swordfish

Mind Your Manors - S20-E1

Factual error: Aunt Petunia says that the chalice was first seen in the Stone Age, and sends Paul and Barry back to where Stonehenge is just being completed. However, the Stone Age actually ended in around 3300 BC. Stonehenge is believed to have been constructed in around 2500 BC, which was the Bronze Age.

swordfish

Absolute Zero (Pilot) - S1-E1

Factual error: At the end of the episode, Tom is at a crossroads, theoretically in Iowa. However, the desert/scrub/mountain surroundings are scenery not found anywhere in Iowa.

swordfish

Absolute Zero (Pilot) - S1-E1

Factual error: Tom's mother lives in Iowa, but the flowers/plants in her garden include types that could only live in places with warm/temperate weather all year round, which is decidedly not the case for Iowa.

swordfish

Stay Tuned - S1-E17

Factual error: The episode is set in New York State, but at the end the road signs are all for Oregon locations.

swordfish

Gemini - S1-E25

Factual error: Tom finds a notecard with an "internet access code" that is an IP address: 271.287.291.31. The problem with this is that IP addresses cannot go above 255 as the starting three digits - it's a completely invalid address.

swordfish

Hidden Agenda - S1-E18

Factual error: Enlisted soldiers are shown saluting each other, as well as addressing a sergeant as "sir." Enlisted personnel in real life never salute each other, nor are NCOs (like sergeants) ever addressed as "sir."

swordfish

Paradise on Your Doorstep - S1-E5

Factual error: The plane Tom hijacks is a Grumman Goose. This has a maximum altitude of around 20,000 ft. When the pilot flips the pressurisation switch, the instrument panel shows the plane is only at 2500 feet! The cabin wouldn't have depressurised at such a low altitude - and even had it done so if the plane had been flying much higher, it wouldn't have had such a severe and debilitating effect so quickly on Tom as suggested in the episode - he passes out in about 3 seconds.

swordfish

The Incredible Derek - S1-E3

Factual error: A number of the soldiers on the US Army base have haircuts/hairstyles completely against army rules and regulations. This is particularly noticeable given the show is set in the late 90s, when the US Army was much stricter about haircut rules for serving military members. In real life, they wouldn't be allowed to have those hairstyles.

swordfish

Factual error: Radium Chloride (stated by the doctor to be the ingested poison) does have a slightly luminous glow to it, but absolutely doesn't have the intense shining bright green luminous glow that is shown at the end of the film in Professor Cornell's mug.

swordfish

Absolute Zero (Pilot) - S1-E1

Factual error: When Tom is locked up in an institution for the mentally ill, he is given a bed on a mixed gender ward/wing (both men and women). Wings and wards in mental institutions have not been mixed gender for more than 100 years - it is inconceivable that this practice would be existing in the 1990s in a large city in the USA.

swordfish

Whittaker Our Way Out - S3-E3

Factual error: In the flashback scene to Whittaker senior's trial at the Old Bailey (which takes place in the late 19th or early 20th century), the judge in the trial is wearing a long, full-bottomed wig. This is completely incorrect - since the late 18th century, full-bottomed wigs have only been worn by judges on ceremonial occasions, not in court. At trials, judges wear short wigs instead. (00:05:17)

swordfish

Factual error: Jodie Foster states that as a propulsion engineer, she knows the internal structure of the plane by heart and has worked extensively on it. The problem with that is that propulsion engineers work on the jet engines - which are all on the outside of the plane, on the wings. Sure, a propulsion engineer might have some basic knowledge of the plane's interior design and engineering, but the in-depth knowledge she claims comes from her job simply isn't right - that's the job of avionics engineers.

swordfish

Factual error: The Saint picks up a newspaper, and reads an article that is, according to the headline, about the murder of the Englishman he met the previous night. However, if you actually translate the Italian in the body of the article, it is talking about an industrial fire on a ship.

swordfish

Factual error: Carver successfully frames the Chinese airforce for sinking the HMS Devonshire, making everyone believe that they torpedoed the ship. The problem with this is that the Nanchang Q-5 can't carry torpedos.

swordfish

Factual error: The scene at the start of the film shows XXXX and his assistant making drugs. In the voice-over, XXXX mentions that his assistant has a double first in industrial chemistry from Cambridge, and is doing this job to pay off his student debt. This is wrong on a number of levels. First of all, there is no such subject as industrial chemistry to study at Cambridge, nor has there ever been such a subject. Only Chemistry is taught. Secondly, Chemistry is a single honours subject: you would only get at best a first in it, not a double first. "Double first" means you scored top marks in two separate subjects you study - for example if you read French and Spanish together, that would be double honours. This is not the case however for chemistry. Lastly, the statement about paying off student debt makes no sense given the film was set in Britain. At the time, student fees were no more than £3000 a year ($3800) so in a four year course you would end up paying only £12000 ($15200), plus living expenses. But loans are only repaid once you're earning above a certain limit, and then proportionally to your income - they're not "due" like a standard loan. It therefore makes no sense for the assistant to be working such a dangerous and illegal job if all he wishes to do is pay off his student debt - he has evidently worked with XXXX for a long time given how much XXXX trusts him.

swordfish

Factual error: In the Oxford scene, Bond is in bed with the Danish professor in the New Buildings wing of New College. The problem is that all the rooms in the New Buildings are student rooms and have always been so since they were built - no professors live or teach in this building. The professors are on the other side of college.

swordfish

Factual error: In the scene with Bond in Oxford, the audience sees an aerial shot of the college he is supposedly studying Danish in. The college shown is Brasenose. However, in the next shot showing the college courtyard, the college has magically switched to New College - 10 minutes' walk from Brasenose.

swordfish

Factual error: At the end of the film when Solomon is in London we see a bendy bus behind him. The problem with this is that the film is set in the late 90s, but bendy buses were only introduced in London in 2001.

swordfish

Factual error: Throughout the film Danny Archer wears a Breitling Chrono Avenger. The problem with this is that the film is set in the late 90s but the Chrono Avenger was only released in 2001.

swordfish

Factual error: Jurgen takes the cyanide out of a coffee tin. He mentions he has had it for years since his time in the Stasi. However, in fact potassium reacts with carbon dioxide to form a harmless compound over time: to prevent this it must be sealed in an airtight container, which a coffee tin most certainly is not.

swordfish