- Continuity: In one of the earlier scenes of the movie, Alfred and Robert are seen in the dressing room after one of their performances together. Robert puts on a brown vest and crosses the room, and in the next shot he is seen pulling it on over his shoulders once again.
- Continuity: When Angier puts on his vest he buttons it up while talking to Julia then the shot switches. After it goes back to him he is buttoning up his vest again.
- Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Borden mentions that a "penny" could be slipped into the barrel of the pistol used for the bullet catch trick. English pennies of this period were substantial and wide, much wider than the barrel of the pistol being used by Borden could accommodate.
- Continuity: As Angier is walking towards the box in Tesla's empty room, you notice the hotel manager deliberately bring his hands from behind his back to his front. In the next shot, taken from behind, his hands are behind him again.
- Continuity: In the scene when Angier first meets Alley, Angier is getting up after being shocked by the fence, and his watch falls out of his pocket. In the next shot, the watch is in his pocket again.
- Anachronisms: During the magic show where Alfred meets Sarah for the first time, on both sides of the stage there are statues looking exactly like the two guardian statues found in King Tutankhamen's tomb, but the tomb was not discovered until 1922.
- Continuity: After the double gives the "show" he takes out a drink while Angier is walking up the stairs, then he brings the drink to his side and as the camera angle switches he brings up two hands without the drink.
- Errors in geography: When Angier is walking up the mountain to Tesla's work area, the trees are wrong. Foliage like that does not grow on the mountains in Colorado. And if it did, there wouldn't be leaves.
- Continuity: When Borden and Olivia are speaking in Borden's workshop, Borden keeps switching between shots from leaning back with his arms crossed to leaning forward with his hands on the table.
- Continuity: When Julia frees herself from a cage full of water, only her hair is wet, but her clothes are dry.
- Anachronisms: During the two scenes in which Jackman and Caine discover playing cards attached to the bottom of their pint glasses, the glasses they are drinking from are 'Nonic' glasses. These were designed in the 1960s to protect straight glasses from nicks and cracks when cleaned in automatic dishwashers.
- Plot holes: When Angier first goes up the mountain and fails to meet Tesla, he instead encounters Alley. Alley recognizes him as "The Great d'Anton" whom he saw seven times in London. At the end of the encounter he says "I'm sorry Mr. Angier." How does he know d'Anton's real name? Angier didn't introduce himself.
>>> 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.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: SPOILER: While both Julia and Angier's clone appear to die very quickly from drowning, there is a noticeable cut during the scenes which would suggest enough time has passed for them to drown. This is especially apparent during Julia's death because before the curtain was pulled back, considerable time had passed on Cutter's watch. Also at first she is banging on the glass and then the scene cuts and she is floating lifelessly showing that a few minutes has probably passed even though we didn't see it. It is also worthy to note that modern resuscitation techniques did not exist/were not common place during this period, so even after a relatively short time death could be inevitable.
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