Goofs

Near the start of the film, when Carlito goes with his nephew to drop off some money, one of the dealer's henchman is setting up the pool table. The Triangle is full of balls yet an additional two balls can be seen in the bottom right corner of the screen on the table. In the very next shot, those balls are gone, even though no one moved them.

Carlito waits for Gail in the pouring rain but is completely dry when he's in the café.

In the final shootout scene, Carlito shoots one gangster on the escalator and you see the bullets hit and the blood spurt out. In the next shot, the gangster is going down the escalator without a mark on his shirt but blood smeared on the back of the escalator.

Quisqueya (Rick Aviles) is clearly seen arguing with the bouncer in the establishing shot of the El Paraiso, even after his death in the film.

As Carlito is sitting at the cafe table with Rolando, he picks up the beer to open it. In the next shot, the beer bottle is on the table.

In the final scenes of the movie, which take place in Manhattan's Grand Central Station, Carlito is attempting to take an Amtrak train to Miami. However, in 1975, the only trains that left from Grand Central beside commuter and subway trains were Amtrak trains going north to Albany and continuing west to Buffalo and Chicago. If Carlito wanted to take a train to the south, he would have needed to be at New York's Penn Station instead.

Near the end of the film when Carlito is getting his money from the lockbox under the bar, he opens it to see two stacks of $100 bills. The face pictured on the bills is not Benjamin Franklin, but Ulysses S. Grant, who should be on the $50 bill.

There is no indication that the money was supposed to all be in $100 bills, there could have been some $50 bills in there as well.

When Carlito is being wheeled away on a gurney after being shot, he should be wearing an oxygen mask, which is a standard practice for those kinds of emergencies.

This is a deliberate artistic choice on the part of the director in order to show a close-up of Carlito's face as he's ruminating on his past life during his dying moments.

Some have suggested that Sean Penn is wearing a wig because the color of his hairline is noticeably different from the rest of his scalp. He had his hair partially shaved and thinned, so what's seen is actually stubble that was left over.

When Tony Taglialucci's son arrives at Kleinfeld's boat, he corrects Kleinfeld's introduction of him as "Frankie", insisting that he is "Frank". However, all other references in dialogue and in the picture's credits to the character name him "Frankie".

The character is widely known as Frankie, however, Kleinfeld using the term Frankie in such a familiar way is disrespectful as he is not a close friend or associate of Frankie's. Frankie is asserting his dominance over Kleinfeld by telling him to call him Frank.

When Carlito and Kleinfeld throw Frank's body from the boat, Frank walks himself to edge which he shouldn't be able to do.

When Carlito opens the box under the cash register the two $100 bills visible have the same identical serial numbers on them.

When Carlito and the mob guys are aboard the train toward the end of the movie, the doors close and the train starts up again and a continuous reflection of someone's hand can be seen in the outside of the train window while the train is moving.

A major scene in the film involves a meeting between lawyer David Kleinfeld and his client, Tony Taglialucci, which takes place at the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center, a prison barge docked on the south shore of the Bronx. However, the movie takes place in 1975. The New York City Department of Corrections did not start using prison barges until 1988, and the Bain Correctional Center only came into operation in 1992.

None of the songs being played while Carlito is in Gail's club ("You Should Be Dancing", "Got to Be Real" and "I'm Your Boogie Man") had been released in 1975, when this movie takes place.

Set in 1975, the movie soundtrack contains songs that weren't released at that time such as: "Disco Inferno" (1976) and "Got to be Real" (1978).

Carlito is shown riding in a subway car that was refurbished in the late 1980s. It has a dark red exterior and a tan interior. In 1975 these cars were painted gray with a blue stripe on the exterior and light blue on the interior.

The Beretta 92F Carlito carries and uses during the Grand Central shootout is anachronistic due to the fact the 92F wasn't released until 1983, and the Beretta 92 had only just begun production in 1975.

When Lalin first visit's Carlito in the club and they are sharing a drink, a crew member can be seen moving out of the way in a mirror behind Carlito's shoulder.

When Charlie and Gail are arguing across the room in her apartment, while Gail stands in the doorway there is someone's hands in the mirror on the furniture on her right dropping a piece of paper.

A sign that reads "242nd Street Bronx/South Ferry Manhattan" is visible on the subway car when Carlito heads to Grand Central. The sign indicates that he is on is the 1 line which does not go to Grand Central.

Amtrak Silver Star to Miami runs out of Penn not Grand Central but it looks better.

Instead of asking and trusting Kleinfeld, who has already tricked him once with the $1,000,000, to help him get out of jail, Tony should have asked his associates for help. This should have been possible, as Tony indicates that if Kleinfeld refuses to help him, he is going to order his associates to take him down. After getting out of jail he could have then tracked down and kill Kleinfeld on his own.

In the chrome lamp next to the safe in Charlie's office.

When Carlito and Gail are at Norwalk's office, Carlito's beard seems to be thick. In the next scene we see Carlito and Gail discussing about getting out of New York City, Carlito's beard somehow got shorter. When Carlito is in the hospital to see Kleinfeld his beard is thick again.