Goofs for
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) More at IMDbPro »

• Revealing mistakes: When Chris is visiting the doctor who buys his last machine, the x-ray hanging in the background is upside down. The x-ray is of an abdomen. The pelvis and bladder should be at the bottom, it is at the top.
  
  
• Anachronisms: There are several references to "Pac Bell" (Pacific Bell) pensions. "Pac Bell" was one of the "baby bells" created by the court-ordered breakup of AT&T in 1984. Before that, the official name of the company was "The Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company." Anyone who retired before that would have a pension from Pac-Tell, not Pac-Bell.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Chris gets into the cab with Mr. Twistle, there is a UPS truck with the 2004 Livery painted on it. The film is set in 1981.
  
  

• Continuity: When Chris is chasing after Hippie Girl in the BART station, he looks from the gate area down to the train platform. Hippie Girl is standing next to a BART train that displays BART's "#1 Transit System in America" decal just to the left of the door. After he runs down to the platform and bangs on the closed door of the train, the decal is missing.
  
  
• Anachronisms: A BART car has a "#1 Transit System in America" decal. BART won that award in October 2004. The movie is set in 1981.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The original Rubik's cube did not have the logo on the center white square. This was added much later.
  
  
• Continuity: When Chris is in the cab with Mr. Twistle solving the Rubik's Cube, there is a decal for a local radio station (KMEL) on the cab window behind him in the interior shots, but there is no such decal in the exterior shot.
  
  
• Anachronisms: At Candlestick Park, there is a 49ers logo that was introduced in 1996.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In 1981, the seats in BART trains were tan, not blue.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The lettering and logo that appears on the Togo's cup that is seen when Chris is making cold calls during the internship did not appear until the late 1990s/early 2000s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Chris and little Chris are in the Glen Park BART station, a BART train is seen departing the system, with a "C" type car on the end (a cab car with a flat face rather than slanted). Such cars did not start operating on BART until the mid-'80s.
  
  
• Continuity: When Chris gets into the car after the football game, the bone scanner isn't in his lap. In the next shot, it is sitting on his lap.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At the subway, Christopher is sitting on the bench with his legs crossed, showing the soles of his sneakers. They are clean, as if they were brand-new.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When little Chris' mother carries him in the bedroom and puts him in bed, he is supposed to be asleep. However, he lifts both of his legs up to avoid the side of the bed.
  
  
• Continuity: When Chris and Christopher are collecting their stuff after being kicked out of the hotel room, Christopher picks up his basketball in a grocery bag. The next time he is seen, he is carrying a garbage bag.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In one scene, Chris enters the day care center to pick up his son, while the camera remains outside. The cameraman and camera are clearly visible in the window reflection.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The film opens in 1981 San Francisco. Will Smith's character's car is "booted" and towed away due to unpaid parking tickets. San Francisco began using the Denver Boot in the mid 1990's.
  
  
• Continuity: When Chris gets hit by the car, the momentum has him rolling forward. In the next scene, he is rolling to the left in the next lane.
  
  
• Continuity: Before Chris solves the Rubik's cube, he is talking to Jay Twistle on the sidewalk near the taxi. A man in a brown jacket and tie passes by, followed by a blonde in blue clothing. A few seconds later, they pass by again walking in the same direction. When Chris runs out of the building after saying he has learned to get his job done early to make it to the shelter in time, the same man and woman appear in the distance, walking together. Near the end of the movie, when Chris learns he got the job, he walks outside, into a crowd of people walking. One of the extras walking near Chris is the same blonde in the same blue clothing.
  
  
• Continuity: When Martin Frohm asks Chris to borrow $5 for the taxi, a red-headed woman in a burgundy jacket walks between the actors and the camera. The next shot shows her walking by again.
  
  
• Continuity: When Chris is admiring the stock broker in the red sports car, the stock broker parks his car several feet behind another car. The next shot from across the street, the red sports car is parked just a few inches behind the other car. In the next shot, back to the original location, there are several feet separating the two cars again.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The bright yellow platform edge warning system visible in all of the BART station scenes were not installed until 1987, long after the 1981 date of the movie.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the Gardner’s are leaving for the football game in Walter Ribbon's Mercedes, the license plate is for a truck, not a car.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In 1981, most of the buildings shown in the San Francisco Skyline shots were not completed yet.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The basketball given as a gift and later played with atop the building is from "Classic Sport" which did not start operations until 1993. In fact, the model of ball used was not introduced until 2000.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Chris and his son couldn't take a room at the shelter, a homeless guy hits a parking meter which moves just like it was made of rubber.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Chris Gardner was going to meet Walter Ribbon, Mr. Ribbon said he was going to watch the 49er game. The 49ers did not play in any Monday night games in 1981.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the movie, Chris Gardner wears a Timex Indigo watch. The Indigo was not introduced until 1988, well after the 1981 setting for the movie.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When the stock broker stops and exits his sports car we see it roll back as the handbrake hasn't been applied.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Chris is viewing Candlestick Park from the 'box seats', the camera pan shows glassed-in luxury boxes. Those were added in the 1990s, when Candlestick Park became 3Com Park.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The textbook given to Chris and the other interns is the 1988 edition of Graham and Dodd's Security Analysis, published well after the film's 1981 time frame.
  
  
• Factual errors: BART trains are designed not to operate if the doors of any train are obstructed. So in the scene where the train doors close on Chris Gardner's hand - and he refuses to let go of the bone scanner - the train departs while the doors are open partially; this would not actually happen.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The San Francisco MUNI all-glass bus shelters used in the movie were not built until the 1990s. Also, MUNI bus shelters did not have poster ads until the late '90s, however several scenes show large movie posters at the bus stops.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The son of Jay Twistle is wearing a red hooded 49ers Starter-brand parka. Starter did not design or sell this line of parkas until 1990.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Chris is having Mr. Frakesh's car moved to another location, there is a 1991 Honda Accord parking between the other cars. The film is set in 1981.
  
  
• Continuity: At the beginning of the film when Chris and Christopher are walking to daycare in one shot Christopher is carrying the basketball he receives later in the film in a plastic grocery bag. Thus he is carrying the ball before he actually received it. In following shots he is no longer holding the ball. Also, plastic grocery bags were not widely available in 1981.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene where Christopher has a scuffle with the taxi driver and tries to get his scanner back out of the taxi, he has opened the front door. But when the taxi driver grabs him and tries to pull him out of the taxi, all of a sudden they are on the car bonnet, then Christopher throws the taxi driver on to the taxi bonnet, in the same shot, the front door is closed again.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The tennis racket that the neighbor uses to beat his rug seems to be from 2002.
  
  
• Errors in geography: In the intro to the movie it shows a person walked from a subway station eating UTZ potato chips. UTZ chips are only available on the east coast and are not shipped to the west coast.
  
  

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