Factual error: Movies with trials in which the protagonist is on the verge of losing until a last minute whammy piece of evidence is brought up that ends up winning the trial in their favor (such as "Liar Liar"). In real life, lawyers have to add the evidence in before they are allowed to talk about it, and if the judge doesn't know where they are going with it, they will ask the lawyer to make a proffer.
Phaneron
25th Jan 2020
Common mistakes
17th Jan 2020
Spider-Man (1994)
Six Forgotten Warriors Chapter 4: The Six Fight Again - S5-E5
Factual error: When Kingpin has Robbie dangling from a helicopter, Spider-Man jumps onto the helicopter and tells Kingpin he promised to release Robbie, to which Kingpin replies sardonically with "And so I shall." Neither of these two should be able to hear each other over the helicopter rotors. Spider-Man doesn't possess super hearing and Kingpin is a normal human.
13th Jan 2020
Common mistakes
Factual error: Shooting a gas tank with a handgun and causing an explosion. The only way to ignite a gas tank by shooting it is with tracer ammunition, as demonstrated by the Mythbusters.
2nd Jan 2020
Spider-Man (1994)
Factual error: Several episodes depict the moon in the night sky as being far too large.
2nd Jan 2020
Spider-Man (1994)
Sins of the Fathers Chapter 8: The Ultimate Slayer - S3-E8
Factual error: Despite being a paraplegic, when Smythe is about to be lowered into the vat of chemicals, his legs are pretty toned and muscular. The show implies that Smythe had been wheelchair-bound for a long time, so even if he had muscular legs prior to his paralysis, the muscles would have atrophied.
28th Dec 2019
Spider-Man (1994)
Sins of the Fathers Chapter 3: Attack of the Octobot - S3-E3
Factual error: When Spider-Man and Doc Ock are talking in the lab, at one point, a shot of Doc Ock's face shows Spider-Man reflected in each side of his sunglasses. However, Doc Ock's glasses have a singular lens, and the straight angle of Spider-Man's reflections suggest that the glasses are in no way curved, so Spider-Man should only be reflected in them once.
10th Dec 2019
Common mistakes
Factual error: An oft-repeated myth in movies, usually in the science fiction genre, is that humans only use 10% of their brains. The truth is that humans use all of their brains, even when asleep.
9th Dec 2019
Spider-Man (1994)
Neogenic Nightmare Chapter 6: Morbius - S2-E6
Factual error: When Morbius is comatose at the hospital after reverting to his human form following his battle with Spider-Man, he is still wearing his trenchcoat, pants, boots, etc. The hospital staff wouldn't leave him in his outfit, they would dress him in a hospital gown. On top of that, he isn't even hooked up to any monitors.
4th Dec 2019
Spider-Man (1994)
Neogenic Nightmare Chapter 11: Tablet of Time - S2-E9
Factual error: When Peter is walking Alissa home, the traffic signal at the intersection they stop at goes from red to yellow to green. Not what US traffic signals do - they go straight from red to green.
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Suggested correction: Not entirely true; although they are rare and may no longer exist now, I've seen traffic lights that followed the red, yellow, green pattern as recently as the mid-1990s.
Interesting. What state (s) did you see this in? I'm assuming going from red to yellow was to encourage cars to cautiously enter the intersection in case someone was running a red light?
Traffic lights in the UK do this - it's more to give you a second to get ready, in gear, etc., then as soon as the lights turn green you can go. Otherwise you get no warning of when the lights are about to change.
In Illinois; as I said, such traffic lights are rare, but they did exist at least as recently as the time this episode of the series aired, and they may still possibly exist in larger cities such as New York City.
This traffic light set-up (red to yellow to green) still exists today in the UK. From what I understand, it is to alert the driver that the light will be turning green imminently and to prepare themselves to put their car in gear, as manual cars are still pretty common in Europe. I'd wager this light cycle was phased out of North America due to the abundance of automatic cars today. Could have been different in 1994 though.
It should be noted that traffic lights that go from red to yellow before going green keep the red light illuminated so that both red and yellow are lit up. However, that's not what happens in the scene. I've never seen a traffic light operate the way it's shown. And Massachusetts still has traffic lights that go from red to yellow, however, when red and yellow are lit up together, this allows for pedestrian crossing.
13th Mar 2019
Common mistakes
Factual error: Snipers using a laser mounted to their rifle to line up their target. Snipers in real life don't use lasers in this manner. For one thing, it gives away their position, and additionally because lasers won't line up a target accurately at a long range, as the bullet is affected by gravity, the rotation of the Earth, and other factors.
11th Feb 2019
Common mistakes
Factual error: Characters living in an expensive city (such as New York or San Francisco) and somehow being able to afford a spacious apartment that their job couldn't realistically pay for.
13th Dec 2018
Common mistakes
Factual error: Characters, typically the hero, can crash through windows without so much as getting a cut on them.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: Depending on the age of the window, that's the whole point. Safety glass is designed to break in a way to stop people getting hurt.
Not every window is made from safety glass. When was the last time you saw a movie where a main character crashed through a store window, office building window, house window, plate glass window, etc. and ended up getting shredded to ribbons?
You don't often see blood but items of clothing do get ripped. One example I can think of off the top of my head is The Last Stand where Arnie gets chucked through a glass door. His jacket gets rips on it.
For whatever it's worth, the one time in my life I had to break through a window in an emergency situation, it was definitely not safety glass and I got some fairly deep cuts even though I thought I'd cleared away the pieces. Also in spite of everything I made sure to smash it with an object because I knew there was no way I was just going to be able to leap through a solid pane of glass, and I suspect even if I did I'd just end up impaling myself on a huge shard.
13th Dec 2018
Common mistakes
Factual error: When someone has a limb or other body part sliced off or the person is bisected, and there is a dramatic delay in the body part falling off as if to cast doubt on whether or not they were actually sliced. Notable examples include "Equilibrium," "Skinned Deep," "Resident Evil," "Ghost Ship," and "Final Destination 2."
3rd Dec 2018
Common mistakes
Factual error: Rainfall in movies and television is almost always depicted as a sudden and heavy downpour (sometimes cued by a crack of thunder and/or lightning strike) as opposed to gradually building up to it. This is pretty rare in real life.
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Suggested correction: Cloudbursts and showers are that way, and they are pretty common in some areas, specially near mountains. I don't know about New York but in several Latin American countries they are not eyebrow rising worth.
I'd add that along with the rain suddenly pouring, it falls in straight lines - with the exact same distance between streams - that are perpendicular to the ground. (All rainfall is vertical, never at an angle).
25th Oct 2018
Common mistakes
Factual error: True gun silencers do not exist in real life. There do exist what are called "suppressors," but they don't quiet the sound of a gunshot anywhere near what you see in movies and television shows.
21st Oct 2018
Common mistakes
Factual error: When the police are on the phone with a suspect who is using a landline and they try to keep them on the line long enough to trace the number and location. If the film takes place after the advent of Caller ID, then this information would be available instantly.
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23rd Jun 2017
God's Not Dead 2 (2016)
Factual error: This film portrays the ACLU as being an aggressively anti-Christian agency. This couldn't be further from reality. In the real world, the ACLU would more than likely defend Grace in court for mentioning Jesus in class, as opposed to being the ones representing the prosecution.
6th Sep 2016
Batman: The Animated Series (1992)
Factual error: After he becomes agitated with his doctor, Harvey Dent is able to toss the doctor across the room with one hand while sitting in his hospital bed. Harvey Dent/Two-Face does not possess superhuman strength, and lying in a hospital bed for several days would have only weakened him, so throwing his doctor across the room like that would not be possible. (00:20:50)
30th May 2016
God's Not Dead (2014)
Factual error: Even before his first class is shown, Professor Radisson is given the reputation of being an aggressive anti-theist, with one character even comparing him to the Roman Coliseum. This would imply that he makes students write "God is dead" at the beginning of every semester. This is a form of religious discrimination that would not be tolerated at any public university, especially in a country that is predominantly Christian, and Radisson surely would have been fired for it. It's even said during the concert at the end of the film that Radisson's actions have made the news, but the administration at the university apparently isn't privy to it.
30th May 2016
God's Not Dead (2014)
Factual error: During his final debate with Professor Radisson, Josh states that science supports the existence of God. There is no scientific evidence to support the existence of any god from any religion. This line is made all the more dubious given that the film earlier made reference to the works and writings of Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking - who are two of the most respected scientists on the planet and neither of whom are theists - as counterpoints to his decidedly unscientific claims in earlier debates.
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