6th Sep 2021
The Late Inspector General - S1-E4
Other mistake: While the General is in Klink's office making the recommendation for Klink to be commandant of all German POW camps, he mistakenly calls Stalag 13, Camp 13 three different times. Camp 13 was referenced in the black and white pilot episode.
Suggested correction: Stalag is short for "Stammlager." "Lager" is the German word for "camp." (To avoid unnecessary discussions: depending on the context, "Lager" can also mean stash, cache, storage, warehouse, bedding or bearing, but in this context it is indubitably to be translated as camp). So "Camp 13" is absolutely correct in this context.
1st Oct 2015
Other mistake: When Jo readies Dorothy IV on the back of the truck, she switches it on, but she never releases the rubber catches holding the lid in place.
Suggested correction: The rubber catches weren't needed to open the machine; they were only there to secure the entire lid in place. As seen when Jo is first showing how Dorothy works, the lid could be opened manually or automatically, depending on which button you pressed. As long as the pack was "set up" (sirens on and buttons activated), the pack would open automatically when close enough to the tornado, as shown when the pack lid opens at the end.
The way I understood it, the rubber catches were there to secure the lid in place during travel and had to be released for the automatic opening mechanism - the existence of which you are entirely correct about - to open the lid. That makes sense entirely, if you are bouncing over rough terrain, you would not want to load gears or servos with the considerable force spikes thick acrylic panels would impart on them were they not otherwise secured.
16th Nov 2017
Character mistake: In several scenes all over the show (though not always!), characters use the command "Raus!" to send somebody away from somewhere. Raus, short for "heraus" literally means "out" in the sense of "out of a building", which would be "aus einem Gebäude heraus" in German. Used as a command, it always means "get out", never "get away from there" or "get lost", in other words, the addressee must be inside of somewhere to be ordered "Raus." One example would be Schultz sending the prisoners away from general Burkhalter's car in S05E13.
Suggested correction: It doesn't take much research to debunk this claim. Also, John Banner, the actor that most often used the term in the show, was German-born and raised. I'm sure he would have spoken up if it were wrong.
Sorry, what is the "not much" it takes to debunk that claim? By the way John Banner was not born and raised in Germany but in what was then Hungary-Austria. I, on the other hand, AM German born and raised, so if you think you know more about my native tongue than me, by all means, educate me. As for why it wasn't corrected, my guess is this: Words like raus, schnell, was ist los, bitte or danke are rather well known even in the US, so the audience would be able to follow the dialog.
Sorry, John Banner was born in Poland. He was not German.
He was born in 1910 in the city once known as Stanislau, prior to being annexed by Poland in 1919. At the time of his birth, it was part of Austria-Hungary, and one of the official languages was German.
You're correct. I didn't read the IMDb page enough.
16th Nov 2017
Factual error: In several episodes, the fence around the cooler is visible, and hanging on it, a sign saying "Eingang verboten" meaning "no entry." The correct German term would be "Zutritt verboten." In German, "Eingang" is the opening where you enter a building, not the act of entering one.
Suggested correction: This is wrong. Translations all over show that the sign is not only correct, but images can be found of signs with the exact same wording in real places, with the English translation right under it.
Are you trying to tell a German national how his own language works here? Zutritt is correct. Eintritt is correct. Eingang in this context was NEVER correct since the advent of modern high German. I don't know where you propose to have seen these signs, but you definitely should check your sources, mate.
20th Aug 2021
Cementing Relationships - S9-E3
Other mistake: When the mistake in the cement is discovered, Klinger is addressing Pierce, saying "Mr. Putty Putty, here." Problem is, that it was Mulcahy singing, "Cement mixer, putty putty.
11th May 2015
Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen - S11-E16
Deliberate mistake: BJ mentions to Charles that if they don't sign the armistice it will be the second time in 2 years and then he will miss his daughter Erin's second birthday. This is BJs 7th season and when he arrived at the beginning of season 4, Erin was already born, making it absurd that seven years later she could still be one year old. Because the real war lasted 3 years and the show 11, there are obviously some errors like this that can't be avoided but this was blatantly egregious.
3rd Aug 2020
Audio problem: As Radar sets the clock back to 4:30, you hear ticking. The clock is electric, and wouldn't make a noise like that.
Suggested correction: Electric clocks do not necessarily lack a ticking sound. Depending on their construction, they may or may not have it. Older clocks are actually more likely to produce some sort of audible ticking sound, because the precise motor speed regulation required to build a clock with sweep seconds is much more difficult than producing an oscillator that outputs precisely one pulse every second (even if the clock in question does not have the actual second hand, that would still be true).
I bow to your observation and stand corrected. Thank you.
19th Aug 2021
Factual error: In the Swamp, Dr. Wu says "maeu gamsahabnida" when taking out the needle. It was translated as "Dr. Wu says the treatment is completed." The correct translation is "thank you very much"
Suggested correction: This is taking the dialogue too literally. Translating culturally specific terms and forms of expression into something the counterpart can understand in the intended way is entirely appropriate and only logical. A person not familiar with English culture would be very confused if, for instance, someone translated the phrase "Your goose is cooked" literally.
15th Sep 2021
Factual error: Out by The Gun, Hawkeye's Captain insignia on his garrison cap is missing the lower corner of one bar. So, it would be considered unserviceable, that is, unfit for use, and should have been replaced with a new insignia.
Suggested correction: While that is true by the Army's standards, it is entirely in character for Hawkeye not to give a flying you-know-what about the state of his insignia.
True, but even he knew that correcting it sooner rather than later would be wise. But, as always, I bow to your knowledge.
8th Oct 2002
Corrected entry: Bond and Goodhead escape from Jaws in the cable car by throwing a chain over the cable and sliding down. A bad guy in the control booth starts up the gears and the cable car is in pursuit, almost chatching up to Bond and forcing him and Goodhead to drop from the cable. Not possible; the cable car is attached to the moving cable and can only move as fast as it is pulled. No matter how fast that is, Bond is moving with the speed of the cable AND sliding down on the chain. There is no way the cable car could have overtaken him.
Correction: Bond cannot be both sliding down the cable AND moving with the speed of the cable as you describe. Either he is sliding: in which case the moving cable will have no effect on his speed, OR his chain is NOT sliding but is in full contact with the cable: hence he would travel at the same speed as the cable. There were also several cables to each car,so he may have been sliding down one that wasn't moving.
I think what was meant was Bond is sliding down a moving cable, which means the motion of the cable adds to Bond's motion, which together is greater than the motion of the cable car, which only moves at the speed of the cable. It is like hurricanes often have the strongest winds on the right side of the eye, because the storm's motion adds to the circulating wind. You are correct that Bond could have been sliding along a non-moving cable.
Correction: Cable cars of that type have two different kinds of cables: puller cables, which move relative to the pylons and stay fixed relative to the gondolas which they pull, as the name suggests; and the much stronger, thicker rail cables, which stay fixed relative to the pylons and the gondolas move along using rollers. Bond and Goodhead slide down a rail cable.
19th Mar 2016
Plot hole: For the shuttle to land at Drax's Amazon hideout he would need a very long runway, something that could easily be detected by satellite.
Suggested correction: Why would they need to have their own runway? With everybody else dead, they could just pick from any existing landing sites. Also, it is not clear if they planned to use the shuttles for the initial return at all. Apparently, the pods at the end of the spokes are constructed with independent reentry capability, or else how would Bond's comment about the chances of Jaws and his girlfriend make any sense.
Suggested correction: No reason the Amazon crew couldn't construct one once the gas has dispersed, and everyone else on Earth is dead.
20th May 2020
Baby, It's Cold Outside - S7-E9
Factual error: As Hawkeye performs CPR on the hypothermic soldier, he pumps his arms from his ellbows. CPR is done by keeping the arms stiff and pumping with the whole upper body. Hawkeye as a surgeon would know that. Fun Fact: You can perform CPR one-handed in a pinch, but only as long as you keep your arms stiff.
Suggested correction: True, but doing CPR the real way is going to likely seriously injure the actor it is being performed upon.
Explaining why mistakes occur does not invalidate them.
Chest compressions can definitely be performed by pumping from the elbow, one or two handed. The first documented use was in 1891, so Hawkeye would be aware of it. However, modern CPR standards, including straight arm procedures, were not developed until at least 1960 by the American Heart Association. Using straight arms and bending at the hips uses the larger muscle groups of the core and legs, which provides more control, as well as stamina. This is not an error for the Korean War era.
Additionally, what Lorg said - you don't want to hurt the actor, you can see his shoulders rise as his arms straighten, giving the illusion of compressions. There is another episode where Hawkeye is performing chest compressions similarly, and yells at the unconscious patient that his arms are getting tired, which is what would happen with bent elbow compressions, and one of the reasons modern technique uses straight arms.
10th Jun 2022
Plot hole: After the six shuttles take off, there are obviously dozens, if not hundreds of Drax' minions left behind in the base. Not regular employees, but the kind that knows what's coming, if only because Drax is obviously talking about it, e.g. to Bond, quite openly. Would they just stoically stay behind to be gassed? One would think they would mutiny and rush the shuttles wouldn't one?
Suggested correction: No reason they couldn't have been brainwashed into obeying Drax like here was a god. Further, for all we know, the base could have secure facilities for the employees, who have been sterilized, doubtlessly, to wait until the gas in the atmosphere has dispersed sufficiently. Drax needs ground personnel to enable people to land on Earth later on.
If you have gas-tight bunkers on earth, the whole exercise of taking everybody to orbit would be a bit pointless, wouldn't it?
But Drax has a god complex: he wants to stay in his "untainted cradle of the heavens", instead of the planetary surface. Not to mention, just in case something goes wrong with the Amazon bunker, his master race will be safe and secure in the orbit.
12th Sep 2002
Corrected entry: In the cable car scene you see Jaws bite the cable in half to stop the cable car, in the next scene you see Jaws climbing on to the other car. After that another villain starts the cable car, for some unknown reason both cars start to move, how is this possible if one of the cables has been bitten in half?
Correction: There are support cables and driving cables, he bit through one of the supporting cables.
That is completely nonsensical. He is biting trough the cable that he stopped moments ago, which makes that the drive cable of the car. The support cables of aerial cable cars don't move, they aren't even a continuous loop. Him biting through that cable makes the gondola jerk, which is correct because the car's freewheeling brakes would activate. What isn't correct is the gondolas being set in motion without replacing that cable.
18th Jan 2021
Corrected entry: In order to open a park like that to the public (and obviously it's close to the opening date) Hammond would have to convince more people than just his investors. In reality, the park would have to pass a security review, and those auditors would definitely ask questions like "What happens in case of a catastrophic computer failure?" Something tells me the answer "All the fences turn off and you have to run across the compound to turn them back on manually" wouldn't sit too well with them.
Correction: We don't know that Hammond is not going to do that. Having to convince the investors is just the first step. Without financing, nothing else matters because the park will never open.
The park is all but finished. You convince investors at the beginning, inspectors at the end. Convincing investors after the fact is just not how it works. Thinking about what the security inspectors will ask at the end is equally bad practice, although I have seen it done that way, if not quite at that scale.
The whole manual reboot had to be done because Dennis Nedry locked them out of the system, so they had to do a hard reboot. Dennis Nedry's virus and meddling also shut the fences down intentionally. In practice the reboot would be done with more time on their hands and someone at the compound ready to reboot quickly enough that all fences go back online in time. In this situation however, they didn't have those luxuries. No system can be fully made failsafe from industrial sabotage or hacking.
29th Sep 2016
Plot hole: Hogan has his men play romantic music over the radio. Earlier they were afraid of the radio in the observation post being detected. Elsewhere in the series, they try to avoid sending too long to avoid being homed in on - which is correct. Now, if they were to play a whole record at once, wouldn't the homing devices pick up on the transmitter at the camp?
Suggested correction: It is shown several times in the series that the detectors are brought out at specific times / events. With how much control they have over the camp they would know when those times were / more than likely be able to tamper with them. The other times they were worried were simply because either A. They were close to the scanning times or B. New ones got shipped in that they didn't have time to tamper with yet.
20th Jul 2008
Factual error: At the beginning of the film we are shown an amber mine in the Dominican Republic. This amber is only 45 million years old, Hammond would never bother buying the amber from there as dinosaurs disappeared from the fossil record 65 million years ago.
Suggested correction: This is assuming that Hammond would restrict himself to a specific period of the earth's history, which makes no sense. Of course Hammond would also be interested in Paleogene or early Tertiary fossil blood! All the proto-birds, giant birds (just think about a Gastornis! What a sensation in a zoo!), not to mention giant mammals like the Megatherion, proto-elephants, proto-rhinoceroses.
There is absolutely no suggestion in Jurassic Park - film or book - that Hammond has any interest in any animals except for dinosaurs. We see no facilities for cloning extinct birds or mammals, nor are they mentioned in his promotional film. The post is correct.
It's specifically mentioned in the book that Hammond was buying huge quantities of amber, even museum-quality jewelry. He was likely getting hold of everything he possibly could to increase chances of finding blood-carrying insects.
There is also absolutely no suggestion that he wouldn't be interested. Surely these would make excellent alternatives / backups in the event he couldn't source enough mosquitos of the era he was most interested in.
As has been pointed out on this site before, inventing deux ex machina explanations for plot holes and factual errors does not invalidate them. Cloning non-egg laying mammals would require vastly different technology to that seen in Jurassic Park. Nowhere in the film is it indicated that Hammond is interested in anything except dinosaurs, nor that he is in any way equipped to clone anything but them.
Hammond buying up any mosquito-containing amber is not a plot hole. He didn't say he wanted exhibits from 45 million years ago, but he also didn't specifically say he wasn't interested. Lack of a statement in a film is not a plot hole.
8th Dec 2018
German Bridge Is Falling Down - S1-E7
Continuity mistake: During his experiments to create explosives in the tunnels, Carter has a pretty extensive set of glassware on his workbench. Necessarily he would have to replace (most of) that after each explosion - not to mention various light bulbs, furniture and other non-blast-proof stuff by the way. A lot of that glassware is specialty equipment, it would not be easy to come by even one set of in peacetime for a free civilian. In wartime, for an allied prisoner (even with the heroes' connections) it should be nigh impossible, and totally impossible to have an inexhaustible supply of the stuff. So we can either assume a giant plot hole, or treat it (as I did) as a big continuity mistake.
Suggested correction: Considering they regularly get equipment of all kind air dropped from "London", a few laboratory instruments and containers would hardly be challenge.
Firstly, considering the number of explosions, it's not "a few" but more like "QUITE a few." Secondly, if they had had the option to receive airdrops at the time, they would just as have had them airdrop the explosives instead of the glassware for carter to blow up, wouldn't they? Or are you suggesting they would have more spare laboratory equipment in store than a wholesale laboratory outfitter, "just in case"?
11th Feb 2018
Plot hole: In several occasions throughout the story, e.g. S4E18, Hogan attends parties at Stalag 13 wearing an immaculate US dress uniform. Where did he get that? Dress uniforms are not part of the usual kit a bomber crew brings along with them on their missions.
Suggested correction: Considering they have a tailor (Newkirk) and are air dropped everything from explosives to penicillin, a Class A dress uniform would hardly be a challenge to make or receive.
Klink: "Hogan, where did you get that uniform?!" - Hogan: "Oh, I had OSS airdrop it together with our latest shipment of explosives and ammunition. We brought it in through our tunnel last night and stored it there."
I got it from the Red Cross.
Only a few high ranking intelligence officers are aware of Hogan's mission. Hogan's activities would under normal circumstances be considered fraternisation. While it might be true that he could theoretically obtain a class A uniform via the red cross, doing so would brand him as a collaborator and traitor.
19th Mar 2020
The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan - S5-E6
Other mistake: As Frank cocks his gun in the Swamp, the slide locks open and he has to hit the slide release to get it to move forward. Next he fiddles with the hammer. Next we hear the shot go off. Burns' excuse later is that he was cleaning The Gun and it went off (although admittedly, Frank doesn't always stick to the truth that religiously in situations like that). The slide on a semi-automatic locks open only if the magazine is empty or missing. The Gun locking open is also a clear, unmistakable indication that the breech is empty. He would have to insert a filled mag, then pull the slide back again to chamber a round before The Gun even had the chance to go off. One never does that while cleaning a gun. One does what Frank did to begin with: Pull the slide back without a magazine inserted to make sure the breech is empty.
Suggested correction: Frank has demonstrated on numerous occasions that he does not follow the rules of safe gun handling, so ascribing his failure to do so is not a mistake.
You are missing the point. His gun is demonstrably unloaded when we last see it. He would either have to change his mind about cleaning it and load it instead, or load it first and then try to clean it (which makes even less sense), neither of which is not supported by anything in the dialogue.
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