Best action movie factual errors of 2013

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World War Z picture

Factual error: An An-12, the aircraft the main character uses to fly all over the world, has a maximum range of about 3,500 miles. Hardly enough to fly from the US to South Korea or from South Korea to Israel. The An-12 also miraculously transforms into a C-130 in a couple of filler scenes. And why is this ex-Soviet aircraft marked in USAF markings, assigned to McGuire AFB?

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Suggested correction: Can't speak to the second half of your paragraph (should really post as 3 separate mistakes) but as for the first, a range of 3500 miles, aircraft such as the kc-135 exist and aerial refueling is fairly common place. Considering it's a mission supported by the acting UN Secretary General to stop a world crisis, resources could have been diverted for refueling.

The initial launch from the carrier is a C-130 which can do this (if empty, minimal fuel, has the full length of the flight deck and the carrier is steaming full ahead into the wind). It then morphs into an AN-12 and back to a Hercules. They make the point that this small fleet is what is known to remain of allied forces so not sure where any tanker support will come from. Many movies have ridiculous range issues with aircraft anyway.

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Olympus Has Fallen picture

Factual error: Near the finale, Kang sends a command to all US based missiles to self-destruct in their silos, thereby detonating their warheads. Ignoring for the moment why "self-destruct in silo" would ever be a desirable scenario programmed into ICBM protocols, detonation of a nuclear warhead requires an extremely precise sequence of events, none of which would include a nearby, conventional explosion. (01:38:20)

stevewaclo

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White House Down picture

Factual error: When Sawyer and Cale take Cadillac One ("The Beast"), they eventually want to shoot a rocket launcher at the fence. Sawyer wants to do this while hanging out of the window. The real Cadillac One is bullet proof and has several layers of glass with the final one softer not only to prevent the bullets entering but the deadlier threat of glass pieces. Only the driver side can open approximately 3 inches.

Friso94

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Captain Phillips picture

Factual error: In the scene where the Navy Seals are riding in the cars, the VA state vehicle inspection can be read from behind. It read "6 13" for June 2013. This would have been correct for the period the film was made, but not for the time of the incident.

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Pain & Gain picture

Factual error: The movie is set around 1995. But the SWAT team in the movie is wearing gear from the 2000s. (MICH-2000 helmet, modular tactical vest, M4 variant with picatinny rails and scope). Plus, in a scene when the guys are shopping for a taser (gun shop scene), some of the rifles on display are from 2000s era. AR-15 variants with variant stock, foregrip and picatinny rail. Those style of weapon system were unheard of in early 90s. Even Special Forces just adopted it by the late 90s.

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Thor: The Dark World picture

Factual error: In the final fight scene with Malekith, Thor falls through a portal that brings him to Charing Cross station, where the lady on the train tells him he has to ride 3 stops to get to Greenwich. Charing Cross is not on the Jubilee Line and so not directly connected to Greenwich - even then it's a lot more than 3 stops. (01:33:45)

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Pacific Rim picture

Factual error: The coastal wall in Sydney is shown as being inside the Sydney Harbour (right next to the Opera House). But Sydney Harbour is not on the Pacific coast but a part of the Parramatta river, several kilometres from the ocean (where the wall should have been). So the wall is either not shielding the northern part of Australia or (more likely) the producers decided that the audience cannot tell that it is Sydney unless we see the Opera House.

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Fast & Furious 6 picture

Factual error: In the scene where Shaw is talking to a goon while fixing his car he states the simplest things cause the most problems while holding a spark plug. We know this can't be right as Brian concludes the car is a turbo diesel like a Le Mans car, which would actually use a glow plug and not a spark plug. (00:19:50)

bigjimmyauk

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Suggested correction: That's exactly the problem that Shaw is referring to, a member of his team installed the incorrect plug which caused a problem, i.e. a Spark Plug and not a Glow Plug (a simple thing, causing the problem), along with the 'good' being simple minded and causing the rest of Shaw's team a problem.

The glow plug isn't what causes combustion in a diesel like how a sparkplug does for gas. The wiring harness for a spark plug vs a glow plug is completely different and they aren't interchangeable. You can't just accidentally put a spark plug in a diesel, it doesn't work like that.

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Iron Man 3 picture

Factual error: When the Iron Patriot armor is shot at on Air Force One, the bullets ricochet and smash a window. The windows on Air Force One are bulletproof. (01:32:55)

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Star Trek Into Darkness picture

Factual error: After the USS Vengeance blasts the USS Enterprise out of Warp, Sulu says that they are 237,000km away from Earth, but the Moon is between both ships and Earth. Earth's Moon is about 380,000km away from our planet, so the Moon should have been way behind the combatants.

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Elysium picture

Factual error: When the shuttles are approaching the station, their engines are firing from the rear, meaning they are in constant acceleration toward the station. When arriving at a station, you would need to slow down as you approach, meaning the engines should be firing forward (or the shuttle should reverse direction). This happens in all scenes where shuttles are approaching the station.

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Suggested correction: But the station spins to create artificial gravity for the outer rim where the ships are headed. The ships approaching are just matching speed and don't need to fully brake.

lionhead

Not when accelerating toward the structure. They would have to slow their approach, then match the radial velocity of the ring, which would still mean decelerating to match the structure's relative position in orbit.

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A Good Day to Die Hard picture

Factual error: It is not plausible that the tail rotor blade of the helicopter can destroy large parts of a building without being damaged. (01:24:40)

Jacob La Cour

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Lone Survivor picture

Factual error: When the seals are tumbling down the mountain one of them almost lands on a rattlesnake. There are no rattlesnakes native to Afghanistan or any other part of Asia. They occur only in the western hemisphere.

Dyke Howell

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Red 2 picture

Factual error: When they are in Costco there is music playing in the store. Costco does not play music in their stores.

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The Wolverine picture

Factual error: In the Shinkansen fighting scene, the railway line is seen having color light signals along its way. But the Shinkansen uses a signalling system that doesn't involve the use of light signals at all.

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G.I. Joe: Retaliation picture

Factual error: The sign outside Einsargen Prison says "high security area." For some inexplicable reason, the German writing just above reads "Hochsicherheitssteckdose", thus declaring the area to be a high security electric wall outlet. (00:25:40)

Doc

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Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox picture

Factual error: Superman begins shooting his super intense heat vision at the soldiers attacking him and the other heroes. His vision cuts boats in half, and incinerates the soldiers into ash in an instant. The lasers from his eyes are super strength, with him not yet knowing how to hold any of it back or shut it off, and it is going through the soldiers and boats. Yet the vision leaves no damage at all to the ground the soldiers were standing on, nor does it create any steam when going across the water cutting boats in half. (00:52:15)

Quantom X

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Company of Heroes picture

Factual error: Company of Heroes is in the timeline of 1944-45. Soldiers are wearing the flag patch on their uniforms which have 50 stars on them, not 48. There were only 48 states in the U.S. back then.

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The Lone Ranger picture

Factual error: When the lone ranger fires his guns at the train he shoots over 20 times, despite using a 6 shooter. Likewise when Fuller is shooting at Tonto through the roof. (02:06:55 - 02:07:30)

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