The Day the Earth Stood Still

Factual error: In the very beginning of the movie broadcasters around the world are commenting on the mysterious spaceship. To lend a bit of calm and normalcy one broadcaster notes that despite what is happening many people are enjoying the fine spring weather in the Capital, to this end picnics and the wonderful cherry blossoms are plainly depicted. Shortly afterward when Klatu leaves the hospital, he is seen examining the cleaner's tag on the suit he "borrowed". This is where he adopted the name Carpenter. Clearly printed at the top of this tag is the date 7/18 1951, not spring by at least a few months.

Factual error: When Bobby is doing his math homework, Klaatu looks over his shoulder and says: "All you have to remember is, first find the common denominator, then divide." Division of fractions doesn't require a common denominator. In fact, the original script says "subtract". (00:47:55)

Factual error: When Michael Rennie is standing in the shadows at the boarding house, Mrs. Crockett turns the TV off with the channel selector knob, instead of the on/off/volume knob. (00:24:20)

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Factual error: When Bobby and Klaatu are leaving the Lincoln Memorial, Klaatu asks Bobby where Professor Barnhardt lives. Bobby responds, "near where my Mom works, at the Department of Commerce." There is no residential neighborhood as depicted as the location of Barnhardt's house anywhere near the Department of Commerce. (00:32:05)

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Revealing mistake: The man from Mars is in an elevator with a woman when the power goes out. He tells her he cut the electricity and gas powered engines all over the world for a half an hour. They proceed to show clips of the power out in different parts of the world. When they get to Big Ben in London, you can see a motorboat cruising down the river in the background. If the boat were powered by wood or coal, there would be plume of smoke trailing it. If it were powered by oil (ie. diesel) electricity is required to pump the fuel into the ejectors. (01:02:05)

More mistakes in The Day the Earth Stood Still

Klaatu: I'm worried about Gort. I'm afraid of what he might do if anything should happen to me.
Helen: Gort? But he's a robot. Without you, what could he do?
Klaatu: There's no limit to what he could do. He could destroy the Earth.

More quotes from The Day the Earth Stood Still

Trivia: In order to make Gort's body appear seamless, two different costumes were created, one that opened in the back for front shots and one that opened in the front for rear shots. Unfortunately, as someone has already pointed out on this site, it was sometimes rather difficult to co-ordinate which suit was needed for which shot and thus there are several times in the film where Gort's seams can be seen.

More trivia for The Day the Earth Stood Still

Question: For such and advanced species, wouldn't Klatu's people know that "reducing Earth to a burnt out cinder" (for its warlike ways) would also punish those billions of innocents who have no say in the policies of their governments or military? Wouldn't it be more effective to police the earth and neutralize any weaponry that we shot into space?

Answer: They said, how they handle their earth problems is no concern to them, it's only if they bring it to outer space and other worlds, they would take drastic measures to ensure that did not happen.

More questions & answers from The Day the Earth Stood Still

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