Best movie deliberate mistakes of 1988

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The Beast of War picture

Deliberate mistake: As the Soviet tank starts rolling, the tank commander obviously uses a hidden step to mount the tank. Soviet T-55/T-62 type tanks did not have steps for mounting by the wheels and axles; to mount a rolling tank using the moving wheels or spinning axles would result in the mounter being immediately crushed and killed.

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Mississippi Burning picture

Deliberate mistake: In the scene where the FBI agents are transporting Lester Cowans in a car and telling him all his friends have confessed, for about three seconds the scenery goes by backwards. For some reason, the shot is played in reverse.

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Who Framed Roger Rabbit picture Who Framed Roger Rabbit mistake picture

Deliberate mistake: The window blind in Maroon's office changes to a sheet of tambour (as found in roll-top desks) just before Roger crashes through it. This was to ensure his outline remains perfectly in it, otherwise pieces would drop out which are not attached to the strings on either side. (00:23:25)

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Waxwork picture

Deliberate mistake: In the final battle at the end, Mark Loftmore enters the back room where we see Mr. Lincoln leaning over the body of an older man with a red jacket whom Lincoln has apparently just shot. This same man later appears in the background of at least one shot of the general melee taking place outside in the gallery.

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Vice Versa picture

Deliberate mistake: When the boy jumps on the Police motor tricycle and his father jumps on as pillion passenger it is obvious in the subsequent scenes that a small but adult stand-in is riding the trike.

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Beaches picture

Deliberate mistake: When Hillary and CC are looking at Victoria after she's born, the baby Hillary's holding looks like it's several months old, not a red and pinched-looking newborn.

Krista

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Short Circuit 2 picture

Deliberate mistake: When Johnny Five is assembling the first toy robot, he takes a screwdriver to the neck and body of the robot toy, even though there are quite obviously no screws there for him to tighten.

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Child's Play picture

Deliberate mistake: In the scene where Mike is in the car and Chucky attacks him, pulling the skipping ropes around his neck and stabbing a knife through the carseat etc., in all the wideshots of the car driving, the stunt driver wearing what looks like a black woolly hat replacing Mike is blatant. (00:54:15 - 00:55:45)

Hamster

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Die Hard picture Video

Deliberate mistake: For Hans Gruber's iconic death scene, Alan Rickman's fall was filmed at high speed (for slow-motion playback) against a green screen, and the skyscraper perspective footage was added later as background. However, while Rickman falls away from the camera in slow motion, papers are fluttering around him in the background at normal speed. This was done deliberately to make the shot even more surreal.

Charles Austin Miller

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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.

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Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers picture

Deliberate mistake: The photographs that Angela takes off the boys that show the girls naked obviously were not taken outside the cabin, they are far too clear. The fly netting and window would have obscured them. Also, judging by the position of the beds in the photographs it seems like they were taken inside the cabin. (00:32:02)

Jack Vaughan

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Talk Radio picture Talk Radio mistake picture

Deliberate mistake: When Barry is on the phone with Kent for the 2nd time (right before Barry invites Kent to the station), we see Dan (Alec Baldwin) in the booth trying to get Barry to hang up on Kent. Dan holds up a sign that says "dump HIM." Problem is, we are looking at a reflection of the sign, so the sign was actually written backwards, as a mirror image.

jshy7979

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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.

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