Audio/visual unsynchronised
Three muzzle flashes, one report! In the close-up of the quick-triggered soldier atop the tank turret, we see and hear him fire his pistol, but for the sharp-eyed, the wide-shot of the tank crew that follows, reveals the visible but silent muzzle flash of both soldiers' side arms.
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In one scene near the end, the sound of an airplane approaching can be heard, then there is a cut to another angle and the sound is absent.
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Character error
*Klaatu tells Professor Barnhardt that he was in room 309 of Walter Reed Hospital, but the number on his hospital room door is 306.
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As pointed out in an earlier Goof,
H.V. Kaltenborn refers to "the beautiful spring weather", while later on the tag on the suit Klaatu has "borrowed" shows the date 7-18-51. But Bobby at one point asks his mother if he has to go to school tomorrow, and later there's another reference to his being in school. Unless Bobby has been flunking out and is attending summer school, he would not be going to school in July.
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When Bobby is doing his math homework, Klaatu looks over his shoulder and says: "All you have to remember is, first find the common denominator, then divide." Division of fractions doesn't require a common denominator. In fact, the original script says "subtract". (However, Klaatu's method could work. e.g. To divide 1/3 by 1/4 find the common denominator and re-express as 4/12 divided by 3/12. Then simply divide the 4 by 3 to get the answer: 1 and 1/3. Ten out of ten for alien mathematics!)
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A colonel orders his troops to block off all streets intersecting Connecticut Avenue "along a line from Wisconsin to the park." Connecticut Avenue and Wisconsin Avenue do not intersect.
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Continuity
After the electricity is neutralized we see a motorcycle cop trying to start his motorcycle and the traffic light on the left side of the shot is lit.
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As Klaatu is descending the ramp from the spaceship, and makes it onto the grass, he reaches for the metallic device that could help mankind understand the other planets, and people. Once Klaatu clicks the device open, he's immediately shot and the device flies out of his hand as he collapses onto the ground. Although it looks as if the shot hits Klatuu's hand and device, the actual wound appears near his shoulder.
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In the side shot of Drew Pearson's telecast, the television camera trained on him is seen dollying back, but the image of Pearson in his monitor shows no such movement.
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Drew Pearson's desk doesn't have any pens on it when he starts his broadcast. There are two pens directly in front of him on the desk when the camera angle changes.
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During the montage shots of newspaper headlines during the hunt for Klaatu, a photograph shows him still standing on his ship holding out the viewing device which was shot out of his hand. During the earlier scene of his emergence from the saucer he didn't produce the device until leaving the ramp and approaching the onlookers.
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The broadcast with Drew Pearson shows the first angle from the side with no microphone shadow. When the angle switches to the front the microphone cast a shadow on his left side.
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Bobby's room is clearly shown to be at the top of the staircase, and Helen's room is down the hall. However, in the shot where Helen is seen getting her coat from her room to go out with Tom to the movies, the top of the staircase can be clearly seen just outside of her door when it should be down the hall and much farther away from her room.
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In the scenes showing the arrival of the military, Klaatu's injury and the eradication of the weapons, the shadows of the military equipment, spaceship and actors change radically. The first shadows shown of the tanks are long as if the time of day were either very early morning, or, more likely, late afternoon. Then Klaatu leaves the spaceship, he throws a fairly short shadow such as one showing within an hour or two of noon. The tanks and Gort also show the short shadows. When Gort starts to destroy the tanks and weapons the shadows are still indicating that it's perhaps 2pm. When he finishes, a few moments later, the shadows are long and drawn out, like they were at the beginning of the scene. In movie time, no more than 10-30 minutes has passed while the shadows say it's more like half a day.
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Errors in geography
In the World montage - after all the electricity goes out - all the shots are in daylight. A difficult feat since half of the world would be in darkness.
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When Helen and Klaatu are going to the professor's, the army states that their cab is heading northwest on Connecticut at Columbia Rd. The cab then passes under the Dupont Circle underpass on Connecticut AV. The underpass is south of Columbia Rd, not north. Also, if the professor lives near the State Department, they are going the wrong direction. The State Department offices are south of Columbia Rd.
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As the spaceship races across the world, scenes of successive radio announcers (or people listening to them) are shown, apparently in order of their broadcasts. When the BBC announcer in England is shown delivering his broadcast, the clock behind him reads 8:33 (p.m.). The next shot shows radio commentator
H.V. Kaltenborn doing his broadcast from Washington, D.C. The clock behind him reads 3:24. Since Washington is five hours behind London, and assuming the broadcasts were indeed shown in order, Kaltenborn's clock should have read no earlier than 3:33, and probably a minute or more later than that.
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Factual errors
While interrupting the worlds electricity would stop cars that run on gasoline, it would not effect diesel vehicles since their engines use compression to run and not an electrical spark.
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Just after Klaatu is shot and is in the hospital, he is visited by a government official. Klaatu states he has traveled "Five of your Earth months" and "250 million of your Earth miles". 250 million miles would put his starting point between Mars and Jupiter, depending on when you measure. At the far end of the scale, Mars itself can get 250 million miles from Earth.
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Klaatu states that he has traveled just over 250 million miles. That distance is well within the orbit of Jupiter. To cover that distance in five months would require a speed in access of Mach 91.
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Not all vehicles would have been stopped by the power outage. Diesel-engined vehicles, particularly at that time, don't need electricity to run. This would also explain why a boat can be seen moving in one shot.
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Miscellaneous
During the power outage,one of the scenes of a city avenue has in it a sign which is blinking.
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When Klaatu visits Dr. Barnhardt in the evening, there is a small piece of paper pinned to one side of the blackboard, the left side. On the paper is seen (briefly) "Do Not Erase". A few moments later in the same scene there is no paper pinned to the side of the blackboard. A few moments later in the same scene, the paper is back again, very briefly, only to have once again disappeared a few moments later.
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Bobby and Klaatu visit the grave of Bobby's dad. While still at Arlington National Cemetery, they decide to go to the movies that afternoon. That evening, back at the boarding house, Bobby tells his mom "we went to the movies, and got ice cream cones, and then we went to see Daddy".
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