Best thriller movie factual errors of 1988

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Die Hard picture

Factual error: The cops try to get in the building by cutting some metal part of the door, it might be the lock. All they have to do is break the glass. SWAT teams aren't going to worry about a bit of property damage with hostages' lives on the line.

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Rambo III picture

Factual error: At one point in the movie the sun is behind the helicopter and we can see that the places for the missiles are empty. However, he's shooting right after that.

Ivan-sama

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Young Guns picture

Factual error: When Billy The Kid is taking a bath and dictating a letter to Doc, intended for the governor, he says he is in the Mexican village of Juarez. This town was actually named "Paso del Norte" at the time, it wasn't until 10 years after the events depicted in the film that it was renamed "Ciudad Juarez."

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Poltergeist III picture

Factual error: When Bruce and Patricia are in a lift after being chased by the cars in the garage, the lift rapidly descends but the two people in the lift are seen struggling on the floor when they should just about be on the ceiling due to the speed of the lift's descent.

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Midnight Run picture

Factual error: When Jack is trying to buy the bus tickets, the bus company employee tells him that his credit card was cancelled. Credit card companies do not divulge that type of information, they simply indicate whether the requested charge is accepted or denied.

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Red Heat picture

Factual error: Ivan Danko's police uniform is a combination of at least six different uniforms. His hat is a Moscow Commander's Special and he also wears a Parade Band Musician axelbant.

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The Presidio picture

Factual error: Sean Connery's character is the Provost Marshall for the Presidio, he would not be wearing the MP sleeve placard as he is in the scene at the Officer's Club. He also wouldn't be running around wearing a Field Jacket with the collar up and it unzipped. You wear the jacket correctly or not at all.

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The Bourne Identity picture

Factual error: Shooting at a gas tank with buck shot at 50 meters distance will not make it explode (it likely won't even dent the surface), and lead pellets do not cause sparks when they hit.

Jacob La Cour

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The Accused picture

Factual error: Bob is in prison and he still has his gold ring on his right hand ring finger. Prisoners are not allowed to keep their personal property while in prison. (01:17:00)

Snag.1

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They Live picture

Factual error: Throughout the movie, whenever the sunglasses/contacts are worn, both visual and audible hidden subliminal messages are seen and heard. Such as the hidden "obey" message flashing, or the hidden traffic siren repeating "sleep," etc. The problem is that the glasses/contacts only help the eyes, not the ears. So the hidden audio shouldn't be heard any differently or clearer than it is with them off.

Mlp1327

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

Suggested correction: The glasses/contacts are made of a material that blocks the alien signal, hence why wearing them too long makes you feel sick since it messes with the brain. That would allow you to hear the audio as well.

Not true. Yes, the glasses would help you to be aware that the sounds existed; however, the error is that the sounds become louder. Take the traffic signal device. If it is saying "sleep sleep" as a subliminal message outside normal human hearing, wearing the glasses won't change the volume of the subliminal "sleep message" from "sleeeep" to "SLEEEP". Unless you're saying the sounds were always at normal human hearing levels.

Mlp1327

That's exactly what was happening. There's a difference between frequency and volume. A sound can have a frequency outside normal human perception and still be loud. For example, a dog whistle is loud enough to hear, but not in a frequency most humans can hear. The plot of the film seems to be that the frequency isn't picked up by the conscious mind, but by the subconscious mind, much like the visual images.

Bishop73

I just assumed, as is the case with most subliminal audio, that the sound messages were a case of low volume and not frequency. That is, sounds that were just below normal hearing volume. That is barely hearable to the average person volume-wise, but they heard enough for the brain to perceive them and process the information subconsciously. Unfortunately, I can only speculate which it is without an absolute answer, so I can't argue the correction really.

Mlp1327

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D.O.A picture

Factual error: Radium Chloride (stated by the doctor to be the ingested poison) does have a slightly luminous glow to it, but absolutely doesn't have the intense shining bright green luminous glow that is shown at the end of the film in Professor Cornell's mug.

swordfish

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Sunset picture

Factual error: The events in the film take place in mid-1929, as evidenced by the first Academy Awards being presented in May. However, Wyatt Earp went to the happy hunting grounds in January of that year.

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Child's Play picture

Factual error: Chucky blows out the pilot light in Eddie Caputo's house and, mere minutes later, there's enough gas for a single gun blast to then cause the whole house to explode. 1) It would take hours and hours for enough gas to fill up that house to present a safety issue; 2) By that time, Eddie would have unmistakably smelled it; 3) A gun blast wouldn't be enough to ignite that gas anyway.

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