Every now and again, a movie comes along that doesn’t do all that well at the box office and even has a hand in ruining a star’s mainstream career. It’s true, as there have been many over the long years of cinematic features, and yes, many careers have been ruined because of certain films.
But there are also some that become legendary and no matter how badly they performed at the box office, there are still fans that consider the film a classic and an epic showing of cinematography, story, and acting all swallowed up into one fell swoop. We’ve come to call such films cult classics. A cult classic is a film that does well with a minority or what can be considered a sub-culture and Gone In 60 Seconds can definitely be called such a film, as we’re still talking and writing about it today.
But the film hasn’t escaped its critics over the years and for good reason, as well. The film seemed to have the perfect combination of cars, action and, well, a little cheesiness thrown in. But what would a cult classic be without a little grade-A level cheese?
At the same time, there was an all-star cast that included the cinematic gem himself, Nicolas Cage, who is an actor’s actor, really. Throw in Angelina Jolie, Robert Duvall, Giovanni Ribisi, and, well, the list goes on from there.
So, as we alluded to a short second ago, the film is known for a few blunders, meaning some errors caught on film, as well as a few hidden Easter Eggs thrown into the film, and it has had audiences and fans wondering for years if these “errors” were errors at all, or rather the production team’s way of poking a little fun at a film that would one day reach cult-classic status. So join us as we take a look at a few of these infamous instances.
15 WAS IT ALL DONE ON PURPOSE?
There are so many errors in this film that many fans have wondered if they weren't done on purpose, thus rendering them the ultimate in Easter Eggs (an Easter Egg being a hidden gem or message within the reels of a film). Especially when considering that one of the most successful heavyweight producers of all time, Jerry Bruckheimer, who has brought us numerous blockbuster hits was involved. He and his team are more than capable of putting together a film without errors of continuity and the such, yet Gone In 60 Seconds is chalk full of them. Case in point: when Cage's character is speeding in order to make that all impressive jump on the bridge, the camera crew is clearly seen on the side portion of the screen! Who knows? Maybe that's Jerry's way of poking fun at the fictional world of this film.
14 WHERE DID THE WINDOWS GO?
Now talk about blunders! This one was enough to have the viewer questioning if their DVD player skipped. After the character of Memphis (Nic Cage) is leaving the restaurant where the character's mother works, he is approached by the investigating cops in the film. Now, it's as he's leaving that it becomes perfectly clear that the restaurant front is composed of clear glass windows on either side of the door he has just exited from. Yet, as he speaks to the cops and the camera goes from the cops to him, the character is suddenly standing in front of a brick wall! Now, how's that for an optical illusion?
13 AN ARRAY OF TOOLS
One of the first times we see the characters played by Angelina Jolie and Nicolas Cage together, Jolie is under a car, supposedly fixing it. The interesting thing about this scene—in reference to the point we're making in this article—is that every time the camera goes from Jolie to Cage, the tools laid out all over the floor seem to miraculously change positions. Now, we ask you, dear readers, if that isn't the perfect example of somebody on set having some fun with the viewer, we don't know what is. Let's face it, mistakes like this would be pretty bad if they weren't done on purpose, and as we said before, this crew was too professional to let that many things go by unnoticed.
12 THE MYSTERY OF THE BURNT TOAST
The scenes that make a lot of viewers laugh the most are scenes that involve food, especially for yours truly. First off, actors rarely like to eat on camera, as eating something while filming would probably interfere with whatever diet plan they're following in order to stay in shape—but rest assured, whenever food ends up on camera, be prepared for an inconsistency. Now this one was probably a blunder that went overlooked as we can't think of a reason to leave it in the film otherwise. When Kip is cooking for Memphis, the viewer can clearly see some toast pop out of the toaster quite burnt but when it appears on the dish, the toast has incredibly been toasted lightly instead.
11 THE MYSTERY OF THE STOLEN JAGUAR
This one's definitely worth a chuckle, especially for us car aficionados. Bear with me on. When the Donny character boosts a Jaguar from a parking garage, the car we see being crossed off the list is a Jaguar XJ220. But, we ask you dear readers, was that the actual car seen being stolen in the footage? If you guessed NOT, then we would have to award you the gold star and praise you for catching this one before we brought it to your attention. As it turns out, the actual Jaguar model being lifted was, in fact, a Jaguar XJ6. Apples and oranges, folks, and when it comes to something as intricate as car types, somebody should have been a little more on the ball here.
10 MINUTE DETAIL, BUT STILL ...
Here's yet another one for you keen-eyed car lovers out there and this one requires a little more than catching something quickly. A little knowledge and know-how are going to come in handy with this one. If you remember in the film, one of the cars, Iris, a Ferrari 355 F1, is beautifully showcased. But there's one small problem here: the F1 transmission wasn't available until 1998 and was shown in the movie as having one on the 1997 model. Now, this here is definitely a mistake on the researcher's part but somebody else should have caught this one before the scenes were committed to film, no? A factual error like that can discredit a film big time.
9 A MYSTERIOUS LOSS OF BATTERY POWER
This one makes us chuckle and we think you too will find it pretty funny. There's a scene when a bunch of the characters are entering a Ferrari warehouse ( a magical experience for any car enthusiast) and the viewer sees the garage door opening slowly and ominously. The viewer is then shown that the characters flick on their flashlights almost simultaneously. Well, the camera angle changes slightly and when the shot of the characters holding flashlights is shown again, one of the character's flashlights is suddenly off. Whoops! Somebody forgot to check the batteries before the director yelled, "Action!"
8 A BRIDGE (OR RATHER A BILLBOARD) BETWEEN FICTION AND REALITY
Sometimes, mainstream films are the best at poking fun at themselves, as we'll definitely show you in this article. But at the same time, mainstream films like this one are also the best at promoting themselves further, even if they have to do so subliminally and in covert fashions. Just like the scene in which the character of Mirror Man goes to distract the guard when the characters go to steal the three vehicles from the police impound, right over his shoulder—right there in the frame—on the white billboard is an actual advertisement for the film, as plain as day. My question is though, what's the purpose? If they already got us to watch the film, why do they need to advertise further?
7 POKING A LITTLE FUN AT THE ORIGINAL
Many could also argue that the aforementioned billboard advertisement was a little nudge at the original film. Of course, this is only speculation, but if thought about, it definitely makes sense. In the 1970s, there were a lot of car films, as the muscle car was king back then and Hollywood producers loved putting these beautiful and powerful cars on screen with the leading men of the era. And although it wasn't a heavyweight like Steve McQueen in Bullitt, the film ended up becoming a cult classic all its own and was enough to inspire a remake all those years later. The original was released in 1974 and the plot was somewhat different than the newer version.
6 NICOLAS CAGE - SUPERMAN IN DISGUISE
Like we said before, and believe us, it's worth mentioning again, Nicolas Cage is one of the greatest actors in Hollywood. He rose to fame playing eccentric characters and his approach to acting is unlike the work we've seen anyone perform in front of the camera. He is an Oscar winner and for good reason. Today, he does a little more independent cinema and although it isn't mainstream, we urge you to check out some of his more recent work. Back in the day, there were even rumors that he was gearing up to play Superman, although the film fell apart before it could come to fruition. But in Gone In 60 Seconds, he did show some superhuman qualities. In one particular fight scene, he gets a knuckle sandwich square in the face and doesn't even have a scratch on him.
5 TWO TIMES THE BANG!
If you're a fan of action films, then you know that sometimes, action sequences don't go as planned. In the epic martial arts films of the era, sometimes a kick doesn't exactly go as planned or a jump doesn't come off the way it was thought to look like when written in the script. But sometimes, this just comes down to bad editing. In this film, in the scene when Memphis' brother is in the car and the car is about to get pulverized, it can clearly be seen that the back window shatters not once, but miraculously, it reforms and gets shattered a second time! Now, if that's not a "what not to do" example in editing film class, we don't know what is.
4 STAGE MARKERS
Just a quick note on the world of cinema and acting: there are such things known as stage markers. These are usually pieces of tape stuck to the floor and their purpose is to let the actor know where to stand so that they can properly be focused in the shot. Well, letting these be shown in the finished product of a film isn't all that great and we're sure we don't need to tell you that, of course. But, as it turns out, in a particular scene when Memphis falls to the ground, guess what shows up in the shot right there for all the audience to see? If you said "stage markers" once again, we award you the gold star! How did they miss that?!
3 MISTAKEN CAR NAMES!? REALLY?!
Probably one of the biggest blunders in the film—and the one that has us questioning whether this was actually done on purpose or not—is the sequence in the film when, back in Otto's garage, the viewer can clearly see all the names of the cars they want to boost on his blackboard. But when the characters radio in what they've gotten, they are mentioning certain cars and all the while, Otto crosses off cars with completely different names as the scene progresses. It's quite baffling once you know what to look for, and if one chooses to watch this scene again, it's quite comical to witness as it unfolds. But yet again, we pose the question: was this done on purpose, or was it in fact a slip up not caught by the production team?
2 GETTING THE NAMES STRAIGHT
And to further hit the point of the inconsistencies on Otto's blackboard home, there was another sequence in which the cars being radioed in—or rather the names of them—didn't quite match what the Otto character had written on the board. Case in point: There's a scene in which Memphis and a few other characters are nabbing Ferraris and he phones in, informing Otto that "Diana, Tricia, Nadine, and Rose are on their way." But when we cut back to Otto and his board of mystery, the viewer can clearly see that there is no Ferrari named Tricia on the list! Uh-oh! This one sounds like a bit more of an oversight to us, but you never know. Doesn't anyone watch dailies anymore?
1 EASTER EGGS OR OUTRIGHT BLUNDERS?
At the end of the day, we'll leave it up to you, dear reader. Of course, the producers will probably have us believe that all the mistakes were done on purpose, wanting to save face and not wanting to have to admit the mistakes they made. But at the same time, it is possible that these could have been Easter Eggs. Sometimes, huge Hollywood productions love to poke fun at themselves and the fans and this could have sometimes been the case here. After all, films like Scream and a bunch of other genre-shattering spoof films are based on this idea alone. But after all is said and done and the smoke has cleared away, Gone In 60 Seconds remains a classic, warts, scars, and all—and whether they were purposely done or not.
Sources: Eeggs, Wikipedia, IMDb, and Movie Mistakes.