Corrected entry: At the Harvard(?) pool, the Vatican officer hands Langdon the paper with "illuminati" written on it. Langdon says that "illuminati" is an anagram "because it reads the same backwards and forwards", however the proper word for that is palindrome.
Corrected entry: No helicopter can climb more than 5-6 km, and even at 5-6 km height a 5 kiloton bomb would destroy a city. The Hiroshima bomb was actually triggered at a height of about 500-1000 meters to maximise the effect.
Correction: Not true. A helicopter has been flown as high as the summit of Mount Everest, a height of 29.000', or 5.5 miles (9 kms). While most helicopters fly well under that ceiling, in the mountains where I live, it is common to see helicopters flying over 18.000' (just under 6 kms) to clear the tops of mountains.
Corrected entry: The "bomb" comprises anti-matter suspended in an electromagnetic field; while anti-particles have charge and can be suspended like this, anti-matter doesn't and can't. Even in the event of it being called anti-matter as a character mistake, the amount of energy required to keep such a large amount suspended would far exceed the energy that could be produced by a battery, therefore the whole concept of a "bomb" that could be carried around is false.
Correction: Use of a fictional technology in a fictional film is not a movie mistake.
Corrected entry: It would take 2 billion years to make just 1 gram of anti-matter in a best-case scenario. According to CERN, if they annihilated all the anti-matter they have ever created, there would only be enough energy to light a light bulb for a few minutes, so an anti-matter bomb is fanciful to say the least.
Correction: Fanciful, yes, but being fanciful is not a mistake. This is a fictional universe, not the real one. In the version of our world portrayed in the film, they have the capability to make anti-matter in the quantities required.
Corrected entry: Near the end of the film, when Langdon rewinds the security camera footage on Commander Richter's PC, the sound heard is that of a recording tape being rewound. A PC wouldn't make the squeaking sound of recording tape being dragged over a magnetic reader. The rest of the equipment at Richter's desk is fairly high-tech, so it's fair to assume that the surveillance cameras too were digital.
Correction: Some video players play such sounds when actions are taken. Nostalgia can be quite strong.
Corrected entry: In "DaVinci Code", Robert Langdon states that papyrus can only be dissolved by vinegar. In "Angels & Demons", he states that Galileo's text was written on papyrus so it could be easily destroyed by throwing it into a barrel of water, not vinegar.
Correction: I think he means that the ink that was written on the papyrus would dissolve/be destroyed, and that vinegar would destroy the actual papyrus sheet.
Corrected entry: All the TV crew vehicles on Saint Peter's Square are Ford E-Series vans, which is a US-only model. While some, those used by US networks, could have been exported, European networks would have no reason to do so.
Correction: Not all the vans are Ford E-Series first of all. Second, they can be imported to Europe with a few restrictions, so there being a lot of them is not that unusual. I have seen Fords and Chryslers in Moscow, for instance, and it is tougher to get those vehicles into Russia than many other European countries.
Corrected entry: When the hitman throws Cardinal Baggia to the water and salutes Langdon, he closes the van's door, but when he's running away the van's door is open again.
Correction: As he is driving out of the plaza we see as shot of the left side of the van. This is the only time we see this side of the van. The door is seen to be closed.
Corrected entry: About 20 minutes into the movie Professor Langdon talks about the set of 5 brands used by the Illuminati, from which the first 4 represents the elements (earth, air, fire, water). When in the end reaching the Castle St. Angelo as the Church Of Illumination and discovering the set of brands in person he is surprised to discover there's a fifth brand.
Correction: Langdon is not surprised that there is a fifth brand. He is surprised that the fifth brand is the crossed keys instead of the word "Illuminati."
Corrected entry: When we first see the Illuminati assassin in the scene where he has the four Cardinals locked up behind bars, he speaks in an American accent, ("If God has a problem, it will not be with what I have done but what I am about to do"). Later in the film he speaks continuously in an Italian accent.
Correction: Changing accents at will never was a tall order for educated people.
Corrected entry: When Robert and Vittoria visit the first church in the Path of Illumination, the sun is still up and it is fairly light. However when they go to the next church (St. Peter's Square) less then an hour later, it is pitch black. Surely the light levels can't change so drastically in one hour?
Correction: I live not too far south of where Rome would be in the US and it will be bright here and then 15 min later, pretty dark. Just depends on what time of the year it is.
Corrected entry: It is said that the four Cardinals will be publicly executed. However, most of the executions are not in public, but instead in areas where no-one is around.
Correction: But they are areas that are PUBLIC places and possibly easily seen. Plus they must be the "4 markers".
Corrected entry: The Camerlengo takes the antimatter up in a helicopter to save others from the explosion. However, if the blast is large enough to destroy Vatican City, it could have stretched vertically far enough to reach the ground. It would also certainly destroy any aircraft in the blast radius. It is unlikely that a religious man would choose to move the canister, and therefore "playing God" by choosing who lives and dies.
Correction: What, the same "religious man" who killed the Pope, arranged the deaths of a scientist and four senior cardinals, then finally killed the assassin that he brought in to do the other executions? At what point in the film did you get the impression that he's deeply concerned about the sanctity of human life? The Camerlengo's done his research, he knows what the bomb's capable of and he's intelligent enough to ensure that a great enough altitude is reached for those on the ground to survive. If a few people do end up dying in the blast, on the ground or in an aircraft, he'd regard it as a small price to pay to restore the Catholic Church to his vision of what it should be, given what he's done already.
Corrected entry: The first Cardinal is supposed to be executed at 8 p.m. However, the setting is light, and does not look at all like evening.
Correction: It can easily still be fully light at 8pm at the right time of the year.
Corrected entry: If the illuminati were not truly still active, then the Camerlengo would have had to solve the same puzzle as Langdon. Not Likely. And an extreme cover to get the nuances correct if it were a cover story. If the illuminati were still active, the Camerlengo would have to be a member. Why at the end of the film was no one therefore concerned to go after them as well?
Correction: This is an opinion, which is not generally a solid grounding for a mistake. The Camerlengo has full access to the Vatican archives which would give him all the information he would need to work out the Path of Illumination. According to the book, he finds the brands in a classified section of the archive, plus a great deal of other information, which could simply have included the locations of the Altars. Even if not, he has everything he needs and a lot more time than Langdon had to research it.
Corrected entry: The Vatican Archive is portrayed as a super-sophisticated complex of sealed chambers with controlled oxygen levels, and hallways that stretch seemingly far into the distance. As a quick visit to the Vatican website reveals, the Archive facilities are considerably more mundane and humble, looking much like an ordinary university store of old records and other literature.
Correction: These archives are meant to depict the Secret Archives. It is possible that the Vatican has a secret archive room that no one has been in that looks like that.
Corrected entry: As the chains are set free, Cardinal Guidera appears to completely fall into the fire to burn to his death. However in the next two shots, he is still suspended above the fire by two apparently taut chains.
Correction: One chain comes loose and he falls lower into the fire. It then gets caught again, taking the full strain of his weight and taughtening the chains.
Corrected entry: A news reporter at the end reports that three Cardinals were found dead in a burning church (where one of them was burned earlier). However, since the conclave was already in the process of electing a Pope for some time before the fire, all Cardinals would have been inside the hall in the Vatican where the election was held.
Correction: Did you miss the majority of the movie? HE KIDNAPPED 4 cardinals BEFORE conclave started. They postponed the start of conclave hoping to get them back. The Vatican was simply covering up that the other cardinals had bad endings.
Corrected entry: The assassin gained the eye from the priest to enter the secure room, but the priest was already in the secure room so the assassin could not have reached him.
Correction: Although not seen, it's safe to assume he must have left the secure room once the experiment was complete - no reason he'd just stay sat there for no reason.
Corrected entry: The CERN scientist is killed at the start of the movie so his eye can be used to bypass the security system. Yet his body is found *inside* the secure section the eye would give access to. Meaning either the assassin broke into that secure section then took out the eye (impossible) or else attacked him somewhere outside that secure section, removed his eye...but then dragged his body along for the ride anyway.
Correction: As Vittoria approaches the secure room, she walks past a part-open door. She then accesses the secure room and finds the blood and eye. There's then a cut as she reacts, panicked, and we then see her standing in this part-open doorway, looking at the body. Clearly we aren't shown her walking back to this other room, but that's where the body was left - outside the secure area.
Correction: He doesn't call it an "anagram", he calls an "ambigram". Which it is, not a palindrome.
Phixius ★