Best crime movie character mistakes of all time

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Live and Let Die picture

Character mistake: When Rosie sticks her revolver in Bond's room and Bond flips her onto the bed, Bond incorrectly identifies the gun as a Smith and Wesson .38 which would make it a model 10 or 15. It was actually a Model 19 .357 Magnum.

BocaDavie

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The Last House on the Left picture

Character mistake: The police radio identifies the fugitives' car as a 1958 Cadillac, but it is a 1962.

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Ava (2020)

Ava picture

Character mistake: The protagonist says "You know, Croesus once said 'Count no man happy until the end is known'" but it's not Croesus uttering that line. According to Herodotus, Solon says it to King Croesus. (00:03:00)

Sammo

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Croupier picture

Character mistake: Jack accuses Marion of being a mug punter because she bets on the lottery, despite the odds of winning of "14.5 million to 1." The odds of winning the lottery are in fact 13,992,000 to 1 - not much better, but at least a precise figure.

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The Jackal picture

Character mistake: At the meeting of the MVD and FBI where they are discussing Terek's hiding place, she mentions that he's in the town of Porvoo and that it is 60 kilometers west Helsinki. Porvoo is actually 50 kilometers northeast of Helsinki. (00:12:45)

Quantom X

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Showdown in Little Tokyo picture

Character mistake: When Dolph is looking at the logo for the Red Dragon brewery, he says, "That arrogant scumbag mother fucker. He put the yakuza iron claw right on the logo." But, the iron claw is not the logo of the yakuza. It's the logo of the specific syndicate run by some members of the yakuza, as Dolph stated after ripping open the shirt of that guy in the interrogation room. So, he just wrongly stated what the logo really belonged to.

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Goodfellas picture

Character mistake: In jail when they're all sitting down to eat, Paulie says "c'mon boys let's eat, Freddie, Vinnie let's go" The problem is the other guy's name is Johnny Dio, not Freddie.

Family5

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Demolition Man picture

Character mistake: When the alarms go off in the police station indicating the code 187 all the police officers are confused as to what is going on since they know nothing of MDKs. Zack Lamb should have already known what the code meant, yet he never says anything and just waits for everyone to figure it out.

jbrbbt

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: I took it as he went into almost shock that after so many years a murder had actually taken place. He says, "I don't believe it," indicating he knew what the code meant but then he kind of froze until Phoenix's name was mentioned.

Suggested correction: Zack Lamb is quite old and it's possible he simply forgot what the code meant. He was a pilot too, not a street cop.

lionhead

When Stallone first meets Lamb after being thawed in the future, he tells Spartan he was "grounded" after the events in the opening scene so had not been a pilot for 36 years.

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Smokey and the Bandit picture

Character mistake: When Carrie says to Bandit "are we doing 110? We're doing 110!" there is a shot of the Trans Am's speedometer. The needle is pointing to 110 on the kilometers per hour dial. On the miles per hour dial, the needle is pointing to a number between 65 and 70.

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A Shot in the Dark picture

Character mistake: When Clouseau and Ballon are playing billiards, and Clouseau accuses Ballon of murdering the chauffeur out of jealously, he accidentally refers to Ballon as "Inspector Ballon". (00:46:20)

Cubs Fan

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City of God picture

Character mistake: After crashing their car into the bar the Tender Trio attempt to flee on foot but Clipper twists his ankle. Goose says "Goose f***ed up his ankle" accidentally referring to himself but obviously it's Clipper that twisted his ankle. (00:14:59)

Jack Vaughan

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The Big Sleep picture

Character mistake: When Lauren is playing roulette, she has $14,000 worth of chips sitting on red - if she wins, she gets double, $28,000; and if she loses, she loses all of the $14,000 - but the croupier is troubled and says to Lauren that she hasn't got enough to cover the bet, which is ridiculous; all her $14,000 chips are sitting on red, what more does she need? Even the head croupier is called in, and, after much chatting, all the other players are asked to take their chips away as only Lauren is playing this round, which is ridiculous: All they have to lose is $28,000; that's nothing for them.

kh1616

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Primal Fear picture

Character mistake: The archbishop wears a red zucco on his head at the dinner. Purple is the color of a bishop or archbishop. Red is the color of a cardinal.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Generally true, but the specifics are not straightforward. The problem lies in the interpretation of "purple." Depending on the source, the purple may actually be "amaranth red" (which is a reddish-purple, but may look more like fuschia) or "magenta" (which may appear to be a reddish-purple or a purplish-red). Magenta is an equal mixture of red and blue, so the result should look somewhere between red and purple. How these colors or blends are perceived on screen may vary with the tint setting.

KeyZOid

Also, it may be possible that the more reddish-looking zuccetto was meant to be and match the choir's red.

KeyZOid

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Parker picture

Character mistake: When Parker awakes in the hospital bed, you can hear the female news anchor say that the thieves got away in a "silver [Chevrolet] Suburban" when actually the Suburban was gold. (00:21:00)

JusticeShields

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3 Days to Kill picture

Character mistake: In the bathroom scene with the fat man tied up, Kevin answers his phone upside down.

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I See You picture

Character mistake: Detective Spitzer went into Harper's dark/unlit house, saw his partner Greg on the floor, and then saw Alec standing in the kitchen. Without identifying himself, telling Alec to drop his weapon (pistol pointed toward the floor), or bothering to determine what happened, Detective Spitzky shoots Alec. (01:27:08)

KeyZOid

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Tower Heist picture

Character mistake: Alan Alda says that his personal security code is the street address that he lived on at Steinway Boulevard when he was a kid growing up in Astoria, NY. The name of the street in Astoria is Steinway Street. (00:19:50)

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Face/Off picture

Character mistake: When Troy is getting the bomb ready, the screen shows it will blow in 216 hours, which is 9 days. Yet the agent tells Archer it will blow in 6 days.

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