Best action movie factual errors of all time

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Jurassic Park III picture

Factual error: There is no way a 2001 phone's tiny speaker could be heard a hundred meters away in the belly of a dinosaur or later buried in a mound of dino dung.

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Anaconda picture

Factual error: During the first battle with an Anaconda, the 55-gallon fuel drums lashed to the deck of the riverboat are swept over the side, where they sink to the bottom of the river. This plot device drives the rest of the movie, since the boat must make a dangerous detour through "Anaconda country." There is just one small problem with this: Fuel drums full of diesel fuel or gasoline float on water. The fuel in them makes them buoyant. It would have been a simple matter for someone to get a rope or a boathook and retrieve the fuel drums before they floated away.

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The Matrix picture

Factual error: When Trinity is being arrested, you hear the cops all burst into the room and cock the hammers on their Glocks. The Glock doesn't have an external hammer. To load the weapon, you have to pull the slide back and release it. (00:01:50)

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White House Down picture

Factual error: When Sawyer and Cale take Cadillac One ("The Beast"), they eventually want to shoot a rocket launcher at the fence. Sawyer wants to do this while hanging out of the window. The real Cadillac One is bullet proof and has several layers of glass with the final one softer not only to prevent the bullets entering but the deadlier threat of glass pieces. Only the driver side can open approximately 3 inches.

Friso94

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Geostorm picture

Factual error: The lady hacked a tablet with he command mkdir -p on the command prompt. mkdir command is used to make a folder. (01:00:00)

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Gladiator picture

Factual error: When a group of soldiers goes to Maximus' villa to burn it and kill his family, his son points them, saying in Italian "Mamma! I soldati!" ("Mom, the soldiers!") and then "PapĂ !" ("Daddy!"). This is because the young actor (Giorgio Cantarini) is Italian and they didn't translate, for some reason. As a result, he's speaking Italian in a movie in English, where people are supposed to speak Latin, in a province where Italian was never ever spoken. (00:43:07)

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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull picture

Factual error: In the warehouse scene, the lights and other metal objects are affected by the box's magnetic field. Yet the soldiers easily lift the box into a metal truck to load it and slide it forward. If the box's magnetic field was as strong as suggested, it would have dragged the soldiers forward as it was magnetically attracted to the truck, and it would have taken much more effort for them to slide it onto the truck bed once it was stuck there.

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Guns of Navarone picture

Factual error: Miller rigs his booby trap by attaching the wires from the bomb to a pole down which a metal runner slides, so that when the runner touches the wires it completes the circuit and detonates the bomb. The trouble is, the pole is made of steel, and steel is very conductive indeed. Miller attaches the exposed end of the wire to the pole without any insulation or gap. The circuit will actually be completed when Miller attaches the battery, and he and his booby trap will be blown sky high.

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Robin Hood picture

Factual error: On the cliff top before the battle on the beach, you are treated to a lovely if fleeting glimpse of wind farm turbines, not really fitting for the 12th Century.

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The A-Team picture

Factual error: They are present at Frankfurt, Germany. But with a closer look you see a cathedral at the right side. This cathedral and the central station are located in Cologne, Germany - they are about 220 km apart. (01:04:15)

zehner87

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Top Gun picture

Factual error: Tom Cruise says of the song 'Sitting on the Dock of the Bay' "my folks loved it". However, his father died in 1965, his mother died "shortly after him", and the song wasn't written until 1967.

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Spider-Man 2 picture

Factual error: Considering the brightness of the fusion process, Dr. Octavius has to wear special goggles to be able to see it. Yet no one else in the room is wearing such goggles or seem hurt by watching the whole process, just as at the end of the movie. When welding something, no one can look at the arc that's created, as it would hurt his eyes and burn his retina; presumably, the fusion process would be brighter and more powerful than that, and so should have some kind of damaging effect on everyone's eyesight (except Spider Man's, maybe).

Sereenie

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Enemy at the Gates picture

Factual error: When the map of the German advance is shown, Switzerland is shown to be taken over. Switzerland was never invaded by the Germans. (00:05:10)

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Suggested correction: It doesn't show German advances. It shows the German influence over Europe, symbolizing it covers all of Europe and then expanded towards the East. Italy was never conquered by the Germans either yet it was part of the axis and is shown being covered by black. Switzerland, though neutral, was fully surrounded by the Axis and their influence played heavily upon the country. Its a very crude simulation.

lionhead

Suggested correction: It does not show the German advancement in true historical order, but more like a red shadow that expands across Europe in a steady pace. And just as the camera starts zooming in on Stalingrad, you can see a small sliver of red starting to spread on the south-eastern coast of Norway.

dizzyd

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Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl picture

Factual error: During Jack's sliding down the rope scene, it is very noticeable that each one of the English soldiers fire their weapons more than once, which is impossible for that time, knowing that repetition weapons weren't invented until the mid 1800s. (00:20:00)

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Suggested correction: The first repeating firearm was invented in 1718.

I think you are talking about the Puckle gun from 1718, which was a crewed gun, not a rifle. The earliest repeating rifle is from 1630, with more variants made till the era the movie takes place in (early 18th century). However, these had all what you call single-action triggers (manual repeating), meaning they need a large lever to reload after firing. The guns in the movie obviously don't have such a lever. What the poster probably meant by repetition weapons is double-action trigger rifles.

lionhead

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Quantum of Solace picture

Factual error: During the boat chase scene, Bond throws a grappling hook/anchor from the old boat he is driving onto the deck of the rubber boat "riding" his. The rubber boat is then violently yanked off of Bond's boat and crashes. This makes no sense. For the rubber boat to be yanked off that way, the other end of the anchor line would have to be tied to something stationary. However, the other end of the line is just lying in Bond's boat. There's even a shot of it sitting there.

Guy

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings picture

Factual error: Although it's a commonly used movie trope, cutting the brake lines on a bus would not produce the effect seen in the movie. Buses use air brakes, which by design, can operate even with substantial loss of pressure and often engage automatically if there is too much pressure loss.

wizard_of_gore

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Suggested correction: I don't know what air brakes you have used but the very nature of air brakes means that low pressure means they can't work. If you have no pressure in them, how are you supposed to press the brakes? I have personally driven hundreds of vehicles with air brakes (I am a truck driver by trade) and can tell you this is a fact. All that happens when air brakes lose pressure is a warning light on the dash and an alarm sounding in the cab, one must manually slow down the vehicle at that point.

I respect the fact that you drive a truck, but my dad has been a master mechanic for more than 50 years and he is the one who pointed this out to me. Depending on the system, there are various fail-safe systems that will engage the brakes during an emergency loss of pressure. Plus, a simple Google search led me to several examples of these systems.

wizard_of_gore

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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning picture

Factual error: Gabriel kills the engineer and sets the train to full speed, then locks the control room. Without the engine being resupplied with coal it would lose power and stop before too long, never getting as far as the bridge.

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Suggested correction: It is known for firemen to fill the loco up to allow it to run for 15-20 minutes without new coal. However, it could not run that long at that speed without the boiler being refilled with water, so the boiler would have exploded well before the fire reduced.

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Colombiana picture

Factual error: When Cattleya escapes through the sewer drain and winds up in front of the U.S. Embassy, she uncovers the manhole all by herself. Impossible for such a young child to do.

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National Treasure: Book of Secrets picture

Factual error: Ben, Abigail and Riley arrive at the Library of Congress to take the President's Book very late at night. However the Library of Congress, despite being shown as open, consistently closes at 5 PM.

Darius Angel

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Overlord picture

Factual error: During the plane ride into France, the Paratroopers are holding/carrying their weapons by their sides. In reality, their weapons (M1 Garands, B.A.R.s, etc.) would be carried in special "bags" strapped to their parachute harness. This not only protected their weapons, but also secured them to their person.

Matdan97

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