Goofs for
300 (2006) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: When the oracle is asked the future of Sparta, the clip that holds her gown switches from her right shoulder to her left shoulder, then back to the right.
  
  
• Continuity: The shadows change positions as Queen Gorgo talks with Theron.
  
  
• Continuity: When Queen Gorgo and the Loyalist meet for the first time, they speak against a backdrop of torches. We see their shadows as they talk on the sand. However, when we see them speaking again, the floor beneath them is all stone. It is not possible that their shadows could have reached all the way from where they speaking, down the steps, and out into the sandy courtyard.
  
  

• Anachronisms: In the scenes of Leonidas with his mouth open, you can see that he has fillings in his teeth.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: During the battle scenes, the blood never appears on the ground. In one scene, the blood hits the ground and disappears; in many it vanishes in the air. In another, the droplets fall and stick out of the ground like arrows. This is a stylistic choice to reflect the ‘graphic novel’ origins of the film.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the scene in which the battle rhino appears, the rhino can be seen passing through one of the Persians.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After Leonidas kicks the Persian messenger into the pit, he turns and walks towards the camera, when he does this the scar on his right shoulder can be seen coming off slightly.
  
  
• Continuity: When Leonidas is carrying the child out of the destroyed village, the child's head is hanging below Leonidas's arm. However, when Leonidas stands in front of the Tree of the Dead, the child's head is level with his arm, and no longer drooping.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The narrator says the Spartans are descended from Hercules. Hercules is actually the Roman name of the Greek hero, Heracles. This is presumably done because English speakers would most likely recognize the former name then the latter.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Several characters have vaccination scars. A very noticeable example is Daxos' left bicep when he and Stelios are looking at the amassed Persian forces and talking about the Spartan's wish for a beautiful death.
  
  
• Continuity: After Leonidas' face is cut by the immortals giant, throughout the movie the cut moves slightly (e.g. at first the part under his eye is slightly slanted, then later on in the movie, the cut starts farther down on his face, and it is more straight).
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: On a close-up shot of Leonidas, when he is about to kneel to Xerxes, you can see the reflection of the studio lights in his eyes.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In Xerxes first appearance, all the closeups show the prosthetic piercings in his face are clearly fake attachments with makeup.
  
  
• Continuity: The first time the Spartans are attacked, a Spartan's arm is grazed with a spear over the top of the shield wall. When the spear moves forward it cuts the arm, then in the next shot from another angle, the arm has no wound yet and gets cut by the spear retracting.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The sun sometimes changes position in the sky, most noticeably when the Spartans push the Persians off the cliff. In this shot, they are silhouetted against the sun, which is level with them, but seconds later the distant Persians fire arrows which blot out the sun now high above them.
  
  
• Continuity: After the Spartans are attacked with the shields for the first time Leonidas stands and breaks the arrows off leaving the heads in his shield. When he turns to attack moments later the arrows are gone completely.
  
  
• Continuity: When Leonidas is talking with the Xerxes messenger, you can easily see his plait change position between shots.
  
  
• Anachronisms: As Leonidas is considering the Persian Messenger's offer the camera zooms in on a mother standing with her daughter, clearly visible is the curved outline of a modern brassiere cup under the woman's peplos (or chiton).
  
  
• Anachronisms: A modern vaccination mark can be seen on the left arm of Queen Gorgo.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ephialtes begs Leonidas to submit to Xerxes, actor Andrew Tiernan uses a much different voice then he did earlier, and the fake teeth and/or makeup garble his words more then before.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Before their departure, the captain says there are 300 men "all with born sons to carry on their name." However a moment later Leonidas points out that Astinos is too young to have even felt the warmth of a woman.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the scene with the oracle where she is floating/dancing you can clearly see her holding her breath (her cheeks are puffed out). This was due to the scene being filmed underwater and then removing the water.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Whenever you see an arrow being shot they have barbed or wide arrowheads yet after they have hit someone the are always in a small round hole. The arrows would look like they are sticking out of a cut the width of the arrowhead.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Dilios is telling the story to the new soldiers he is commanding before battle. Yet he leaves before King Leonidas and his men execute their final attack. So he wouldn't have known what they did exactly but he is telling the men everything until the point of Leonidas's death as if he was still there for it. However, the character of Dilios, according to director Zack Snyder in the documentary The 300: Fact or Fiction? (2007) (V) on the 2-Disc Special Edition DVD, is not a man to allow truth get in the way of a good story and is narrating in an effort to invigorate his men before a later battle.
  
  
• Continuity: In the last fight scene, the Persian archers are all lined up behind the Spartans, but when Xerxes gives the call to attack, the arrows come from in front of the Spartans and hit them in their chests rather than their backs.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Persians first fire their volley of arrows at the Spartans, their capes become pinned down by many of them as they duck, but when they stand up, there are no arrows in their capes, nor any corresponding holes.
  
  
• Factual errors: Xerxes, or any Persian ruler, would never have referred to himself as a god or a god-king as an Egyptian Pharaoh would. It would be the highest blasphemy. Their title was roughly translated as King-Emperor which the British Monarch used during the height of their Empire. The Persians, specially the Persian kings, were Zoroastrians which is an early form of monotheism with a single supreme, Creator. Their god is considered, by many, to be the same as the Hebrew-Christian-Islamic God.
  
  
• Factual errors: Sparta was not a "free" country as it is constantly referring to itself. Sparta was more like Apartheid South Africa. 10% of the population was free. 90% were in one form of slavery or another. The Spartans had conquered and enslaved their neighboring city. That's why they were all in the army, in case of slave revolt.
  
  
• Factual errors: The final test for a Spartan warrior was not the wilderness survival, though that was a part. The final test was to sneak out of the barracks, kill an unsuspecting slave, and return without being caught. The wolf story of Leonidas might actually be loosely based on Xerxes. To prove he was worthy to be King, Xerxes was locked in a room with a full grown lion, armed only with a spear.
  
  

• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: Before Astinos dies, you can see the white horse standing in the background through the fog waiting to move forward.
  
  

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