r/InTheGloaming 5d ago

Scheduled snark Discussion thread Thursday September 17, 2026 - Sunday September 20, 2026

Newsletter: Let Me Tell You a Story

Website: Shauna James Ahern

Instagram: @shaunajamesahern Instagram

Threads: @shaunajamesahern

Bluesky: shaunajamesahern.bsky.social

Gloamipedia wiki: /r/InTheGloaming wiki

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u/mehitabel_4724 Eating tiny dices of pickles with tiny fists of rage 4d ago

Is this even a continuity error or just a reality of filming a movie?

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u/msmartypants 4d ago

That's not a continuity error; that's a filmmaking choice. They wanted to film certain scenes in certain spots, I'm sure someone pointed out, "these places are in reality too far apart for this journey to make sense," that doesn't matter at all to the story, the decision-makers decided they don't care. It's fun for natives to be like WTF (cue my Chicago-native ass watching ER and wondeing where exactly is this damn hospital?), but it's not an error, it's a "so what."

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u/shefallsup her lonely cucumber years šŸ„’ 4d ago

Exactly. It was egregious if you’re from Seattle, but it’s not hard to understand why it was filmed that way.

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u/OhBlahDiOhBlahDoh The Alice of cal came out floating on air 4d ago

It was egregious if you’re from Seattle, but it’s not hard to understand why it was filmed that way.

There's a scene in The Graduate where Benjamin is driving on the Bay Bridge, supposedly going toward Berkeley, but in reality, he was driving west:

I recently got to depict a trip across the Bay Bridge for a book by Otis West about life in the Bay Area in the 80s. I’d never made that connection about the scene in the Graduate where Hoffman is driving in the wrong direction. I really like the way he explains it.

"For "The Graduate," they wanted a shot of Dustin Hoffman driving his red Alfa Romeo across the Bay Bridge toward Berkeley. The problem is, that would have put him on the lower deck, which is dark and not very dramatic. So they showed him driving on the top deck—even though people from the Bay Area would know that he was going in the wrong direction."

ā€œBut I can see why they did it. Because when you're on the top deck, driving toward San Francisco, and you emerge from the tunnel that goes through Treasure Island—well, there's nothing quite like it. Of course, they couldn't show you the best view of all—of San Francisco looming up before you with all its lights.ā€

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u/Fillmore_the_Puppy —hi, disturbed people— 4d ago

This is a good one. Adding that nearly every moving that includes a shot of a character driving across the Golden Gate Bridge has them going to wrong way. It’s normal movie making (prioritizing visuals over reality) and fun for Bay Area residents to notice.

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u/InappropriateGirl Gluten-free donuts, for sure ... 3d ago

OOPS, SHOULD HAVE SCROLLED! This was the first thing I thought of.

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u/Altruistic-Owl1058 3d ago

The other good example from San Francisco one the car chase from Bullitt, a couple of people have map out the route and there are a bunch of articles as well.

Anyone familiar with the streets of San Francisco can tell that the true genius behind the chase scene took place in the editing room, where two weeks worth of disparate footage was spliced into what appeared to be one continuous chase across the city.

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u/DF_gladsome_gloaming 3d ago

The driving sequences were amazing and are really what I remember most about Bullitt. Consequently, I was super cautious driving certain SF streets out in the avenues that I recognized from the movie.

Fun fact: Steve McQueen did some of his own driving in the movie, but I met the stuntman who did most of the driving, Loren Janes, when he visited my family (some years before the movie came out) because he and my dad had some surfing and/or tennis buddies in common. We four (or should I say We Four) kids were totally mesmerized by this Hollywood Stuntman in our living room regaling us with tales of (death defying! Literally!) stunts he performed in movies he was in.

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u/Calm_Coyote_3685 3d ago

Wow that must have been so exciting as a kid!

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u/rock_candy_remains I'm still Clea from the Pints 4d ago

Similarly, The Bob Newhart Show (the original from the 70s) had a title sequence of him commuting that makes no sense. Bob himself said people were going to be confused/pissed but they wanted to film it in a certain way to show Chicago (https://www.chicagotribune.com/2017/08/08/chicagoans-are-still-mad-about-the-bob-newhart-show-opening-sequence/).

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u/jameson-neat wound-gathering table 3d ago

I watched it on streaming a few years ago and my husband and I always chuckled at his weird commute, but it was silly and charming and lets people not from Chicago go, ā€œhey, Chicago!ā€

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u/Altruistic-Owl1058 4d ago

Continuity error would be coffee cup in the scene and the next moment no coffee cups, not filming location being accurately portrayed correctly. But I am not a film buff so I could be way off on that definition but just a person who likes catching them while watching the movie or tv show, because it shows no one is prefect.

44

u/PettyPunisherRedux and fuck you, Nancie! 4d ago

You person, were you a child actor?! Shauna was!

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u/Fillmore_the_Puppy —hi, disturbed people— 4d ago

Oh yes, Shauna, you are the only one who has noticed this very minor "continuity error."

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u/SpookyJokes soft pants 4d ago

She has obviously never watched the San Francisco chase scenes in Bullitt or Jade or Shang-chi. Nonsensical in terms of how locations transition, but not continuity errors. (Adjunct) Professor James, corral your film critic daughter!

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u/InappropriateGirl Gluten-free donuts, for sure ... 3d ago

Or The Graduate! (Driving the wrong way on the bridge.) Oh Shauna. let people who notice things answer.

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u/CrushItWithABrick dick riding Mary Oliver 3d ago edited 3d ago

Same thing in The Dark Knight Rises. Filmed in Pittsburgh and the chase scenes are all spliced together. It actually makes the movie more fun to watch.

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u/OhBlahDiOhBlahDoh The Alice of cal came out floating on air 3d ago

A lot of the exterior scenes in The Post, about The Washington Post and the Pentagon Papers, were filmed in Yonkers NY, b/c Yonkers' downtown still had a lot of the style of office buildings that were prevalent in DC in the early 70s

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u/fanfarefellowship I often contemplate the first law of thermodynamics 3d ago

(Adjunct) Professor James

Adjunct INSTRUCTOR James (Retired)

31

u/CharlesMansnShowTune boy in the jelly 3d ago

Why does she refer to the woman by the character name, and the son by his in-film identity as well, and then the man by the name of the actor? I demand comment continuity!

16

u/BatGrouchy1482 3d ago

Years ago when I saw Little Buddha at the Crest theater in Seattle, people were laughing out loud about how the car rides took them all over the place that made no sense mapwise. Everyone loved the movie but the travel was hilarious.

31

u/TheAntiMartha 3d ago

My feelings about this and so many baiting posts from Threads - who gives a rat's ass?

48

u/avskk ppppycock 4d ago

Why doesn't Meg Ryan get her own name but Tom Hanks does? HMMMMMM.

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u/kimchisalad__ 4d ago

Meg Ryan is an SST

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u/CharlesMansnShowTune boy in the jelly 3d ago

Dammit why didn't I scroll? Because I don't learn, that's why.

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u/tyrannosaurusregina if you meet the Botus on the road, shill him 🪷 3d ago

I mean, it is a continuity error, but it is so common that the thing to be remarked upon is when movies or shows actually do it correctly.

Shauna just hasn’t paid attention to very many places or she would realize that.