Corrected entry: When the ship Carmen is on is hit and breaks in two, how come she and everyone else didn't immediately die from massive de-pressurisation? The air locks simply could not have kicked in in time.
Guy
13th May 2008
Starship Troopers (1997)
13th Apr 2008
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Corrected entry: When Luke and Darth Vader are fighting and Darth Vader is hurling things at Luke, one thing he throws flies through the window and makes a giant hole. However, when Luke gets sucked out, the hole is twice as big even though nothing else went through it.
Correction: There is clearly a vacuum (or at least drastically reduced air pressure) on the other side of the window. The suction created by the pressure differential could have easily sucked more of the broken window out.
31st Mar 2008
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989)
Corrected entry: When Indiana breaks in through the window, he lets go of his whip, yet he has it through the rest of the film despite us never seeing him retrieve it.
Correction: Just because we don't see it onscreen doesn't mean it didn''t happen. He could have retrieved it anytime after killing the guards.
Well... don't they immediately leave the room, before their escape is foiled?
The moment when Indy picks up his whip, it's actually shown. While Henry Jones is studying the broken jar, Indy is coiling the whip in the background.
27th Feb 2008
The Core (2003)
Corrected entry: At the very end of the movie, Rat goes to an Internet cafe to disseminate information via the web. As the upload starts from his laptop, his screen says "On it's way". It should be "its" (without apostrophe).
Correction: Programmer error. It happens. "You've got mail" isn't grammatically correct either.
26th Feb 2008
The Towering Inferno (1974)
Corrected entry: How on earth did they fill those tanks with almost four thousand tonnes of water? The tanks are 1,800 feet off the ground! There is no pump in the world that could lift water that high - the hydraulic pressure is beyond the means of present day technology, let alone that of 1974.
Correction: This is simply not true. If this were the case then there would be no way to have toilets or sinks on the top occupied levels of the tower. While it is true that there is no way for ground level water pressure to reach that height, there are other ways around this. In the Sears Tower, for example, the water is pumped up to holding tanks on various upper floors, then additional pumps push the water further up the tower. See http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_252.html for more info.
18th Feb 2008
Down Periscope (1996)
Corrected entry: Near the end of the movie, the Stingray surfaces to run on top as it approaches the target ship. At some point afterwards, Dodge decides to take a shot at the ship with two torpedoes. Dodge is using the periscope to get the range, etc. to the target, and then fires the torpedoes. First, wouldn't they be on the bridge (outside) if they were running on the surface? And second, wouldn't the torpedoes be running near the surface of the water if they had been fired from a sub that was on the surface, instead of what appears to be deep water? In both cases it appears as if the Stingray were submerged when they fired the torpedoes, not running on top as it showed prior to firing the torpedoes. No order was given to "dive" before this series of events.
Correction: First, it is a character choice on Dodge's part not to go topside. The time and confusion created by the move would probably not be worth the advantages (if any) of changing locations. Second, even though the Stingray is running on the surface, at least four of her six forward torpedo tubes are still submerged. Therefore, torpedoes fired underwater make perfect sense. In addition, if they were fired in "deep water" the torpedoes would pass under the target ship.
Correction: The running depth of a torpedo is not determined by the depth of the tube launching it, but by the guidance program on board the torpedo. Also, modern torpedoes do run well below the surface since striking the side of a ship may not result in sufficient damage. Instead, torpedoes run beneath the ship and detonate below it in order to create a pressure wave to "break the back" of the target. That said, (and setting aside the fact that the SS-161 was decommissioned in 1930), it's unclear if the 1958 refit would have equipped the Stingray with "modern" torpedoes, but it is certainly possible. And, yes, the movie does depict a hull strike for each of the fish.
31st Jan 2008
Die Another Day (2002)
Corrected entry: When Miranda turns against Bond he fires his gun twice - but it clicks. An automatic wouldn't click twice since the hammer is only jacked back by the recoil from the previous shot.
Correction: The Walther P99 that Bond uses is both a single action and a double action pistol. This means that the hammer does not have to be cocked before every trigger pull. In double action mode, each time the trigger is pulled the hammer is cocked and then fired. This is exactly what happens with Bond. He pulled the trigger and nothing happened. He then pulled the trigger again to confirm. I used to have a P99 and if there is no bullet chambered then it works exactly the way Bond used it.
11th Jan 2008
Deep Impact (1998)
Corrected entry: Its impossible for the comet to hit earth during the day in the movie, the tail of a comet usually points away from the sun meaning the comet in the movie was headed toward the sun.
Correction: The tail would be pointing away from the sun no matter which direction the comet is going so that has no bearing on the situation. The movie never states whether the comet is going towards or away from the sun when it is projected to hit the planet.
19th Nov 2002
Animal House (1978)
Corrected entry: At the end of the movie when the ROTC men are in the parade twirling their guns, the second time around the first and third men on the far left row fail to twirl their guns.
Correction: Having been in parades and in Honor Guards, I can tell you, it happens. Character mistake.
8th May 2003
Air Force One (1997)
Corrected entry: In the scene where the Russian president is speaking at the banquet there is a shot of the audience and you can see the president's autocue. When Harrison Ford goes to his speech, we switch back to the audience and the autocue screens have disappeared. A few shots later they use the same audience shot as before and the autocues have reappeared. (00:06:40)
Correction: The autocue (teleprompter) never moved, but the camera did. The first camera position is behind Ford while the second is at the front of the podium in-line with the autocue.
3rd Oct 2007
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
Corrected entry: Given the period in time and the "wanted" posters of Robin,did the Sheriff of Nottingham invent the printing press before Guttenburg or Caxton?
Correction: Why would the posters have to be printed on a printing press? Given that we only see one or two posters throughout the course of the movie, the Sheriff could have had someone draw posters by hand and have them placed in strategic locations.
14th Mar 2007
Deception Point
Corrected entry: At the end of Chapter 106, Gabrielle is breaking into Senator Sexton's office. To get to the office, she "climbed up the shelves, popped out the fiberboard ceiling tile, and pulled herself up". In the next paragraph, she was "lowering herself through the ceiling of Sexton's private restroom". This is not possible - if she climbed straight up through the ceiling, she would be entering the bathroom through the floor. Even so, this would be unlikely, as the floor would certainly not be so flimsy as to be popped out.
Correction: No, the bathroom is on the same floor as the office. She climbed into the ceiling of the office, moved through the dropped ceiling until she was over the bathroom, then popped out the bathroom ceiling tile and lowered herself back down.
20th Oct 2006
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Corrected entry: When Darth Maul takes his hoverbike thing after finding the missing Jedi, you can see a pair of tire tracks from a car or truck.
22nd Jul 2006
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Corrected entry: In the part of the book where Harry holds Quidditch trials the book says that there are first years holding the old school brooms, but in the first book it says that first years are not allowed to have brooms or be on the house Quidditch teams.
Correction: Since Harry was allowed to join the House Team in his first year, it is logical to assume that the rules have now been changed. As to the first years having brooms, they are not their personal brooms (which they are not allowed to have) but the house brooms.
11th May 2006
Misery
Corrected entry: When Annie places Paul in front of the window he is glad that he has the possibility of looking at something new instead of the room. And when he thinks of the things in the room that he has been looking at for weeks he recalls the rooms blue wallpaper in Part 1, chapter 28. But earlier in Part 1, chapter 10, when Annie comes into the room to clean up the soup in the corner it says that she scrubbed on the plaster to make the stain disappear. Then later in Part 3, subchapter 43, when Paul burns his fake book he notices that some of the burning paper has set the wallpaper on fire.
Correction: Rooms can have both paint and wallpaper on different walls.
21st May 2006
Wild Wild West (1999)
Corrected entry: In the train, after Rita says goodnight. You see that Jim and Arty each glance to the side as they talk to each other, as if their couches are on different sides of the car. However, both couches are obviously on the same side of the car, since each man is lying close to the left side of the screen (against the back part of his couch). They should be looking ahead to face each other, not to the side.
Correction: No, you can see the wall of the car behind each man as they are talking. The wall behind Gordon is to his right, and the wall behind West is to his left indicating opposite sides of the car. Also, if the couches were on the same side of the car one of the men would have to turn all the way around to a) talk to the other or b) talk to Rita. Since neither man has to do this, the couches must be on opposite sides of the car.
26th Apr 2006
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989)
Corrected entry: When Indy and his father come to the crossroads after having escaped the Nazis the sign says "Berlin" and "Venedig". When they leave it says "Berlin" and "Venice". It's the same side of the sign both times.
Correction: Yes, it does. And the wavery effect in the middle of the shot is meant to be a translation so that viewers can understand where Indy is driving to.
What wavery effect? Not sure if joke or false memory. Still, stuff being in English for the benefit of the viewer isn't necessarily a mistake. In fact, the previous shot was of the other side of the sign.
Correction: It is not the same side of the sign, the last shot is from the front.
1st Mar 2006
Scrubs (2001)
Corrected entry: When JD and Elliot go bungee jumping stunt people were used instead of the real actors. The two stunt people met on the set and are now married.
Correction: Unless you can see their faces on camera without freeze framing, this is not a mistake. It is trivia.
13th Feb 2006
Groundhog Day (1993)
Corrected entry: After the mayor says that there will be six more weeks of winter, Phil (the actor, not the "large squirrel) says "3,2,1." When he gets to about 2, it goes to a shot of him through the camera. The camera says "record" even though technically, they haven't even started recording.
Correction: This is normal. The reason an anchor counts down like that even though they are recording is so that when the recording is broadcast, the producers will know when to start the feed. Also, this ensures there is no time lag between the anchor counting down to "one" and the cameraman starting the camera recording.
30th Jan 2006
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Corrected entry: This happens after Han destroys the probe droid, during the Imperial montage that follows. In the shot right before you see the back of Vader's head, you see a wide shot of a Super Star Destroyer. Pay careful attention to the TIE fighter that flies in from off camera. Had the shot lasted for another second, it seems obvious that this fighter would've flown directly into the bottom of the Super Star Destroyer.
Correction: This could easily be attributed to pilot error.
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Correction: Depressurization doesn't happen instantly. It takes time for the air to be evacuated from the exposed areas and the farther away from the section where the Rodger Young breaks apart, (remember that it is a BIG ship), the longer that section would have air. Also, the farther away from the damaged area the better the chance that the airlocks will come down in time to preserve some atmosphere.
Guy