The Thomas Crown Affair

Corrected entry: The helicopter that was supposed to be used for the theft at the beginning is a Sikorsky S-76 and they said it would be useless because it can hold only a payload of 300kg. This helicopter can actually carry 1200kg or 12 passengers. (00:25:30)

Dr Wilson

Correction: The 600lb load limit is only for the hook and suspended loads; internal capacity could handle paintings and men. Her comment would hold as they were going to go out on the hook.

Correction: According to Sikorsky's datasheet / sales brochure, the S-76's cargo hook has a load capacity of 3,300lb (1,496kg). This is sufficient to carry a compact SUV or an adult female hippopotamus, so the idea that it would be insufficient to carry a few guys and a couple dozen canvases (removed from their frames) is ludicrous. Source: search for "hook" in the brochure: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed-martin/rms/documents/s-76/Sikorsky-S76D-SAR-Brochure.pdf.

Corrected entry: The framed thieves communicate between themselves in Polish. Later on, they are supposed to be Romanian.

Correction: Retraction: I wanted to let everyone know, the previous post claimed that the Polish speaking Romanians was an error. The Polish language is from the Indo-Eeuropean language family, and is a West Slavic language spoken by approx. 50 million people worldwide, in 46 different contries, including Romania.

Corrected entry: When Catherine Banning is going out to the car for their first date, there is clearly no one in the car. The camera shifts to an inside shot of the back seat, and Crown is suddenly already sitting in it.

Correction: I think you underestimate how deep the rear seats of a LWB Jaguar actually are. The rear triangle window is just a dark shadow where TC could easily be sitting.

TobyDanger

Correction: Actually, he was on the boat, but not during the capsize scene, which, curiously employed professional stunt men, who ultimately decided capsizing the big catamaran was too risky. At that point, a catamaran sailor was hired to do the infamous capsizing scene, which also used other sailors.

Corrected entry: When the sprinklers in the museum go off, the water should (at least initially) be brown from the rust that accumulated in the pipes.

Correction: This is nothing more than an assumption. I've personally been in a couple of buildings where the fire system went off and in both cases the water looked clear.

Corrected entry: Thomas Crown puts the Monet back at the ceremony when he first meets Catherine. It isn't until even later that he mentions her not being allowed to play poker. Yet the "ghost" underneath the fake painting she steals from his house is "dogs playing at cards." This makes no sense - unless he had a second fake made, from the first one?

Correction: So where's the mistake? As a gag, he had the fake painted over the dogs picture, then later made another cards reference (not the only one in the film, either). Really not at all sure what the mistake is intended to be here.

Tailkinker

Corrected entry: When Thomas Crown goes to the Police station to identify the criminals, he signs a statement. At the end of his signature he dots the page as if to dot an i in his name. There are no i's nor anything to dot in "Thomas Crown". There is, however, in "Pierce Bronson". (00:31:30)

Correction: Or he could just have a dot at the end of his signature, lots of people do (my father did and he didn't have a need to).

shortdanzr

Corrected entry: During the search of Crown's house, the helpers are told to search the basement first, and they immediately begin to search the first floor. (00:54:55)

Correction: Actually the guy she tells this to, as they walk in, says "OK" and walks off. They then then cut to another guy searching, so the first one could be down in the basement at this point. Also, by the editing, it is done to show a mixture/montage of the search in all the various parts of Crown's house; they are not presenting it as a continious real time search.

Luna Negra

Corrected entry: In the scene where Thomas Crown places the briefcase which eventually stops the gate from coming all the way down, he places it right up against the wall of the entrance but later it can be seen that the briefcase has stopped the fence a few centimeters away from the wall. Who moved the briefcase?

Correction: Pierce Brosnan places the case about two inches away from the wall, exactly where it is when the wall comes down.

Corrected entry: Every time you see the outside of the art museum, the banners hanging down are different.

Correction: Museum banners frequently change to promote special events or exhibits being hosted there.

Corrected entry: In the final scene, Thomas Crown is sitting directly behind Catherine. Whether he got on the plane before or after her, how is it that she didn't notice him until he offers her the handkerchief?

Correction: She's very upset - in that sort of state, people often don't notice what's going on around them. She probably dimly registered that there was somebody sitting there, but didn't pick up on the fact that it was him.

Tailkinker

Corrected entry: The art gallery is conveniently fitted with heat sensitive cameras. However, this would not be sensible in an art gallery, as infra-rad cameras cannot make distinctions such as precise facial features, necessary for identifying a thief.

Correction: They would however be capable of detecting the presence of a human being and setting off the alarm. Even most regular security video cameras give fairly poor images and are not much use for identifying people unless they look right at it for a few seconds.

tw_stuart

Corrected entry: When Katherine arrives at the heliport and is rushing to the landing pad, the heliport employees tell her that she cannot go on the pad without an escort. She ignores that warning and goes out anyway, where Crown's representative is standing. The heliport employees apparently allowed him on the pad without an escort and made no effort to go get her after she ignored their warning.

Correction: They told her that because they probably didn't know who she was, and wouldn't let just anyone wander out to the landing pad. It is probable that perhaps someone then told him (the employee who told her to stop) to let her go, as Crown was expecting her, but probably didn't broadcast it to everyone there. The man who was out there, was obviously an employee of Crown's and had permission to be there.

Jack's Revenge

Corrected entry: At the beach house, she goes out back with a towel around her neck as though she is going to get wet, but where? The beach house is on top of a mountain, far from the beach and there is no swimming pool. How did Crown and Catherine get to the beach?

Correction: There is a stairway down the hill to the beach.

Jack's Revenge

Corrected entry: While dancing in a see-through dress, the frontal view shows she is wearing full-sized panties but when she twirls around, they're gone .

Correction: A thong would give the same look, coverage in front, and bare in the back.

Jack's Revenge

Correction: Except the thin dress was literally the only thing Russo was wearing. The director and lighting techs took great care to not show off too much of her body.

Corrected entry: Just after the group in the museum realise that the Monet has been there all along, someone realises that another painting is gone and makes some comment to the effect of "Look at this." The camera pans to the second painting, where the protective wall is just beginning to open and reveal that another painting is missing. Thus, the person who pointed out that the second one was gone could not have known that it was indeed missing. Also, why was the wall opening - the ceiling was still dripping from the sprinklers and opening the walls no doubt requires pressing a button in the central control room.

Correction: There is enough time to notice another painting is gone. The character would have been having to look directly at the spot, but there was enough time. Also they radioed in to the central control room to open the walls so quickly.

Corrected entry: When Russo first approaches Brosnan on the dance floor she is wearing a black dress that is opaque, when they start dancing it is suddenly very transparent.

Correction: It's the same dress. It's just a matter of lighting. Front light only would reveal how transparent it is. Side light or back light would make it appear opaque.

Corrected entry: When Crown crawls under the gate to steal the Monet, he puts on a surgical glove which we never see him remove, although we see all of his movements from when he enters the gate until he exits (he's not wearing the glove at the exit).

Correction: Watch the close up shot of him picking up the closed case with the painting in off the bench. The glove is being dropped with the other hand. However why it has vanished at the scene of the crime after is somewhat of a mystery.

Plot hole: When Renee Russo was reviewing the tape showing the room with the painting to see who stole the painting, and the tape was blank because the heat generated from the suitcase hidden under the bench, why didn't she just back up the tape completely to see who put the suitcase there in the first place? (00:28:30)

More mistakes in The Thomas Crown Affair

Detective Michael McCann: I love this neighborhood. Some of these broads are wearing my salary.

More quotes from The Thomas Crown Affair

Trivia: The painting that is seen several times in the film depicting a man in a suit with an apple covering his face is "Son of Man", by Rene Magritte.

Ral0618

More trivia for The Thomas Crown Affair

Question: How does he fold the Monet in half to fit into the briefcase? Originally I thought he'd separated it from the wooden frame (ie. just a canvas), but when he takes it out back at his house he holds it up, and the wooden frame's still in one piece. Also, surely folding it in half would crack the paint, but despite the painting being twice the width of the briefcase (it fits snugly when the case is open), he then shuts the case down to a "normal" size. Any ideas?

Answer: I believe that the Monet that Crown hides in his study is not the one that was stolen, it is a copy that he already had prepared. He can enjoy the copy knowing that the original (with the broken spreader bars) is also in his possession. The stolen original then goes to the forger who repairs the broken spreader bars, and then paints another painting (using water soluble paint) over the Monet, so he can "return" it to the museum 3 days later. It gets more complicated when he discovers that Russo is on to him so he has a second forgery made (even the edges forged to match) over the top of "Dogs Playing Poker." He doesn't know if it will be necessary, but given his research into his new adversary, he concocts this contingency. It is likely that he has many contingencies in place, but the "Monet with a ghost underneath" is the only one we get to see. Of course for my theory to hold water, there must be (or have been) that earlier forgery - unless it has been destroyed.

It's not the forgery that he takes out of the briefcase. Even if it were, he still put the Monet in the briefcase at the museum and would have had to break the frame to close the briefcase, thus also breaking the paint and tearing the canvas. The real answer is that it is just something that couldn't really happen, and the movie people don't want the viewer to notice.

Answer: The only explanation I can come up with is that the inner part of the frame is precut. With the frame cut that way it would allow the picture to fold, but when unfolded it would be fairly rigid with the exception of bending it forward at that point. When he pulls the painting out, it still holds the square shape of the frame. Best I can come up with.

Answer: He doesn't fold it. The frame is solid. It's just movie editing to make the viewer think he put it in her briefcase. You can't fold a Monet.

He absolutely folds it. We see him put it in the case and him then shut the case, folding it in half.

Jon Sandys

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