2012

Other mistake: When the monk arrives with Jackson and the others at the gate leading into the secret entrance of the ships, the countdown to impact timer reads about 28 minutes. It is highly implausible that the group, which contains elderly and small children, are able to get to the top of what looks to be a 100 story staircase in less than 15 minutes without breaking a sweat. Once they are inside the hatch, the countdown to impact timer reads about 13 minutes.

Other mistake: When Tamara Is trapped in the middle section it's flooding. It is impossible for the middle section to flood before the end section.

Cynthia Gurski

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

Suggested correction: It would make sense that the door is designed to close much faster than it opens as it is a sealing door and needs to close quickly to form a water tight seal.

Other mistake: When they are loading the last of the passengers and workers, the gate from the ship goes down at a very slow pace. However, when Uri and his sons are climbing up the ladder to get to the platform, the gate is going up at a very fast rate. It does not make sense that it would not go back up as slowly as it went down.

Cynthia Gurski

Other mistake: They go into the world's deepest copper mine to an underground computer office with windows lit from outside.

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

Suggested correction: That is probably exactly how it would look. Most underground facilities are conventional buildings, trailers, or modular units arranged in a large lighted tunnel or cavern. This is the arrangement in Cheyenne Mountain Complex, the previous U.S. Antarctic base (under the geodesic dome), and for offices and data repositories in salt mines. The buildings have windows, and the caverns are lighted to facilitate movement between buildings.

Plot hole: During the later parts of this movie there is much talk about 'continental displacement' and this appears to be happening in the film. The Earth's crust is falling apart because of the heating of the inner core, and all the cities seems to be falling apart since the ground can no longer hold them. When our cast finds themselves surprised to be already over China when they figured to be over the ocean, it is explained that Asia has actually moved from where it was. If this phenomenon is taking place globally, how come the monks in China don't seem to have been disturbed at all? In fact the bell the monk rings as the ocean approaches hasn't even been shaken. The arks are built in between the mountains, but the mountains are apparently fine. Shouldn't they be falling like the rest of the crust?

polaris

More mistakes in 2012

Adrian Helmsley: The moment we stop fighting for each other, that's the moment we lose our humanity.

More quotes from 2012
More trivia for 2012

Question: At the end of the movie, it is stated that the Drakensberg mountain range in South Africa now has the highest altitude in the world, since the "entire plate of Africa has lifted". Isn't this highly unlikely, seeing as the Drakensberg is incredibly far away from any tectonic plate lines? Wouldn't it rather be Mount Kilimanjaro, which is not only already the highest point in Africa (the continental plate of which is implied to have been raised as a whole), but is also a volcano (thereby being more likely to be raised should there be lifting within the plate itself)? I am South African myself, and though I am incredibly proud of our mention, I wonder if it really is plausible.

Answer: It's really impossible to say, given all of the massive land shifting seen in the film. We see the entire coast of California fall into the ocean. It's reasonable (in the film) to assume some cataclysm struck Kilimanjaro to lower or destroy it, or that the continent has been tilted.

In the movie, it was implied that the continent of Africa as a whole remained unflooded. So it stands to reason that the millions of inhabitants of the various countries may have survived intact. And so, the animals and plant life as well. So the question of saving the human species may be moot in this scenario. It's ironic, since most of the scientific community believes that modern humans evolved there first anyway.

More questions & answers from 2012

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.