Factual error: Trains that do not stop, but crash through objects on railroad tracks. Train engineers will hit the brakes of the train when they see anything or anyone on the tracks, and if they come in contact with said objects, will stop to investigate what they hit, and cooperate with local and Federal authorities. Two examples are "Back To the Future, Part III" and "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry."
Common movie and TV mistakes since 12 Feb '25, 03:51
This is a list of mistakes, things done wrong, etc. that happen so frequently onscreen we barely notice any more. 'Movie logic', stupid behaviours, and everything related.
Other mistake: Whenever you see TV characters riding in a car, the radio is almost never on unless it's plot-relevant. This is for two reasons: 1) Having it on would distract the audience from the characters' dialogue, and 2) The producers would have to pay to license any music that would be played.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: Unless there's some reason the characters should have the radio on, or a bunch of different cars are shown without radios on in quick succession, this is an improbability at best, not a mistake.
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Suggested correction: Trains, especially modern freight trains, take a long time to stop due to their inertia, and this has caused real-world accidents with cars getting stuck on train tracks.
Anson Gordon-Creed
Another example is "Blue Thunder." It should be noted that slamming on the brakes of a massive freight train in an emergency will make a noise like the sky coming down. You'd hear it for miles. In all three cases cited here, the train drivers not only don't stop the train, they don't even hit the brakes.
In the two examples I posited, the car in "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" smashed right into the locomotive and exploded, cooking the main characters in the car, but there was no sound of the train's brakes and wheels squealing trying to stop; the train kept a-rollin'. In "Back to the Future III," the oncoming train pulverises the DeLorean time machine and also did not stop. If the train did try to stop, the sound of the wheels locking up on the rails would have been heard.
Scott215
The issue you should clarify is that the mistake is the lack of braking, not the train failing to stop.
Anson Gordon-Creed