'Spider-Man' climbs towards new record for continuity flaws

Spider-Man superhuman powers to stick to the outsides of buildings but the new Hollywood film of his adventures has come spectacularly unstuck.

Spider-Man superhuman powers to stick to the outsides of buildings but the new Hollywood film of his adventures has come spectacularly unstuck.

Despite its blockbuster budget, Spider-Man could break records for an unwelcome reason: as the film with the greatest number of continuity errors. The movie had the most successful opening of any film, taking $114m (£78m) in the first two days of its release in America, compared with its overall budget of $80m. But fans have so far spotted a total of 77 errors, the most flaws identified over an opening weekend. The howlers, which are catalogued at the website movie-mistakes.com, include disappearing backpacks, self-repairing lamps, and costumes alternating between being dirty and clean during a single fight scene.

The blunders are likely to increase once fans can freeze- frame scenes in the DVD version, making the movie a contender for the most error-strewn film of all time.

Jon Sandys, the website owner, said the number of mistakes spotted could be a symptom of the film's popularity. He said: "It's obviously possible that it's got a higher than average number of errors, but huge numbers of people are going to see it – and that makes for lots of pairs of eyes checking every inch of the screen."

Among the inaccuracies in the film is a scene where Spider-Man beats up four men, throws two of them through windows and then deals with the other two – with the windows suddenly intact.

Top ten: mistake-ridden movies

1. The Matrix: 146 errors

2. Titanic: 135

3. The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring: 113

4. Gladiator: 96

5. Jurassic Park: 95

6. Terminator 2, Judgment Day: 89

7. Star Wars: 82

8. Pearl Harbor: 78

9. Spider-Man: 77

10. Independence Day: 76