Best crime movie character mistakes of all time

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Quadrophenia picture

Character mistake: Jimmy is at work, feeling sick in the toilet. Two other employees are talking at the sinks. The man on the left is called Phil by his colleague at the beginning of the scene, but at the end of the scene, he calls him Simon.

eric 64

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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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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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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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And Then There Were None picture

Character mistake: Blore accuses Lombard saying "What about those 21 poor natives in South Africa?" The record played during the first evening mentioned indeed 21 men, but that were natives of a tribe in East Africa. (00:14:20 - 01:10:10)

Sammo

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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

More I See You character mistakes
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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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A Time to Kill picture

Character mistake: The sheriff has his service weapon on him in the cellblock. Whenever law enforcement enters a jail or prison, they disarm.

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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

More The Big Sleep character mistakes
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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S.W.A.T. picture

Character mistake: The two fake cops that hit the prisoner transport bus used a suppressed Beretta 92FS and a TEC-DC9. At the press conference, Capt. Fuller says that they used AK-47s.

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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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Outland picture

Character mistake: The movie starts with shots of the moon Io and the company's operations, with typed descriptions at the bottom of the screen. Guess they couldn't afford a proofreader. They spell dependents as dependants, marshal as marshall, and principal as principle.

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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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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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Red 2 picture

Character mistake: On the tour boat in London, the voice on the loudspeaker says 'if you look to your right, you will see the Tower of London'. Except it's on the left, given the direction the boat is travelling. (00:53:00)

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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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