Best movie character mistakes of all time

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Witness picture

Character mistake: When Schaeffer, McFee, and Fergie walk down the dusty road to Amish village, Western gunslinger style, they make a silly mistake no cop would make - they assume that Amish villages are unarmed and undefended. No so. The Amish have no prohibition on guns and almost every house would have at least one hunting rifle or shotgun. The three bad guys are risking being shot to bits before they get halfway down that hill; they don't even make an attempt at concealment. (Wouldn't they also at least think John - a police officer - would still have his gun or might have got hold of a firearm from the Amish?)

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Nativity! picture

Character mistake: When Mr Maddens is talking to the critic at the Mayor's reception, he calls him Alan. The character is actually called Patrick Burns, Alan is the actor's name.

nerac

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Commando picture

Character mistake: The police are marching Matrix out of the gun shop, they didn't even put hand-cuffs on him! I think I would put hand-cuffs on a guy who just smashed open a gun shop and was stealing all the guns he could get into his hands. (00:55:50)

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Land of the Lost picture

Character mistake: In the scene where Rick Marshall is playing the Banjo, he says he has been "doing some thinking with just him and the old four string". His banjo has five strings and you can see the five strings when he lays the banjo down.

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Tommy Boy picture

Character mistake: When Tommy is being shown his new office the glass reads "Thomas R. Callahan III, " but when Tommy is introduced as the new President of the company he is introduced as "Tom Callahan, Jr." which would be his dad. (00:11:35 - 02:11:55)

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Suggested correction: It is possible (probably not common) to be a "III" and a "Jr." If you are named after your father, and he is still alive you are a Junior. If you both share the name with another member up the family tree say your great grandfather, then your father would be a "II" and you would be a "III." But since your father is still alive, you can still go by junior. I've known one person in this situation.

I guess you missed the part of the movie where his father died. He's made the new president because his dad is dead, not alive, negating your main point.

Bishop73

His dad literally just died, and most people don't know the specifics of the naming rules. That would be a character mistake of the person introducing him.

When Tommy is made president and introduced, that's at the end of the film. So, no, his dad didn't literally just die. Plenty of time passed. But the correction is wrong on its premise, but that's not to say a different argument couldn't be made why the mistake is wrong.

Bishop73

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Columbo: Prescription Murder picture

Character mistake: After Fleming has murdered his wife, he warns his girlfriend not to touch anything in the apartment, but he hands her a drink which he already prepared for her. At his direction she also makes a telephone call, holding the receiver with a cloth he hands her, but dialling the number with her bare fingers. On top of that, he hands her a pair of gloves after she has made the call - she would have touched or handled all sorts of things in the room by then. Why didn't he hand her the gloves as soon as she stepped in the room?

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Suggested correction: This is a subtle hint that Fleming is preparing to frame his girlfriend for the murder. He would admit to having an affair with her (not a crime) but is going to deny any involvement in his wife's murder. (SPOLER ALERT!) Later he makes it clear that his girlfriend meant nothing to him and he didn't care that she had committed suicide (or so he thought).

Nowhere in the episode is this sub-plot explored or even mentioned.

Not only that, but the idea he was going to subtly frame his girlfriend doesn't make sense because he used her to establish his alibi. He tried to make it look like she was killed by an random intruder.

Bishop73

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Gladiator picture

Character mistake: When Maximus is talking to Marcus Aerelius, he mentions that his wife has black hair. But in the scenes where we see her, she actually has brown hair. (00:24:40)

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Space Jam picture

Character mistake: When Stan inflates himself, Michael asks, "How'd he do that?", implying that he doesn't know the rules of the Looney Tunes world. Since Michael was rolled into a ball by the aliens earlier in the film, this shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

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Suggested correction: When Michael was rolled into a ball, he wasn't concerned with how that was possible and soon after he forgot about it. He was more concerned with dealing with the Monstars at the time and, in particular, helping his cartoon friends preparing for the game. When Michael witnessed Stan being flattened and inflated, it looked particularly strange and unfamiliar to him, unlike before as he couldn't watch himself experiencing being rolled into a ball. And that is what triggered his response about questioning how it was possible.

Rassdyt

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Halloween II picture

Character mistake: The police claim the Myers house is at "45 Lampkin Lane." The address on the front porch clearly displays the number 709.

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Vertical Limit picture

Character mistake: Those are the most haphazardly secured cases of nitro I've ever seen in a movie. Couldn't they spare a shoelace or duct tape to secure the top?

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Disturbia picture

Character mistake: In one scene, Ashley looks into Mr. Turner's yard with binoculars. She looks through the large glass circles. That would result in seeing everything smaller. If you want to see everything bigger, you are supposed to look through the small glass circles.

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Crimson Tide picture

Character mistake: More than once the crew of the submarine salute the Captain while uncovered in the hallways of the sub. Sailors never salute without their cover on.

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Batman Forever picture Batman Forever mistake picture

Character mistake: When Bruce is looking at Chase's various clippings of Batman on her desk while she's tending to the tea kettle, there is a paper that says "Diagnosis Form #39," and just above it, the word "schizophrenic" is incorrectly spelled as either "schizofrenic" or "schizoprenic" (a metal clip is partially covering the last six letters of the word, so it's hard to determine whether it's an "f" or a lone "p" where the "ph" should be). (01:03:11 - 01:03:32)

Phaneron

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Star Trek V: The Final Frontier picture

Character mistake: Sybok tells Kirk that no one believed the world was round until Columbus proved it. Someone who studied at the Vulcan Academy should know that the Greek philosophers had proved the world was round and calculated its circumference centuries earlier. Columbus never set out to prove the world was round, just to find a shortcut to India.

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More The Year Without a Santa Claus character mistakes
The Ruins picture

Character mistake: Jeff mentions Mathias could have septicemia which he says is "a bacterial infection usually in the bone" However as a medical student he should know that septicemia means blood infection and has nothing to do with the bone.

lionhead

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Godzilla picture

Character mistake: All the characters wearing gas masks are wearing them with the straps over the hoods. I was army trained, and you always wear the mask next to the skin for best seal, with the hood over the top.

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Wrong Turn 2: Dead End picture

Character mistake: Jonesy says he read about Amber going to West Point. She was a Marine, and not in the Army, which is what West Point is for.

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Now You See Me 2 picture

Character mistake: Dylan is showing Agent Cowan and the FBI director the pictures of the pigeons and Dylan and Cowan start arguing, while the FBI director continues to look at the evidence on the Four Horsemen. Whilst looking there is an article reading "FBI Investigation Stalls." On the first column of the article, it is mentioned that all four members of the Four Horsemen, J. Daniel Atlas, Henley Reeves, Merritt McKinney and Jack Wilder, all disappeared into thin air at the final magic show, and gave the audience fake dollar bills. By the time of the final magic show, Jack had faked his death and was presumed dead, so only three members of the Horsemen were present, not four. (00:08:55)

Casual Person

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