Goofs for
Marathon Man (1976) More at IMDbPro »

• Boom mic visible: Shadow of boom mic on Babe's torso as he's running on the bridge after his escape.
  
  
• Continuity: When Babe and Elsa are outside Szell's brother's house, the sky changes back and forth from cloudy/hazy to sunny and blue a number of times.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Cameraman is reflected in the window of a passing car when Chen is standing at the pinball machine.
  
  

• Revealing mistakes: The power outlet used in the Torture Room is of a European type, although the scene is supposed to take place in NYC.
  
  
• Continuity: When Rosenbaum is driving his malfunctioning car in New York (steering wheel left side) he reaches to adjust the air conditioning controls with his right hand. However, the close-up shot clearly shows a left hand adjusting the controls. (It should be noted that climate controls were commonly located on the left side of the dashboard in American cars of the '60s and '70s. Rosenbaum is driving a 1970 Chevrolet Impala or Caprice, which indeed has the heater/air conditioner controls to the left of the steering wheel.)
  
  
• Continuity: When the professor asks the students the question about the Tennyson quote, you can see Babe write the answer on his desk table. In the close-up, he is writing the answer on the back of his notebook.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Dr. Szell is supposed to be living in Uruguay before going to New York. We see shots of what is supposed to be Uruguay which show people traveling in canoes through the jungle, but in Uruguay there is no jungle.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: During the master shot of the first dental torture scene, you can clearly see the "marks" - a t-shape of tape on the floor - where one of the thugs is to stand in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.
  
  
• Continuity: When Doc and Babe first meet Babe is asleep. After he wakes up he asks Doc what time it is and Doc says it is about midnight. The two room windows in the background show bright sunlight.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: After Doc flees the Opera, when we him in the Grecian temple, dolly tracks are clearly visible on the floor. As the camera dollies in, we lose sight of them but Doc obviously high-steps over the tracks.
  
  
• Continuity: When Elsa leaves the library after she and Babe meet for the first time, she is seen only with her purse. However, when she is opening the lock to her apartment building after Babe follows her home, she is holding a stack of books.
  
  
• Continuity: When Doc is having his hand bandaged, the length of his cigarette changes between shots.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the father's body is shown after his suicide with the pistol, the hammer on the pistol is down. When one shoots a pistol, the hammer remains in the cocked position until the last round when the slide remains retracted.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: The jewelry salesman who recognizes Szell yells, "I know who you are, you murderer! I know who you are!" before Szell kills him with his retractable knife. Though we can still hear him speaking when the scene cuts to Szell slicing his throat, his lips aren't moving.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Chen is attempting to garrote Doc in his Paris hotel room, the blood pack attached the back of Roy Scheider's hand is clearly visible.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At the beginning of the film, the radio announcer notes "unusually" high temperatures, and the owner of the Impala is angry that his a/c does not work. However, he is wearing a sweater, which would suggest a cooler day. Also, the man who is guiding the fuel oil truck into the street before the crash is wearing heavy jacket, which would also suggest a much cooler day. It is later reported that this was Yom Kippur, which occurs at the beginning of fall, when a hot day is still very possible in New York City.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the flashback scene of their father's suicide, the Colt .45 Commander used had its hammer closed after he shot himself. The hammer would have been in the fully cocked position after firing and can only be closed manually.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Colt .45 Commander that was used was supposedly a souvenir from World War II. It's distinguished by the shorter barrel and slide and the hammer is in the shape of a ring and not a hook as is on the military M1911A1. The Commander wasn't introduced until 1949 and it was almost strictly produced for the civilian market.
  
  
• Continuity: When Rosenblum pulls up behind Szell, the amount by which the cars are offset changes. First the offset is about 1/4 car width, then by 1/2 width, then by no offset when Rosenblum starts to ram into Szell.
  
  
• Continuity: When Tom is chasing the other runner, who said "behind schedule?" the distance that Tom lags the other runner changes.
  
  
• Continuity: The way Doc leaves the killer is not how the killer is positioned as Doc dials the phone.
  
  
• Continuity: During one shooting scene, government agent Janeway (William Devane) is firing his revolver with his left hand. However, throughout the rest of the movie, including other shooting scenes, he uses his right hand.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the movie, Babe (Dustin Hoffman) fires several rounds from his Colt Commander semi-automatic pistol. A real Commander would eject a fired metal cartridge case after each shot; however, no cases can be seen to eject from Babe's pistol, nor can any be heard hitting the ground.
  
  
• Continuity: During the car chase between Rosenblum and Szell's brother, the cars pass through Park Avenue twice.
  
  

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