Best thriller TV factual errors of all time

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Show generally

Factual error: Abby gets out of the train via the driver's door. You see a front view of the train. The number on the train is 321434. This train runs on overhead lines, and it is being shown as a Gatwick Express train from Gatwick Airport to Victoria. The railway from Gatwick to Victoria has a third rail conductor, so this Class 321 train would not have been able to move. (00:50:02)

M1CGP

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30 Coins picture

Telarañas - S1-E1

Factual error: A man enters a bank and begins firing his Glock 9mm pistol. A few of the men he shoots, jump up in the air after the rounds impact their bodies. Bullets hitting a body will never make it jump, or fly in the air. (00:00:01 - 00:01:46)

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Outer Range picture

The Soil - S1-E5

Factual error: Royal uses a pay phone in the library. The only working pay phone in the state at this time is at a rest stop.

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Surface picture

Episode #1.13 - S1-E13

Factual error: When Rich and Laura are checking the US Patent Office records for the Nortide drug, the date of the patent is shown as "December 22th, 1963." The form is a modern, barcoded typed document, not a hand-written or typed one, and supposedly a formal US government document, so the '22th' should not have happened. (00:15:45)

David R Turner

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Samurai Jack picture

Show generally

Factual error: Even though the show is called "Samurai Jack", Jack isn't really a samurai. The correct title for him would be a Ronin as a Ronin loses their master if their master dies or loses favor with their master and also has no home anywhere. Jack has these attributes. He has no master and no home.

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

Suggested correction: Nor is his name really Jack. "Jack", and thus "Samurai Jack", is just an alias that the prince takes. It's not meant to be his title or rank. Just like Cowboy Jack wasn't actually a cowboy.

Bishop73

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NCIS: Los Angeles picture

The Livelong Day - S5-E7

Factual error: When the stolen freight train is braking, the air pipe becomes disconnected. This should trigger the brakes on the train, but the train keeps going with no brakes. When the train is being slowed with no brakes working, why are there sparks coming from all wheels on the train? (00:32:00 - 00:38:00)

M1CGP

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The Returned picture

Virgil - S2-E4

Factual error: On the missing poster in the hospital, one of the gendarmes is said to hold the rank of Brigadier. This is a Police Nationale rank equivalent to sergeant; it is not used by the Gendarmerie Nationale, since all ordinary gendarmes are equivalent in rank to sergeant. The lowest supervisory rank in the Gendarmerie is Maréchal de Logis-Chef (staff sergeant).

Necrothesp

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Mission: Impossible picture

The Legacy - S1-E15

Factual error: For supposedly being Hitler's heirs, the three conspirators are pretty lousy Nazis. None of them notices that on their copy of their idol's book, Mein Kampf, Der Fuhrer's name is prominently misspelled "Adolph" instead of "Adolf." (00:13:00)

Jean G

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Midwinter of the Spirit picture

Show generally

Factual error: Possibly a mistake from the novel on which the series is based, but although he later became Bishop of Hereford, St Thomas Cantilupe wasn't baptised in Herefordshire. He came from Buckinghamshire.

Necrothesp

More Midwinter of the Spirit factual errors
Whiskey Cavalier picture

The Czech List - S1-E2

Factual error: Will is asked by Jai to place his wrist watch - which is filled with explosives - against a wall. He does, and it somehow sticks to the vertical concrete wall. An adhesive back would have been noticed by Will, as it was against his skin on his wrist. Not to mention that an explosion in a contained space that small would have deafened them both, or worse. (00:35:05)

toroscan

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Continuum picture

Family Time - S1-E9

Factual error: In the barn, one of the kids shoots Cameron, then drops the gun and flees. Cameron picks up the gun and checks how many rounds are in the magazine and then puts the magazine back in. However, after that, she pulls the slide back to chamber a round. But the semi-automatic pistol would already have a round in the chamber since it was just fired, and her action should have ejected an unspent round, which it doesn't.

Bishop73

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Justified picture

Fire in the Hole - S1-E1

Factual error: When Walter Goggins fires a LAW at the church from next to the vehicle, the back-blast from the rocket would have shattered the car's windows, and flying glass fragments would likely have injured the occupant. The show depicts neither outcome.

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Babylon Berlin picture

Episode #4.9 - S4-E9

Factual error: Renate escapes from the prison in a Morris Ten Four, with the badge visible on the bonnet. However, this designation was not introduced until 1935 and the episode is set in 1931.

Necrothesp

More Babylon Berlin factual errors

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