Best fantasy movie deliberate mistakes of all time

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

Scrooged picture

Deliberate mistake: In the end scene at the TV set, Scrooge tosses a coin out the window, and the camera follows the coin as it falls in slow motion. The people in the control room also watch this on their monitors. Problem is, this is a live broadcast and filming/watching something live in slow motion is impossible.

More Scrooged deliberate mistakes
Red Sonja picture

Deliberate mistake: When Kalidor beheads a warrior and when Sonja beheads the wizard, both heads don't fall sideways as they should, but instead fly upwards, revealing they were tossed by someone offscreen - which looks more impressive, indeed.

Sacha

More Red Sonja deliberate mistakes
Big Fish picture

Deliberate mistake: Instead of being a specific language, Edward has an English to Asian dictionary. I've heard this was done to prevent a particular time period from being established. (01:12:55)

Joel Gordon

More Big Fish deliberate mistakes
Hellraiser picture

Deliberate mistake: When Larry and the two moving men are first bringing the mattress through the doorway and it gets "stuck," the camera placement makes it pretty obvious that the mattress isn't really stuck. There's far too much wiggle room on either end for it to be "stuck." (Obviously it needs to be stuck for the scene to work... but still a weird inconsistency).

TedStixon

More Hellraiser deliberate mistakes
Nine Lives picture

Deliberate mistake: After David jumps off the roof of the Firebrand building, it is discovered that he had been wearing a parachute, but this parachute was never visible on him at any point previously in the scene. Even when he was on the roof and after jumping, the parachute was nowhere to be seen. The parachute was too big to have gone unnoticed. It would have been visible whenever the shot was behind him and the straps would have been seen whenever the camera was in front of him. (01:17:30)

Casual Person

More Nine Lives deliberate mistakes
The Strange Case of a Claustrophobic Ghost picture

Deliberate mistake: The ghost opens Nikolaj's bedroom door an inch or so, yet there is enough light emitting onto the hallway floor for the door to be open about halfway. After the door closes, the light on the floor continues to gradually fade towards the closed door. (00:17:05)

KeyZOid

More The Strange Case of a Claustrophobic Ghost deliberate mistakes
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 picture

Deliberate mistake: When Spidey jumps on the hood of the truck, Rhino squirts him using the wipers. Funny, but he can do that only because the detergent sprays forward instead of the angle actual windscreen washers are pointed at. (00:12:50)

Sammo

More The Amazing Spider-Man 2 deliberate mistakes
More The Flash deliberate mistakes
More Alice in Wonderland deliberate mistakes
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters picture

Deliberate mistake: Hansel will die if he doesn't take his medicine for 4 hours, but after hanging overnight in a tree he shows no signs of needing.

More Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters deliberate mistakes
Mirage picture

Deliberate mistake: When Nico finds Hilda's body at the start of the movie, her left arm is shown next to her body, and her right arm is outstretched. When her death is shown later in the movie, both arms are outstretched when she lands on the floor. (00:05:50 - 01:30:55)

Casual Person

More Mirage deliberate mistakes
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire picture

Deliberate mistake: When Phoebe is about to destroy the lion statue, police cars arrive at the scene. Barely a second and a half later, suddenly the place is filled with cops who have managed to park the cars, step out, take positions, and aim. It speeds up the action of the film, but it's very awkward.

Sacha

More Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire deliberate mistakes
Alvin and the Chipmunks picture

Deliberate mistake: In the housing block that Dave's house is in, the house numbers do not match - because In one shot of Claire walking past Dave's house, you can see that the house numbers are in the 1500's - one homes number is clearly 1516. However Dave's house number is 1958. However this is a deliberate mistake as the 1958 on Dave's house is a reference to when the Chipmunk fever was born. (00:23:50 - 00:32:35)

Hamster

More Alvin and the Chipmunks deliberate mistakes
King Kong picture King Kong mistake picture

Deliberate mistake: When the natives abduct Dwan, they grab her and leave in a nanosecond, leaving nothing on the deck. When Jack arrives, there's suddenly a necklace on the deck which helps him figure out what went on, despite being a ludicrous and deliberate McGuffin. Check the beer can and red box as a reference.

Sacha

More King Kong deliberate mistakes
Soul picture Soul mistake picture

Deliberate mistake: In the Spanish release, the name of the family store is written in Spanish, but inside the place it's in English everywhere. This is a very common mistake in foreign kids' films released in Spain.

Sacha

More Soul deliberate mistakes
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies picture

Deliberate mistake: Conan Stevens' character in this film is an unnamed orc who briefly attacks Gandalf and is defeated by Galadriel. However, in the first movie, the same character briefly appears in the flashback to Moria and is credited as "Bolg." This is due to the role of Bolg being recast and the two remaining filmed scenes of the original actor being repurposed. The filmmakers originally intended for first film Bolg to be a younger Bolg, but later retconned this, despite already crediting him as Bolg.

More The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies deliberate mistakes
The Care Bears Movie picture

Deliberate mistake: During "Nobody Cares Like a Bear," Kim opens a gift box containing a balloon. Secret Bear then grabs it and floats away. But when Grumpy Bear tosses a star and pops the balloon, confetti flies out of it and, for the next second, keeps reappearing from nowhere. (00:14:05)

ryguy_1983

More The Care Bears Movie deliberate mistakes
The Muppet Christmas Carol picture

Deliberate mistake: Gonzo and Rizzo are selling apples in the beginning, including the Red Delicious cultivar. That wasn't invented until the 1880s and the story is set sometime in the first half of the 1800s. Most likely intentional as they are the narrators.

LorgSkyegon

More The Muppet Christmas Carol deliberate mistakes
Anthem of a Teenage Prophet picture

Deliberate mistake: Luke had a box of T-shirts he designed and Faith reached into the box and removed the top T-shirt. Without looking at the size or even holding it up to her body to see if the T - shirt would fit, Faith asked, "How much?" Luke replied, "Ten" [dollars]. Faith reached into her pocket, pulled out a wad of bills and handed it to Luke without counting the money. Faith put the T-shirt on over her top and it was a "perfect fit." (00:03:55 - 00:04:37)

KeyZOid

More Anthem of a Teenage Prophet deliberate mistakes
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen picture

Deliberate mistake: Baron Munchausen sends his courier, Berthold, on a one-hour errand to procure a bottle of the finest Tokay from the imperial wine cellars in Vienna. Berthold returns with the bottle within the hour and (in one continuous wide shot) hands the bottle to Baron Munchausen, who then hands it to the Sultan, who effortlessly plucks the cork from the bottle with his fingertips and pours a glass for himself. But there is no way the Sultan could simply pluck out the cork with his fingertips in one move; this extremely valuable bottle of wine is visibly sealed (in every shot) with a thick, air-tight red wax. This wax must first be cut and peeled away to access the deeply-embedded cork, and the cork must then be removed with a wine key (corkscrew). The action of properly opening the bottle would have required more time than the entire scene itself; so, to expedite the flow of the shot, director Terry Gilliam deliberately chose to forego a proper uncorking.

Charles Austin Miller

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

Suggested correction: You're ignoring the fact that the entire scene is a story the real Munchausen is telling from memory. There are many fantastic elements that do not hold with reality, like him riding his horse out of the window, falling several stories, and landing safety, or Adolphus being able to see and shoot to the other side of the world. The bottle is simply an example of Munchausen not adhering to reality.

In any event, the Sultan's effortless uncorking of the bottle was a deliberate mistake intended to allow a whole series of actions to occur sequentially in the single wide shot in less than 5 seconds.

Charles Austin Miller

Yet, at the end, Sally addresses Baron Munchausen directly and asks him the question that the audience has been wondering throughout the whole movie: "It wasn't just a story, was it?" The Baron solemnly shakes his head, affirming that he was telling the truth all along, regardless of how fantastic it sounded. This point is often missed by the movie's critics.

Charles Austin Miller

The point I raised wasn't that the Baron's story wasn't true, but rather that he embellished it.

More The Adventures of Baron Munchausen deliberate mistakes

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.