Best mystery movie character mistakes of all time

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It (1990)

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I See You picture

Character mistake: Detective Spitzer went into Harper's dark/unlit house, saw his partner Greg on the floor, and then saw Alec standing in the kitchen. Without identifying himself, telling Alec to drop his weapon (pistol pointed toward the floor), or bothering to determine what happened, Detective Spitzky shoots Alec. (01:27:08)

KeyZOid

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Inception picture

Character mistake: In the final scene Cobb's children class him "daddy!" but Cobb's son also calls him "Leo!"

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Mystic River picture

Character mistake: When Jimmy kills Dave, he says that he killed Just Ray when his wife was pregnant with Brendan, but she was pregnant with Ray Jr (Brendan's brother).

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

Suggested correction: Jimmy says pregnant wife, little Brendan.

Suggested correction: My father used to tell stories about his nieces and would constantly get their names mixed up. People often get siblings names switched around, and that is when they are in their right mind. Jimmy had been drinking, was still emotional over his daughter, and was telling the story with full intention of murdering Dave within minutes. Fully understandable that he would make this rather common error.

jshy7979

It might be understandable, but not so much within the context of this movie. Would the writer deliberately include in the script that a character will use the wrong name because it does happen sometimes in real life? Maybe if this were a movie about dementia or "Grumpy Old Men", but it doesn't seem to fit in this movie. [I know - not all elderly people have memory problems or lapses.].

KeyZOid

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The Nun picture

Character mistake: If the nuns in the Abbey weren't real and were created by Valek, why did Valek get one of the nuns to explain to Sister Irene the exact way to defeat her?

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American Psycho picture

Character mistake: Patrick, being the music buff that he is, mistakenly claims that Huey Lewis' Fore! came out in 1987, when it was actually released in 1986.

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More Changeling character mistakes
Halloween picture

Character mistake: When Laurie and Annie are on their way to babysit, and they see Annie's dad, the cop, as soon as they pull up to say hi and roll the window down, he mixes the two names up, and calls Laurie Annie, and Annie Laurie. You'd think he knows his own daughter's name. (00:32:10)

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The Wicker Man picture

Character mistake: When Nicholas Cage bumps into the beehive, he sees the bees coming towards him and runs towards all the other beehives. Given that he bumped into the beehive on the outer edge, it would have been safer, quicker and much less risky to run back the way he came to escape than run towards all the other bee hives. To complicate things Cage knew he was severely allergic to bees.

Lummie

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Limitless picture

Character mistake: In the Italian restaurant, Eddie is speaking jibberish, not Italian at all.

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

Suggested correction: He is speaking Italian.

I am Italian. He is speaking gibberish.

More Limitless character mistakes
Mr. Brooks picture Mr. Brooks mistake picture

Character mistake: When Mr. Brooks and Marshall hack into the police database and are looking at detective Tracy Atwood's financial records there is a screenshot of the computer screen showing some very terrible spelling.

BmunnY

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Murder on the Orient Express picture

Character mistake: Poirot identifies Prof. Hardman's revolver as a 1927 police-issue weapon due to its blued finish and chequered grips. In fact, these features were common in the widely-available civilian versions of the Colt 'Police Positive' revolver and not the least bit specific to police-issue weapons.

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Jeepers Creepers III picture

Character mistake: At the beginning of the film, the officer states that the kid taken was named Jeremy Jenner, when he was in fact named Darius Jenner.

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Contact picture Video

Character mistake: When they first receive the alien signal, they decode it and play it as a TV signal which shows Hitler speaking at the opening of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Kent translates what Hitler is saying as "I declare the Games in Berlin, at the celebration of the first Olympics of the New Era, as opened." Hitler actually says "the *eleventh* Olympics of the New Era." The "New Era" doesn't refer to some Nazi concept, it's used to separate the modern Olympics from the ancient ones in Greece.

ironcito

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Spenser Confidential picture

Character mistake: A radio report refers to a character with two different police ranks with 15 seconds apart in the same broadcast - first as a Police Chief and a few seconds later as a Captain. (00:21:28)

ExpatScott

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Deception picture

Character mistake: McQuarry enters the subway at the 103rd Street station on the 1. He is transferring to the 2/3 at Chambers Street when Bose approaches him. However, it makes no sense to transfer here. As someone who knows New York, McQuarry would transfer to the 2/3 at 96th Street to benefit from the express ride to Chambers. (01:03:05)

throcko

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Memories of Murder picture

Character mistake: The letter from the FBI containing the results of the blood and semen test is filled with numerous typos. First, on the line "Subject: Result of examination requested", the word "examination" is misspelled "examnation." Second, the term "DNA instrumental analyses" has "instrumental" incorrectly spelled as "insrumental." Third, the line "Reference: Letter dated October 21, 1987", has the word "dated" misspelled as "dateed" and the month "October" misspelled as "Octorber." (01:58:35)

Casual Person

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Charade picture

Character mistake: When Audrey Hepburn confronts Cary Grant by saying, "Carson Dyle had no brother," he would have definitely wondered how she came to know about this and who her hidden source of information was. (01:16:00)

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The Night Clerk picture

Character mistake: Bart is sitting on a bench outside the hotel. After Detective Espada talks to the Mercer hotel manager/owner, he goes to talk to Bart. Bart has blood on both hands and lower left sleeve. Detective Espada is supposed to be investigating a fresh murder case that puts Bart at the scene, but he does not confiscate Bart's bloody clothes, conduct a gun powder test on Bart's hands to check for residue, or take him to the police station for formal questioning. Espada did not follow police protocol. (00:17:36)

KeyZOid

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The Omen picture

Character mistake: When the housekeeper shows the new nanny, Mrs Baylock, where to go, she says,"Round that corner to the right and it's the door facing you." So what does the nanny do? She turns left.

kh1616

More The Omen character mistakes

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