Shawshank Redemption: Mistakes, plot holes and bloopers
No other film can make you feel both imprisoned and liberated like The Shawshank Redemption. In my opinion, it’s the greatest film of all time, bar none.
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched it, yet I could watch it over and over without ever getting bored.
The story is first-class, the acting flawless, and the casting pitch-perfect — not just Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, but every supporting character, too. It’s absolute cinematic perfection.
But even masterpieces aren’t immune to human error….
A friend recently suggested I rewatch The Shawshank Redemption, and at first, I wasn’t so sure. It had been nearly 15 years since I last saw it, and I wondered if it would still hold up. But wow, let me tell you — it absolutely does. From the very first scene, I was completely hooked, and it hit me all over again: this really is one of the greatest movies ever made.
But despite its iconic status, The Shawshank Redemption isn’t without its quirks, bloopers, and even a glaring plot hole that might leave you scratching your head.
Let’s dig into some little-known mistakes and behind-the-scenes flubs that somehow snuck past the final cut of this impeccable movie.
A pitch-perfect performance
We simply have to kick things off with a piece of trivia that never fails to amaze fans of The Shawshank Redemption. Unsurprisingly, it’s all about the legendary Morgan Freeman.
During Andy (Tim Robbins) and Red’s (Morgan Freeman) first chat in the prison yard — a scene where Red is effortlessly tossing a baseball — Freeman didn’t just act the part.
The shot took an exhausting nine hours to film, and Freeman threw that baseball the entire time without a single complaint. Talk about dedication! The next day, though, reality caught up — Freeman arrived on set with his left arm in a sling. Now that’s the kind of behind-the-scenes grit that makes this movie unforgettable.
Freeman’s personal favorite
Red, the wise and kind-hearted inmate played by Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption, is one of Freeman’s most iconic roles — and also his personal favorite.
Interestingly, the role almost went to legendary actors like Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Paul Newman, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford, or Robert Duvall before Freeman brought Red to life with his unforgettable performance.
Why is Red called Red?
In Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the character of Red is described as a red-haired Irishman — quite different from how we see him in the film.
In a 2014 interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Freeman admitted that when he first picked up Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, he stopped reading after the first page upon discovering that Red was written as an Irishman. “I can’t play an Irishman,” he thought, and set the book aside.
Despite Freeman’s initial hesitation, director Frank Darabont had always envisioned him for the role of Red and eventually persuaded him to take it on.
Red’s reply, “Maybe it’s because I’m Irish,” to Andy’s inquiry about his nickname was an inside joke the filmmakers liked so much that they kept it in the final cut.
Swapping shirts
Morgan Freeman’s impressive commitment to tossing that baseball during Andy and Red’s first chat isn’t the only thing worth noticing.
Here’s a fun little blooper to keep an eye out for next time you watch: during their big introduction scene, there’s an extra hanging out in the background who apparently had a wardrobe crisis.
When Red’s lines were filmed, the extra wore one prison shirt, but by the time Andy’s lines were shot, they magically swapped into a different one! It’s a small continuity slip that’s now a fun little Easter egg for fans of Shawshank.
Chessboard mistake
Andy Dufresne, the prison’s resident genius and king of creative accounting, has an eye for detail that could rival a jeweler’s. From balancing the warden’s books to helping guards save on taxes, he’s got it all figured out. But when it comes to setting up his chessboard? Let’s just say even geniuses have their off days.
For the sharp-eyed viewer, it’s hard to miss: the chessboard in Andy Dufresne’s cell is set up backwards. The bottom-right square, which should always be white, is black.
As a result, the royal lineup is all wrong — both the black and white kings and queens have swapped places, lounging on the wrong-colored squares. It’s a classic chess mistake that no serious player would ever make, since proper placement is key to the game.
But hey, maybe Andy’s got bigger things on his mind than chess rules. After all, when you’re plotting your escape from Shawshank, who cares if your chessboard breaks tradition…
Tim Robbins explains famous plot hole
One of the most unforgettable moments in The Shawshank Redemption is when the guards and prisoners discover that And has pulled off the impossible: he’s escaped!
But for years, fans have been scratching their heads over one puzzling detail.
How did Andy manage to put the poster back over the tunnel after crawling through it? To some, the poster was clearly attached in ALL 4 corners when the warden threw a rock at it.
It’s a mystery that’s baffled viewers, sparked countless debates, and even made Morgan Freeman himself ask the question during a cast reunion at the TCM Film Festival.
Was it movie magic? A clever trick? Or is there an explanation that fans have missed all along?
“How did Andy get that poster back in place after he got into that tunnel?” Freeman asked his co-star, per Geek Vibes Nation.
“It’s easy. So easy,” Tim Robbins said, using hand motions to explain the mystery. He mimed pinning the poster at the top but not at the bottom. “Pinned up here [at the top of the poster]. Pull up here [lifting the bottom of the poster]. Go underneath. Go in.”
Could Andy’s escape really stay under the radar?
But do fans really buy that explanation? Not quite.
According to IMDb, Tim Robbins’ explanation behind the poster staying in place may have its flaws. If the poster was only secured at the top, as suggested, it would react to pressure changes in the tunnel once the wall was breached.
The poster would either flap, or if the bottom was still fastened, it would likely dimple. Either way, the movement would create noise, which could easily attract the attention of the guards. This raises a valid question: how did such a critical detail go unnoticed in Shawshank’s quiet, watchful environment?
How could Andy break the sewage pipe?
When we’re talking about Andy’s brilliant escape plan from Shawshank, there’s one detail that stands out. He used just a simple rock to break open the sewage pipes and crawl through them. But here’s the thing: sewage pipes are traditionally made of iron.
A rock as simple as the one Andy used would have to be incredibly strong to even make a dent, let alone break through the pipes. Plus, the force required to hit the pipes would likely have injured his hand.
In the scene where Andy crawls through the sewer tunnels to escape, Tim Robbins later joked, “It wasn’t actually human waste; it was cow dung. It was pretty toxic!”
A perfect ending… minus 30 seconds
By now, you know The Shawshank Redemption is a 10/10 film in my book, and it almost feels sacrilegious to suggest changing anything. But if someone really put me on the spot with a gun to my head and made me change one thing, I’d say the film could’ve ended about 30 seconds sooner.
We know Red made it to Mexico and Zihuatanejo — or at least eventually met up with Andy somewhere. He’s the one narrating the whole film, including all those precise details about Andy’s escape and life after he broke out, so there’s no way he could’ve known all that unless he found Andy and heard the whole story.
The scene on the beach, however, feels a little too literal and takes away from the overall punch of the film. For me, it wouldn’t have hurt to leave things a bit more open-ended.
And fun fact: the final Zihuatanejo beach scene wasn’t even filmed in Mexico — it was shot in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, because they wanted that stunning blue Caribbean water for the shot.
Was Andy Dufresne a real person?
While The Shawshank Redemption isn’t based on a true story, it does have some fun parallels with a real-life prison escape.
Many folks say Andy Dufresne bears a striking resemblance to Frank Freshwaters, a man who also found himself behind bars for manslaughter in 1957. Just like Andy, Frank got cozy with the prison staff, earning their trust and, of course, plotting his big escape.
Now, here’s where it gets interesting — Frank managed to pull off his own Shawshank-style breakout under mysterious circumstances. No one really knows how he made it out, but he vanished for decades, living under a new identity in Florida as a truck driver. It wasn’t until 56 years later that authorities caught up with him, finding him in a humble trailer on the property of Florida Senator Thad Altman’s parents. Apparently, Frank was the “caretaker” of the marshland, keeping to himself, fishing, and fending off trespassers like a pro.
Oh, and while Shawshank is supposed to be set in Maine, it was actually filmed at the Mansfield Correctional Institute in Ohio — probably because it looked more like a place where someone could make a great escape, just like Frank, an Ohio native.
The unexpected rise of Shawshank
Budgeted at $25 million, The Shawshank Redemption made about $28 million at the box office for Columbia Pictures.
Despite its powerful themes of hope and redemption, the movie struggled with an R rating, violence, and a lackluster marketing campaign, leading to a rather tepid reception. But two things stopped it from quietly disappearing into obscurity. First, it found new life on home video, becoming a cult classic.
The second reason? A guy named Ted Turner. The cable mogul owned TNT network, picked up Shawshank and ran with it like a football, turning it into a favorite that resonated with viewers of all ages and backgrounds.
“Turner started airing Shawshank on TV like every five minutes for years, because I don’t think it cost him anything!” the filmmaker Frank Darabont recalled in an interview with Yahoo.
“There was this endless opportunity for people to catch up with it on a Turner network, and so I bless Ted Turner as well. Because he played the heck out of it.”
The director’s hands make a surprising cameo
Now, let’s take a moment to talk about Frank Darabont. The Hungarian-American director made a major impact in 1994 with The Shawshank Redemption, which was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture.
But the film wouldn’t have been what it is without a little inspiration from Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. Darabont drew heavily from Goodfellas, especially its use of voiceover narration, editing techniques, and the way it shifts between different time periods.
And here’s a fun tidbit: In the opening scenes, when Andy loads the revolver, the hands shown aren’t Tim Robbins’—they actually belong to director Frank Darabont.
Later, during the scenes where Andy carves his name into the cell wall (which appear twice in the film), Darabont’s hands make another appearance in the insert shots. These close-ups were filmed during post-production, as Darabont felt only he could achieve the precise look he wanted for those moments.
From Shawshank to Shimmy Shimmy Shake
Tim Robbins has said he never gets tired of hearing about The Shawshank Redemption. But when he signed on for the movie, he had no idea just how much it would shape his career.
The script was the best thing he had ever read, from start to finish – but as mentioned, the film wasn’t a hit when it was first released.
”When it came out, and was not well received at the box office, there were various reasons given: Well, it’s the title, no one can remember the title. And that makes sense too, because for years after that film came out, people would come up to me and say, ‘You know, I really liked you in that film Scrimshaw Reduction‘ or ‘Shimmy, Shimmy, Shake’ or ‘Shankshaw’” – talk about a title mix-up!,” Robbins shared.
Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman share dinner every few years
Tim Robbins, 66, had a good sense of who Morgan Freeman, 87, was before they met on the set of The Shawshank Redemption—but he was truly blown away when they finally came face to face.
“When we met in person, I was immediately struck by his warmth, his serenity, his calm. I came to really love him not only as a partner in doing Shawshank Redemption but also as a friend. We would hang out on weekends and sometimes have dinner after shooting,” Tim shared with the Hollywood Reporter.
Robbins added, “I still have dinner with Morgan every year or two. Over the years, we’ve been amazed at the people who would stop us to say that Shawshank is their favorite movie of all time, or that they’ve seen it 40 times, or that it changed their life, saved them in some way. That’s pretty remarkable and it’s quite a gift.”
From the unforgettable performances to the hidden behind-the-scenes moments, The Shawshank Redemption continues to captivate and surprise us even years later.
So, the next time you revisit this iconic film, take a moment to appreciate the details that might just slip past you — the ones that make Shawshank a masterpiece. And don’t forget to share your favorite moments with others!
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