The Shawshank Redemption

Plot hole: When the warden comes into the cell the morning after the escape, the poster covering the hole is fastened down on all four corners - impossible to do after squeezing into that small hole. [On the DVD commentary, the director confirms that this was a movie "cheat".] (01:49:05)

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Suggested correction: It's a shame the director surrendered, but for someone as smart as Andy, this is the smallest of problems. He could've put weights on the bottom of the poster, or used magnets he embedded in the walls together with iron glued to the poster, or enough washers in the bottom to essentially do both.

dizzyd

That's a load of rubbish. Embedding magnets in the wall? Really.

Ssiscool

If he can make a six foot escape tunnel, he can scrape out several small holes around the poster's edge, and insert the aforementioned magnets, glued in however he can manage (ie tape, chewing gum).

dizzyd

He could have simply used glue mixed with dirt to weigh it down. Once the glue dried it wouldn't matter how heavy the poster was, so long as there was contact.

How could Andy do that after he escaped through the hole in the wall?

satishsasikumar

I don't think it's what happened, but easily enough. Put magnets in the wall during his tunnel digging process - he had years - then something magnetic affixed to the corners of the poster. As soon as he was in the hole the poster would hang down and affix itself to the bottom corners.

Further, if the poster weren't "glued" on the bottom, it would not have been taught enough for the warden's pebble to go through it. If the poster were attached loosely, the pebble would have simply bounced off.

Continuity mistake: When Brooks has the knife to Heywood's throat, in one shot there is blood visible on his neck, yet in the next shot the blood is gone. (00:54:15)

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Suggested correction: It was always there. But in the 3rd of 4 scenes it was significantly more visible as a bright red streak. The other 3 times it's a dark red dot near the knife point.

The Shawshank Redemption mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Andy is in the bank, in the background you can see a man in a "porkpie" hat and a white shirt move forward to talk to the cashier. As Andy stands up to leave, the man can be seen again, standing towards the back of the queue. (01:56:10)

SexyIrishLeprechaun

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Suggested correction: The man may have made an error to some paperwork (deposit slip or withdraw slip), and had to get another one and fix his mistake...which would have put him at the end of the queue. You don't get to jump back in line, unless offered that convenience.

Trivia: The Humane Society had to be present for the scene when the maggot is feed to the bird, Jake. The Society said it was cruel to the maggot, so it had to get a maggot that died of natural causes before the crew could shoot it.

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Suggested correction: Tim Robbins said this on a 1997 interview on the Tonight Show, but he really seemed to be joking.

Brian Katcher

Continuity mistake: At the start when Andy opens a bottle of alcohol, he drinks it with the same hand he opened it with. His hand is shifted after the second time we see him take a drink. (00:03:00)

Ali78

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Suggested correction: Watch carefully he takes the cap off and palms it in his right hand and as he does, so he lowers his hand and grabs the glass bottle to have a drink.

Ssiscool

While the mistake isn't very clear, this mistake seems to be about the second time we see him take a drink, after the cut. After he says it's inconvenient the gun was never found, he's seen lifting the bottle by the neck, then the next shot, he's holding it further down.

Bishop73

Factual error: A single bar of prison-issued soap and a pool of cold, sewage-contaminated water would never be enough to wash the stench that Andy would have acquired from worming through 300 feet of waste.

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Suggested correction: Andy could have found an area of cleaner water (say a puddle, small pond, or other ditch) to do a basic cleaning before fully cleaning elsewhere, like a cheap motel.

LorgSkyegon

Suggested correction: First of all it was 500 yards, not 300 feet. Second, all Andy really has to do is go upstream to where the water is clean. I guess you must have also forgotten that has been raining.

Factual error: Towards the end of the movie when Andy is escaping, he breaks open a sewage pipe and is covered with its contents. It is physically impossible for the sewage to shoot out of the break like it did. In order for that to happen there has to be pressure. But there is none there, because the end he crawls through is empty and the end is in the open air. (01:52:20)

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Red: There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret. Not because I'm in here, or because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone and this old man is all that's left. I got to live with that. Rehabilitated? It's just a bullshit word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit.

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The Shawshank Redemption trivia picture

Trivia: When the Warden opens the Bible to where Andy hid his rock hammer, he opens it to the book of Exodus, which chronicles the Israelites' escape from Egypt.

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Chosen answer: In the original novella it is revealed that Andy smuggled $500 into the prison inside of his rectum. During an interview in 2004 Robbins incorrectly quoted the amount as being $100. The narration up until Red's release is provided as Red writes his account of the events while still in prison, and employs the same method to smuggle the story out. But since the issue of Andy smuggling in $500 into the prison isn't addressed in the movie, we should assume that he smuggled it in. In addition to this, the wardens scams are described as "near slave labor." From this we can assume that it is possible the inmates are getting paid (an incredibly small) wage. Perhaps Andy, with his financial knowledge, knows how to haggle, barter and stretch a dollar. One last (but not as likely) scenario is that Red allows some sort of lay by system to inmates.

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