Best drama movie deliberate mistakes of all time

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Lorenzo's Oil picture

Deliberate mistake: When Michaela reads "The Once and Future King" to Lorenzo, she doesn't start at the beginning, even though she's never read him that book before. Not only does she not open the book to the first page, the words she reads are not at the beginning of the book (I believe they are about three or four chapters in).

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Heartbreak Ridge picture

Deliberate mistake: While recon platoon is marching in their modified pt uniform, Gunny has "Cojones" call a cadence. Meanwhile Sgt. Webster maintains control of his formation, but from the wrong side. No platoon leader ever marches their unit from the right side of the formation.

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The English Patient picture

Deliberate mistake: The actual Lazlo Almasy died in the 1950's after voluntarily serving with the German Army and SS during WWII.

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Dead or Alive picture

Deliberate mistake: When Jojima's car is blown into the air, one of Ryuuichi's thugs throws a knife at it. When Jojima gets out after the car crashes to the ground, the knife is stuck in his stomach. This is physically impossible, as the knife would have to go through a large portion of metal to hit him there.

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The Scout picture

Deliberate mistake: When Al is looking through the binoculars, Steve's Yankee logo on his jersey is on the wrong side. (01:25:00)

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Behind Enemy Lines picture

Deliberate mistake: The French NATO rescue team is flying an old, Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter which is not in service in France. It was probably rented in Slovakia where most of the film was shot. The Mi-17 is easily distinguished from the French multi-purpose helicopter Puma: the Mi-17's landing gear is supported by huge rods, its side windows are round, and it has a sleek boom with the tail rotor on the left side. The Puma has smaller gear support, rectangular side windows, and a thicker boom with the tail rotor on the right side. (01:15:42)

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Boyz n the Hood picture

Deliberate mistake: When Laurence Fishburne goes to Reva's car when she delivers Tre, Lawrence's face can be seen in the inside rear-view mirror as he kneels down on the passenger side.

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Misery picture

Deliberate mistake: Kathy Bates gives James Caan his Noveril a number of times, but one particular time Kathy gives him his Noveril and leaves the room. When the camera shows James Caan holding the capsules between his thumbs and forefingers, it is apparent that they are not James Caan's hands in this shot.

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A Zed and Two Noughts picture

Deliberate mistake: When Venus de Milo walks toward the back of the fluorescent "ZOO" sign (presumably on the way to her death at the hoofs of the zebras), the "Z" is reversed (that is, it appears unreversed on the back of the sign). This gives the first three letters of the word "ooze," doubtless because that is what Venus will return to. (The word "ooze" is used earlier in the film in just such a context (00:34:35-00:35:50).) A tree blocks the space where the "e" would be (or rather would not). (01:41:55 - 01:44:05)

CC

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Operation Dumbo Drop picture

Deliberate mistake: After our heroes jump from the plane.as they are landing their parachutes the each come to a soft standing landing. if you jump with a standard Dash 1 Bravo parachute (which none of them had) your landing is similar to jumping from 14 feet high with no chute: you hit like a rock and collapse (the Parachute Landing Fall or PLF) They were all using stunt parachutes of a type that was unavailable in 1968.

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Deathwatch picture

Deliberate mistake: The entire time they spend in the trench, before they attack, Quinn has a white sheepskin jacket. It rains throughout the film yet with all the mud about you would think in about a day that this jacket would turn dark brown. It is still fairly white even when Quinn dies.

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Constantine picture

Deliberate mistake: When Constantine comes out of the library after speaking with Gabriel, he stands beside Angela and none of them cast any noticeable shadows on the door and walls behind them. When it cuts to a shot above them, shadows are more being cast behind them. This is probably because of different light settings on the set. (00:23:35)

Mortug

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Metropolis picture

Deliberate mistake: A shot that lasts three seconds is backwards. The previous shot is a point of view outside an elevator and it shows Maria descending into the workers' city. The very next shot is a point of view from inside the same elevator and it shows the elevator ascending out of the workers' city. (Observed in both the Kino and Madacy DVD's. The timecode is for the Kino DVD.) (01:32:25)

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City of God picture

Deliberate mistake: In many scenes bullets are shown striking things and sparking (this is especially visible on the attack on Knockout Ned's house when a bullet strikes a chair and gives off a huge spark of light). In real life, only special bullets with incendiary materials (meant for starting fires) cause sparks, and this is only when they're fired against metallic objects. It is impossible that a bullet striking a chair would give off a spark.

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Cocoon picture

Deliberate mistake: David spots the boat with the old folk on and runs around the harbor, down the jetty and jumps towards the dive boat as it leaves the jetty. He doesn't jump very high and you can see he would miss the rail on the boat. In the next shot, a (larger) stunt double is shown leaping high in the air onto the boat and, of course, catches the rail.

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Now and Then picture

Deliberate mistake: The lake that the girls splash about in is very shallow, as they easily stand and play in it. Roberta does a head-first dive from a high tree, into it. There's no chance she wouldn't have hurt herself. (00:32:35)

Hamster

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Rabbit-Proof Fence picture

Deliberate mistake: When the girls are shown at home at the beginning of the film they speak in their native tongue except when they talk to whites. Also at Moore River they get sometimes scolded for using that 'jabber language'. Therefore, it seems wrong that on their walk home they talk to each other only in English. (Though the director admits on the commentary that he felt this would be unrealistic, he decided the audience would connect with the girls if they speak English rather than reading subtitles.)

NancyFelix

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Quo Vadis picture

Deliberate mistake: Wooden crosses are shown in several scenes, hanging on a wall. Crosses did not come into use as a Christian symbol until 450 A.D. (about 400 years after the film is set).

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Air Bud picture

Deliberate mistake: When Buddy's dog box falls out of the back of the truck the dog box is empty.

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Changing Lanes picture

Deliberate mistake: After Doyle and Gavin agree to meet at the court (right before Gavin's second highway crash), there is a scene of a taxi driving on the left side of the road. This shot was obviously flipped, as everyone in the U.S. drives on the right-hand side of the road. (01:00:15)

Paul Plesser

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