Continuity mistake: During the Xmas day scene, Markus receives a Sony portable CD player as a gift from Will. However, before the gift's unwrapped, the Sony box is visible on the table. (00:51:45)
Continuity mistake: When swimfan85 is trying to talk to Ben and he tells her he has homework to get done, she is talking with the nick name swimfan85 but when she signs off it says "swimfan has signed off." They forgot to add the 85.
Plot hole: The whole problem with the teleporter occurs when fly DNA is mixed in with Seth Brundle's DNA, starting his transformation into the Brundlefly. Brundle is on a hiding to nothing from the word go, and the fly is irrelevant. Humans are a walking talking mass of foreign DNA - we are host to one trillion bacteria all of which has a complete complement of DNA, as do various tiny mites that live in our hair follicles and all sorts of single cell organisms in our gut. If the transporter serves to mix the DNA of all living creatures which are in the transporter pod at the time Brundle would turn into a half-man, half-bacteria. Incidentally, DNA from a bacteria, an amoeba or a hair follicle mite would be just as 'compatible' with human DNA as that from an insect. It's quite a simple chemical, really.
Other mistake: During his conversation with the landlord of the pub he ends up staying in, Sergeant Howie makes it clear that he did not intend to stay on Summerisle overnight, that he had been delayed and so needed accommodation. Makes you wonder why he packed his pyjamas. He's wearing them when Britt Ecklund does her famous naked song and dance routine, and they are not new so we know he didn't buy them that day. When he arrived he didn't even think he'd be on Summerisle for more than a few hours - we don't see him with so much as an overnight bag.
Factual error: After the successful Trinity test in 1945, people in a crowd are holding small US flags with 50 stars on them (offset rows). At the time there were only 48 states and the flag had 48 stars in even rows. The 50 star flag didn't exist until 1960, after Alaska and Hawaii were made states in 1959.
Suggested correction: While this is correct, an argument can be made that since the colour scenes are meant to be subjective and the black and white scenes are meant to be objective, Oppenheimer could have been unintentionally mapping the modern US flag onto this scene.
That's a ridiculous stretch with zero evidence, not least as 48 star flags are seen in colour in other scenes. Sometimes a mistake is simply a mistake.
There is evidence, though. Nolan said so himself. Look it up. As for the mistake itself, I'm merely repeating what I've read on Twitter, and this correction was merely a suggestion. Seeing the 48 star flags in other colour scenes still doesn't disprove this theory. It is just a theory though, so no need to shoot it down so hard.
He's said subjective in terms of the colour scenes being "first person", and maybe not strictly factual in terms of creating moments between characters and conveying emotion, but nowhere does that stretch to "one random scene happens to feature 50 star flags because Oppenheimer is mapping the modern flag onto it, when nothing like that happens anywhere else in the film."
Meh, take it up with Twitter. I just thought it was interesting, so I posted it here for a different point of view/perspective for others to read. It is most likely bull**** though.
The fact that a director realized they had made a mistake and retroactively made up a deus ex machina explanation for it in no way invalidates the mistake. Nice try, Mr. Nolan but this posting is absolutely valid.
While Christopher Nolan's talked about the subjective/objective colour/black and white thing, which is entirely fair and no doubt exactly his intention, I don't think he's actually tried to "excuse" this by using that explanation, that's just other people trying to connect the two things. I'm not sure Nolan has commented on the flag issue in interviews at all.
Precisely, and I was in no way trying to invalidate the original mistake. I just found the whole theory interesting and posted it here. It is rather hilarious that a director with such attention to detail like Nolan would have missed something like this. We shall see if he gets it fixed for the streaming/physical release.
It's not fixed in the home video version. However, the behind-the-scenes materials provide a reason for the mistake, in that putting a crowd in the scene was apparently a spur-of-the-moment decision. It's like that in their haste to bring in the crowd, the set decorators bought some modern miniature flags and put them into the scene without anyone realizing the 48/50 discrepancy.
Continuity mistake: When the real 'manager' comes outside to yell at "Mr. O'Donnell', you see the manager walk back into the club. If you look in the background of the next shot, you can see the manager walking through the door again. (00:13:25)
Visible crew/equipment: In the scene of Ram and Kurt's funeral, you can see Ram's supposedly lifeless body breathing.
Continuity mistake: When they steal the truck at the mall they have to hot wire it to make it start. Later at the San Andreas fault scene where the road ends, in the same truck, he turns the truck off with the key.
Revealing mistake: Near the end when Ace gets into his Cadillac, in the first shot facing the front of the car, there is a protective glass in front of Ace (the same width as the windshield) with the dashboard in between that glass and the windshield. Note the vertical edge of the glass is visible at the right side, and the rearview mirror's sticker on the windshield casts a shadow onto the second glass. During the stunt, the flames on the dashboard are between the glass shield and the windshield, keeping the actor safe from harm. (02:46:05)
Character mistake: The commentator says "avalanche of power shots by Ivan Drago." Viktor is the one in the ring. Ivan is the father. If you have the subtitles turned on, it even says Viktor in the subtitles instead of the spoken name, Ivan. (00:55:45)
Continuity mistake: Dick Jones brags (admits?) to Robocop, "I had to kill Bob Morton because he made a mistake. Now, it's time to erase that mistake" while Robocop is crouched on the ground, not only looking away from him from across the room, but also Robocop's eyes are in a vertical position. In the playback, Jones is facing the camera as though it were videotaped or filmed in a studio. (01:10:50 - 01:35:10)
Continuity mistake: In one scene after Hutch is beaten up on the bus, he has no facial injuries. Then in the next scene, they are back.
Continuity mistake: Agatha's nightgown strap switches between hanging down on her arm, or being up on her shoulder, normally.
Factual error: The interior shots of the Gemini and Apollo Spacecraft show worn and dirty panels, knobs, switches and circuit breakers. The movie most likely used some original cockpit trainers, but in reality the astronauts were flying brand new spacecraft that were spotless.
Suggested correction: All spacecraft are extensively checked out by technicians before mating to the launch vehicle. Launch rehearsals are done over and over again by both prime and backup crews in the real vehicle in the weeks leading up to launch. Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee lost their lives in a fire aboard Apollo 1 during one such dress rehearsal. The switches and panels get worn from this use and activity. Crews also make minor modifications to their specific craft to suit the mission and tastes.
Plot hole: Patrick Redfern needs someone to be in the boat with him to corroborate his and his wife's deception and be his alibi. That is whole point of his wife lying on beach - he gets this when taking Myra for a ride - but it was portrayed as a random ride she got, he did not intend or plan giving her a ride, he did not see her loitering near the boat, or even in view of him untying the boat. Even if that was intention in the story for him to be seen ready to cast off, the movie viewers did not see her viewing him, only her appearing just before he was set to cast off. Without someone with him the whole deception would not work, he would have no alibi, he could have killed Arlena unseen.
Factual error: Under US law neither Peter Lowenstein nor Oscar Grace would be allowed any level of participation in the investigation, arrest and prosecution of Ned Racine. Both have a highly visible social relationship with him, which disqualifies them from having anything to do with a criminal case against him. In fact as soon as he became a suspect in Edmund Walker's murder they would both be officially 'warned off' - told not to contact him again for any reason.
Other mistake: After the great fire scene there is a raccoon that drags her baby to shore and begins cleaning it. A few seconds later the baby has jumped across to the other side of his father and siblings, but the mother does not stop licking. This error has since been fixed in newer releases.
Continuity mistake: When Jesse is going to race Johnny Tran at Race Wars for pink slips, and Johnny Tran pulls up in his Honda S2000, Tran has on a black long-sleeved shirt. When the camera goes from side to front view, Tran has on a black tank top. (01:12:41)
Continuity mistake: When Portnow meets with Bishop at the church, in the first closeup of Bishop's crossword puzzle the word "MUD" is the second word across at the top, and at the center of the puzzle the 4-letter word "GEAR" is written in the 5-letter answer - with the fist space left empty. However, in the next closeup of the puzzle, now the word "ETA" is the second word at the top and "MUD" is the third, and the word "GEARS" has the "S" added, with the letter "G" started properly in the first space of the answer. (00:10:15)
Continuity mistake: When Danny & Debbie are having their New Year's dinner at home, the champagne foam instantly disappears in the very next camera angle after pouring it.
Suggested correction: Being as how the bacteria and mites and such were IN or ON Seth, the machine was able to organize those symbiotic relationships accordingly as teleporting one would teleport all. The fly was separate, not touching. The machine was not programmed to anticipate two separated entities and so combined them into one on the other side.
Phixius ★
We leave behind a vapour trail of bacteria and viruses (among other things) as we walk, in our breath and emanations from pores in our skin, and Brundle isn't trapping any in his clothes as he isn't wearing any. Brundle has an invisible cloud of DNA floating around him in that teleportation chamber and as far as the machine is concerned their DNA has exactly the same status as that of the fly.
We don't know enough about how the machine works to determine how it might differentiate different DNA types. Unexplained science means it's somehow able to do it. Willing suspension of disbelief for the win.