Goofs for
Heartbreak Ridge (1986) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: Highway's cigar gains length during the prison fight.
  
  
• Continuity: When Sgt. Highway orders his platoon out the first time it is supposedly 5 o'clock in the morning, yet the sun stands high above casting short shadows.
  
  
• Continuity: The amount of beer in the glass given to Highway at the Globe & Anchor bar.
  
  

• Continuity: When Highway and his platoon attack the hill in the end of the movie a tank is blown up by a helicopter, but in the next shot it's still intact.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The final scene is supposed to be at Cherry Point, MCAS, North Carolina, but you can see hills in the distance; Cherry Point just has pine trees.
  
  
• Continuity: When the platoon is forced to take cover in an abandoned building at the end, Profile (the radio operator) is killed and his radio destroyed so that they have to call for help via phone. Later on, when the platoon takes the hill, someone else lies down near Lt. Ring, with an intact radio on his back.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Highway is in a bar near the beginning of the movie, he watches a performance of "the Ayatollah of Rock & Rollah". However the "Ayatollah", whose singing is amplified, doesn't appear to have a microphone.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Highway starts the marching cadence at the end of the 5:00 AM scene, the cadence doesn't match the footwork of the soldiers when they are marching away from the camera.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Highway is supposedly reporting for duty at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, but the gate and am-trac display is Camp Pendleton, California.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Jones and Highway first met on a bus, Jones supposedly was soaking wet (it was raining hard outside). But when he sat down beside Highway, he's already dry.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Aponte turns over one of the dead Cubans at the bridge, the supposedly dead soldier moves his legs to make it easier for Aponte to roll him over.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In the opening shot, you can see the shadow of the helicopter that is holding the camera as it circles the prison.
  
  
• Continuity: During the assault, the camouflage paint on Gunny Highway's face and other soldiers rubs off and is nearly wiped clean at times, but is later in place.
  
  
• Continuity: When Highway encounters re-con platoon for the first time ("No speaka English" and "No abla") he pushes the hut door open with his left hand but in the next shot, from inside the hut, it's his right hand pushing the door open.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the beginning of the film, when Highway stands to attention as the colors are being lowered at sunset, the bugle call being played is "Taps". However, the correct call is "Retreat". Taps is played later in the evening at Lights Out.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At the beginning, when Gunny is in the prison in 1983, it's possible to see a calendar indicating Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st July 1983, but actually 20th July 1983 was Wednesday and 21st July was Thursday.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Recon platoon departs the ship, they are in a UH-1N (two engine version) of the Huey. When the marines jump out of the helicopter, they are in a UH-1H (single engine version) of the Huey.
  
  
• Factual errors: In several instances, the unit to which GySgt Highway is assigned is referred to as "Recon Platoon". If the unit is, indeed, 2d Reconnaissance Battalion as is assumed, there would be no "Recon Platoon". The entire battalion is "Recon". It is possible that the actual goof is in his assignment to 2d Reconnaissance Battalion. With the way the movie is written, it would make more sense for him to be assigned to the reconnaissance platoon of a Marine Corps infantry battalion, hence the rivalry with the apparently conventional 1st Platoon.
  
  
• Factual errors: While chastising GySgt Highway on his altering of the ambush plan, Maj Powers mentions that the men belong to the 2d Marine Division, 8th Marine Regiment. 2d Reconnaissance Battalion has never been a subordinate unit of 8th Marine Regiment. This supports the notion that perhaps the goof is in Highway's assignment to 2d Reconnaissance Battalion.
  
  
• Factual errors: Midway into the film Stitch Jones is surprised to learn that Gunny Highway is a Medal of Honor recipient. Yet up to this point Jones has had ample opportunity to observe the decoration on Highway's uniform. As the nation's HIGHEST military decoration it is placed on the left breast, first and highest above all others. Equally hard for any of the recon members to miss would be the sight of Highway's superiors (like Maj Powers) being obliged to initiate the salute to the lesser ranking Highway - a privilege, by tradition, extended to MoH recipients.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Military personnel say "zero" instead of "oh" for the number 0 so Lt. Ring should not have said "oh" when reading off the coordinates for the air strike. This may have been intentional to show the character as being green in combat.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the Marines engage in the firefight with the Cuban soldiers, one of the "dead" Cubans jumps when the Marine who is next to him fires his weapon.
  
  
• Continuity: During the Grenada scenes, the slings on the Marines' rifles disappear and reappear for no apparent reason. All of these rifles would have a sling!
  
  
• Errors in geography: When the Marines are on the rifle range there are mountains in the background. There are no mountains within about 500 miles of Camp Lejeune, NC.
  
  
• Factual errors: While scrambling around the barracks before the Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise, Jones mentions Aponte "getting his big cartoon face back here before he does time for doing 'A-W-O-L'". The Marine Corps does not use the term "AWOL". The Navy and Marine Corps analogue for AWOL is actually UA (Unauthorized Absence).
  
  
• Plot holes: When the gunny is in jail with Cpl Jones, no one is referenced as having posted the corporal's bail, yet he casually walks out when the SgtMaj tells him to help the gunny walk out.
  
  
• Factual errors: In early scenes in the movies, GySgt Highway's MOH ribbon is correctly shown as being centered above his other ribbons, below his Naval Parachutist wings and Scuba insignia. In later scenes, it's shown as being on the same row as his Silver Star. The Medal Of Honor ribbon is always displayed alone, centered, on its own row.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU) is based out of Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. Most of the training scenes (pre-invasion) were filmed at Camp Pendleton, California.
  
  

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