Best drama movie character mistakes of all time

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Wuthering Heights picture

Character mistake: David Niven and his father are playing chess, and to checkmate his father, David Niven makes two moves, which you absolutely can not do - the only time you can move 2 pieces is when you move your castle and the king at the same time (castling), but you can't do that when you are in check.

kh1616

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The Treasure of the Sierra Madre picture

Character mistake: When Curtin shoots Dobbs, the two shots are close together in time. When Curtin explains it he says that he was shot and falls. Then Dobbs shoots him again. This takes time but the shots were fired very quickly.

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The Sand Pebbles picture

Character mistake: Following McQueen's viewing of Naval Shipmate Attenborough's corpse, he then fails to recover the decedents dogtag; a United States Military Protocol.

tedloveslisa

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The Mighty Ducks picture

Character mistake: During the game against the Cardinals in the playoffs, the announcer says that Averman passed to Guy who then scored. First, Guy does pass the puck back to Averman, but then he passes it to Banks who scores the second goal, propelling them to the playoffs.

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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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8mm (1999)

8mm picture

Character mistake: Throughout the whole movie, Mary Anne has an e at the end, yet in the note her mother wrote to Tom, Anne has no e at the end. It even has an e at the end in the ending credits.

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At First Sight picture

Character mistake: When Amy goes to Virgil's house to apologize, Virgil tells Amy that the tree is exactly 14 steps away. However he then leads her there by taking 17 steps.

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The Day of the Jackal picture

Character mistake: When the false passport application is found, they say that the passport was mailed on Jul 14. When Lebel tell the Minister about the passport, he says that it was issued on Jul 30.

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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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Fatal Attraction picture

Character mistake: When Dan and Beth are talking on the phone, Beth says Ellen, their daughter, is five years old, but later, when Dan and Alex are together, Dan says Ellen is six years old.

kh1616

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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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The Great Escape picture

Character mistake: When Werner asks Hendley why, as an American, he fights alongside Britain, he mentions that the British burned down the U.S. capital in 1812. While it happened during the War of 1812, the burning of Washington actually occurred in 1814. (00:11:10)

Cubs Fan

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

Suggested correction: The question was intended to demonstrate how far out-of-touch Werner was with United States history.

Charles Austin Miller

You misunderstand. Werner's question in and of itself is not the mistake; it's merely a point of contextual reference. The mistake is him giving the incorrect date of a historical event he claims to have read about; it's hard to believe that every book that he might have read on the topic are all wrong, so he must be remembering, and thus repeating it, incorrectly.

Cubs Fan

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Jackie Brown picture

Character mistake: Near the end of the movie when Ray shoots Odell, Ray checks Odell's pulse using his thumb. Since the thumb has an artery in it, you should never check someone's pulse using your thumb. As a cop, he should know this because I'm sure he's taken basic first aid.

steven_frankel

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The Longest Day picture

Character mistake: When Rommel leaves his French headquarters for Germany on June 5th for his wife's birthday on the next day, he erroneously states that date as 6th of July (pronounced yoo-lee), not June (pronounced yoo-nee). (00:29:30)

Daniel4646

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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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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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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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Soldier picture

Character mistake: After killing three of the 'new' soldiers, Todd says that there are seventeen left. He then kills about another thirty.

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Miracle on 34th Street picture

Character mistake: When preparing for the parade, Shellhammer tells Dorey that her Santa is wearing a topcoat and a fedora. Kringle is actually wearing a Homburg, noticeable by the lack of a pinch at the front.

Greg Dwyer

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