Best sci-fi movie factual errors of 1985

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Back to the Future picture

Factual error: The electric guitar Marty plays at the "Enchantment Under the Sea Dance" is a Gibson ES345. This guitar model debuted between 1957 and 1958 yet he's supposedly playing it in 1955. It would have been more accurate to have him using a Fender Telecaster (1950) or Stratocaster (1954) or a Gibson Les Paul (1952). (01:23:50)

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D.A.R.Y.L. picture

Factual error: While the problem with refuelling the SR71 is a real one for D.A.R.Y.L., he is never going to get that far. The SR71 had no self starters and required a trained crew with a starter generator mounted on a truck to get the engines going in the first place. D.A.R.Y.L. just pushes a button and away he goes. Not likely.

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Cocoon picture

Factual error: Young David focuses his telescope at the moon. A close up shot then shows a circular view i.e. it is supposed to be the view through the telescope. Both the moon and the clouds in focus. With a telescope the depth of field is short and, with the moon in focus, the clouds would actually be blurred.

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The Return of the Living Dead picture

Factual error: One zombie, who's rotted away all his organs, has two eyeballs looking good as new. Even if eyeballs didn't rot, they would fall out with nothing to hold them in. Just like the half of a woman zombie that talks with a soft sultry voice but with rotting or missing vocal cords.

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Real Genius picture

Factual error: During the scene where the laser is used to heat the popcorn in Hathaway's house, the laser hist the ground, works its way up the side of the house and then settles on the window. At that point it stops moving. This seems impossible since the laser is being fired from a moving airplane and would constantly need a slightly different angle in order to keep hitting the house in the same spot.

af4dable

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Day of the Dead picture

Factual error: When Steel (the bearded soldier) is cornered by the zombies, he realizes he's doomed and shoots himself in the head. The problem is he is using a Colt M1911 series handgun and the hammer was up when he shot himself. The gun has to be cocked before it can be fired. (01:30:00)

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Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome picture

Factual error: When Auntie sees Max through the periscope she zooms into him, but the lens is fixed and crude and shows no such zoom feature.

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Explorers picture

Factual error: When the aliens first take over the Thunder Road, Wolfgang says that he will reverse the "x-axis diode" to make the computer think they are traveling in the opposite direction. However the outside view shows them moving up and forward at a steep angle, ie moving up on the Z axis and forward on the X axis. If they X axis diode was reversed then the Thunder Road would still be ascending at the same rate, simply in the opposite direction (basically changing from moving forwards and climbing to moving backwards and climbing) . To make them descend, he would have to reverse movement on the Z axis. Considering it's shown on screen that Wolfgang designed the interface to make the sphere move on XYZ coordinates, he would know this.

Grumpy Scot

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