The Polar Express

Stupidity: The Engineer and Fireman of the Polar Express train crew should have known better than to not bend back the the metallic prongs of the cotter pin, which would have prevented the cotter pin from coming loose and causing all those problems in the driving of the train.

Scott215

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Suggested correction: As you yourself stated, the whole thing is likely a dream, where "normal" reality doesn't apply. In the "real world", the train would never be able to do any of the things that it does in the film.

wizard_of_gore

Dream or not, it is still a stupidity of the train crew to not secure a pin that could work itself free of the controls of the locomotive.

Scott215

Dreams are often unrealistic. There is no mistake.

The entry doesn't say anything about the entire trip to the North Pole being a dream.

Agreed. It was never stated that it was a dream considering that Hero Boy lost the sleigh bell only to find it Christmas morning with a note from Santa. And to add, Steamer said that cotter pin was sheared off which caused it to come loose.

Continuity mistake: Throughout the movie, the number of cars the train has changes. The scene where Hero Girl's ticket is surrounded by a pack of wolves shows the train having around 20 cars, but the scene where the train's on the ice shows it having 5.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The entire journey is likely just a dream. There are many things in the movie that cannot happen in the "real" world, and the number of cars changing is just another aspect of the dreamlike nature of the trip.

wizard_of_gore

Continuity mistake: During the scene when the Polar Express slides across the ice and the conductor is telling the train controllers to head for the tracks, the distance between the train and the tracks keeps changing.

Paul M Leslie

More mistakes in The Polar Express

Conductor: Sometimes seeing is believing. And sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see.

More quotes from The Polar Express

Trivia: The voices of Hero Boy's mother and sister are director Robert Zemeckis' wife, Leslie.

More trivia for The Polar Express

Question: When Hero Boy gets back from the toy room in the train, what were all the kids shouting?

Answer: After "Hero Boy" gets back into the train the kids are all laughing and spouting gibberish. This is often done in post-production when backround noise or talking is necessary. They aren't saying or shouting anything in paticular, just a bunch of kids jabbering on about nothing. I listened to that section three times and it's just gibberish.

CCARNI

More questions & answers from The Polar Express

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