Revealing mistake: In the beginning, there is a scene where Sen. Shaw is watching Raymond make a speech on a TV screen. It was obviously put in in post-production because the aide immediately next to the screen is nodding and clapping in agreement at inappropiate times.
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Directed by: Jonathan Demme
Starring: Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, Jon Voight, Liev Schreiber, Anthony Mackie, Jeffrey Wright, Pablo Schreiber, Dorian Missick
Revealing mistake: When Raymond Shaw's skull is being drilled to implant the chip, bone "dust" comes out. This never happens, since always some blood comes out and the bone debris are mixed with blood and therefore unable to "fly" like wood or plaster debris.
Factual error: When Eleanor Shaw tries to convince other members of the senate to choose her son as a candidate for vice president, a map of the fifty states and their corresponding electoral votes can be seen. The map shows Colorado as having 3 electoral votes and Wyoming having 8. Wyoming should have 3 and Colorado 9.
Raymond Shaw: I served under him. He was a good man.
Eleanor Shaw: Well, that's what the neighbors always say about serial killers.
Eleanor Shaw: The assassin always dies, baby. It's necessary for the national healing.
Senator Thomas Jordan: And you bring me rumors and conjecture.
Ben Marco: I started with nightmares. Rumors, conjectures, that's a giant leap forward.
Question: Isn't the whole premise for this movie dead wrong? There is no precedent for an assassination of a president ELECT. He is not president so therefore anyone could become president. The Constitution does not apply to "elects" What does happen?
Question: I don't understand what the Arab woman with the tattoos on her face have to do with anything? Did the attack on the convoy really happen? If so, how were they all captured?
Chosen answer: The tattooed woman was something that they all dreamt about. She was significant to the capture and the tattoos stood out among all of the other arabs.
I always felt they were just there to cause confusion. If they started to remember the image of the Arab woman/ women would sound and look crazy trying to explain. However later in the movie when they shoulder flash backs the women were not there and Shaw choked out that other guy but, early the Arab women where there, and he had plastic on his face choking him out. So, all the memories are mixed up.
Question: There were two flashbacks of how Raymond Shaw killed one of the soldiers. One scene it showed him suffocating him in the desert with a piece of plastic. In another scene it shows him choking him with his hands in some kind of observation room. Was the desert 'killing', a dream combining the truth with the brainwashing?
Chosen answer: Perhaps the piece-of-plastic killing was a "test run" by the brainwashers to see if Raymond would actually react to their commands. You can see other soldiers lying down wearing "halos", hinting that this happened at a different time and place than the observation room choking.
Answer: The plastic bag killing was part of the dream. Many things in the dreams are off. For example in the dream he sees himself handling the pistol while lying in a bed. When we see his actual memory, he is standing, and Shaw hands him the gun, which he immediately uses.
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.
Answer: According to the Constitution, the Vice-President elect is actually elected separately by the Electoral College, i.e. they are really not a package deal, the death of one doesn't negate the election of the other. The Vice-President elect would indeed become the President.
Myridon