Best movie character mistakes of 2001

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

Save the Last Dance picture

Character mistake: During the movie's opening credits, Sara is shown auditioning for Juilliard, which is misspelled as "Julliard" on a sign outside the room where the audition is occurring.

More Save the Last Dance character mistakes
The Fast and the Furious picture

Character mistake: In the opening scenes when Brian goes back to the shop, he demands that he needs some nitrous to boost his low top speed. Well I'm sure that most tuners will agree that more horsepower doesn't equal more top speed, it only contributes IF you have a transmission that can handle it and distribute it. (00:09:53)

More The Fast and the Furious character mistakes
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone picture

Character mistake: When Wood is telling Harry the rules of Quidditch he says that if you catch the Snitch the game is over, which is true. But then he also says that which ever seeker catches the snitch, their team wins, but that isn't true. Granted that the 150 extra points probably would give you the winning lead, but as JKR pointed out in the 4th book at the Quidditch World Cup, you can catch the Snitch but lose the match. And you'd think explaining the rules to a first-timer you would want to get it right. (01:05:40)

troy fox

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

Suggested correction: The team whose "seeker" catches the "snitch" would win in over 90% of matches. At this point, in the film and the book, while Harry Potter has discovered that Quidditch is popular in the wizarding world, he knows nothing about the rules or how to play. Oliver Wood is giving Harry Potter his very first introduction to Quidditch. So maybe it is acceptable for Oliver Wood to give a general overview of how Quidditch works, rather than outline every nuance and detail of every game ever played.

More Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone character mistakes
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius picture

Character mistake: When Jimmy explains to the kids of the town where the aliens took their parents, he mentions the origin of the aliens being somewhere in the Orion Star System, 3 million light years away. The Orion system is way closer than that. It is actually less than 1400 light years away from Earth. 3 million light years away would place them further than the Andromeda Galaxy.

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

Suggested correction: This shouldn't be a character mistake. A genius like Jimmy would know something like this. It's basic astronomy.

That's exactly why it's a character mistake. A character mistake is when a character does or says something that they shouldn't based on who/what they are suppose to be, or something a character wrongly states as fact when they should know better.

Bishop73

More Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius character mistakes
Legally Blonde picture

Character mistake: The first law class scene involves Reese Witherspoon getting kicked out of the room for being unprepared to answer questions regarding Gordon v. Steele, a very basic Civil Procedure case. The scene closes with the professor asking Selma Blair about the result in Gordon v. Steele. She responds that the court held that there was not diversity jurisdiction. The professor replies that Selma is correct. But, this is entirely the wrong answer. The court in that case held that there was diversity jurisdiction. Merely getting a case wrong would seem trivial, but again this is literally the first case any law student studies in Civil Procedure, a first year class. How could a screenwriter get this basic case completely wrong?

More Legally Blonde character mistakes
Driven picture

Character mistake: In the build-up to the final race, a TV commentator says, "Jimmy Bly starting in the 26th pole position because he didn't qualify today." This makes no sense, as Bly cannot be starting from both 26th place and from pole. (01:36:37)

DEvans

More Driven character mistakes
See Spot Run picture

Character mistake: At the FBI facility, Agent 11's handler buckles the collar on the dog's neck. Later, when Gordon has put the collar on and tries to get it off, he's trying to pry it off. He just buckled it on not two minutes earlier. He's stupid, but not that stupid.

More See Spot Run character mistakes
The Animal picture

Character mistake: When Rianna introduces Marvin to the animals at the shelter, she says, "We have macaws," and then shows him Cosmo, saying, "My friend Cosmo is a parrot." This does not make sense because "parrot" is a broad group of several bird species, including both Cosmo and the macaws. Cosmo appears to be a type of Conure.

More The Animal character mistakes
The Last Castle picture

Character mistake: When Col. Winter has Yates brought in to see him, Yates tells the colonel that his father won the "Congressional" Medal of Honor. This is a mistake, and one a lot of people make. The award is correctly and simply called the Medal of Honor, and one doesn't "win" the medal, it's awarded. (01:21:10)

More The Last Castle character mistakes
Pearl Harbor picture

Character mistake: When threatening Evelyn with jail, the Army Signals officer says "Brig" which would be a Navy jail. In the Army the appropriate threat of incarceration would be the stockade.

Lupe1

More Pearl Harbor character mistakes
Evolution picture

Character mistake: The acronym USGS (United States Geological Survey) is stated correctly at the beginning of the film, however, upon arriving at the military outpost, Dr Block says "United States Geological Society", not 'Survey'.

pioneerduster

More Evolution character mistakes
Iris picture

Character mistake: Near the end, Iris's doctor attempts to take John's pulse. He has his hand wrapped around John's hand, his fingers nowhere near the top of the wrist, where the artery is; and as he counts the "beats", against his wristwatch, John talks to him and he talks back - when you are counting something, you can not talk at the same time; you lose count every time.

kh1616

More Iris character mistakes
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: I watched the film, and Professor Oak pronounces Suicune's name correctly.

apikachu68

More Pokemon 4Ever character mistakes
More Joe Dirt character mistakes
Training Day picture

Character mistake: At end when Jake has the 1911 single action automatic covering Alonzo, it is not cocked. Since the 1911 is single action, he can't fire it until he cocks it which he does just before he shoots him in the butt. Makes no sense not to have it cocked the whole time he has it trained on Alonzo.

More Training Day character mistakes
Along Came a Spider picture

Character mistake: Cross knows (for some reason) by memory the last words of the Lindbergh kid kidnapper (and killer) and that Soneji/Mercusio referenced in a book he finds in amazingly oblique ways. He calls him "Richard Bruno Hauptmann", while his name was actually Bruno Richard Hauptmann. (00:42:30)

Sammo

More Along Came a Spider character mistakes
More Monsters, Inc. character mistakes
More Vanilla Sky character mistakes
Super Troopers picture

Character mistake: When Ramathorn and Farva pullover the Plymouth Voyager, Ramathorn radios in and says they have a Plymouth Voyager, Vermont plates Alpha, God, Mustard, 1, niner, decade, china. When Farva gets out of the car to call the driver a chicken f**ker, you can see the licence plate, Vermont plate '1 9415'. Ramathorn radioed in the wrong licence plate number.

More Super Troopers character mistakes

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.