Once Upon a Time in Hollywood goofs

Whilst Sharon Tate is speaking to the girl at the cinema box office in Westwood, a Starbucks sign is visible for roughly half of the scene before being obscured. Starbucks was established in 1971.

In the film, Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski are depicted attending a party at the Playboy Mansion. Although a Playboy Club did exist in Los Angeles in 1969, Hugh Hefner did not move the Playboy Mansion from Chicago to Los Angeles until 1971, so the depiction of the couple attending such an event is historically inaccurate.

When Cliff drives home on the motorway and, just before he turns onto the slip road, a plainly visible sign displaying a numbered exit can be seen. California was one of the nation's last holdouts and did not adopt numbered exit ramps until 2002; the film is set in 1969.

When Sharon and Jay listen to a record, the phono cartridge (stylus) fitted to the turntable is an Audio‑Technica AT3600. That model wasn't produced until the 1980s.

In February 1969, Marvin Schwarz cautions Rick Dalton that he could end up being cast as the 'villain of the week' on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966) and Batman (1966). All three of those television series had already been cancelled by the time the film takes place: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Batman left the air in 1968, while The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. was cancelled in 1967.

The theatre marquee displays Lady in Cement (1968) with a GP rating, even though the GP classification was not introduced until early 1970. Additionally, the name of the film's star Raquel Welch is misspelt.

Sharon Tate is depicted driving a Porsche 911 in 1969, but the car visible on screen is actually a 1973 model. The 1973 cars had black horn grilles; all 911s built before 1973 were fitted with chrome horn grilles.

Upon arriving at the airport, Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate retrieve their luggage from a belt conveyor — a feature that did not exist at the time, as the baggage handling system was not introduced until 1971.

Whilst Cliff and Rick are driving early on in the film, Joe Cocker's rendition of "The Letter" can be heard, apparently coming from the car radio. The record wasn't released until April 1970, over a year after the events depicted at the beginning of the film.

The film is set in 1969. Pandora's Box was demolished in 1967, yet in one scene Cliff is seen driving past it in Los Angeles.

Polanski is shown using a cafetière. The device was invented in 1929, but the model on screen resembles one from the 1980s.

C.C. & Company (1970) was released in October 1970. It is unlikely that a trailer for it would have been shown in cinemas in early 1969.

The 101 (Hollywood) Freeway is depicted with concrete K-rails in the central reservation. In 1969, the traditional steel barriers were still in use.

Although Sam Wanamaker did indeed direct the first episode, The High Riders (1968), of Lancer (1968), that episode was broadcast on 24 September 1968 — five months before the events portrayed in the film.

Characters refer to the film The Last Guerrilla (1974), despite it having been released five years after the period in which the film is set.

The California black-and-yellow number plates in use at the time consisted of three letters followed by three numbers. The black-and-yellow number plates shown on Sharon Tate's Porsche and Rick Dalton's Cadillac, in which each trio contains a mixture of letters and numbers, are the reissued plates currently in use.

The rear bumpers on Tate's Porsche 911 were for the US market only — black rubber units fitted for just one year, 1973, to comply with the new Federal bumper regulations, and are markedly different from those used in '69.

Several of the cowboy hats are shaped incorrectly, with the front of the brim lying completely flat. That style did not appear until at least thirty years later.

Lancer's pilot was first broadcast in September 1968; however, the film depicts them filming it in 1969.

As they leave the car park after Rick breaks down in tears, a VW Beetle with a curved windscreen can be seen — yet in 1969 only the flat-windscreen model was in production.

When the opening credits of Rick Dalton's mid-1960s western, 'Tanner', appear they utilise the ITC Benguiat typeface — a design that would not emerge until the late 1970s.

At 1:01:00, two contemporary cars are visible parked behind the Navajo articulated lorry.

(around the 19-minute mark) Cliff Booth drives away from Rick Dalton's house in his own car, a VW Karmann Ghia -68. He pulls off with the engine being revved in a low gear. However, the sound isn't that of a typical air-cooled VW flat-four (boxer) but closer to a sports car with a conventional engine. This is because, to make things easier for the actors, the car was fitted with a 2.5-litre Subaru four-cylinder water-cooled engine, a manual valve body and a reverse-pattern gearbox, and that is the sound you hear on the recording.

On the set of The Green Hornet, Bruce Lee refers to Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston. Cassius Clay adopted the name Muhammad Ali on 6 March 1964, about two and a half years before The Green Hornet was first broadcast. It is inconceivable that Bruce Lee would have called Muhammad Ali "Cassius Clay" in late 1966.

The dog is presented as female for the majority of the film, but in the final attack scene, when it leaps up onto Rick's wife's bedroom door, it is clearly male.

Whilst dining with Schwarz, Dalton's drink transitions from a cocktail to water and finally to a glass of wine.

Rick's hair appears tousled in the make-up trailer, but moments later, still in the same shot, it is neatly combed back.

When the dog attacks Tex, it bites his right wrist, suggesting it either causes serious injury to it or — at the very least — tears the shirt around his wrist. Later, when Tex subsequently attacks Cliff with a knife in his right hand, we see that both his wrist and the sleeve of his shirt are completely intact.

The Cadillac's rear-view mirror vanishes and reappears from one shot to the next. (This happens frequently on many productions for obvious reasons, particularly with camera angles filmed from the rear of the car looking forwards, as is the case here. Production teams will often remove headrests as well, although in this film most of the cars predate headrests.)

When Stacy leaves his horse parked opposite the saloon it is standing in the shade; in the subsequent shot the horse is bathed in sunlight.

When Cliff Booth reaches the Spahn Ranch, the shadows indicate that the various angles of the scene were filmed at different times of day.

During Rick's re-enactment of the hostage scene with Trudi, he holds the revolver aimed at her head; in successive shots it shifts from her temple to her neck.

In the scene set in Cliff's trailer, Cliff tips the contents of one tin of dog food into Brandy's empty bowl; yet when we later see the contents of a second tin poured in, the first tin — which had been full — has vanished and the bowl is empty once more.

When Rick Dalton comes back from Europe, someone is seen unpacking white mugs bearing markings in different colours. However, those same mugs are already shown earlier, within the first half-hour of the film.

At the start of the second round, while Cliff is fighting Bruce, Cliff attempts to throw Bruce to his left, yet Bruce collides with the car after being propelled to Cliff's right.

When Rick Dalton meets Schwarz at the bar, the drinks on the table continually change during their meeting — wine, beer and cocktails take turns.

In the 'Bounty Law' trailer, Dalton's character displays a reward poster that labels someone as 'wanted by the State of Wyoming'. Wyoming did not become a state until 1890, which falls after the conventional time frame of the 'classic' West (1865 - 1890).

In the spaghetti spy-film sequence at 2:00:54, as the car vaults the bridge, a six-foot-high steel jump ramp is clearly visible.

When Cliff is walking Brandy, you can spot the hippy car's headlights reflected in the vehicles to the left as he strolls along the road. They were waiting for Brad Pitt to hit his mark before driving up the road.

The city lights visible at night beyond Rick's house are those of the San Fernando Valley. Such a panorama would not have been possible from Rick's Cielo Drive residence, located beside Sharon Tate's home up in Beverly Glen. According to IMDb, the location used for filming Rick's house was 10969 Alta Vista Drive, Studio City, which overlooks the San Fernando Valley, accounting for the inaccurate (albeit photogenic) vista.

The narrator remarks: "Both men know that once the aeroplane touches down in El Segundo, it will be the end of an era for both of them", in reference to a plane arriving at LAX. LAX is not situated in El Segundo but in Westchester, Los Angeles, California.

During his confrontation with Cliff, Bruce Lee is portrayed with the longer hairstyle he wore in the early 1970s, rather than the shorter cut he had while appearing in The Green Hornet (1966).

When Rick, Francesca and Cliff return from Rome, they are shown in one of the tunnels that used to link the gates at LAX to the kerb. (At present, the tunnels are closed to the public and lie two levels beneath the present-day terminal concourses.) Cliff is depicted pushing a trolley piled high with their luggage. In reality, then as now, baggage reclaim was situated at the kerb, so they couldn't have had checked baggage while in the tunnel.

When the date shown falls on a Sunday in February, KHJ is playing on the car radio, with Robert W. Morgan on the air. Morgan did not normally work on Sundays, as he was the morning‑drive DJ from Monday to Friday.

After the sunset sequence on 8 August, Sharon Tate and her friends head to the El Coyote Restaurant; it's night-time and the narrator says it's 7:00 pm. In reality, on that date twilight in Los Angeles began at 7:47 pm. Los Angeles does not see a 7:00 pm sunset until mid-September, and civil twilight does not reach that time until early October.

Smoking a cigarette coated in LSD would not produce a psychedelic effect. However, the cigarette filter would easily soak up a very potent dose of blotter acid, delivering the intended effect as soon as Cliff placed it in his mouth.

The sign at the Van Nuys Drive-In shows Raquel Welch's name misspelt as 'Racquel'.

Janet describes Bruce Lee as "the series lead", which is incorrect. He portrayed the Green Hornet's sidekick, while the role of the Green Hornet was undertaken by series lead Van Williams.

During the period depicted in the film, the Playboy Mansion was not yet owned by Hugh Hefner; he went on to take up residence there from 1974 until his death in 2017. Playboy Enterprises had purchased the property from Louis Statham in 1971 for $1.1 million.

After seeing Schwarz, Rick and Cliff are driving home and halt at a junction where they notice a group of hippies. A white 'WALK' signal and a green traffic light — indicating that vehicles should proceed through the junction — are both illuminated. Cliff pauses for three seconds and then turns right on red. The film is set in 1969, whereas the right-turn-on-red rule was not introduced until 1980. Furthermore, it is unlawful to proceed when the 'WALK' signal is lit.

Janet's on-screen assertion that Bruce Lee was the 'series lead' in The Green Hornet (1966) is incorrect — he was the sidekick. Viewers from a later generation may be misled because much of the promotional artwork for repeats was shifted to feature Lee once he rose to fame in his own right. The star who portrayed the title character was Van Williams.

The side-on shots of the 747, set in 1969, actually depict a 747-400, which did not make its maiden flight until 29 April 1988. The difference is noticeable in the longer hump of the upper deck; the original 747’s hump was considerably shorter.

The ambulance attendant gets into the front passenger seat beside the driver. He would be required to travel in the rear of the vehicle and attend to the patient.

It would not have been possible to change the flat tyre on Cliff's car, as there was no jack to raise the vehicle and remove the old wheel and fit the replacement.

Rick tells Marvin Scharz he's working on the pilot episode of the television series "Lancer", but by February 1969, when the scene is set, "Lancer" had already been broadcast for five months, having first aired in September 1968.

Towards the beginning, when the pair arrive at the meeting place with Schwarz, as Rick climbs out of the car a number of cigarette butts spill out; in the subsequent shot showing Cliff's shoes with Rick's behind them, the butts are no longer on the pavement.

Trudi describes the book that she's reading to Rick. She mentions that it is a biography of Walt Disney and says, "he's a genius, you know". Walt Disney died in 1966, so it is more likely that a careful, accurate Trudi would have used the past tense "he was" rather than the present tense "he's (short for he is)".

Quentin Tarantino is renowned for inserting intentional continuity errors into his films. There are several instances in this film, but the most noticeable is when James Stacy approaches Rick on set—at first he is bare-headed with his cowboy hat hanging down his back, then after an abrupt jump cut the hat is suddenly on his head.

A Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) poster is visible in the background at the studio. That film actually began filming in December 1968, and posters for films still in production are commonly found on studio lots.

Cliff's flat tyre at Spahn Ranch appears to have been replaced with a black spare tyre, but when Cliff removes it and rolls the wheel to the front of the car, the camera is actually showing the rear of the tyre. Whitewall tyres have the white band on only one side, so the reverse side will always be black.

A passing bus displays an advertisement for the programme Combat (1962). That series was taken off the air in 1967. This is unlikely to be a mistake. The advert also stated it was being shown back-to-back on Channel 11. At that time Channel 11 was an independent station and its schedule was full of reruns, of which Combat (1962) quite possibly was one.

Although the average temperature in Los Angeles in February is 69°F, Southern California quite often experiences February heatwaves, with temperatures sometimes climbing into the 90s.

When Cliff is battling Bruce, by the second round the extras have vanished. As the scene is presented as Cliff's recollection of the fight, their disappearance appears deliberate and may indicate that Cliff is an unreliable narrator.

When Rick Dalton blanks on his lines in "Lancer" and later rants to himself in his trailer, the position of the cowboy hat on the mannequin's hat stand shifts throughout the sequence. This is because the scene was edited using jump cuts so DiCaprio could improvise his dialogue in each take without concern for continuity, meaning he may have moved or tossed the hat between the "cuts".

Early in the film, Cliff (Brad Pitt) and Rick (Leonardo DiCaprio) are talking while Cliff drives. He turns onto Cielo Drive, and as they near the road a mural bearing a face that could be mistaken for Jack Nicholson's in The Shining is visible. That film, of course, wouldn't be made for another decade. However, this is NOT a mural of Jack Nicholson in The Shining. It's clearly a mural of Rick Dalton (DiCaprio's character) outside his house.

When Jim Stacy approaches Rick Dalton, he is holding his hat in his left hand until he says, "We're really glad to have a pro like you playing the heavy on the pilot," and Jim's hat suddenly appears on his head, with no cuts or angle changes to account for it. It's not actually a mistake. Note that whenever there is a jump cut like this — and there are several — Tarantino adds a clicking sound to signal that the jump is intentional.

When Cliff walks away after visiting George at the ranch, Pussy looks upset and clearly uses a step to spring onto the damaged VW. If she had actually intended to step on the VW Beetle itself, it would have been onto the front wing, which she obviously could not reach. It’s far more likely she was standing on an old box on the ground, since the place is strewn with scrap.

Although the cameras aren't visible in the opening interview, they're positioned to face both Rick/Cliff and the interviewer. This, in fact, highlights the distinction between how a film director stages a scene and how a television director would.

In the scene featuring posters for the (fictitious) Italian film "Uccidimi subito Ringo disse il Gringo", the film's title is misspelt as "UccidiM suGito", which has no meaning in Italian.

When Booth gives Pussycat a lift while she is hitch-hiking, he guesses she is bound for the Spahn Film Ranch after she mentions Chatsworth. However, prior to the murders that would not have been the most obvious assumption, because the Iverson Film Ranch immediately to the north was much larger and far better known than Spahn.

While Cliff is behind the wheel of the Caddie, just before he sees Pussycat for a third time and gives her a lift, the car’s speedometer can be seen sitting at zero even though he is travelling down the road, laying bare the process shot.

At approximately 1 hour 21 minutes, Cliff can be seen driving about, yet the speedometer is visible and clearly reads 0 mph.

While Cliff is walking Brandy on the night of the Manson Family attack, the headlamps of the car Tex Watson is driving are mirrored in another vehicle at the far end of the street until Cliff reaches that spot, showing the car was stationary rather than having driven up the road to guarantee the driver hit the intended mark.

As Cliff approaches Rick's driveway to repair his aerial, the real-life address of the property used for the Tate house can be seen painted on the pavement: 19074 Alta View Drive, Studio City, California.

When her friend comes to visit Sharon, she says at the gate "...and the baby", but the cot she takes from the car is clearly empty (and far too light to be carrying a baby).

At 1:58:20 a PAN AM Boeing 747 is shown with three windows on its upper deck. While that tally is correct for the initial 747-100 model, the upper deck ought to be considerably shorter. The aeroplane appears to be a 747-300 with 17 of its 20 upper-deck windows digitally removed. Also, the on-screen date reads 20 August 1969, yet PAN AM hadn't flown its first 747 until five months later.

In the trailer, when DiCaprio looks into a mirror, viewers can see his face, which reveals he is actually looking directly at the camera, thereby breaking the fourth wall while attempting to lead us to believe he is gazing at his own reflection.

Patently artificial, alternating sideburns on Pitt's cheeks, particularly noticeable at 15'29".