Goofs for
Vacation (1983) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: After the accident in the desert when the axles on the car are bent, we see the family driving down the road, yet when the camera pulls back for a full view of the car only the driver is present.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: When Clark and the girl (Christie Brinkley) go skinny-dipping in the motel swimming pool, we hear her voice laughing and shouting, while on-screen, Ellen is swimming underwater and could not possibly have done either.
  
  
• Continuity: Clark's glasses after the accident, while sharing a beer with Rusty.
  
  

• Boom mic visible: When Ellen is giving the eulogy to Aunt Edna on the back patio.
  
  
• Continuity: In the saloon in Dodge City Audrey sits down on a stool at the bar twice.
  
  
• Errors in geography: In the postcards opening, just after Christie Brinkley's name fades offscreen, the postcard for the "Mystery Spot" lists its location as "St. Ignance, Michigan." The Mystery Spot is located in St. Ignace, not St. Ignance.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Clark comments on "real tomato ketchup," not "homemade," so seeing a bottle of commercial ketchup in Eddie's kitchen is OK.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Mountains and palm trees near Chicago, in the opening scene when they are pulling into the car lot.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: As the Family Truckster barrels through an intersection with everyone inside supposedly asleep, you can see the driver sitting up straight.
  
  
• Errors in geography: During the St. Louis part, they show the Griswolds crossing the bridge into Missouri and *then* getting lost in what they title "East St. Louis." East St. Louis is actually in Illinois, so they would have encountered it before crossing the bridge. This has apparently been corrected in the video version.
  
  
• Continuity: As Russ goes to talk to his dad his hands are out of his jacket pockets. The next shot he has them in his pockets.
  
  
• Continuity: The position of Ellen's head when Clark sees the girl in the Ferrari for the second time changes between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: Just after Clark nearly collides head on with the truck, a red truck can be seen following the Griswald's car. The red truck's distance behind the Griswald's car changes inconsistently between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When the family enter the Walley World car park, there are no cars, yet when we see the car in another shot, there is a white car next to it.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Reflected in the Family Truckster at the used car lot at the beginning of the movie.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: Right after Eddie tells Clark that Daisy Mabel was born without a tongue, we can hear Clark say, "Oh," and then laugh. However, Clark does not appear to be laughing, or even smiling.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Camera and operator visible in one of the rides at Wally World.
  
  
• Continuity: In the first motel Ellen unbuttons the top button of her pajamas and in the next shot it is still buttoned.
  
  
• Continuity: When the kids discover Clark and Ellen under the blanket at the first motel, Clark emerges with a pair of beige panties. At the beginning of that scene when Ellen got into bed, they were patterned.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Clark falls onto the skeleton when wandering in the desert, a jaw spring can be seen in the back of the skull. This is used in the lab to keep the jaw shut, but obviously wouldn't be on a skull in the middle of nowhere.
  
  
• Continuity: The "Family Truckster" has windows that roll up, however, in the scene immediately after Clark drives the car off the closed road, Aunt Edna's window goes down smoothly and automatically.
  
  
• Continuity: As Clark and Ellen enter the office, Clark opens the door for Ellen using his right arm. As the view switches to an interior shot of them coming in, Clark is holding the door open with his left hand, with his left arm over Ellen's head.
  
  
• Continuity: Graffiti is spray painted on both sides of the "Family truckster" in one scene, but in the rest of the movie, the spray paint on the driver's side is gone but the graffiti on the passenger side stays throughout the entire movie.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Griswolds are leaving for their trip, there is no luggage on the roof as they get into the car. In the next scene, however, several suitcases appear on the roof.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the scene when Ellen says that Aunt Edna is dead, in the first cut you can see Edna blinking while her eyelids are shut.
  
  
• Continuity: If the rides were running, then someone would be operating them, but the Griswalds and the guards were the only ones in the park.
  
  
• Continuity: In the beginning of the film, when Clark is washing dishes his shirt is untucked, but when they show him going into the living room it is tucked in again.
  
  
• Continuity: When Clark is getting undressed to swim with the "Ferrari Girl" he pulls his boxers off, yet when he jumps in and is swimming you can clearly see he's wearing flesh-colored briefs.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the open matte version of the film, in the scene in which Ellen is in the shower, she can be seen wearing slightly pulled down underwear or possibly bikini bottoms.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the Ferrari is next to Clark, you can hear it revving, but Brinkley’s left leg it up and her foot obviously not on the clutch to allow the revving.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Clark and the Motorcycle Cop are talking in close-up at the rear of the vehicle. A movie light is clearly visible reflecting off the cop's helmet as the sun is shining in a different place on the helmet.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the opening credits, one of the postcards shows The Leaning Tower of Pizza in Green Brook, NY. This restaurant was actually in Green Brook, NJ.
  
  
• Errors in geography: In the opening credits, one of the postcards shows a billboard advertising "Gatorland, 6 Miles", with the above caption stating the billboard is in St. Augustine, Florida. Gatorland is actually in Orlando, Florida - a good 120 miles away from St. Augustine.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the Grizwolds are "lost" in St. Louis, the wide overhead shot clearly shows the Family Truckster exiting onto Interstate 70 West. This is the correct route for their trip, and they wouldn't have been lost if they took it.
  
  
• Continuity: Through the course of the film, Rusty is about the same height as Ellen. But during the Walley World scenes, he is taller than her. This is because these scenes were shot after principal photography.
  
  
• Continuity: Throughout the course of the film, the condition of the Family Truckster changes. Damage to the car will often disappear at one point but reappear in subsequent scenes.
  
  
• Continuity: As the Griswolds are leaving Chicago, the exterior, overhead shots of the Truckster show downtown Chicago, with high-rise skyscrapers in the background. But the "in the car" views show a lower-class industrial area.
  
  
• Continuity: When Clark pulls up the trip route on the TV screen, the line representing their route is shown on the full US map traveling through the state of Oklahoma, but when Clark zooms in to show Day 1, the route line is shown going through Kansas, which would make more sense, since the Griswolds would be stopping to visit Cousin Eddie and his family in Kansas on their way to Walley World.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the Griswolds fall asleep in the car, Clark awakes to see the predicament they're in. When his car is apparently in DRIVE, the car goes in REVERSE without stopping and/or changing gears.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Griswald's are saying there goodbyes, before they leave, they get into the car while in the garage, the camera angle turns and their luggage appears on the roof of the car.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: The Grizwalds drive from their home town to Wally World without any form of valid registration on their car. The plate in the license-plate holder is an advertisement for the car dealership that the car was purchased from.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: The Grizwalds drive to Wally World without registering the car. When fueling up the car Clark grabs the license-plate holder, with the plate that is advertising the car dealership, and accidentally rips it off. There is no registration in any of the windows of the car. The dealership would not have let the car go without a registration. A license-plate later appears on the car hanging on with one screw.
  
  
• Factual errors: When purchasing a car in Illinois, either your license plates are transferred from your old car, or you are issued a License Applied For sticker to be posted in the window of your car (at that time). The Griswold's old car is driven off and crushed without removing the plates, and there is no sticker on the new car. They would be stopped and ticketed by the first cop that spotted them.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When they stop for lunch, the rest area is just east of South Fork, CO. They leave and drive west over Wolf Creek Pass then down towards Pagosa Springs. You can see The Inn at the Pass at the bottom. But they spend the night in tents in South Fork. Did they get turned around at the pass?
  
  
• Continuity: When Clark hooks the dog's leash onto the driver-side back bumper, it actually comes unhooked when the dog dashes at Clark and rests on top of the bumper. In the next scenes, the dog is dragged to his death because of Clark leaving the leash hooked around the bumper.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After the Griswold's get the truckster fixed and drive away, you can see that the wheels are wobbly. In later scenes the wheels are fine.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the Griswolds are leaving Cousin Norm's house, you can see the breathing movements of whoever is under the blanket posing as the dead Aunt Edna in the patio chair.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): At the beginning of the movie when Clark and Ellen are doing the dishes you can see Ellen just brush the leftover food into the sink and then hand the plate to Clark. She does not wash the dish. Clark is in front of an open dishwasher but he just wipes the dirty dishes with a towel and puts them in the cabinet.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the scene right before Cousin Eddie tells Clark little Daisy Mable was born without a tongue, you see her licking her mouth.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Cousin Eddie tells Clark that Daisy Mabel was born without a tongue. Soon after (towards the end of the scene), she can be seen sticking her tongue out.
  
  
• Continuity: Beverly D'Angelo's hairstyle changes quite dramatically towards the end of the film (at around the time that Aunt Edna is dropped off at Flagstaff), from wavy to a poodle perm.
  
  
• Continuity: The rear view mirror keeps appearing and disappearing during scenes.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In several frontal shots of the Griswolds driving along, there is no windshield on their car.
  
  
• Continuity: When Clark and Ellen get off the vibrating bed, Ellen was previously seen wearing only a blouse after she got out of the shower, but when the kids come in the room and Clark tells them to go away, he is pointing with a bra on his finger, one that Ellen was not wearing.
  
  
• Continuity: When they get out of the family "truckster" at Wally World the line of cones is way off to the right but when they start running towards the park they are running right next to them and you can see the car parked in the distance right next to them so the car changed positions.
  
  
• Continuity: When the family first gets to Walley World and find out its closed, Ellen's belt is above the loop. After they leave and return, her belt is through the loop.
  
  

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