Saving Private Ryan movie corrections

Private Caparzo: Captain, the decent thing to do would be take her over to the next town.

Captain John Miller: We're not here to do the decent thing, we're here to follow f*cking orders!

Mistakes

At the start of the movie on Omaha Beach, just before Tom Hanks and the others clear the fence with the big bombs, a man is shot and it ricochets off of his metal hat, but in the previous scene he can be see looking at Tom Hanks, in the following shot he is looking away towards the bunkers. See more...

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The "streaks" that appear in the film when fires or explosions are shown are deliberate. This is a phenomenon that would often appear in actual WWII combat photography and was intentionally emulated when the film was made. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

Saving Private Ryan (1998) - 92 corrections

Directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Adam Goldberg, Edward Burns, Matt Damon, Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Vin Diesel (add more)

Genres: Action, Drama, War

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.

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In the scene in the French village after the soldier attempting to rescue the girl is shot, where the German marksman is shown being shot through the scope is an impossibility. Modern higher powered rifles are unable to pierce a scope, let alone pierce directly through the scope and through the German's head. Also, a marksman on a battlefield, under stress, would never be able to place such an accurate shot. Sources: Mythbusters. [Many veterans mention such a shot being taken in memoirs written after the war. First-hand accounts by veterans would seem more definitive than a TV show that can only attempt to simulate a given situation. Further, its only impossible with a modern scope, the Mythbusters revisited the myth and found that it is in fact plausible with a period scope.]

Corrected by Tailkinker Time

At the beginning of the film, during the beach invasion and right after Miller comes out of his first little episode, watch behind the soldier who yells, "What the hell do we do now, sir?" When the camera is pointing at Miller, the same patch of water explodes three times. [The Germans dropped a lot of shells on Omaha beach that day. Everything was probably hit more than once.]

When Private Ryan and Captain Miller are in the situation where they no longer have ammo to fight back, Private Ryan comes up with the idea of using the "sixty rounds". They proceed to go through the process of pounding the tail end of the sixty rounds to create grenades to fight back the Germans. However on the last one that Captain Miller throws, it's clear that he has two grenades on his belt that he has not used. You would think he would have used the real grenades first before resulting to makeshift ones. [What they needed were bullets to fit their guns. They had none, so they used the bullets they had as makeshift grenades. No sense using the real ones until absolutely necessary.]

Time

It is a great irony that the cowardly soldier just happens to be named Upham. It is an unusual name and happens to be shared with Captain Charles Upham, a New Zealand soldier who, during WWII, was awarded the Victoria Cross twice. He is only the third person in history and the only combat soldier to receive the VC twice (the other two being medics). So the fictional Upham couldn't be more different to his real life namesake. [Without evidence that the choice of name was an intentional nod to the real-life Upham, this lies entirely within the realm of coincidence and, as such, is not valid trivia.]

Corrected by Tailkinker

When Caparzo gets shot you hear a dissonant chord on the piano instantly after the shot before he lands on it to create the rest. The only explanation for the sound would be the bullet deflected into the piano but that would only create two notes at most. [It was background music playing, not from the piano in the house.]

On D-Day itself only TWO German fighters actually attacked the beaches of Normandy (in total contradiction to Hitler's orders, who still thought of it as being a feint attack). The pilots were the aces Josef "Pips" Priller and Heinz Wodarczyk. [In what way is this trivia relating to the film? If the film shows more fighters, then it's a mistake, not trivia, if the film only shows one, then the other is presumably off camera, if the film shows the accurate two, then you're just pointing what's seen on screen (which isn't good trivia) and the background information isn't particularly film-relevant. Trivia is supposed to be about the film - while historical facts are interesting, thousands could be added about any historically set film. As such, they cannot be accepted as valid trivia.]

Corrected by Tailkinker

In the bunker scene we see much of the battle through Jackson's scope from his gun. So why is Jackson not sniping the Germans and instead rushing them with grenades? [Just before the attack on the radar station, when Jackson volunteers to attack, he switches rifles with Upham the interpreter, taking Upham's M-1 because of it's superior rate of fire, and therefore it is Upham who is watching, but not firing. He removes the scope from the rifle, and observes the battle with it.]

Before the final battle at Ramelle, the Jewish soldier is explaining to Upham what his upcoming duties are. He is to be "Johnny on the spot" with providing ammo to the different locations of soldiers set up around the town.Why not just equally divide up all the ammo amongst the soldiers? Is Upham really supposed to be a walking ammo-store for each group of soldiers? What if he gets shot? No ammo. [Just because you think that something should be done differently, it doesn't make it a mistake. To divide ammunition equally between the soldiers makes little sense if you don't know precisely where the enemy will attack from. With no backup supply available, those soldiers facing the assault could swiftly run out of ammunition, leaving them vulnerable, while those soldiers not facing the direct assault have a good supply of ammunition that's of no use. Far better to have a central supply that can be doled out as required, despite the inherent risks.]

Corrected by Tailkinker

Near the end of the final battle when Tom Hanks is lying wounded on the bridge, the weather is all dry and it's not raining at all. But when the reinforcements arrive and the camera moves to an overview shot revealing number of rangers and a jeep heading towards the bridge, it's miraculously started raining and the ground looks covered with puddles, as if it's rained for a long time already. Yet it never rains during the battle or anywhere near it. When it moves back to a closeup shot of Tom Hanks, it's dry again. The weather changes between dry and wet several times. [The wet ground is not caused by rain, it's caused by debris and large objects falling into the river, causing the water to splash up and onto the ground.]

At the start of the film at Omaha Beach, we see Tom Hanks coming out of the water and kneeling down in front of the steel frames in the sand. Then, when the guy starts talking to him, they are all back in the water again. [It could of been the water coming back up, they were on a beach, so it is probaly why they are back into the water.]

Time

When Miller and his men make it to the bunkers after d-day, there is a dead American, how could this be if Americans weren't there yet? [It was never implied that they where the very first soldiers to reach the bunkers, someone else could have gotten up there first, but was killed.]

Corrected by pross79

When Miller, and Ryan are in the ditch, Ryan states he's out of ammo, but in the next scene, he fires off another round. [Ryan is not including the rounds already in the gun. Basically telling Miller, "This is it!"]

Even given the disasterously inaccurate airdrops, the 101st Airborne landed 15 to 20 miles closer to Utah beach than to Omaha beach, where Miller and men came ashore. By the end of June 6, most of the 101st was scattered in pockets near Vierville, easily twenty miles west of Omaha but within a mile or two of the lead elements from Utah. So why would commanders in Washington or England order Omaha units, which had been badly mauled on D-Day, to slog so far out of their way to find Ryan? Units from Omaha would have had to cross four enemy-held rivers and pass through almost all of the German 84th Corps to come close to any significant group of U.S. paratroopers. [Despite the distance between Omaha and Vierville, the commanders would have thought it best to send a small squad of Army Rangers- troops better suited for these types of special operations missions- behind enemy lines rather than deploying regular Army units. The only Ranger battalions present on D-day were assigned to land at Omaha Beach and Point du Hoc, although those men were not relieved until two days after the attack and would have been unable to break away for a mission. Also, we do not know the timetable for the events portrayed in the movie, it could have been a few days after D-day when Captain Miller and his squad were dispatched behind enemy lines.]

When the door of the landing craft opens in the beginning of the film, a soldier is immediately shot in the head. As he goes down his eyes close, open, close. To notice it you have to look frame per frame. When he has his eyes open you see him check where he has to fall. [If you have to look frame-by-frame to see it then it's not a valid mistake.]

Corrected by Oliver Hunter

In the invasion scene and throughout the film, the sniper expert is shown to be a left-handed shot. When the squad moves off the beach and is chatting its way up a hill in the open, bunched up and exposed to instant attack, the sniper is strolling along carrying his rifle in the way that only a right-handed shot would carry it. This would render his sniper skills useless in a firefight. No left-handed firer would ever transfer his weapon to his right side, especially a sniper-trained expert, but this guy does, which is a major error. [When moving in groups it is standard to stagger each man's weapon. Most people are right-handed, but if everyone was pointing their weapon to the left and an attack came from the right that would not be good. To ensure both sides are covered adequately every other man points his rifle to the right, and the rest point theirs to the left. The sniper just happened to be in place in line to point his rifle to the left. The squad is doing the same thing when Upham is trying to talk to them right after he joins the squad. It is standard procedure.]

Corrected by Mobrien316

Before the final attack in the village, we can see a wall with an advertising for Byrrh, an aperitif drink made from a blend of wines. The ad reads: “Byrrh, l'ami de l'estomach,” which basically means: “Byrrh, stomach's friend.” In French, the correct spelling is “estomac.” not “estomach.” This is quite a big mistake since the ad and the building are three or four stories high. [I've seen similar typos in modern advertising; and they weren't hand painted. This, while certainly incorrect, is not a mistake.]

Corrected by Phixius

In the last battle when the two men throw bottles of wine on the tank it explodes, but when Jackson is sniping in the tower a couple of shots later the same tank explodes again and the Germans jump out of the tank. [It's not supposed to be in real time. The shot of Jackson is showing what happened up in his tower while the tank was exploding, not what happened after it exploded.]

In a scene on Omaha beach at the seawall, Cpt. Miller and Sgt. Horvath are arguing which route to take to get off the beach. A soldier behind Cpt. Miller grabs him and shouts directly into his face, "They're killing us and we don't have a [swearing] chance and that ain't fair." Midway through shouting this, the camera shot changes and the soldier is magically facing the opposite direction and not saying anything; yet what he was shouting at Miller continues. [When the shot changes Miller is blocking the screaming soldier's face. We cannot tell which way he is facing and we certainly can't tell whether or not his lips are moving.]

At the end of the movie, a soldier bends down and takes a piece of paper from Captain Miller. The soldier's helmet has a net on it, but then a far shot shows him wearing a plain helmet. [There is still net on the helmet, only since it's a far shot you have to look closely to see it. It is there though.]

In the scene where they have just stormed the bunker, and Wade is killed. They have been through the city, with all the rain and mud, along with many other experiences. While they are all standing around, debating, and arguing, look at the uniforms, they are practically brand new. Obviously, this must have been filmed first. The next scene, shows them finding private Ryan, and their uniforms are back, dirty and stained again from then on. [The movie was shot in chronological order, this scene was not filmed first. The uniforms are no cleaner here than they are in any other scene, only the sunlight makes them appear a bit brighter.]

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Saving Private Ryan (1998) - 92 corrections