Wild Wild West

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Wild Wild West Goofs/Mistakes

Movie Goof (continuity error): When Jim picks up the corset box with the pop out gun, the bullet is too big in diameter to fit the gun.
Movie Goof (continuity error): In one of the scenes when James West throws the "Knife Guy" from the spider you can plainly see the chain detach and fall. In the next scene you can see the chain still being pulled up and over. Later James West falls onto the knife guy and hangs there and he (Knife Guy) is magically reattached to the spider.
Movie Goof (continuity error): The spider on West's arm/hand.
Movie Goof (continuity error): Initially, the horse cart filled with nitro is facing the saloon, horses on the near side, when West is dangling over the edge of a ridge. Later, when Loveless detaches the cart from the horses, it is shown as facing away from the saloon with the horses on the far side.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): Loveless' wheeled vehicle was referred to as a tank, but the name "tank" for such a vehicle wasn't coined until the British used it as a cover name in the First World War.
Movie Goof (continuity error): Before Miss East is shot, her right earring pops in and out of her collar.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When Jim is being towed behind the train and the cable snaps, he is shown accelerating towards Loveless' train, but in reality he would have been traveling in the same direction.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When Artemus "hammers" West onto the pool table in the train you can see the felt flex as West lands on it. A slate top wouldn't flex, but the foam padding used to soften the landing would.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Gordon and West jump into the ravine and land in the mud, West's magnetic collar is almost completely covered with mud. In the next shot, the collars are completely clean, yet their clothes are still covered.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Jim gets on his horse at the White House, and Artie mounts his bike, he's on a black horse. When he is passed by Artie on the bike, it's a bay. When he's chasing the train, he's on his black horse again.
Movie Goof (continuity error): The second time the Golden Spike bounces out of the hole in the sleeper at Promontary Point, it falls to the right. When the dignitary picks it up again to put it back in the hole, he picks it up from the left.
Movie Goof (continuity error): A track bend disappears after the first shot of the tank.
Movie Goof (factual errors): The collar magnets, high powered as they were, should have either attracted or repelled each other from the beginning. After Gordon hits West's collar with the rock, West's collar "reverses" polarity, causing it to attract to Gordon's. However, if there was a complete reversal as is implied, Gordon and West's collars should have repelled each other from the beginning. Therefore, Gordon and West should never have been able to jump into each other's arms, let alone stand next to each other in the small perimeter afforded them when they first woke with the collars.
Movie Goof (continuity error): On the train when Rita comes in to say goodnight to Jim and Artemus, Jim is reclining on the couch with his hands behind his head. When he says goodnight to Rita, he takes his hat off. In the next shot, his hands are behind his head again.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): As the "tank" rolls up the riverbank (just before it massacred the Southern troops), you can see the "steel plating" bounce as if made of much lighter material and not soldered/welded on at all.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): Grant's fake beard glue is obvious in a close up at the spike driving ceremony.
Movie Goof (factual errors): It's unlikely that McGrath would have been hypnotized so quickly.
Movie Goof (factual errors): When the Golden Spike was driven, the two trains (Union Pacific's No. 119 and Central Pacific's "Jupiter") were brought together, with only the width of a single tie separating them. In the movie, there is clearly a lot of room between them.
Movie Goof (factual errors): When Jim and Artie are running though the field from the high power magnets, the corn is at least 5-6 feet tall. We are to assume this movie takes place in May. Corn never gets that tall until at least July-August.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When pursuing Loveless' train, as James and Artemus' train approaches the end of the tunnel, the girders holding up Loveless' train are not visible. As soon as the train leaves the tunnel, the girders can be seen on either side of the track immediately at the end of the tunnel.
Movie Goof (factual errors): In the movie, President Grant establishes the Secret Service in 1869, to protect the President. In reality, the Secret Service was founded in 1865, to fight counterfeiters. The agency started acting as Presidential bodyguards after the 1901 assassination of President McKinley.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When Jim grabs onto the rope during the hanging, the brief overhead shot reveals the much thinner stunt safety line running next to the rope.
Movie Goof (factual errors): The Golden Spike was actually 3 separate spikes: a gold spike from California, a silver spike from Nevada, and a gold/silver/iron alloy spike from Arizona. It was presented, but never driven into the roadbed. Some accounts say it was driven in and immediately removed.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): When Grant drives the stake in at the railroad ceremony, there is a clear shot of the flag in the background with 50 stars. From 1867-1877, the US flag had 37 stars.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): While Gordon, and West are heading to catch the President's train (The Wanderer), modern day street lights are visible in the background. Including one just as Gordon passes West on his bike.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Loveless and James West are hanging from the spider while the wheelchair supports their weight, there are several shots of Loveless' wheelchair release lever. The first shot shows no hands on the lever. The next shot shows Loveless' hand on the lever. The next shot shows no hand on the lever. The next shot shows James West's hand on top of Loveless' hand on the lever.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): Much of the slang was not used in that time.
Movie Goof (continuity error): At the film's beginning, after the scientist is beheaded by General McGrath's flying sawblade, the General picks the blade up and it is shown briefly with blood on just one section of it. In reality, after having beheaded the scientist, the blade would have a trail of blood around its entire circumference, as it was spinning at the time.
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): James West left his black horse behind when he first boarded the moving train and has it later. While normally a train would have to stop to board a horse, it's quite possible the train has, as it does in the series, a corral designed to board horses while the train is in motion.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Jim mounts the spider first time, and when he falls down, he wears laced leather pants - but never before or after during the whole movie (without a realistic chance to change clothes).
Movie Goof (continuity error): When West and Gordon are walking in the desert with the collars around their necks, the dirt on their clothing changes between shots.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): West, Gordon, and President Grant are shown in the Oval Office, which was first constructed during the Taft Administration in 1909.
Movie Goof (continuity error): In the first scene on the train, pushing the button at the back of the car led to a hammer coming down and the pool table turning over; the second time when West tells Artemis to push the button, it is obvious that no hammer came down. The button should have done the same thing both times.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Loveless and James West fall from the spider, James is able to slide down a chain and the body of the 'knife guy' he killed earlier. When he stops himself, he is seen holding the person's right leg with both hands. The next time he is seen, James is holding a leg in each hand.
Movie Goof (errors made by characters, possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Dr. Loveless claims he lost 35 feet of small intestine. The large and small intestine combined are less than 30 feet long.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Gordon projects Prof. Thadeus Morton's last conscious image, Morton's head is seen to be rotated clockwise, but the projected image turns opposite to what it should.
Movie Goof (continuity error): West strangles one of the machine room fighters with a chain, then throws him out the door. The chain's end is visibly loose. When West and Loveless fall, West grabs on to the man, who is now hanging by his chain from the spider.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Gordon and West are having the argument in the valley, their magnetic collars are in different positions from shot to shot.
Movie Goof (factual errors): Officials of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads drove in the final spikes, not President Grant.
Movie Goof (factual errors): If the magnetic collar rings are strong enough to drag Artemus along the desert toward a railroad, then he would never have the strength to separate himself from James West.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): As West rides down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House in 1869, 20th-century overhang highway lights are visible behind the trees in the background.
Movie Goof (errors in geography): At the end of the movie, West and Artemis are heading back to DC from Utah, which means heading east. However, they travel toward the sunset, which is to the west.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Artemus and Rita arrive at the massacre, the horse drawing their carriage is centered when seen from above. Before and after that, it is located to one side as the other horse drawing the carriage was ridden off by West.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Artemus fires on Loveless' hydraulics (while Loveless is "stomping" on Jim with his mechanical "legs"), Loveless looks down and we see quite a bit of fluid squirting out of the mechanism. In the next scene, as Loveless' "legs" fail and he sinks to the floor, there is no indication anywhere of the fluid.
Movie Goof (continuity error): The size of the spider is extremely inconsistent. Sometimes is as big as a city, others it's only 2 stories tall.
Movie Goof (factual errors): In the first panoramic shot of Washington, D.C., the dome of the Capitol is still under construction during the administration of President U.S. Grant, after the Civil War. The dome was completed in 1864, in time for the second Lincoln inauguration in March 1865.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Jim is trying to talk his way out of the hanging, the wide shots show him with the noose around his neck, somewhat restricting his movement. Close-up shots show him not only without the noose around his neck, but also standing freely, even casually gesturing.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When Grant is driving the stake in at the railroad ceremony, the brand new railroad has very old, weathered sleepers (the wooden part between the rails).
Movie Goof (continuity error): The same grocery store can plainly be seen burning in the old village and, in the next scene, getting blown up for the second time.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): The movie is set in 1869 when the transcontinental railroad was completed. But on the train, Artemis is seen next to a cylinder phonograph with a horn for sound. Edison didn't invent the phonograph until 1877 and it was not marketed to the public until the late 1880s. The type shown looks like the type sold in the 1890s.