- Revealing mistakes: When Walt gets angry and punches his hand through the glass cabinet, the glass is clearly a prop piece.
- Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the bathtub scene, Walt he says he never smoked in the house. He smoked in his home before the priest came over for a beer.
- Boom mic visible: When Walt and Sue start to sit to talk on Walt's back porch, the boom mic appears ever so slightly.
- Revealing mistakes: Walt's medical form lists date of birth as February 1930. When his family celebrates his birthday with him, the grass is green, and he joins his neighbors for a cookout. That isn't February in Detroit.
- Continuity: In the scene where Thao goes along with Walt to the barbershop, the barber's jacket zipper changes position several times.
- Continuity: At the medical office, the physician introduces herself as Dr. Chu. In the credits, she is Dr. Chang.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Walt says he used the M1 Garand rifle in Korea. U.S. Military personnel are usually not allowed to keep their service weapons. However, some rifles, identified by serial number, were available for purchase through the Civilian Marksmanship Program after they were deemed obsolete or unfit for service. Enlisted and commissioned personnel also frequently "liberated" their weapons.
- Continuity: When Walt goes downstairs during the barbecue, he places his beer on the washing machine. In the next shot he has his beer in his hand.
- Continuity: When Walt drinks beer in Su's kitchen, the level of the beer gets higher the longer he drinks it.
- Boom mic visible: During Walt's second phone conversation about his medical records, a boom mike appears in Walt's son's house, above the kitchen table.
- Continuity: During the closing credits, with the prolonged shot of the cars driving by the lake, the Gran Torino appears a second time.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The medical form shows Walt's marital status as "married." The film opens with his wife's funeral. It is Walt's first visit with his doctor since his wife died. Based on the conversation with the doctor, it had been more than 3 years since his last visit. With all that was going on in his life at the time of that visit, he could have simply forgotten to update his marital status.
- Continuity: After Walt punches in his kitchen cabinets and is sitting in the chair smoking, both of his knuckles are bleeding. At one point his right hand appears without blood while his left is still bloody (dried at this point). In another shot of the same scene, where he's talking with the priest, both hands are bloody again.
- Crew or equipment visible: In the bathroom scene when he is bathing and smoking, the reflection of the camera mans legs are visible on the bathtub.
- Factual errors: The Gran Torino's Michigan license plate number has 3 letters, followed by 3 numbers, then by 1 letter. Michigan license plates have 3 letters followed by 4 numbers.
- Continuity: When Walt is in Mckay's office he picks up 2 paper cups for coffee. In the next shot, he is holding a single cup
- Continuity: Walt has Thao paint the neighbors house. The painted house is clearly visible at one stage. Near the end of the movie, when Walt is mowing his lawn, the new layer of paint disappears.
- Continuity: When Walt is in the bar and the priest wants to talk to him, he takes off his hat with right hand, and his left hand is down. In the next shot, both hands are on the table, and the hat is gone.
- Revealing mistakes: When Walt goes into the basement of his neighbor's house, where the teenagers are gathered, he leans against the drier. It rocks: the pivot points are the two catty-corner 'feet' on the diagonal. Twisting the right front one, the front pivot foot, in the direction he did, clockwise looking down on the screw from his perspective, would actually raise that foot more, not lower, which would stop the drier from rocking.
- Continuity: After Su is raped, Walt comes home and punches through his cupboard doors. The next day, when he is sitting in the kitchen with Thao, the cupboards in the background are undamaged.
- Continuity: When Walt is sitting on his porch while reading the horoscopes, he sees Thao go and help the lady across the Street, who is clearly American. Earlier, the grandmother explains that all the Americans had moved out of the neighborhood.
- Factual errors: Although not specifically stated, Walt appears to have lived in the house for many years. He also says he "put the steering column" in his Gran Torino. Gran Torinos were never produced in the Detroit area.
- Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the church, Walt's grandchildren genuflect (kneel briefly and make sign of the cross while facing the altar). In the Catholic religion, the cross is made with the right hand. The granddaughter crosses herself with her left hand.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: While Walt is on the phone with his son, the medical forms show Detroit, and a Michigan ZIP code, but lists the state as California. If you look closer, the California address is for Walt's brother, as next of kin.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: It is raining when Walt works with Thao, but the blue sky is reflected in the house windows. Sometimes large patches of blue sky appears during rainfall.
- Continuity: The medical forms list Walt's address as 5962 Delco St. When Walt stands on his porch, his house number is 238.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Walt touches the little girl's head, the Hmong react very negatively, and Su tells him that is wrong. Several scenes earlier, Kho Khue patted the baby's head, and no one reacted. Certain elders have the right to touch people on the head, including an elder shaman performing a soul-calling ceremony during a birth celebration. Also, when Su musses Thao's hair in the back yard, she musses the side of his head, behind his ear, not the top.
- Continuity: When the Hmong gangbangers drive up to the Mexican gangbangers, Spider drives, forward, then drives in reverse without changing gears. Then a break in the scene shows his car's backup lights.
- Plot holes: The front license plate on Walt's truck is missing. Michigan doesn't require a front plate, but it looks it was recently removed. That wouldn't make sense, since he likely bought the truck new.
- Plot holes: When Walt rescues Sue and Trey from the three thugs, he tells Trey that he should not have said "bro" to them. This would have been impossible for him to know; he pulled up to the stop sign after the incident.
- Revealing mistakes: Walt visits his doctor's office in February. The calendar is open to June.
- Revealing mistakes: The sides of the folding chairs flip by the time Walt takes the 2 folding chairs from the basement to the upstairs; the curvatures of the chairs clearly show this.
- Continuity: When Walt goes to the doctor's office, he is seen by an Asian-American woman doctor (played by Julia Ho) and asks her where his "regular doctor" is. She replies that his regular doctor retired and that she is "his replacement, Dr. Chiu." However, the end credits show her character's name as "Dr. Chang."
- Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Walt is being fed by the Hmong ladies in Sue's kitchen, Sue's mother Vu puts a large spoon into a bowl of salad and then moves to transfer the contents to Walt's plate. She does this despite the spoon being almost completely empty - most of the salad fell out of the spoon back into the bowl, which the actress either didn't notice or just decided to keep going with the scene.
- Revealing mistakes: In the beginning we see that the houses around Walt need painting. At 1:11:00, while the kid is gardening, we see the backs of the three houses next to Walt's that don't need paint.
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Goofs below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- Continuity: SPOILER: Throughout the film, one of the balusters in the railing on the front porch of the Hmong house is missing. At the end, when the brother and sister get into the Checker cab to go to the funeral, the house still has bullet holes and boarded up windows, but the missing baluster reappears.
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