Goofs for
The Godfather: Part II (1974)

photos

board

trailer

details

• Anachronisms: The American flags visible in the 1917 street carnival should have 48 stars, not 50.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Vito Andolini's mother hugs the dead Paolo, he moves his hand. Before she reaches Paolo, he can be seen breathing.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: During the Cuban rebel uprising scene, a store is looted while Michael Corleone makes his escape. Something is stuck to the camera lens and can be seen as a silhouette on the screen.
  
  

• Revealing mistakes: The supposedly dead prostitute can be seen breathing by the movement of the white sheets.
  
  
• Continuity: In Havana, when Fredo and Michael are talking around a table in the bar, a lit cigarette appears suddenly in the Fredo's previously empty right hand.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Vito shoots Fanucci in the chest, a small puff of smoke can be seen from the squib.
  
  
• Continuity: When Michael returns from Las Vegas after Christmas, he is carrying a briefcase in one hand, and nothing in the other hand. As he walks into the house, he's holding the briefcase in one hand and a lit cigarette in the other.
  
  
• Continuity: Shortly after the assassination attempt on Michael in his bedroom, he meets alone in a room with Tom Hagen. They sit at an empty table. After talking for a few minutes, Michael offers Tom a glass of Courvoisier, from a bottle which has randomly materialized on the table.
  
  
• Plot holes: After Vito kills Fanucci, he holds his baby Michael in his arms. Vito killed Fanucci in 1919, and Michael was born in 1920.
  
  
• Continuity: After Vito Corleone kills Don Fanucci and is sitting on the steps with his family, Fredo can be seen yawning; however, when we cut to a shot of Vito holding Michael, Fredo's body is in a different position and his facial expression has clearly changed. Also, when we cut to the pan version after Vito has told Michael that he loves him, Fredo has the end of the flag out of his mouth and is sitting with his hands on his lap.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Vito and Genco go to the theatre, and watch the 'Senza Mama' show, the singers voice is clearly out of sync with the words of the song.
  
  
• Continuity: During Roth's birthday party, the pattern on his shirt changes. Due to weather difficulties, the two minute scene took over a week to shoot and the original shirt was lost at some point. The production designer attempted to recreate it by drawing an approximation of the pattern onto a plain shirt, but it didn't quite match.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Vito is driving and Fanucci hops onto the car, another car passes between the camera and Vito's car - Coppola and the camera can be seen reflected in the car's window.
  
  
• Continuity: When Michael and Kay are in their bedroom after the party, Michael is looking out the window, and below him is a mirror that shows Kay's reflection. When Michael ducks to avoid the wave of bullets that comes through the window, Kay's reflection disappears.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When traveling into New York harbor for the first time, young Vito's boat is traveling south, away from Ellis Island toward the ocean.
  
  
• Continuity: When young Vito is quarantined, we see him looking out the window at the Statue of Liberty. From the outside shot he appears to be standing at the right-most window pane, but when we see the scene from inside, he's at the other end of the window (i.e., what would have been the left side as seen from the outside).
  
  
• Errors in geography: When young Vito is quarantined, we are led to believe that he is still on Ellis Island. As he looks out the window, the shot from outside shows the reflection of the Statue of Liberty. By that reflection (the front of the Statue) Vito would have to be on Governors Island.
  
  
• Continuity: When Michael is confronting his brother in the den, he is eating a piece of fruit which changes size inconsistently between shots.
  
  
• Plot holes: When Michael is being questioned in the Senate, he is asked about the killing of the heads of the Five Families in 1950. According to the time-line of the first movie, Michael returned to the States in 1948, married Kay in 1949 and his son Anthony was born in 1950. Vito (according to his headstone) died in 1954. Based on this and the cars shown in the first movie (Neri was jumped in a 1954 Pontiac after shooting Barzini), the killings occurred either in late 1954 or early 1955. Also Anthony was around four years-old when Vito died.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): At the end of the movie in the flashback, they talk about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor happening "on Pop's birthday". The Pearl Harbor attacks were on December 7, but according to his tombstone, in The Godfather (1972), Vito's date of birth is April 29.
  
  
• Continuity: During the sniper shooting into the Corleones' bedroom, the mirror on the dresser shows Kay sliding off her side of the bed as soon as the gunshots pierce the window and at this point her pillow is vertical. But as Michael crawls to Kay's side of the bed, she's back on top, waiting for him to pull her down, and her pillow is now laying flat.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: When Fredo gets to the hotel in Havana, Cuba, the Dominican Republic flag is clearly visible on the flag pole.
  
  
• Factual errors: There is a scene where Micheal is fired upon through his bedroom window soon after they release the dogs to find the perpetrators. In real life, no-one releases dogs to hunt down the enemy without keeping them on a leash. There would be no way for the dogs to determine nor relay to their keepers who the enemy is. They have to have control at all times or the dogs would have no frame of reference.
  
  
• Continuity: When Michael returns to the snowy Lake Tahoe estate, we see him looking at a toy red car and then walking past a window. In the next shot, when he enters the building, he suddenly has a lit cigarette in his mouth.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In Michael's office during Anthony's communion party, it appears the Senator sets down his bottle of pills on the table after he takes them and never picks it up. However, although very brief, immediately after setting down the drink used to take the pills, you can see the Senator motion for his pills. After returning from a shot of Michael, the Senator is then seen closing his right pocket, presumably with the pills inside.)
  
  
• Continuity: When Vito shoots Fanucci in the chest there is a bullet hole in his vest, however when he opens the vest their is no hole in the shirt underneath.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Vito Corleone arrives at Ellis Island, he was marked with a circled X and sent to a nurse because he was suspected to have smallpox. In history, the circled X was a sign for a mental illness.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: During the final scene flashback, they are talking about the attack on Pearl Harbor happening on "Pop's birthday". It is also revealed that this led Michael to enlist in the army "this morning". Since the attack happened in Pearl Harbor at 8AM local time, news of the attack couldn't have reached New York before 1PM.
  
  
• Continuity: After Vito shoots Fanucci, the towel that is wrapped around the gun catches fire. The next scene shows Vito discarding a smaller towel with no burn marks on it.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: When Michael is waiting to see Fredo (during the mourning gathering following their mother's death), Michael is wearing a watch. Then when he goes in to see Fredo (and give a nodding approval for his assassination) the watch is clearly absent.
  
  
• Continuity: When Signor Roberto visits Vito at work, Signor Roberto counts money on Vito's desk. The arrangement of the money changes between shots.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When young Vito Corleone is first entering America, a green Statue of Liberty can be seen in the background. At the time this is taking place, the statue's patina had not fully developed. It should have been a dirty brown rather than green.
  
  
• Factual errors: When everybody is running out of the government palace during the New Year's party, the Dominican coat of arms can be seen over the entrance (while the scene is supposed to take place in Cuba).
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: On the driver's side of the windshield of the red and black automobile that Michael Corleone drives to Hyman Roth's home in Miami, there is a 1970's Florida Vehicle Inspection sticker, although the story takes place in the 1950's.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: After the attempted assassination on Michael, Tom and Rocco are overlooking the discovery of the dead bodies in the water. When Rocco turns away from Tom to ask where Michael is, his lips do not move while the soundtrack says "Where's Michael?".
  
  
• Factual errors: The name of the ship that brings young Vito to New York is the Mushulu. The Mushulu wasn't built until 3 years later than the stated date of 1901 and wasn't named Mushulu until the 1920s.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the Congressional hearings, Michael states that he was awarded the Navy Cross during World War II. However, his Marine uniform as seen at Connie's wedding shows his highest award as a Silver Star.
  
  

• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: When Michael's henchman is strangling Johnny Ola, the hanger the henchman uses for the garroting slips from his left hand. 'Domenic Chianese' (who plays Johnny Ola) has to use his own hand to keep the hanger gripped around his own neck.
  
  

Related Links