Goofs for
Twelve Monkeys (1995) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: The bear is lit by a flashlight before Cole picks the flashlight up.
  
  
• Continuity: The blood (not) on Cole's hand when he goes to touch Dr Railly's face.
  
  
• Continuity: Cole's watch reads 9:30 before he walks around a corner, and 8:55 after.
  
  

• Continuity: When James Cole returns from his first trip to the past and is in his cell, he no longer has the bloody wound on his head that he received from his scuffle with the police in 1990. However, when he is being debriefed by the scientists in the next scene, the head wound is back.
  
  
• Continuity: The steering wheel in the taxi.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Kathryn is driving the stolen Jaguar, she goes through a long curve in the road - as seen through the rear window - but she does not turn the steering wheel accordingly.
  
  
• Continuity: The bandage on Cole's neck reattaches itself.
  
  
• Continuity: When Dr. Railly first interviews Cole, the long trail of drool coming from his mouth disappears and reappears between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When Dr. Leland Goines is tied up in the van and blindfolded with the biohazard ribbon, the ropes he is tied up with disappear and reappear between shots. Also in the final close-up a magnifying glass appears in his jacket pocket. Also the tape moves from his forehead to his hair and back again in every shot
  
  
• Factual errors: When Cole is lying under the Land Rover outside the party for Dr. Goines, the front license plate is from Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has not used front license plates in over 30-40 years.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Dr. Railly is tied to the bed in the motel, her bonds are clearly not very secure. In her struggles, she very nearly frees her right foot, by accident.
  
  
• Continuity: The television in the sanitarium announces that the featured picture is the Marx Brothers' Monkey Business (1931), but the clip they show is from their first film, believed to have been removed, and replaced with; The Cocoanuts (1929).
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the first surface scene, the bear shot is reversed and, thus, it manages to completely inhale the condensation of its breath.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The scientists of the future should already have had Cole's last message from the airport before they sent him. They played back Dr. Railly's message "before" she had left it in the chronology of the movie, so they could also have had from the beginning all messages that anyone would leave on the secret machine at any time. However, the scientists explain that the process is very time consuming ("one word at a time") and that they had only deciphered Dr. Railly's message a few days ago, so they might not have gotten Cole's message yet.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When in the car in 1996 and Cole asks for more music, the switching from station to station is the sound of an analog radio dial (fade out of one station, fade in to the next), whereas the radio being used is a digital direct-tune type. This is likely intentional on the part of the filmmakers as Terry Gilliam frequently places "retro" technology alongside or inside the modern.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When James and Kathryn are in the stolen car driving on the highway, the shadows on the car and the reflections in its windows don't match with the blue screened background.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The gun given to Cole by Jose in the airport is a black powder revolver, but without the percussion caps necessary to fire it. It also is not loaded when Cole tries to shoot Dr. Peters with it.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The spider James Cole eats is a Golden Orb Weaver or Banana Spider (Nephila Clavipes). However, that spider inhabits southern regions of the US (mainly Florida), and would never be found in cities in a northern climate like Boston.
  
  
• Factual errors: The scene in the department store with the tall indoor glass ceilings (shown both in "good" shape and later "ruined"), occurs in the Grand Court at the old Wanamakers store. In later November, the court would have been fully decorated for Christmas, including the traditional light show, which fully takes up one whole wall of the court. This scene was clearly shot beyond the Christmas season.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When listening to the car radio for the first time, Coles asks for the radio to be turned up; the change in display on the digital radio shows that Railly actually changes station instead of turning up the volume.
  
  

Related Links