When Bruno arrives at the Metcalf train station with the cigarette lighter in hand, a background sign for "Ray's Danbury Diner - Low Prices" can be glimpsed in the background. (The scene was filmed at the Danbury train station.) A minute later, the sign reads "Ray's Metcalf Diner".
The tennis match played before the end of the movie is clearly put together from two different games. There are different tennis courts and also stadiums.
When Guy is on the train returning to Metcalf (after the tennis match) you can see over his shoulder that the sun has almost completely set - but the next scene shows Bruno (in line to go back to the island) looking up to see the full sun in the sky.
When Bruno is following Miriam on the carousel, the speed of the background is not consistent with the next shot when the carousel is coming to a stop.
During the initial conversation on the train, Bruno's cigarette vanishes from his mouth mid-sentence.
It is ridiculous to believe a police officer would fire a shot into a moving carousel filled with children.
Toward the end, at the merry-go-round, Guy tells Bruno that the man with him is the Chief of Police, but Guy addresses the man as Captain Turley. A Chief of Police is never addressed by a different rank or title, even in a smaller police department. A Chief is always addressed as "Chief" - in this case, "Chief Turley".
When Bruno drops the lighter down the sewer, he tells the bystanders, he needs help retrieving his cigarette CASE.
Perhaps Bruno thought it would sound more important if he said he'd dropped a case rather than a mere lighter.
The whole idea behind the perfect murder scheme of Bruno's is that he and Guy are perfect strangers and don't know each other. Bruno then starts showing up around Guy in Washington, including at parties and public places, to try to coerce him into fulfilling the plot and killing his dad. This occurs even while Guy is walking with his police escort. Bruno also phones Guy repeatedly. This totally contradicts them being strangers with no links and doing the perfect crisscross murders.
Whilst this technically could be considered a plot hole, it must also be realized that Bruno is a psychopathic narcissist meaning he almost certainly believes that everything he does is perfect and without fault, regardless of how his actions might be perceived by others.
Whilst this technically could be considered a plot hole, it must also be realized that Bruno is a psychopathic narcissist meaning he almost certainly believes that everything he does is perfect and without fault, regardless of how his actions might be perceived by others.
Even though Dr. Collins, Guy's potential alibi on the train, was drunk and didn't remember him, Guy could have told the police and Dr. Collins the subject Collins had lectured on: "integration." This lecture subject could then be confirmed by the Dr. or anyone in his audience, proving that Guy DID talk to Collins on the train.
However, whilst Anne makes the same observation afterwards, Guy responds by saying "Apparently not at the right time, they [the police] suggested I could've caught the train at Baltimore." In other words, just being on the train wasn't good enough if he couldn't prove he was on the train at the same time Miriam was murdered.
However, whilst Anne makes the same observation afterwards, Guy responds by saying "Apparently not at the right time, they [the police] suggested I could've caught the train at Baltimore." In other words, just being on the train wasn't good enough if he couldn't prove he was on the train at the same time Miriam was murdered.
Except for the first few rows of real humans up front, the rest of the tennis fans in the stands are fake; they are painted on a mural of some kind.
When Hennessey and Hammond follow Guy to the station, they see him at the ticket booth. As they carry on to follow him, several people in the background walking through the station and going up the escalator can be seen looking and pointing towards the camera and crew.
Bruno strains to the limit to reach the lighter at the bottom of the drain, but when he grasps it, he does it with ease with no sign of strain at all.
When Guy arrives in Washington D.C. at night, the illuminated capitol dome is visible in the background. The dome 'vibrates' (compare with tree in the middle ground), revealing the shot to be assembled footage.
An obvious double is playing the final match instead of Guy.
The openings in the sewer grate where Bruno drops the lighter are too small for Bruno's arm, especially wearing a suit coat, to get through for him to reach the lighter.
Guy and Bruno are in the New Haven Railroad dining car, but the silver coffee pot on the table has the Santa Fe Railroad "Super Chief" emblem on top, and the china pattern is "California Poppy", also a Santa Fe exclusive pattern.
The map Bruno draws of his house does not quite match the set. The set has the hallway with the father's bedroom meeting the staircase at a 90 degree angle, while the map shows it being offset, so that a person would have to walk around a corner, passing another set of stairs leading further up.
The taxicab shown heading across Memorial Bridge into Arlington from Washington (instead of correctly the opposite direction, to Union Station) is not the same make/model/year as the clearly older & heavier one that picks up Bruno from his house.
When Bruno stands at a grove of trees at the amusement park in the final scenes, the trees are bare, as if it were late fall. The U.S. Tennis championship always takes place in late August / early September, and so the trees should still be in leaf, and some other trees at the park are indeed in leaf.
Around 00:54:11, Bruno says "Tell me, Judge..." but his lips don't move.
When Guy arrives in Metcalf to head off Bruno, he walks up to a taxi and tells the driver, "Amusement park - quick," but the line has clearly been dubbed by a different actor.
When Guy says "Oh, excuse me" after accidentally bumping Bruno's foot in the opening scene in the train's club car, his voice has plainly been dubbed by another actor.
A crew member is reflected in the car door when the two detectives get out of the car at the station they have chased Guy to.
After Guy has passed the dog on the stairs and proceeds, a shadow is seen moving out of the frame at the bottom of the next stairs.
When Bruno rushes to the train station, his cab is going the wrong way on the Arlington Memorial Bridge, away from the monuments - and Union Station.
When Bruno takes a taxi from the Antony house in Arlington, Virginia, to travel to Union Station in Washington, the taxi crosses Memorial Bridge in the wrong direction over the Potomac River, which separates Virginia and Washington, D.C. The Abraham Lincoln Memorial is also shown through the rear window of the taxi.
When Guy is walking past the Lincoln Memorial with the detective, he sees Bruno watching him from atop the memorial's steps. He immediately suggests they take a taxi because it is late. They walk across the street and get into a cab parked in front of the Jefferson Memorial. The Jefferson Memorial is over a mile from the Lincoln Memorial and in the opposite direction in which they were walking. Across the street from the Lincoln Memorial is the Reflecting Pool. The cab should have been there with the Washington Monument far in the background.
A large palm tree is visible in the stock footage of the train leaving the "Washington, D.C. rail yard at the beginning of the film.
A large palm tree is visible in the stock footage of the train leaving the "Washington, D.C." rail yard at the beginning of the film.
Guy arrives at the amusement park late because a long-running tennis match delayed him. It would have been a simple matter for him to just lose the match quickly.
The train trip from NYC to D.C. took about four hours with stops at Newark, Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore, but Guy could not prove he was on the train because there was only other passenger in the car during the whole ride, the professor, and he was so drunk he didn't remember anything. No other passengers on a four hour trip on this heavily traveled line? And Guy and the professor rode free because no conductor came by to take their tickets.