Character mistake: Soldiers leaving the foldable stocks of their weapons folded, despite knowing that they are going into a combat situation. Particularly affects the MP-40 wielded by the Germans in WWII movies, but also some modern examples like the MP5 and the G36. Automatic weapons are difficult to control at the best of times, there is no reason a trained soldier would deprive themselves of this extra bit of accuracy.
Common movie and TV mistakes - page 5
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.
Factual error: The importance of leaving a crime scene undisturbed is greatly exaggerated in films and TV. Crime scenes are often disturbed deliberately by responding police officers. Immediate safety and the preservation of life are paramount to all other concerns. If a body is found, the scene must be secured to be sure a suspect is not still present and the area is safe; this often involves searching through the scene itself. The body must also be inspected to be certain the victim is deceased and doesn't require medical attention; this act often involves moving the body. The idea of police stopping anyone from going anywhere near a crime scene until forensic examiners arrive is a movie cliche not based in reality. It is rare, to the point of being almost unheard of, for a criminal case to hinge on the positioning of a dead body or the exact location of evidence in a room.
Revealing mistake: After somebody gets run through with a sword, knife, spear, etc., and withdrawn from the stabbed body, there is no blood, gore, etc., seen on the blade.
Other mistake: Helicopters appearing from out of nowhere and surprising characters. Helicopters are loud enough to be heard from a considerable distance and will also vibrate the ground/buildings/homes if they are flying low enough. The only feasible way a person can be surprised by the sudden appearance of a helicopter would be if they are deaf.
Factual error: People often jump from great heights into bodies of water and avoid fall damage. But the surface tension of water is great enough it would be no different than hitting concrete if you're high enough up.
Audio problem: Characters in a fist fight landing all punches that all sound like loud smacks or worst case (Rocky) car doors slamming.
Factual error: When someone's body is engulfed in flames, s/he must spend at least a couple seconds flailing arms in the air and making awkward leg movements (sometimes zombie-like) before falling to the ground.
Revealing mistake: "Snowflakes" will stay on a person's coat/shoulders and top of head plus will not melt when the person goes indoors; it might "roll off."
Deliberate mistake: Common in shows from the 60s to the 90s, the rear view mirror is missing from most cars. A deliberate mistake for several possible reasons: Mirrors might block the actors, they might show reflections of crew and equipment and sometimes scenes were filmed with the windscreen removed, taking the mirror with it (for instance if the car is filmed while stationary or mounted on a trailer).
Factual error: People are often watching or staring at the explosion of a nuclear bomb as it goes off, and witness the mushroom cloud form. In reality, the flash from this explosion would be so bright that it would cause instant, and usually permanent blindness. True Lies is a notable exception to this rule where Arnie specifically protects their eyes as the bomb goes off.
Factual error: Hearing a dial tone after someone hangs up a phone - that wouldn't be heard unless you hang up and pick it back up yourself.
Other mistake: During a car chase, both vehicles are going flat out, but somehow there's always a higher gear they can shift to.
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."
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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.
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.
The issue you should clarify is that the mistake is the lack of braking, not the train failing to stop.
Deliberate mistake: Particularly in space-fantasy and science-fiction movies and television series, electronic control panels and components erupt in a shower of sparks when overloaded (as during space battles, collisions and technological failure scenes). Such furious sparking has been used in numerous futuristic films and TV shows dating from the mid-20th Century right up to the present. Of course, this sparking effect is intended to add "gee whiz" action and spectacle to otherwise mundane shots. But the implication is that advanced, futuristic technology idiotically neglects to incorporate electrical fuses or circuit breakers, which are designed to prevent equipment sparking and meltdown during power overloads. In reality, all of these control panels and electronic components should instantly and safely go dark and stop functioning as soon as the breakers are quietly tripped or the fuses are quietly blown.
Factual error: When someone has a limb or other body part sliced off or the person is bisected, and there is a dramatic delay in the body part falling off as if to cast doubt on whether or not they were actually sliced. Notable examples include "Equilibrium," "Skinned Deep," "Resident Evil," "Ghost Ship," and "Final Destination 2."
Factual error: Wild animals are depicted to be much more violent and vicious than in reality. Truth be told, most wild animals will avoid and run from humans. Even wolf packs, snakes, and jungle cats will avoid humans out of fear.
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Suggested correction: This is only a common mistake if this always happens in a situation where there is absolutely no way the animal can be aggressive. It can happen, especially with a wolf or snake, so in that movie it just happened. Not a common mistake then.
Deliberate mistake: Characters who are being pursued on foot frequently hide in plain sight of their pursuers. You see characters (typically the "good guys") duck around the corner of a building, or a tree, or some other obstacle, where they freeze and glance over their shoulders to watch their oblivious pursuers (typically the "bad guys") wander past just a few feet in the background. Nevermind the fact that the good guy's body is only partially concealed by said obstacle, or not concealed at all. This is an old film-making trick intended to heighten audience tension, even though it is totally illogical.
Character mistake: People almost never say goodbye when hanging up phones, even at times any normal person would 'sign off' in some way.
Plot hole: An easily-explainable misunderstanding where one person storms off without even giving the other person the opportunity to clarify what's happened. "A pair of woman's underwear in your apartment?! You're cheating on me, we're done forever, don't ever call me!" But his sister came over to do some laundry that day, if she'd only bothered talking about it for a second.
Character mistake: Mainly in Old West films, actors who are portraying barbers very frequently sharpen their straight-razors the wrong way, flipping the blade with its sharp edge against the strop. This would instantly dull and damage the razor's edge. No real barber would make such a clumsy mistake, but it's a common movie error.
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Suggested correction: If you jump in feet first you can survive a jump into water from a very great height without injuries.
lionhead
About the max distance you can fall into water without injury is 65 feet, even at feet first. Professional high divers even struggle to control themselves from that height without doing actions they can control like flips. An untrained individual leaping from a bridge down into water would most certainly kill them in real life.
Quantom X ★
To dive for up to 90 feet is an official sport, while daredevils dive from up 120 feet. And "dive" means head first. Normal people can and do jump feet first without injury, although is a coin toss. Certainly fatal bridge jumps are from very high ones (The Golden Gate is something like 250 feet).