Insomnia

Insomnia (2002)

5 corrected entries

(8 votes)

Corrected entry: When the police searched the boyfriend's apartment they never searched the entire apartment. Standard Operating procedure is to search the entire apartment. The killer could have been hiding in the room that Dormer was hiding in.

MCKD

Correction: They weren't searching for the killer, they were searching for the murder weapon. Finch told the police earlier that the boyfriend kept the gun in the heating vents. That's when Duggar told Rich to call for the warrant. Also Francis (big officer with glasses and bold head) was about to enter the room were Pacino was, but the gun was found before he entered.

Corrected entry: At the end of the movie, in the beach house, Dormer leaves the house and falls down in front of it. Then Ellie comes from the other house with a blanket to cover him. The question is, why did she bring a blanket, if she didn't know that Dormer was shot?

Correction: Ellie actually takes off the jacket that she is wearing and puts that over Dormer. There is no blanket involved.

Corrected entry: When Hilary Swank is talking to Al Pacino while he's dying on the boat dock his head is resting on one of the steps. On the far away shot his head is further away from the step and is not resting on it.

Correction: Because of the shading of the wood that the platform is made out of, it only appears in this short shot that his head is far from the step. While his head is far from the light-colored platform itself, his head is resting on the dark-colored step that extends from the platform.

Corrected entry: The towns of Nightmute and Unkumiut are not inside the Arctic circle. They actually experience darkness all year around, but the movie said the sun never sets.

Correction: There is actually "civil twilight," or visible light for 24 hours a day during the summer.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Al Pacino is at the murdered girls funeral we see a shot of the girl is a graduation cap and gown. She is still in Hign School...how is possible when she hasn't graduated from high school to be wearing a cap and gown?

Correction: In most high schools, graduation pictures are taken months before graduation.

Continuity mistake: When Robin Williams is being questioned by the police for the first time, one of the cops is talking to him. Very soon afterward the cop leaves the room and is walking away. We see the cop in the distance in another room, yet we hear the cop talking to Robin Williams again as Al Pacino shuts the door. Almost immediately, the camera angle changes to the cop as he finishes talking. He is standing in front of Robin Williams again.

More mistakes in Insomnia

Will Dormer: You shouldn't knock misdemeanors.
Ellie Burr: Oh, but it's small stuff. It gets so boring.
Will Dormer: It's all about small stuff. You know, small lies, small mistakes. People give themselves away, same in misdemeanors as they do on murder cases. It's just human nature. Aren't you gonna write that down?

More quotes from Insomnia
More trivia for Insomnia

Question: Why does Dormer switch to a backup gun while chasing the killer in the fog? It is never explained.

aftucci

Answer: Plot device to make Ellie look like a super sleuth remembering Dormer even carries a backup. When Hap and Dugger were comparing guns Hap says he and Dormer both carry S&W .45s. This makes the 9mm casing Ellie found a complete mystery to everyone else. So why the switch? Dormer's primary might be empty, but this is the first time Dormer shoots and all the characters act like there are only two shots fired in the fog, so for it to be empty he would have to be terribly sloppy. If he's so bad he forgot to load his gun it's equally likely he left the safety on. Maybe Dormer is just so used to being a dirty cop he instinctively uses the backup whenever possible to create an alibi. Ultimately, there is no explanation for this in the film, and if blink you don't even see the switch and are very confused when the 9mm casing shows up in the first place, if Nightmute carries.40, and Dormer .45, then 9mm has no place at all.

In the Netflix version with subtitles, when Dormer fires his primary weapon, the subtitle says "gun clicks." Dormer briefly looks at his gun and then pulls his secondary weapon. Nolan may have intended this to be ambiguous so the viewer doesn't know whether it was an accident or intentional (Nolan would never leave a "mistake" in the final edit - in fact, in interviews, he said he watched the movie at least a hundred times while editing), but the subtitles seem to put this debate to rest.

Chosen answer: Because he ran out of bullets in his first gun.

More questions & answers from Insomnia

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