History ContinuitySnarl / LiveActionFilms

** ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'' opens with Adrian Toomes being denied the opportunity to clean up the mess that resulted from ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', and the TimeSkip before showing him having turned into a black market arms dealer with a Vulture wingsuit reads "8 Years Later", which makes no sense out of universe (''Avengers'' and ''Homecoming'' were separated by five years) or in-continuity (the events of the movie are only a few months after ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', which came out and is set 4 years after ''The Avengers'').

* Minor by comparison to most of the other examples, but Tim Burton's ''Film/Batman1989'' featured a black Harvey Dent, whereas when he was used as a character in the Joel Schumacher-directed sequels, he was depicted as white. Or at least, [[TwoFaced half of him is white]].

** The official prequel comic for the first ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' movie revealed that Nebula had cut off her own arm [[LifeOrLimbDecision to escape a trap]] after being ensnared by Gamora. ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'' instead says that Comicbook/{{Thanos}} had Nebula's arm amputated and replaced with a cybernetic upgrade after she lost a fight to Gamora. Creator/JamesGunn ended up having to declare the prequel non-canon to explain the discrepancy.

** ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'' opens with Adrian Toomes being denied the opportunity to clean up the mess that resulted from ''Film/TheAvengers2012'', and the TimeSkip before showing him having turned into a black market arms dealer with a Vulture wingsuit reads "8 Years Later", which makes no sense out of universe (''Avengers'' and ''Homecoming'' were separated by five years) or in-continuity (the events of the movie are only a few months after ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', which came out and is set 4 years after ''The Avengers'').

* Most of the films which Creator/QuentinTarantino had a hand in creating are part of one of two sprawling cinematic universes, the "Realer than Real Universe", and the "Movie Movie Universe", which consists of films that are meant to exist within the Realer than Real Universe. Sounds simple on paper, but the exact continuity is very messy when you look at the details. Officer Earl [=McGraw=] and his son Edgar show up in ''Film/DeathProof,'' which is part of the Realer than Real Universe, but Earl also shows up (and ''dies'') in ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn,'' and both [=McGraws=] show up in ''Film/KillBill,'' both of which are in the Movie Movie Universe. So, it's possible that the characters in the Movie Movies are meant to be based on the real [=McGraws=] in the Realer than Reals, but the real problem comes from ''Film/PlanetTerror'', which seems to takes place in the same universe as ''Death Proof'' (the two share several locations and characters) and yet those two movies don't mesh since ''Planet Terror'' depicts a zombie apocalypse and the second half of ''Death Proof'' would take place after this, yet there's no sign of zombies anywhere. So, does ''Planet Terror'' fit into the Movie Movie Universe and the whole cast of ''Death Proof'' exist in both universes the way the [=McGraws=] do, or does ''Planet Terror'' somehow exist in the Realer than Real universe and nobody happens to ever mention that one time zombies nearly took over the world? No matter how you try to piece it together, it doesn't make sense...though that's likely the joke, given that ''Planet Terror'' and ''Death Proof'' are both parodies of terrible old grindhouse movies which didn't care about continuity either.

* The original ''Franchise/RoboCop'' trilogy has a bit of a minor problem with the name of the titular cyborg's superior officer, Sgt. Reed: in [[Film/RoboCop1987 in the first movie]], his first name is given in one scene as "John", but in [[Film/RoboCop2 the second]], he's referred to by Murphy (following his reprogramming by Dr. Faxx) as "Warren". Though given that was also when Murphy was going crazy thanks to Faxx and screwing up old sayings, it's also possible he just called Reed the wrong name.

** Additionally in ''T3'', John states the raid on Cyberdyne was 10 years before the events of the film -- except, again, ''T2'' takes place in 1995 and ''T3'' in 2004, so he's off by a year; it'd been 9 years.
** Sarah's "grave" states she was born in 1959 -- except it's explicitly stated in the first two films she was 18 during the first and 29 during the second, not respectively "25" and "26", meaning she'd really been born in 1966.

* ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'' sees quite a bit of this:
** John Connor state at the opening of the film that he was 13 when the events of ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' happened. Problem is one: ''T2'' sees a computer states he was ten; two: said computer also stated when was born in 1985, meaning combined with John's age, ''T2'' (released in 1991) takes place in [[NextSundayAD 1995 or early 1996]]; and three: ''T2'' sees its T-800 state the Judgment Day the title refers to would happen on August 29, 1997 -- meaning John would be 12 when it happens -- and thus 13 in 1998, ''after'' Judgement Day.

** Sarah's "grave" states she was born in 1959 -- except it's explicitly state in the first two films she was 18 during the first and 29 during the second, not respectively "25" and "26", meaning she was really born in 1966.

* ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'' sees John Connor state at the opening of the film that he was 13 when the events of ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' happened. Problem is one: ''T2'' sees a computer states he was ten; two: said computer also stated when was born in 1985, meaning combined with John's age, ''T2'' (released in 1991) takes place in [[NextSundayAD 1995 or early 1996]]; and three: ''T2'' sees its T-800 state the Judgment Day the title refers to would happen on August 29, 1997 -- meaning John would be 12 when it happens -- and thus 13 in 1998, ''after'' Judgement Day.

* ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'' sees John Connor state at the opening of the film that he was 13 when the events of ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' happened. Problem is one: ''T2'' sees a computer states he was ten; two: said computer also stated when was born in 1985, meaning ''T2'' (released in 1991) takes place in [[NextSundayAD 1995 or early 1996]];p and three: ''T2'' sees its T-800 state the Judgment Day the title refers to would happen on August 29, 1997 -- meaning John would be 12 when it happens -- and thus 13 in 1998, ''after'' Judgement Day.

** After that, ''Film/GodzillaAgainstMechagodzilla'' started ''another'' continuity where the original film happened but again with a different ending (and ''not'' the same ending ''Megaguirus'' featured) as well as several other Toho Monster films, but only ones not featuring Godzilla. Things get messy because one of those films, ''Gorath,'' featured the destruction of Earth's moon, which is clearly still visible.

** The first ''Film/{{Thor}}'' movie features the Infinity Gauntlet in the vault of Odin's treasures. Not a problem at first...but then the Infinity Stones began being explored in future films (since the Gauntlet shown in ''Thor'' had all 6 stones in it), with various creators saying that there were two gauntlets in existence. ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' attempted to address this by having [[BigBad Hela]] call the gauntlet a fake when she visited Odin's vault... only for ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' to reveal that the real Gauntlet had only been recently crafted, raising questions about how Odin could have a copy of something that didn't exist yet in his vault.

* The original ''Franchise/RoboCop'' trilogy has a bit of a minor problem with the name of the titular cyborg's superior officer, Sgt. Reed: in [[Film/RoboCop1987 in the first movie]], his first name is given in one scene as "John", but in [[Film/RoboCop2 the second]], he's referred to by Murphy (following his reprogramming by Dr. Faxx) as "Warren".

** ''Film/{{Godzilla 1998}}'' was a remake of the original, unconnected to all the others.

** The first ''Film/{{Thor}}'' movie features the Infinity Gauntlet in the vault of Odin's treasures. Not a problem at first...but then the Infinity Stones began being explored in future films (since the Gauntlet shown in ''Thor'' had all 6 stones in it), with various creators saying that there were two gauntlets in existance. ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' attempted to address this by having [[BigBad Hela]] call the gauntlet a fake when she visited Odin's vault... only for ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' to reveal that the real Gauntlet had only been recently crafted, raising questions about how Odin could have a copy of something that didn't exist yet in his vault.

** In another case of an EasterEgg contradicting later established continuety, Stephen Strange is one of the names rattled off in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' as a potential threat to HYDRA's plans, along with Iron Man and Hulk. However, [[Film/DoctorStrange2016 the master surgeon would not gain his powers]] or [[CharacterDevelopment the will to fight HYDRA]] until roughly 3 years later.

* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' saga caused several snarls, with some caused due to conflicting Expanded Universe material, and some due to the series' jump from the original trilogy to the prequels:
** When {{Creator/Disney}} acquired the franchise, the previously existing EU material was relegated to a separate ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' continuity in order to avoid some of this with the sequel trilogy.
** Obi-Wan has several statements in the OT that turn out to be [[MetaphoricallyTrue Half-Truth]] at best (which does fit in with his character; he is one of the most prominent examples of Half-Truth). He claimed he didn't own a droid in ''Film/ANewHope'', but did during the prequels (though apparently it was the Jedi Order's droid, not his personal droid). He apparently didn't know that Leia was Luke's sister at first, despite being present when they were both born and named. He never specifically stated that Yoda was his mentor, but it was certainly the implication in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' (before it's revealed that it was Qui-Gon Jinn, then subsequently patched up by showing Yoda trained young Jedi before they grow up and get another mentor as a Padawan). It is lampshaded in the Episode VI, when Luke asks to Obi-wan why he didn't tell the truth about his father having become Darth Vader instead of the story he was killed by him. The old Jedi explains that the one that Anakin used to be died metaphorically once he joined the dark side, so what he said was true, [[MetaphoricallyTrue from a certain point of view]].
** Leia claimed to have remembered her mother in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', but Padmé died in childbirth in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''. Possibly explainable if she was thinking about her adopted mother Breha Organa, although Luke does specify "your real mother" when he asks, which implies Leia had a first adoptive mother or a nanny before Breha that she mistook for her true late mother. The novelization of ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' lampshades/handwaves this. When the twins are born, Luke is described as having his eyes shut tightly while Leia's are open as if trying to take in everything. Presumably, [[AWizardDidIt the Force then allows Leia to remember Padmé even though newborns don't have a working long-term memory]]. It's later addressed in Marvel's ''ComicBook/PrincessLeia'' series, where she has a Force vision of Padmé while visiting Naboo, realizing at once that the former queen is her mother.
** In ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', Darth Vader does not seem to recognize C-3PO, despite creating him in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' (and remarking in said film that he's incredibly unique). The Expanded Universe attempted to rectify this in a (non-canon) story called "[[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Thank_the_Maker Thank The Maker]]", where Vader reminisces about his mother and 3PO when he's at Cloud City. Of course, at a glance he looks like every other member of a fairly ubiquitous model line.
** ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' reveals that it took roughly 20 years to build the Death Star (from the time Luke and Leia are born, a rough frame of the structure is being built) without anyone realizing it. In ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', the Death Star II only takes 3-4 years to be fully functional and mostly-built. The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin aptly-named]] novel ''Literature/DeathStar'' tries to address this, going over numerous problems that came up over the course of its construction (including at least one instance of the superlaser having to be stripped out and redesigned). Death Star II, despite being somewhere between 2 and 20 times larger than Death Star I (depending on the source), could be built much more quickly because by that point the Empire actually ''knew how to build a Death Star''. Gets a possibly unintended lampshade when an Imperial officer complains about the speed at which he's expected to finish the project. Making it worse is that in the original Expanded Universe (written before the prequels) there was a prototype built in the secret Maw Installation (having nothing to do with the Geonosians) before work on Death Star I ever started. It's later established in ''Film/RogueOne'' that Galen Erso deliberately dragged out the process for as long as he could, and [[spoiler: included that infamous exhaust port in the design]].
** Speaking of the Death Star, prior to the Legends consignment and ''Rogue One'', one of the biggest snarls was "who stole the Death Star plans?" This was due to the fact that it was such a pivotal and easy story to cover (there's a reason ''Rogue One'' exists) that something like six or seven different stories were about the theft of the plans. Eventually, it was declared that pretty much everyone involved found bits and pieces of the plans, and the data R2 carried was basically all the assembled schematics that people had managed to scrape together. One official article jokingly noted "if you had to throw a dinner party and invite everyone who had ever stolen the Death Star plans, you'd be surprised at how many place settings you'd have to worry about."
** Obi-Wan and Yoda supposedly left Luke on Tatooine with the purpose of training him later. When that day came, Yoda acted surprised and even argued with Obi-Wan as to whether or not Luke should be trained. While in the prequels, Yoda is explicitly shown teaching young children (and therefore may simply have assumed the plan had changed since Luke wasn't brought to him, say, ten years ago and feel that Luke is now too old to begin training), which suggests that he's upset because Obi-Wan (who was literally watching over Luke his entire life) didn't train him as he was expected to.
** Within the original trilogy, Luke and Leia are set up as possible love interests (to the point that a deleted scene shows them about to kiss), only to be revealed as siblings later on. Neither of them ''has the slightest idea'' that they are, even though Luke's Force perception should have tipped him off at some point. The problem was that Han Solo clearly has a romantic interest in Leia in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', and the last thing old-school George Lucas wanted was to end the trilogy with a messy love triangle.
** Obi-Wan, and Anakin after he removes the Vader mask in ''ROTJ'', are played by actors in their 60s and 70s, respectively, suggesting they would have been in their 40s and 50s when Luke and Leia were born. Instead, they were shown to be in their 20s and 30s. Possibly justified: With Vader, he was terribly scarred and had to resort to Bacta Tank baths in order to heal his burned skin, thus making him seem older then he looks. In the case of Obi-Wan, him being YoungerThanHeLooks could be explained as due to living alone on a Tatooine for 20 years as well as the stress of [[TraumaCongaLine everything he has endured throughout his life]] taking its toll on him physically.
*** Obi-Wan ''was'' roughly as old as Creator/AlecGuinness as of Episode IV, though: He was born in 57 BBY according to canon, which makes him only 5 years younger than his actor. The confusion presumably comes from Creator/EwanMcGregor being 30 years younger at the time of III than Alec Guinness was at the time of IV, i.e. him being 5 years ''younger'' than "his" version of Obi-Wan.
** Anyone who listens to the ''Radio/StarWarsRadioDramas'' can't help but notice that Han shoots first and does not meet Jabba on Tatooine. These were two of the more infamous changes made by Lucas when he ReCut the 1977 film for re-release.
** ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' caused a few continuity snarls, but the biggest was probably Wulff Yularen, a character who briefly appeared in the first movie as an [[StateSec Imperial Security Bureau]] colonel. The animators mistook him for a high-ranking Navy officer and made him an admiral during the Clone Wars. This led to an escalating series of {{retcon}}s, as each attempt to reconcile his background [[VoodooShark created a new plothole somewhere else]].

* Most of the films which Creator/QuentinTarantino had a hand in creating are part of one of two sprawling cinematic universes, the "Realer than Real Universe", and the "Movie Movie Universe", which consists of films that are meant to exist within the Realer than Real Universe. Sounds simple on paper, but the exact continuity is very messy when you look at the details. Officer Earl [=McGraw=] and his son Edgar show up in ''Film/DeathProof,'' which is part of the Realer than Real Universe, but Earl also shows up (and ''dies'') in ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn,'' and both [=McGraws=] show up in ''Film/KillBill,'' both of which are in the Movie Movie Universe. So, it's possible that the characters in the Movie Movies are meant to be based on the real [=McGraws=] in the Realer than Reals, but the real problem comes from ''Film/PlanetTerror'', which seems to takes place in the same universe as ''Death Proof'' (the two share several locations and characters) and yet those two movies don't mesh since ''Planet Terror'' depicts a zombie apocalypse and the second half of ''Death Proof'' would take place after this, yet there's no sign of zombies anywhere. So, does ''Planet Terror'' fit into the Movie Movie Universe and the whole cast of ''Death Proof'' exist in both universes the way the [=McGraws=] do, or does ''Planet Terror'' somehow exist in the Realer than Real universe and nobody happens to ever mention that one time zombies nearly took over the world? No matter how you try to piece it together, it doesn't make sense...though that's likely the joke, given that ''Planet Terror'' and ''Death Proof'' are both parodies of terrible old grindhouse movies which didn't care about continuity either.
** The ''Film/{{Machete}}'' trilogy is also possibly a part of the Movie Movie Universe, which complicates matters further because the title character of those films is officially the same person as Uncle Machete from the ''Film/SpyKids'' series. Are ''those'' part of the Movie Movie Universe too? We'll likely never get a straight answer.
* The ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' series has a huge one in part V (which takes place after Jason Voorhees gets killed but before he becomes undead). Some murders are happening and Tommy Jarvis (who killed Jason as a kid in the previous movie) is afraid Jason has come back from the dead. At one point the Mayor tells him Jason was cremated and he's "nothing but a handful of ash". This would be contradicted in the ''very next film'' where Tommy goes to Jason's grave, digs him up, and rams a metal rod through his heart in order to destroy him forever, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero only for lightning to strike that exact spot and reanimate Jason as an undead.]] This can perhaps be HandWaved by saying the Mayor was lying to make Tommy feel better, but that doesn't answer how he found out Jason was really buried and where his grave was. Later films would basically just cover this error up by never mentioning it.

{{Continuity Snarl}}s in film.

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%%!!Live-Action

* The ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' series has a huge one in part V (which takes place after Jason Voorhees gets killed but before he becomes undead). Some murders are happening and Tommy Jarvis (who killed Jason as a kid in the previous movie) is afraid Jason has come back from the dead. At one point the Mayor tells him Jason was cremated and he's "nothing but a handful of ash". This one be contradicted in the ''very next film'' where Tommy goes to Jason's grave, digs him up, and rams a metal rod through his heart in order to destroy him forever, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero only for lightning to strike that exact spot and reanimate Jason as an undead.]] This can perhaps be HandWaved by saying the Mayor was lying to make Tommy feel better, but that doesn't answer how he found out Jason was really buried and where his grave was. Later films would basically just cover this error up by never mentioning it.

** In another case of an EasterEgg contradicting later established continuety, Stephen Strange is one of the names rattled off in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' as a potential threat to HYDRA's plans, along with Iron Man and Hulk. However, [[Film/DoctorStrange the master surgeon would not gain his powers]] or [[CharacterDevelopment the will to fight HYDRA]] until roughly 3 years later.