The frustrating thing about continuity errors is that once you see them, they’re pretty difficult to un-see, serving as a small distraction every time you revisit the scene. That being said, if the truth is more important to you than the comfort of ignorance, then you might want to check out this minor slip-up from one of the few Pepper Potts scenes of Avengers: Infinity War.
The moment comes when Pepper and her fiancé Tony Stark are wondering through the park, discussing such matters as children and that thing on Stark’s chest. As this clip posted on Reddit reveals, halfway through their conversation, Robert Downey Jr.’s attire undergoes a slight alteration, with his jacket moving from being draped over his shoulders to wrapped around his waste. Either there’s some seriously subtle nanotechnology at work, or somebody dun goofed.
In a two-and-a-half-hour ensemble actioner, it’s no surprise one or two details like this would ultimately be overlooked. But while this isn’t the only continuity error to make its way into the final cut, what probably didn’t help matters is the heavy amount of editing that went into this sequence, which was to originally include a cameo from Happy Hogan and more of Stark’s friends.
In an interview with Collider, Infinity War co-writer Christopher Markus recalled how large sections of this sequence were soon recognized as unneeded.
“It got kind of out of control. It was off-plot entirely so we went back and we wrote one that was in a different place, that was much more tonally on plot, took place in a different place. It was Tony and Pepper. We shot it and it was kind of lovely but it got you off on the wrong foot with Tony. It was like he knew the movie was about to happen. So, we went back down to an edited down version of that park scene. I have vivid memories of shooting and writing that scene you’ll never see, or maybe, you never know…”
With the segment quickly cut down to a minimum, Avengers: Infinity War could move swiftly to the action, at which point, a wandering jacket became the least of Stark’s problems.
