Other mistake: Bullets pass through people, but don't shatter any glass windows behind them. Likewise bottles in bars without hitting mirrors behind the bar.
Common movie and TV mistakes - page 8
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: Computers, security keypads, cellular devices, etc. that make loud beeps with each button press or mouse click and every image popping up on the device screen accompanied by a loud sound effect. Working in an office where computers make as much noise as they do in films and TV would drive the average person mad.
Revealing mistake: Pizza that is supposed to be hot and fresh because it was just delivered but is obviously cold and stale. There is never any melted cheese, the slices are perfectly cut and come apart easily, and the slices are firm instead of drooping. Nobody would ever pay for a pizza if it was delivered looking that way.
Continuity mistake: Countdown timers that bear no relation to reality.
Character mistake: When kids/teenagers have something urgent or important to tell adults (especially parents), the adults say "uh-huh" but aren't really listening OR do not believe the kids even though they are telling the truth. Adults might view the alleged event as a joke ("The Chumscrubber"), too far-fetched ("Eight-Legged Freaks" and "Dog Gone"), an emotional reaction ("Good Boys"), or due to an overactive imagination, often attributed to watching scary movies ("Home Alone III" and "Diary of a Wimpy Kid").
Plot hole: Despite there being hundreds of witnesses, a villain who assaults someone or commits some other crime are not arrested or sued and are free to just walk away and live their daily lives as if nothing ever happened.
Audio problem: A real-life band will be giving a live performance, but the audio is of the studio recording, such as Rammstein performing "Feuer Frei!" in xXx or Alice Cooper performing "Feed My Frankenstein" in Wayne's World.
Factual error: Often a person on the run will scale a fence quickly and get over it with little problem. And usually this fence has coils of razor wire or barbed wire at the top, and yet they show no sign of injury. This razor wire would cut you and your clothes to shreds. That's the whole point of it.
Continuity mistake: In episodic television shows, the heroes can be shot, stabbed, have broken bones, etc., but these vicious scars and injuries are never carried forward into the following episodes - the heroes are unscathed.
Character mistake: Someone kills an opponent with a sword, then immediately sheathes it without even a cursory wipe. That'll ruin their scabbard and probably rust up the blade too.
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.
Deliberate mistake: Rather than gradually exploring character backgrounds as the story unfolds, characters in cheesier movies awkwardly rush to reveal whole biographies in just a couple of lines, right at the beginning of the film. Such an unlikely conversation might go like this: "I'm the luckiest girl in the world, married to the lead developer and system analyst of NASA's most ambitious interplanetary program ever"; and the husband replies, "Well, it helped that your father created the program and took a chance on me after that Wall Street computer-hacking scandal six years ago." There's no subtlety at all, it's just fast-food character development.
Factual error: Almost always in movies or TV, if a person dies and falls down on their back or side and have their hands visible, their fingers will be curled in the relaxed position of someone resting. A person's fingers go to this position in a living person due to natural tension in the muscles from circulation and blood flow. However, when a person dies, all their muscles in the body will fully relax with no tension. Thus when lying down dead, their fingers should actually be flat against the ground and not curled up at all.
Other mistake: A TV will be turned on exactly at the moment an important plot point is being explained or shown. Typically it will be a news story that a news anchor will tell from the beginning. Never is the TV turned on with a commercial playing or some other news being read.
Factual error: People running away from explosions and just barely escaping the fireball. Never mind the fact that would be pushing a wave of superheated air in front of it which would kill them just as easily as the bit you can see.
Audio problem: Tyres squealing on dirt roads.
Factual error: Rainfall in movies and television is almost always depicted as a sudden and heavy downpour (sometimes cued by a crack of thunder and/or lightning strike) as opposed to gradually building up to it. This is pretty rare in real life.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: Cloudbursts and showers are that way, and they are pretty common in some areas, specially near mountains. I don't know about New York but in several Latin American countries they are not eyebrow rising worth.
I'd add that along with the rain suddenly pouring, it falls in straight lines - with the exact same distance between streams - that are perpendicular to the ground. (All rainfall is vertical, never at an angle).
Other mistake: In TV shows when people are gathered around the table, usually because they're eating a meal, the characters do not sit completely around the table. Rather, they sit unnaturally horseshoe-shaped so the characters at the end of the table don't have their backs to the audience.
Plot hole: Movies in which the protagonist isn't believed is often exaggerated to the point of crushing suspension of disbelief. Most times, other characters will not even give the protagonist the slightest benefit of the doubt and may even be needlessly angry for even suggesting that the "very loving and considerate nice guy" is actually a bad person. The Good Son and Orphan are classic examples where the villain is believed over the hero, despite there being no evidence to contradict the hero's claims.
Factual error: Many early mystery movies do not consider fingerprint evidence, even though such evidence has been accepted in US courts since 1911 and in the UK since 1858.
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Suggested correction: I don't agree it's common to see people jump barbed wire fences without injuries. Its more common to actually show cuts and torn clothes, as that adds drama.
lionhead
I'm referring to the countless times these are not shown.
Quantom X ★
The problem with "common" mistakes is that they are supposed to be easy to recall. From the top of my head I can't think of a movie scene where someone jumped over a barbed wire fence and got off without injuries. How common is it really?
lionhead
Have the same problem with the nuclear explosion one, can't think of any movie where people looked at a nuclear explosion without properly guarding their eyes.
lionhead
I can see what you mean about the barbed wire fence then. I know I've seen it in several films and even CinemaSins has pointed it out a few times... but I can't recall specific titles. As far as the atomic explosions one... The Wolverine, Dark Night Rises, Sum of all Fears, Godzilla 2014 (There's even a dumbass watching the explosion through binoculars), The Crazies, and The Divide to name a few.
Quantom X ★
Alright for the nuclear explosion, although in some of the movies you gave an example it's simply not true (Dark Knight Rises, Sum of All Fears and Godzilla nobody is watching the flash, Godzilla is even historical footage), it does happen often. So I'll thumb it up.
lionhead
In Dark Knight Rises, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's is standing on the bridge watching Batman fly away. He's staring out at the ocean and watches as the explosion goes off.
Quantom X ★
No, in the next scene you see he actually fully turned his head to cover his eyes. A group of people are seen ducking too but you don't know they can see the flash directly.
lionhead