Character mistake: The coroner examining Jennifer Toland's body reports that her fingers were cut off first, then the metacarpals (palm bones) were removed later. Given that when she is found her entire limb is missing up to her mid-forearm, how could he possibly tell not only that the missing part was not all removed at once, but which bits were cut off in which order?
Character mistake: It is highly unlikely that the recipient of Mr. Butler's application for the professorship position would not only call him so soon, but ask him to come to her office right away (where she would humiliate him for the things he wrote in his essay on "qualities that make me a good teacher"). Moreover, her failure to listen to Mr. Butler and give due consideration to his assertion that someone else actually wrote those offensive things showed poor judgment, especially since she knew the person who referred Mr. Butler and spoke highly of him. Someone tampering with his application would make more sense than believing that Mr. Butler actually wrote those things that criticized the very college he was applying to and boasted so much about himself. That Mr. Butler was not able to say more to make his point believable is also problematic. He is an English teacher, so should have the vocabulary and mastering of techniques to make a convincing argument, but he failed to defend himself.
Character mistake: When they're reviving Lindsey, Bud screams "fight" and slaps her. watch as she closes her eyes on the second slap while she is supposed to be dead.
Character mistake: In the meeting in 1984 when Jason Bateman first appears they have players on the whiteboard in the background. They have "Hakeem Olajuwon." He didn't put the H back in his name until 1991. So it should have been "Akeem Olajuwon." (00:08:40)
Character mistake: When discussing the new Pope's name (Luke) at the end of the film, Langdon says: "There have been many Marks and Johns, but never a Luke." In fact, though there have been 23 Pope Johns, there has only been one Pope Mark - reigning for 9 months in 336.
Character mistake: While he is describing his origin, Dr. Manhattan mentions a circulatory system appearing at a military base. However, what is actually shown is a nervous system, as it depicts a brain and spinal cord.
Character mistake: When Barry Lyndon is talking to his mother privately, while standing on the bridge overlooking the water, Barry's mother refers to Barry's son Brian as being "at the mercy of his stepbrother", meaning Lord Bullingdon. They have the same mother. Lord Bullingdon and Brian would be half brothers, not step brothers.
Character mistake: When Malloy first visits Frannie in her apartment, he says the girl was killed on the 15th, but when Frannie is in the cop car for the first time, Malloy's partner says it was the 11th.
Character mistake: Joan Clarke pronounces the name of the mathematician Euler to rhyme with "ruler", when in fact it is pronounced "oiler."
Character mistake: There is a misspelling on the cover of the issue of Forbes magazine shown in the presentation about Stark's life. It reads "Tony Stark takes reigns at 21". The correct spelling of the word is "reins". Stark may "reign" at Stark Industries but he would take over the "reins" of the company.
Character mistake: When Vivian is in the tub singing "KISS" by Prince, she sings the verses in the wrong order. Not a big mistake, but a noticeable one for a Prince fan.
Character mistake: Amanda's lawyer says several times she'll go to the gas chamber if found guilty - once to her, once to the prosecutor and once to the jury. Oklahoma doesn't use, and never has used, the gas chamber for executions. (00:15:00 - 01:16:00)
Character mistake: In the scene when Dave is checking out the failed transmitter at the radio station, Dave says "the bad news is your return loss - way too high". This is a mistake, as the movie makers got confused between the terms "return loss" and "insertion loss". Dave should have correctly said either "your return loss - way too low" or "your insertion loss - way too high".
Character mistake: Near the end, just before Derek and Danny depart at Danny's high school, Derek says to his brother "I saw a car cruising by the house last night when I pulled out of there with Seth." The car that was shown driving by their house the previous night was in a brief scene right after Derek and Danny took down all of their nazi posters, and before Derek took a shower. He had not just 'pulled out of there with Seth.' The last time he had seen Seth at this point in the movie was at Cameron's party where Seth had almost shot him.
Suggested correction: Just because Derek says to Danny that he saw a car driving by their house when he left with Seth and a black car drove by later in the movie doesn't mean that this is the car Derek was referring to. There are many possibilities to explain what Derek was referring to (perhaps he was paranoid and saw an ordinary car driving by that he thought was scoping their apartment out) but it doesn't mean that the black car is the one he was referring to when he warned Danny.
Character mistake: The information on Walter's "patient information sheet" lists his address as 5962 Delco St but numerous shots indicate his house number is 238. (01:03:25)
Character mistake: When Ronnie is cutting the article about Roy's encounter out of the newspaper, the title of the article begins with "UFO's...", the apostrophe making it possessive. It correctly should have been "UFOs...", with no apostrophe making it plural as intended.
Suggested correction: You are incorrect. The article is actually correct. It is used as a contraction, not a possessive. http://www.thepunctuationguide.com/apostrophe.html.
It's not a contraction. A plural acronym is simply "s" added to the acronym. An apostrophe never indicates plurality.
Suggested correction: There is no standard on how to pluralize initialisms or acronyms and either way is acceptable, depending on a person's preference. An apostrophe does not automatically make something possessive, such as using apostrophes in contractions to replace missing letters.
Nope. In contractions joining two words, apostrophes only replace vowels (typically the letter "o," such as in "hasn't" or "wouldn't" or "isn't," and most obviously with "it's" replacing the letter "i" in "it is"). In this case, the acronym "UFOs" stands for "Unidentified Flying Objects," and there is no vowel to replace between the "t" and the "s" (in fact, an apostrophe wouldn't replace any letter at all). So, the contraction argument is invalid. Using an apostrophe for "UFO's" makes the acronym singular possessive (such as in "The UFO's movements were erratic").
It seems you missed the point of my comment. What you're stating is an opinion on how to pluralize initialisms and acronyms. While many lean towards just adding an "s", many real life publications back in the 70's did in fact use and "apostrophe s" for initialisms and acronyms. (Notice how 70's isn't possessive or a contraction. But many prefer using "70s.").
"Many publications" were wrong (especially in the late 1970s) and followed poor literary and journalistic standards. No, it's not a "matter of opinion"; throwing in apostrophes where they are not appropriate is a matter of poor education in the English language.
The question is not whether using the apostrophe is "correct" or "appropriate." It's whether it was used by publications in the '70s. It was, therefore it is not a mistake.
You should be more educated when stating opinions then, because it wasn't about being wrong. It was about no set standard. For example "The Chicago Manual of Style" would recommend UFOs while "The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage" would recommend UFO's. Of course, both would recommend using the apostrophe when making single letters plural "A's" or p's and q's."
The New York Times manual of style is predictably bogus. I'm a professor of Journalism (Southwest Texas State University 1979 to 1987). I know what is proper.
Character mistake: When Mrs. Doubtfire gets her own TV show at the end, she asks the puppet if he knows anything about England. The reply is, "I only know that it's an island", which is not true. Britain is an island, not England.
Character mistake: When they deliver Xmas presents to Denmark it's already too late - Denmark has the presents on the 24th, early in the evening.
Character mistake: Nic Cage says "At 4 and a half months, the human fetus has a reptile's tail". This is totally incorrect. A human fetus has a tail-like structure between 4 and 7 weeks, not months, and it is little more than a mass of flesh which helps the muscular structure of the backbone develop before being absorbed for use in the formation of the legs and hips. (01:28:50)
Character mistake: Chick Gandil mispronounces Eddie Cicotte's name, calling him "Si-coty" instead of "See-cot."