Goofs for
Road to Perdition (2002)

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• Anachronisms: Parts of the American flag are visible in Michael Jr.'s school. While the whole flag is not seen, it is clear from the spacing of the visible stars, that the flag is contemporary, and not the 48 star flag that would have been displayed circa 1930.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Michael and his son first arrive in Chicago, there is a brief shot of bright silver metal cars on the El. This type of train was first introduced in the 1980s. In 1931 the train cars would have been made of wood and painted a dark brown.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Michael Jr. is seen reading "The Lone Ranger" in 1931. The Lone Ranger was created for radio in 1933 and the books were not published until even later.
  
  

• Revealing mistakes: When Sulivan and his son drive off the road after leaving the diner scene, the car's tracks are already going in that direction from previous takes.
  
  
• Continuity: The bullet hole in the rear window of the Sullivan's car disappears and reappears.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Michael and his son first arrive in Chicago, there is a brief shot of their car traveling into town. In the Chicago skyline, half of a (skyscraper) construction sky crane can be seen at a distance.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the opening credits a high-voltage power line tower can be seen in the background. The type of tower shown did not exist in 1931.
  
  
• Boom mic visible: Reflected in the window of Michael's first bank robbery.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The vestments worn by Catholic clergy are the more modern "poncho" style chasuble. In the 1930s they would have worn the "fiddle-back" style.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In diner scene with Maquire and Sullivan Sr., the ashtray on Maquire's table is a style of modern, pressed metal. During that period, they would have been glass or ceramic.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The music playing in the background during the diner scene with Tom Hanks and Jude Law is "Queer Notions", which was recorded in 1933. The film is set in 1931.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Mike Sullivan is walking through the nightclub to get information from the owner, the club members are wearing "Flappers" and "Sheiks". Both were very popular styles of clothes between the years 1925 to 1928, but the film takes place in 1931. Most of the people wearing them at that time period would be considered "outdated" and not with the times.
  
  
• Errors in geography: In the diner scene between Mike Sullivan and Maguire, there can be seen a bottle of HP Sauce on Sullivan's table. HP Sauce is a brand available almost exclusively in the United Kingdom and would almost certainly not be found in the average 1931 American roadside diner.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The Englewood Diner seen in the movie is a 1941 Sterling Diner built by J.B. Judkins of Merrimack, Massachusetts. Though in business in 1931, the Judkins company didn't start building diners until 1936. The movie takes place in 1931.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When driving into Chicago, an athletic field can be seen with modern outdoor lighting. This didn't exist in the 1930s.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the scene at the diner with Tom Hanks and Jude Law, the shot is on Law where he appears to just be moving his hands around. The shot then goes to Hanks, and then quickly back to Law who all of a sudden has a cup of coffee, when no waiter/waitress brought it to him. He is draining the cup with sugar.
  
  
• Continuity: Maguire's coffee cup magically appears between shots.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Michael Sullivan shoots Connor Rooney in the bath tub, he fires his .45 pistol three times and you also hear the three shell casings hit the floor, but when he fired the shots, the slide of the pistol never retracted, and so the chamber never actually opened to eject the spent bullet shells.
  
  
• Continuity: The heavy rain storm that occurs that fateful night doesn't appear to wash away the snow. The snow outside the Sullivan's house can be seen the next morning to be the same as it was before, even with well-worn tyre tracks in it!
  
  
• Continuity: On 'the fateful night' when Sullivan leaves, the garage doors are open at an angle and he doesn't close them. When he returns the doors are perfectly straight as he reverses in.
  
  
• Continuity: The bullet removed from Sullivan's arm has no rifling marks, and appears to be .45 caliber, rather than the .32 that Maguire was using.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Michael Sullivan is in the Car with Michael Jr. before he robs a bank, he prepares his pistol. When he does this, he first puts the slide forward, then he pulls the slide back again. By doing so, he would have actually sent the first round out of the chamber, since putting the slide forward puts a round into the chamber.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: During the shoot-out in Mr. Rance's hotel suite, Sullivan is shooting at Maguire from behind the empty trunk, and the reports heard from his .45 pistol are out of sync with the shots we see Sullivan fire.
  
  
• Continuity: In the first scene with Connor, the first shot shows his cigarette has burned most of the way with a long build-up of ash on the end. In the very next shot, however, the cigarette has regenerated to near-full length with very little ash.
  
  
• Continuity: When Mr. Rooney is speaking to the crowd at the wake, he is initially standing on a chair. In the next shot he is standing beside the chair and it is sideways-on to the crowd. In the next shot, the chair is square-on to the crowd.
  
  

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