- Errors in geography: George and Grover are supposedly driving east into Kansas City, yet the sun is seen to rise behind them.
- Revealing mistakes: Just after George shoots Reace with the spear gun, he ends up leaving the train by a train signal pole. When the pole swings around, the ground under George is undisturbed. In the close up, just before George drops from the signal to the ground, the ground has been disturbed where it is obvious that it has been landed on at least once before.
- Errors in geography: As George and Grover arrive in "Kansas City," a long shot of the city clearly shows the Calgary Tower, a unique and unmistakable landmark with no equivalent in Kansas City.
- Factual errors: Bob Sweet tells George Caldwell that the train will stop in Kansas City, Kansas. Trains going to or through Kansas City stop in Kansas City, Missouri, not Kansas City, Kansas.
- Crew or equipment visible: Camera crew reflected in the windows of a train station as the train pulls away.
- Errors in geography: The train was supposed to be traveling through the American Midwest. Filming was done in Alberta Canada and in one scene the train passes a small town with a grain elevator which is plainly marked "Alberta Wheat Pool".
- Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Reace fires two or three shots at Caldwell in the train corridor, the sound effect is that of a silenced gun. However, both before he shoots and after, he can be seen to be holding a long-barreled revolver with no silencer.
- Continuity: Although the scenes where Grover is disguising George take place a men's room, they appear to leave a ladies' room.
- Continuity: An exasperated Chief Donaldson warns the assistant controller of an impending crash at the fictional "Central Station" in Chicago - however, in several crowd shots, a sign reading "Union Station Menswear" is plainly visible.
- Continuity: When Grover applies shoe polish to George, the point of view over George's back clearly shows Grover touching George's forehead with the polish. But in the next shot showing George's face, there is no polish on his forehead.
- Continuity: While the characters are supposedly hanging out the right side of the train, attempting to uncouple two cars, they are not visible in a helicopter shot showing the train entering the yard.
- Audio/visual unsynchronized: The gun Reese uses has no silencer, but we hear "silenced" shots.
- Crew or equipment visible: Towards the end of the film, you can see a reflection of the crew pushing the train as it "leaves" the station.
- Factual errors: It's completely inconceivable that Donaldson would have given George a gun. Law enforcement would *never* give a civilian a gun.
- Revealing mistakes: Obvious stunt double when Bob climbs up to the top of the train with George to retrieve the part of the professor's clothing.
- Continuity: As the train enters the station after the cars have been uncoupled, it crosses all the way to the right hand side and enters the station on the last approach track, but when it cuts to the next two shots tracks even further to the right of the train are visible.
- Continuity: When George and Sweet are heading to get the Rembrandt letters, the train is shown in snow-covered scenery, yet it is summer in the rest of the shots.
- Continuity: When Devereau is leaning out of the locomotive and about to be beheaded, in the last shot of the engine heading toward him, you can see the two Silver Streak locomotives already passing.
- Continuity: Early in the movie, George ducks into Devereau's room for a moment to avoid the fat man coming down the hallway. However, we never see the fat man pass by before George leaves.
- Continuity: When Grover (dressed as a porter) comes into Roger's stateroom to serve coffee, he pulls a revolver and initially holds it in his left hand, but in a close-up it is seen in his right and then back to his left in the next medium shot.
- Continuity: When Grover first says goodbye to George in the Police station, the buttons at the top of his shirt open and close between shots.
- Errors in geography: This movie is presented as being set in the United States. Towards the end of the movie, the train is about to crash into the fictional "Central Station" in Chicago. When the assistant controller, Jerry Jarvis, is running through the station looking for his boss, he stops to ask a janitor who is polishing a piece of marble clearly marked "GO Transit". GO Transit is Ontario, Canada's interregional public transit system.
- Revealing mistakes: When Johnson smashes out the window on the train while it's moving, no wind blows in his face.
- Revealing mistakes: During one of his later conversations with Bob Sweet on the train, George Caldwell lights a cigarette. The cigarette catches on fire like a lit match, and George quickly extinguishes it off-screen and immediately lights another. George (Gene Wilder) and Bob (Ned Beatty) are both obviously alarmed about the cigarette, yet continue the scene without missing a beat.
- Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Bob Sweet mentions the OK Corral when he talks of arresting Devereau in Dodge City, KS. That legendary gunfight involving Wyatt Earp happened in Tombstone, AZ. Not Dodge City, KS.
- Revealing mistakes: When George finds Grover and swerves the car, the background moves much less than what the swerving steering wheel and screeching tires convey.
- Continuity: When George is dealing with Sheriff Chauncey, the gun is first seen on the tv with other items, but the next time it is seen, the top of the tv is empty except for the gun.
- Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The porter claims the locomotives are not accessible from inside the train. FP7 diesels (and similar streamlined units) were equipped with access hatches in the front and rear. It is unlikely that a railroad employee who regularly works on passenger trains would not have known this.
- Revealing mistakes: Obvious stunt-double for Gene Wilder when his character is on top of the train.
- Factual errors: Whenever train cars become uncoupled, the air brake hoses become separated and the break in the train's air line would cause an automatic "dump" of the air pressure. This is a safety feature that would cause the engines and all the cars to go into full emergency brake applications and come to an abrupt halt, preventing the train's final dramatic crash.
- Continuity: When in the engine cab Deveroux shoots the engineer and he falls out of the cab. But later when Deveroux is shooting at the chopper, the bottom of the engineer's shirt can be seen in the driver's seat in the cab, along with a brief silhouette of a man sitting in the cab seat.
- Revealing mistakes: After stealing the car from the lot in Kansas City, it's obvious that the background behind George and Grover is a backdrop screen like the ones used in movies during the 1940s. The scene is clearly shot inside a studio.
- Errors in geography: The train is shown entering "Central Station" in Chicago. By 1976, Central Station had been torn down. The station used in the movie for those scenes was Chicago and North Western Station and train-shed. All the way up to the bumping post is the far West track in the old CNW station. Great shots of the old CNW-style signals are seen as well. Also, "Rockdale" is on the old Rock Island main line to the SOUTH side of Chicago, so if they had been coming in to a Chicago Station, it should have been La Salle St. Station. The only correct Chicago 'Tower" scenes were when Jerry Jarvis is on the telephone with the cop, you can see BN railroad switchers doing station work at "Union Station" in Chicago, where the "Am Road" train should have been going.
- Continuity: When Deveroux steps on Whiney's hands in the engine there are two other sets of tracks looking out of the engine, but when Whiney falls there are no other tracks.
- Continuity: when deveroux is hanging out the engine the cab door is obviously open but as the train is going along the cab door is closed then at the station when the people are looking at the engine the cab door is open.
- Revealing mistakes: When Roger turns on Whiney and kicks him off the train, Whiney's stunt double can be seen when he falls.
- Errors in geography: In the beginning of the movie as the train is pulling out of Los Angeles one of the city buildings in the background has a sign on it that reads "National Trust" - a company located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
- Continuity: in the scene where George has uncoupled the train cars at first when Grover jumps, there is clear track on the other side of the train, but when George jumps there is a line of train cars on the track. In the next shot, where the camera is looking directly back to Grover, all the tracks on the right of the scene are clear.
- Errors in geography: All of the night scenes of the train show saguaro cacti, which grow only in southern Arizona, even though the train supposedly passes far to the north through Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Denver and Kansas City on its way to Chicago.
>>> 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.
- Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: There is clearly too much space between the passing trains for Devereaux to be hit by sticking his head out of one of them as he is shown doing.
- Continuity: SPOILER: After Devereaux is shot, the door to the engineer's cabin is open. Subsequent external shots of the engine show the door closed.
- Continuity: SPOILER: When Devereau is leaning out of the locomotive and about to be beheaded, in the shot of his face reacting to his impending doom, you can see that there is no track next to the Silver Streak that this oncoming train is supposedly on.
- Continuity: SPOILER: Before George exits the toilets at the station, he is not wearing gloves because they are still on the sink shelf and he leaves without them. When he comes to join Grover, he is now wearing the gloves and didn't have time to go back for them because the music is heard from the radio almost straight away
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