Corrected entry: In the scene where you see some troops and tanks begin to attack the monster, you see one drive by Hud and it shoots its main gun. Problem is that the tank you see is actually an M109A6: it has to be stationary to fire its gun. Also, the blast would probably give Hud a concussion or make him go deaf.
johnrosa
2nd Aug 2008
Cloverfield (2008)
19th Jul 2008
Cloverfield (2008)
Corrected entry: Just after the monster has capsized the oil tanker they go to the roof to check it out. When Hud says to Rob he should have left town earlier, Rob replies, "Shut up", however Rob's mouth doesn't move. (00:19:50)
Correction: It does move, as does his head that turns his face into darkness so that the shadows across his face and the short time it takes to say 'shut up' under your breath all make it difficult to notice, but it's there in a completely natural way. It is not dubbed in.
23rd Jun 2008
Cloverfield (2008)
Corrected entry: This is a major plot hole. Whenever the camera gets dropped, scratched, etc. it does not show any signs of damage. In many scenes, such as when (SPOILER) Hud dies, the camera stays intact, even though it was just dropped some 30 feet.
Correction: It also survived a helicopter crash, but so did the three passengers. Just because it could be damaged, that doesn't mean it must be damaged. Many factors can be present that allow for the camera to remain working. Not impossible.
22nd May 2008
Cloverfield (2008)
Corrected entry: When the Statue of Liberty's head lands and stops sliding accross the street, a street sign painted with 'dead end' is visible to the right. Any other shot after this, the sign is not there.
Correction: I can clearly see "D_AD DE_D" spray-painted on the back of the street sign as it's partially obscured by the pole. Perhaps it says "Dead Dead"? Regardless, the sign is seen while Hud is standing on the sidewalk just as the head settles into the street. Hud then walks into the street and all remaining shots are from the street so that the sign and pole are off screen to our right. The pole (but not the sign) is briefly seen as they are running into the store.
7th May 2008
Cloverfield (2008)
Corrected entry: When Rob is in the electronics store looking for a battery for his cellphone, he picks up a Nokia battery case so he can retrieve his messages. But as he ends the call the sound his cellphone makes is clearly one of a Motorola phone. (I sell both Nokia and Motorola cellphones which is why I know).
Correction: Cell phones allow the user to customize many of the features, including sounds. I know a guy that has a very expensive, advanced-looking, top-of-the-line phone that rings like an old desktop phone with a hard clanging metal bell (very cool). There's no reason Rob couldn't have installed the Nokia sounds out of preference for the sounds his previous phone made (familiarity/comfort).
2nd May 2008
Cloverfield (2008)
Corrected entry: The size of the creature keeps changing. When we see it from the roof of the Time Warner Center, it is almost as tall as the skyscrapers around it. When it steps over Grand Central Station, it is barely taller than the station. When it attacks the helicopter, it's huge again but (SPOILER) when it kills Hud, it is much smaller. This can't be explained by saying it's not in the same position every time, because it is always on four legs. The only time it's on two legs is when it reaches up to attack the helicopter and before that it was walking on four legs and when it was, it was huge.
Correction: Actually, it's not in the same positions each time. The articulation of its limbs allows it to stand quite tall or to skulk at a much lower level, as needed (see special features on DVD). The creature was, of course, computer designed and controlled, and it was automatically kept 'in scale' with the CGI city around it. Any perceived variances are caused by the limits of our 2D viewing of what should be a 3D scene. Our view is 'flat', so that all depth is lost, and distances between objects difficult to judge, and thus, our perception of scale can be distorted.
Correction: Have you ever seen how a cat can curl into a ball or "cat loaf" then stretch out to twice the length? Or how a bear walking on all fours looks smaller then stands up on it's two back legs and looks huge? Probably a similar principal here.
20th Apr 2008
Cloverfield (2008)
Corrected entry: The explosion in the city is impossible. The monster came from the sea, overturning the ship. Now the monster can destroy anything, but there is nothing in the city that can generate that kind of explosion launching debris over the river. Gas stations are the only thing in that part of the city and they cannot produce such a explosion. (It wasn't the military because nothing in the entire film apart from the ending killing the main characters was used. And yes we all know that there are a bunch of unknowns, but since this film really does show us the physical limts of the monster and the military, and the fact that nothing in the city - even power plants, of which there are none - could produce that explosion, makes this event a plot hole mistake.).
Correction: The cause of the first big explosion is never explained in the film, but then many oher things are not. Not knowing what DID cause it does not make it impossible. The Statue of Liberty's head landing on Manhattan is also not explained explicitly (but is obviously not caused by that first big blast). The capsized tanker is shown burning north of the Statue (meaning it also could not have caused the statue's head to land on Manhattan). And we don't see the tanker from the roof earlier because it's far away, hidden by buildings, and capsized at night.
19th Feb 2008
Cloverfield (2008)
Corrected entry: When we first see the military attack the monster, we see what appears to be an original M1 Abrams with the royal ordinace L68A1 105MM rifled gun. However, this tank has been out of service since 1987, replaced by the German Rhienmetall M256 L-44 120MM smoothbore cannon. Also in this scene, we see what appears to be an M109A6 paladin drive right past Hud, but this would never happen since an M109A6 is a self-propelled Howitzer and would fire from afar - it would never get that close to the target.
Correction: Just a few steps of this creature would place it far from where it was prior to those steps. As such, that Howitzer might have originally been at its proper range, and now is attempting to relocate. Also, Wikipedia notes 8000 M1s of various types are in current service, with 1000 of those being original M1 105mm models reported to likely be with the Army National Guard- the expected first responders in this film's situation.
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.
Correction: The Howitzer's standard firing prodecure would be to lob shells on a distant target from a standing position. Given the current mayhem and close-quarters, the crew is doing whatever it can to take down the monster, so firing 'by eye', while not ideal, is better than doing nothing. As for Hud's hearing, he probably did suffer some damage, but given that he dies before the attack is over, we've no way to test how much.
johnrosa