Goofs for
Public Enemies (2009) More at IMDbPro »

• Anachronisms: In the main trailer for the film, the grill of the Dillinger getaway car is that of a 1936 Chevrolet. Dillinger died in a gun battle in 1934. Obviously, the '36 models of Chevrolet were not in production until late 1935.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Milwaukee streetcars were in orange and cream colors, not green as seen in the film.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene where John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) is getting ready to leave for the Biograph Theatre, Dillinger checks his pocket watch. The time on the watch says 5:00. After a cut to a closer shot about a second later his watch says 6:30.
  
  

• Factual errors: In the film, Baby Face Nelson was killed in a shootout with agents in Wisconsin after the robbery of the Security National Bank at Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In fact, he was killed due to injury's suffered in a shootout with FBI agents in "The Battle Of Barrington" in a northwest suburb of Chicago on November 27, 1934.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the opening sequence, Walter Dietrich is portrayed being killed in the Michigan City breakout on September 26, 1933. Dietrich was actually captured on January 6, 1934, and returned to the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City. Massive bloodshed is shown in the Michigan City sequence, when in fact only one man, a clerk, was wounded.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the scene in which Baby Face Nelson is drunk at the bar, he asks the other people there if they want to hear his James Cagney impersonations, saying Cagney's famous line from "Angels with Dirty Faces": "Whaddya hear, whaddya say." However, the events of "Public Enemies" took place in the early 1930s, and "Angels with Dirty Faces" was not released until 1938.
  
  
• Continuity: When John Dillinger escapes from the jail the second time and he is driving the sheriff's car he is sitting at a red light. To his right there are 3 armed military soldiers. In the following bird's eye view it shows no one standing there. Finally, when the shot returns to Dillinger the 3 soldiers are still standing there.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the scene where John Dillinger is in the police station with officers listening to a baseball game on the radio, the game is the Chicago Cubs vs. NY Yankees. Since those teams only played in the World Series in late Sep to early Oct 1932 and Dillinger was in prison from 1924 until being paroled in May 1933, there is no way it could be the Cubs vs. Yankees on the radio. There was no interleague play back then except for the World Series and they never broadcast spring training games on the radio way back then.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the opening sequence, Dillinger appears at the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City and helps his pals in the escape. Dillinger was actually in the Montgomery County Jail in Dayton, Ohio, the day the escape occurred and transferred to Lima the following day.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In some close-up shots of his hands, Johnny Depp's tattoos on his fingers are visible.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Dillinger turns on an early Zenith table top radio and the voice on the radio is immediately heard. Back in the 1930s, AM radios took five or six seconds to warm up when turned on before a voice or music could be heard.
  
  
• Factual errors: Pretty Boy Floyd, killed in the beginning of the movie by Purvis, was actually killed on October 22, 1934, exactly 3 months after Dillinger died.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Filtered cigarettes were not around in the 1930s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The movie theater is showing a post-1934 "Looney Tunes" short (Porky Pig's on the title card and his first cartoon, I Haven't Got a Hat (1935), wasn't released until after Dillinger's death in 1935).
  
  
• Factual errors: In the film, Dillinger shown being wounded during the gang's holdup of the Security National Bank of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on March 6, 1934. In reality, he received a shoulder wound exactly one week later during the First National Bank of Mason City heist.
  
  
• Factual errors: Dillinger gang member John Hamilton, referred to as "Three Finger Jack" by the authorities, was missing two fingers on his right hand, and then lost yet a third finger of the same hand during the East Chicago bank job in January of '34. CGI wasn't employed for this detail in the film. Thus, the actor playing Hamilton has all of his digits.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Purvis is in the car outside Billie's apartment looking at the transcription of the phone call between Billie and Dillinger, the transcript is in the Times New Roman font and looks like a computer printout, rather than a typewritten page as it should have been in the 1930s.
  
  
• Factual errors: Alvin Karpis is shown in the film recommending attorney Louis Piquett to Dillinger while in a nightclub. Crown Point trusty Sam Cahoon passed one of Piquett's business cards to Dillinger while the famed outlaw was being jailed at Crown Point. The card getting into Cahoon's hands first was arranged by the East Chicago mob.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: A number of scenes depict newsreel cameramen operating hand cranked 'pancake' Akeley motion picture cameras that would have been used for recording silent film footage only. The actors are cranking these cameras way slower than would have been normal in such 'news' situations and would only have been cranked in this fashion to record high-speed, fast-paced special effects footage.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The steam engine used in the film was Milwaukee road 261. This locomotive used in the film was manufactured in 1944 by American Locomotive Works a decade after Dillinger's time.
  
  
• Factual errors: Early in the film, soon after the Racine robbery, November 20, 1933, a radio announcer is heard referring to Dillinger as Public Enemy No. 1. Dillinger wasn't named Public Enemy No. 1 until June 22, 1934, his 31st birthday.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the film, the three workers that come out of Little Bohemia Lodge get into a 1932 Chevy 4-door. It actually should be a 1933 Chevy coupe. The car the gang used for the Racine robbery in the film (with the blonde hostage) was a 1935 Buick 90. It should actually be a 1933 Buick 90.
  
  
• Factual errors: Dillinger is seen in the film opening his pocket watch, looking at Billie Frechette's photo inside, then closing the watch and bringing it with him to the Biograph. The watch actually contained a photograph of Polly Hamilton.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the Crown Point jailbreak sequence, Dillinger is seen entering the gun safe and taking a .45, a Thompson submachine gun, and a BAR, Browning Automatic Rifle. Dillinger actually left the jail with a .45 and two Thompsons, one for him and one for Herbert Youngblood, the accused murderer at the jail who escaped with Dillinger.
  
  
• Continuity: During Dillinger's phone conversation to Frechette after his second escape, he ends with "I love you." In a following scene, the transcript of that conversation shows him ending with "I love you baby. I gotta go."
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In many Johnny Depp close-ups, you can see, on the left earlobe, his multiple piercings, which no 1933 American criminal would have had.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the street scenes in which streetcar tracks are present, there are no suspended overhead wires. The overhead provided electricity to power the cars.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The steam locomotive used in the film is ex-Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific RR ("Milwaukee Road") #261. This is a modern steam locomotive which was built in June, 1944. Thus, it would not have existed at the time of the events depicted in "Public Enemies."
  
  
• Factual errors: In the film, J. Edgar Hoover is shown in front of a Senate subcommittee being excoriated for the Bureau's performance. The incident takes place sometime between the 1933 start of the film and Dillinger's death; in reality, the subcommittee hearing in which Senator McKellar publicly lashed out at Hoover didn't occur until 1936, two years after Dillinger's death.
  
  
• Anachronisms: A modern day electrical transformer can be seen on a telephone pole in the reflection of the window of the hotel in Tucson, Arizona.
  
  
• Anachronisms: While at the race track, the characters sit on molded green plastic seats which did not exist in the 1930s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Throughout the movie many buildings are seen with double paned tempered glass and aluminum window frames. Most notably the FBI planning meeting across the street from the Biograph takes place in front of a large storefront with two large panes forming a corner joint with no framing. All windows of the period were single pane.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When John goes to the movie theater a Porky Pig cartoon is on. Looney Tunes brought Porky to the screens for the first time in 1935.
  
  
• Continuity: In the airplane scene, looking out of the window from the interior shot it seems that the plane is ascending. When we see the exterior shot of the plane it is descending.
  
  
• Continuity: When Billie is preparing to leave the apartment to meet Johnny in the alley so they can leave town, her beaded necklace is hanging outside of her sweater. The next shot of Billis is as she leaves the apartment, and the necklace is tucked inside her sweater.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Purvis is reviewing the transcript of Billie's phone conversation with Dillinger, the typed version doesn't match what she says on screen.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When driving to the Little Bohemia Lodge, we are shown snow on the ground. Later that evening, we hear crickets outside.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The bar at Little Bohemia where Baby Face Nelson does his James Cagney impression didn't exist in April of 1934. It was added on to the lodge in 1936.
  
  
• Continuity: When Billie and John start dancing, she has a hand on his right shoulder, in the next shot she instantly has a hand on his left instead, where it remains for the rest of the dance.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): During the interrogation scene Marion Cotillard reverts to using a French accent, despite the fact that she plays an American. Though her character, like the real-life Evelyn Frechette, is of partially French parentage, neither she nor either of her parents had ever lived in France at any point and the stress couldn't cause her to revert to a French accent, since there's no chance she'd ever spoken with one.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Some shots (e.g. the Hotel Congress scenes) clearly show a popcorn (sprayed) ceiling in the hallway; however, popcorn ceilings were not developed or widely used until the 1950s.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Towards the end of the movie, when the camera is zooming out of the city scene (where Dillinger body lies) a boom lift can be seen.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In the final scenes of the film Ana is wearing a white top and orange skirt. Although commonly credited in real life as having worn a red dress, in actuality Ana did wear orange on the night of Dillinger's death. The lights from the theater made her attire appear red, which gave her the nickname "lady in red".
  
  
• Anachronisms: Just to the left of the sally port of the prison at the beginning, modern day electrical boxes can be seen on the ground.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The race track has a synthetic Cushion Track surface which wasn't invented until the 1980s. The race track scene was filmed at Santa Anita Park in California.
  
  
• Factual errors: Dillinger arrived at Midway Airport, Chicago, at six p.m. January 30, 1934, after a grueling plane trip that started from Tucson. In the film, it's raining quite heavily upon his arrival at Midway. There was no precipitation at all that evening in Chicago. This is confirmed by the old newsreels.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During the chase after Little Bohemia, Homer asks Nelson where he got the car from, and he says he had gotten it from a "fed". The Federal Bureau of Investigations was created in 1935, after Dillinger's death, and it was just the Bureau of Investigations before that, so there is no reason anyone would call its agents "feds".
  
  
• Anachronisms: While discussing a plan for a train heist, in the background is a Union Pacific locomotive number 844. This locomotive was not built and delivered to the Union Pacific until December 1944, almost 10 years after Dillinger's death.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Telephone numbers in 2L-5N format such as ST2-XXXX and ED4-XXXX shown on the line tags were not in use in Chicago until around 1948. Correct format for 1930's was STA XXXX or EDG XXXX.
  
  
• Factual errors: There's no explanation for Agent Harold Reinecke's bizarre behavior at the Biograph as depicted in the film, especially considering he wasn't actually present among the 20-plus agents/cops waiting outside the theater for Dillinger that night.
  
  
• Factual errors: In opening scene at prison, the sally port inside door is opened before the outside gate is closed. This is never done as it defeats the purpose of a sally port. Also, when the alarm is sounded, the outside gate remains open - procedure would dictate the gates be immediately "frozen" locked.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the scene where Dillinger escapes from the Indiana prison the soldiers that are guarding the prison are wearing the shoulder insignia (Gold Cross on Black Background) of the 33d Infantry Division, Illinois Army National Guard.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the first bank robbery, a noticeable FDIC sign is present. This would be correct for the FDIC was introduced in 1933, hence why Dillinger says to the citizen, "I'm not here for your money, I'm here for the bank's, put it away." The FDIC was enacted in 1933 but did not take effect until 1934.
  
  
• Continuity: Before the beginning of the gun battle at the Little Bohemia lodge, Melvin Purvis is seen armed with a Thompson Sub-Machine Gun with a 50-round drum. When he opens fire on the innocent men in the car, the weapon is still loaded with the drum. However, when the gangsters start shooting back from the lodge, Purvis is seen ejecting a 20-round stick clip before reloading.
  
  
• Anachronisms: A modern Citroen can be seen parked in the background of one scene.
  
  
• Factual errors: The film depicts Dillinger and Frechette arriving in Tucson and checking in at the Congress Hotel and then later being arrested in their room while Billie is in the tub (Marion Cotillard appears to be wearing a body suit). Gang members Charles Makley and Russell Clark had actually rented the room at the hotel, then were forced to leave due to a fire. The pair rented a house on North Second Street, the house at which Dillinger and Frechette were subsequently arrested at.
  
  
• Anachronisms: As Dillinger and his associates leave the red train car, the car number seen on the outside of the car is in the Helvetica font, which was not created until 1957.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The radio broadcast says the USSR was fully accepted into the League of Nations. However, that didn't really happen until 1934.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In close up shots of Channing Tatum lying in the orchard, the lace front of his wig and what appears to be the glue used to secure it, are clearly visible.
  
  
• Factual errors: The film portrays Dillinger driving away from the Crown Point jail in Sheriff Holley's Ford V8. Deputy Sheriff Ernest Blunk was the actual driver in the escape. Dillinger got behind the wheel only after Blunk and Saager were set free outside of Peotone, Illinois.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Thompson submachine gun used by Johnny Depp in the opening prison break was a M1928 (as seen later by the smaller diameter recoil spring as the weapon is field stripped) with a 30 round stick magazine. 30 round stick magazines were not available until the middle of WWII with the introduction of the M1 Thompson. The Thompsons of the time, M1921 & M1928, would have came with either 20 round stick magazines and/or 50 & 100 round drum magazines. This mistake is repeated throughout the movie.
  
  
• Factual errors: John Dillinger was left handed, however, in the movie he is shown right handed - including usage of guns.
  
  
• Errors in geography: That the location of the horse race track is actually in California (not Hialeah in Miami) is indicated by the tall palm trees in the background, which are of the genus Washingtonia. Though sometimes planted in Florida, Washingtonia is native to the Mojave desert and the western Sonora desert of California and southwest Arizona. The tall palm typically planted in southern Florida is Roystonea regia, the Cuban royal palm. The conspicuous difference is that Washingtonia has palmate (fan) leaves, while Roystonea has pinnate leaves (like a comb, or fish bones).
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Agent Charles Winstead leans over to hear Dillinger's last words, the contact lens on his right eye is visible. Contact lenses weren't widely available until the 1950s.
  
  
• Factual errors: Outside the Biograph, the real Dillinger pulled a gun and tried to get away after he had recognized Special Agent Purvis standing aside. Three agents opened fire, 5 shots were fired, out of which three hit the gangster. Bystanders were injured by bullets and debris. In the movie, Dillinger strolls away from the theater with the two women and is being shot in the head from behind.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the chasing down and shooting of "Pretty Boy" Floyd, near the films beginning, the actions depicted in the movie mirror the FBI's account of the incident - that he was shot at long distance by a rifleman and eventually died there in the grove. Much controversy surrounds the shooting however, with majority of the accounts backing up the testimony of the local police force on hand (though the FBI claims the only local was the retired police officer, and former WWI sharpshooter who was enlisted specifically for this assignment.) In their accounting, Floyd was felled by the sharpshooter, but upon approaching the still alive gunman, Melvin Purvis shot him several times, point black, with his pistol.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The black judicial robe worn by Judge Murray in the courtroom scene has a sheen, stitching, and drape characteristic of a thinner synthetic material which modern-day robes are made of. Judicial robes of the 1930s would have been made of a much heavier wool or cotton fabric.
  
  
• Factual errors: The hearing with Hoover and Senator Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee actually took place several years after the events depicted in the film.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the scene where Dillinger is driving away after Frechette is captured by the agents you can see out the window 3 parked modern cars along with a cordon keeping people back as he goes round the corner.
  
  
• Factual errors: When John Dillinger was shot at the Biograph, the bullet is shown exiting underneath his right eye. In real FBI photos, the bullet is shown to exit underneath his left eye.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At the start, where Pretty Boy Floyd is shot, we get a close up of his face as he lies on the ground. Here, you can clearly see the weave of the actor's wig.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the scene where John Dillinger strips his Thompson sub-machinegun and gives it to the gunsmith, he tells the man his weapon "rides a little bit up and to the right on full-auto". The manufacturer of the Thompson submachine guns was aware of this problem and produced the so-called "muzzle corrector" which fixed this issue. However, the Thompson John Dillinger is using already has this muzzle corrector, so it would've been highly unlikely that his Thompson would ride up and to the right.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the room where the FBI agents suit up in preparation for catching Dillinger at 1148 Addison, a red, modern-looking exit sign is noticeable.
  
  
• Factual errors: The film depicts the FBI going after Dillinger before his escape from the Crown Point, Indiana jail. In reality, they couldn't have pursued him because until that escape Dillinger had never committed a federal crime and therefore the FBI lacked jurisdiction over him. When he escaped from Crown Point he drove his stolen car over the state line from Indiana to Illinois - thereby committing his first federal offense and giving the FBI the pretext it needed to go after him.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Though the song "Bye, Bye, Blackbird" was written in the 1920s and therefore existed during John Dillinger's time, Diana Krall's performance and the instrumental arrangement behind her are in the style of the 1950s.
  
  
• Factual errors: In this, and in all other movies about John Dillinger, his name is pronounced with a soft "g." The real Dillinger, proud of his German ancestry, always pronounced the name with a hard "g" and insisted that everyone around him do so as well.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The Billie Holiday songs heard on the radio were not recorded until the late thirties, long after Dillinger's death. She had recorded only two songs before the time of the film, "Your Mother's Son-in-law" and "Riffin' the Scotch", neither of which are heard in it. (When Dillinger died in July 1934 Holiday was a little-known cabaret singer in New York, so it's unlikely a live show of hers would have been broadcast anywhere, let alone as far from her home base as Chicago.)
  
  
• Anachronisms: The film features Benny Goodman's recording of Jelly Roll Morton's song "King Porter Stomp", which was made on July 1, 1935 - almost a year after John Dillinger's death on July 22, 1934.
  
  

• Factual errors: SPOILER: Agent Purvis and his men hunt down Baby Face Nelson, Van Meter, and a third man in a car chase. This ends with all three gangsters being shot dead. However, Van Meter & Nelson are actually killed after John Dillinger on separate occasions. Baby Face Nelson even took over as Public Enemy #1 upon Dillinger's death.
  
  

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