Shared with you
Character error
Bandit says that it is 900 miles each way from Atlanta, Georgia to Texarkana, Texas. It is actually 665 miles each way if taking the Interstates, or 622 miles if you take US-82, which is likely the route Bandit and Snowman took, since US-82 (erroneously referred to as "Interstate 82" by Silver-Tongued Devil) is mentioned at one point. Even in 1977, when the average highway speed limit was 55 MPH, it would be no problem for Bandit and Cledus to drive to Texarkana, pick up a cargo of beer, and return to Atlanta in under 28 hours with time to spare, without breaking any traffic laws.
When the police car at the road block is knocked off the embankment, the car seen rolling down towards the river is a late-'60s Ford Galaxy, but when it comes to rest at the bottom, it is a Plymouth Fury.
When Sheriff Justice is stopped at the roadblock and a truck comes by and knocks his open door off, the car is seen from a distance and the door is closed.
Just before Carrie is picked up (Bandit is driving in the rain), two people can be seen in the Trans Am.
No matter how many dusty roads the Bandit drives on, the Trans Am is always clean in the next scene.
The hood of Buford's car buckles in the bridge accident, but is later fixed.
At various times in the movie, Buford uses "hot pursuit" as his justification for going after the Bandit. In all truth, his claim to "hot pursuit" ended after the first time he lost sight of the Bandit.
400 cases of beer would take up about half the space available in Snowman's trailer. As they all seem to be stacked against the rear door and no hold down straps are visible, he would probably arrive in Atlanta with nothing but thousands of broken beer bottles.
In the song at the opening scene, it is stated that Bandit, while traveling down a steep mountain road, "hit them brakes, found he had no air". Most tractor trucks, and practically all of them in the 1970s, operate with a triple-valve air brake system. Without going into details, if a truck actually lost all the air in the lines, the brakes would be applied, not disabled.
Sheriff Justice states repeatedly that he is from Texarkana, Texas, which is in Bowie County, but the decal on the sheriff's car door reads Montague County, which is six counties to the west of Bowie County, (Texarkana, Texas' county), along the Red River.
When Sheriff Justice pulls up to the three guys at the abandoned car, they do not hear the sound of his car pull up or the sound of him walking, yet they can hear the sound of the cigarette lighter being closed.
The Bandit agrees to the bet's time limit of 28 hours so that after "tomorrow's race" they can celebrate with Coors. Within a couple of hours, Bandit buys the car, installs the CB radio, orders and receives personalized plates. Being the race is the next day, which is probably on a Sunday, he does all of this on a Saturday.
At the beginning Snowman and Bandit agree to use odd CB channels and change them every time they talk to each other. And they do change channels during the movie. Everyone else like Sheriff Justice, The Gravedigger, the truckers in the convoy and the prostitutes, are always the same channel as they are without needing to change channels and search for them. However, just because they are not seen trying to find the channels on-screen doesn't mean they immediately had the right one.
After Bandit drops off Carrie at the choke-and-puke, they part ways. Then, Bandit inadvertently meets Sheriff Justice and buys his lunch. Realizing who he is, Bandit takes off out the door to find Carrie driving his Trans Am. How could she? If they were parting ways, she would not have had the keys, and it would be doubtful she knew how to hot-wire a car. However, from the events that transpired it's clear that she simply must have hot-wired the car.
The police chief, a passenger in a squad car, tells the officer driving that the Mulberry bridge has been in disrepair for six months. An officer would know this sort of information about his jurisdiction. However, it is implied that this officer isn't the brightest of bulbs.
According to the movie, you need a permit to transport Coors east of Texas, meaning it is possible to legally make the transport. So the Bandit could have obtained the proper permit so he wouldn't be risking breaking the law. He could have legally made the bet. However, the whole point of the bet was to do it illegally, otherwise it wouldn't have been much of a challenge.
In every shot of the Trans Am's speedometer, the odometer always shows effectively the same mileage, and the ignition is in the "off" position.
When Bandit and Snowman open the garage door of the Coors warehouse, there are stacks and stacks of boxes on pallets that we are meant to believe are full of Coors beer bottles/cans. Yet when Bandit drives the forklift into a stack of boxes, launching Snowman over the stack, the boxes are clearly empty despite the addition of glass breaking sound effects.
When Buford and Bandit are first talking to each other over the CB radios, Buford isn't pushing in the button on the two-way radio when he's talking, so in reality, Bandit wouldn't be able to hear him. Also, Buford is talking into the back of the microphone.
The 1977 Trans Am that is used as the boys cross the Texas state-line has the "Honeycomb" wheels which are actually used on 1976 Trans Ams. In other shots the Trans Ams use the "Snowflake" wheels that were new for 1977 and would be the correct wheel for that model.
In a close-up shot of Bandit's CB radio, the PA/CB switch is in the PA position. PA is for talking over an external loudspeaker. The switch would have to be in the CB position to talk over the radio.
A stand in is used when the Bandit's hand is shown changing channels on the CB radio. Burt Reynolds has hairy hands the hand shown does not.
When the truck pulls up to the diner, the engine sound is that of a two-stroke Detroit Diesel engine. In the opening scene, when the truck engine starts it is a four stroke engine.
When Buford mistakenly arrests a police captain at the RV full of hookers thinking it's the bandit and realizes his error, he tells Junior to take the cuffs off of the captain. He calls Junior "Moose Twit" when it's an obvious overdub of what he really said which is "Moose Twat". (This same exact change in overdub happens in Part 2 as well)
When Pat McCormick: Big Enos flies the plane over, and sprays the crowd orange, his goggles are on upside down when stored above his eyes.
In numerous shots of Carrie and Bandit in the Trans Am, the top of the camera is reflected in the car's door.
During the "hiding in the convoy" scene, as the Allied Van Lines truck that blocked the Troopers' view drops back to let Bandit out of the convoy, a stunt coordinator can be seen leaning out the passenger-side window signaling the driver of the Trans Am (whether Burt Reynolds or a stunt driver) that it's safe to pull out.
When Snowman is being thrown out of the bar, as the double-doors are being opened, there is a brief shot of someone's face standing outside on the right-hand side. They are not there when they show Snowman outside. It could be a crew member there to assist with the stunt.
Towards the end of the film, when Bandit passes Snowman on a curve just as the state trooper's car does a 180 degree turn to chase them, a double image of the Trans Am moves diagonally from the top left of the screen, to the bottom right. It's almost as if it's reflecting off of the camera lens, or a piece of glass placed in front of the camera to possibly protect it.
When the motorcycle cop is talking to Snowman, the two set lights illuminating the scene are reflected in the cops helmet and the air cleaner mounted on the fender of Snowman's truck.
The "Silver Tongued Devil" asks the Bandit if he is on interstate 82 approaching Fayetteville and the Bandit says yes. But, the route that takes you to Fayetteville from Texarkana is U.S. 71. It is 237 miles of some twisting mountain roads and is five hours in the wrong direction.
When the helicopter pilot joins the chase, he radios "I've just picked up the Bandit, eastbound on 95". I-95 runs north/south along the east coast of Georgia, not east/west. the closest they come to driving on I-95 is Savannah GA, which is around 250 miles southeast of Atlanta.
When Bandit approaches what is supposed to be a Deeson County, Arkansas roadblock, a Georgia state route marker is visible just beyond the blocking police cars.
Shortly before they come across the funeral procession, Snowman states that he's about 16 miles West of Mississippi. However, in the background of Sheriff Justice as he is waiting for the funeral procession to pass is the Redan Elementary School in Dekalb County, which is East of Atlanta.
In one scene set in Deeson County, Arkansas, a sign advertising real estate in Clayton County, Georgia can be seen.
The purported reason Coors was forbidden to be shipped east of the Mississippi (or whatever the legal geographical line actually was) was because it's not pasteurized and needed to be refrigerated, which could not be guaranteed that far east of the Colorado brewery. However, when the garage door in Texarkana was opened, it was filled with cases of Coors but no refrigeration.
When Frog asks Bandit if they are really doing 110, the speedometer shows they're going 110km/h, not mph (they're only doing about 67mph).
Bandit says that it is 900 miles each way from Atlanta, Georgia to Texarkana, Texas. It is actually 665 miles each way if taking the Interstates, or 622 miles if you take US-82, which is likely the route Bandit and Snowman took, since US-82 (erroneously referred to as "Interstate 82" by Silver-Tongued Devil) is mentioned at one point. Even in 1977, when the average highway speed limit was 55 MPH, it would be no problem for Bandit and Cledus to drive to Texarkana, pick up a cargo of beer, and return to Atlanta in under 28 hours with time to spare, without breaking any traffic laws.
Just before the bridge jump, Carrie puts both feet on the dashboard and buries her face in her knees. In reality, the deceleration of landing/impact would have shattered her facial bones and quite possibly killed her instantly.
After winning the initial bet, Bandit, Carrie and Cledus (Albeit reluctantly.) agree to a double or nothing bet in which they have eighteen hours to drive to Boston, Massachusetts and pick up some clam chowder. The distance from Atlanta to Boston is 1075.6 miles and would take nearly seventeen hours to drive. Unless they travel by plane, Bandit, Carrie and Cledus have no chance of winning the bet and stand to lose $160,000.
When Carrie first gets into the Trans Am, she exclaims "Are we really going a hundred and ten?" In reality, they were going 110 kilometers per hour which is only 68 miles per hour and no cause for alarm.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
