Full Metal Jacket movie corrections

In the scene where the tanks are moving into the city with the Marines i.e. after meeting Private Cowboy, Animal Mother and the rest, they run into a firefight. When they stop shooting and are reloading watch the leader's ammo clip. It's missing in one shot of him, in the next he's ejecting the magazine and putting in a fresh one before shooting the two Vietnamese with it. See more...

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The Vietnam scenes were shot in England. Kubrick had full-grown palm trees planted for those scenes. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

Full Metal Jacket (1987) - 22 corrections

Directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Adam Baldwin, Arliss Howard, Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio (add more)

Genres: Action, Drama, Thriller, 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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When Cowboy's platoon commander is hit by shell fragments while walking behind the tank, focus your attention on the commander's back. You will notice that the light from the explosion is reflected onto his back, but the explosion was in front of him. [This is not a reflection on his back, but a 'lens flare' within the camera lens, similar to the light flares you'll see at night when headlights are moving left-to-right and a mirrored and flipped version of the lights travels right-to-left.]

Corrected by John W Rosa

When Pyle is sleeping, his covers are all rumpled and down past his waist. When the guy has the strap in his mouth a few seconds later, he is tucked in snug as a bug. Kinda hard to miss. [That's because at the same time the gag is placed in Pyle's mouth, two other Marines are clearly shown grabbing his covers and pulling down on them hard, effectibvely "tying" Pyle to the bed and preventing him curling up to protect himself.]

Corrected by Twotall

During the scene when Sgt. Hartman is asking Private Pyle if he knows the difference between his left and his right, keep an eye on the soldier behind Pyle. When Hartman slaps Pyles hat off you can see the recruit behind him trying not to laugh. [A character trying not to laugh, especially in those circumstances would be a character mistake. Not a mistake, not trivia.]

During the scene where 8-Ball is shot by the Vietnamese sniper, the entire platoon opens fire after 8-Ball is hit the first time. Among the platoon is a Marine firing an M72 LAWS rocket. In several frames, you can see the top portion of the powder bag used for the muzzle flash and back-blast effects sitting inside the tube. [To be precise, you can see it in two frames, if you use freeze frame. According to the rules of this site, this invalidates the mistake.]

In the scene in when Sgt. Joker, Animal Mother and the other Marines are outside in the ruins at twilight time getting ready for the final assault on the sniper, you can see their breath in the cold night air when the speak. Obviously this scene was filmed in a cooler climate, as this would not happen in Vietnam. [You don't always have to be in cold air to see someone's breath. If the humidity conditions are right you can see someone's breathe when it is very warm.]

Corrected by pross79

Gunnery Sergeant Hartman enters the room yelling reveille. The first thing recruits always do is "count off." This is the same as in a prison/jail to make sure no one is missing. [This may be an individual DI's thing, because we never counted off until we ran out the barracks door for formation, which was after we dressed and made our racks.]

In the scene where Pyle shoots himself, the back of his head splatters against the tiles, implying that the bullet has exited his head. No tiles were broken - one would assume that the bullet would have caused some damage. [The bullet's trajectory isn't always the same exiting as it was entering. Even if the human matter does come out at the same angle as the bullet went in, the bullet may well be deflected in a wildly different direction when it strikes the last bit of bone on its way out. It may even be lodged in the ceiling, having never contacted the wall.]

Corrected by John W Rosa Time

In the scene with the sniper, Cowboy radios for tank support. At the end of this he says "Over and out". This is incorrect, as "over" means "message end, reply expected" and "out" means "message end, do not reply". I notice this in many war films or programmes. [Cowboy makes two statements using the radio, ending both with 'over'. When the person on the other end answers Cowboy's query, Cowboy finishes with 'Roger. Out,' which is perfectly acceptable use of terminology ('roger' is confirming that he understood, 'out' ends the conversation). He never says 'over and out' anywhere in the scene.]

Corrected by John W Rosa

In the Marine Corps, none of the men would have had any duty (including fire watch) the night of their graduation day. Also, never is any live ammunition allowed into the barracks (they count every cartridge at the firing range). [I had fire watch on graduation night. Plus, I personally saw one instance where a recruit got hold of live ammunition and brought it back to the squad bay, with the intent to kill himself. While the firing range is very cautious of these things, there is other ammunition to be had elsewhere. In this case, while on a work detail this recruit found a full magazine in an NCO's desk.]

We find out at the end of the movie that the sniper is a young girl, but earlier when the first shot is taken at Eightball, you can see the sniper's fingers on the fore end of the rifle - they appear to be an adult male's fingers. [Its possible that a different sniper took out Eightball.]

Time

In the scene where Joker and Rafterman are at the mass grave site in Vietnam, a colonel walks over and questions Joker about the writing on his helmet and about his peace sign. When the colonel is done and is about to walk away, the colonel salutes first. This is wrong because enlisted personnel always salute officers first. [This one is pretty iffy. While that is the general rule, an officer can always elect to salute first, usually as a sign of respect for the enlisted man. The colonel chastises joker at first, then tries to re-motivate him, by suggesting that he join the Hue city offensive. He even flat out says that all he expect from his marines is that they do everything that he says. Joker is pretty smart about it, and agrees to everything the colonel says, so I can see it's possible that the colonel would salute him; sort of saying "way to go marine, thats what I like to hear!", trying to keep his spirits high in an effort to motivate him.]

In the scene in boot camp where Joker is teaching Pile how to lace has boots, he tells Pile to lace them left over right then right over left. As a former marine i can tell you marines are taught to lace their boots left over right then left over right throughout the entire lacing. [As another former marine, I can never recall ever getting any explicit instructions on how the laces were supposed to be tied. As long as they were tied, that seemed to be fine enough.]

In the scene in boot camp where Joker is teaching Pile to make his bed, he tells Pile to fold his blanket and sheet back with a 4 inch fold. As a former Marine I can tell you this is wrong. Marines are taught to make their beds with a 6 inch fold. [As another former marine, I can say that the bed folding procedure varies from place to place. In boot camp, I recall one drill instructor in our platoon would always tell us 4 inches, and another would always tell us 6 (this caused quite a bit of confusion, and was probably intentional). I can even recall seeing another platoon's squad bay, where they weren't even required to make a fold, they simply drapped another blanket over the pillow and the regularly exposed portion of the sheets.]

When Private Joker and Rafterman are interviewing Lt. Cleves in front of the row of dead Vietnamese covered with lye, Private Joker introduces himself as "Sergeant" Joker. [There's a large gap of time that isn't accounted for between the first bootcamp segment of the film, and the later vietnam segment. It appears to be at least three or four years, obviously Joker earned some promotions between that time.]

R. Lee Ermey was an actual Marine Vietnam veteran, but never a drill instructor. He drew upon the DIs he met during basic training in performing his role. [This is just flat out false. R. Lee Ermey definitely was a drill instructor. He only served as one tour of duty as one, and never attained the position of senior drill instructor as shown in the film, but he was one.]

Sgt. Hartman's hat appears to change colour several times during the first half of the movie. At times it is olive drab, at others it is a darker brown shade. [It's the same hat, but the lighting makes it look different colors. Drill Instructors are also issued 3 covers upon graduating DI School. There are also different manufacturers of those covers. They don't wear the same ones every day.]

At the start of the film Private Joker states that he does not believe in Jesus, The Virgin Mary and God etc. Then later on in the film we see him singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Surely if he did not believe in him, then he would not sing happy birthday to him. [I doubt seriously that Drill Instructor Hartman cared whether he believed in it or not, he told them to sing and when the DI tells you to jump, you jump.]

Corrected by Grumpy Scot

In the scene where Gunnery Sergeant Hartman wakes everyone up with the trashcan, he is followed closely by two other drill instructors. If you pause it just right, you will notice that one of them is a Corporal (E-4, 2 stripes), you have to be at least a Sergeant (E-5, 3 stripes) to be a drill instructor. [As a marine of the Vietnam era, E-4 Cpls were drill instructors and still are. During WWII E-2 PFCs' served as drill instructors.]

Time

When Crazy gets killed by a bobby trap, Joker enters from the left and puts his gun down. When he is leaving to the right he picks up the wrong gun. His gun was the gun to the left and he picks up the gun to the right. [Yes, Joker enters from the left, but we never see him put his gun down. If he never puts his gun down, then he can't pick up the wrong gun. Also, it never shows him starting to leave. It just cuts away while he is squatting next to Crazy.]

Time

In the second scene when Sgt. Hartman is giving his speech and walking around the room, you can see that the beds are made very sloppily. Basic training bunks are made "tight, neat, and wrinkle free." These were not. [This scene takes place at the very beginning of boot camp. The privates would not be very good at making their beds yet. Beds that are not tight and have wrinkles in them would be very common at this point in boot camp.]

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Full Metal Jacket (1987) - 22 corrections

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