
  
  
• Continuity: In the first shot of the graduation from the Parris Island one can see tall trees and buildings in the background, but during the close shot there are only small trees with no buildings. It's because the first shot was an actual shot from the graduation and the second one was shot in London.
  
  

• Factual errors: SPOILER: When Pvt. Pyle shoots himself in the head, the safety on his M-14 is on.
  
  
• Factual errors: SPOILER: When Pvt. Pyle shoots himself, the M14 exhibits no muzzle flash and no smoke. It further showed no recoil.
  
  
• Continuity: SPOILER: When Touchdown is shot he lands with his rifle lying on the ground by his right hand. In the next shot, when members of his squad move in to tend to him there is no rifle to be seen.
  
  

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