Sammo

28th Dec 2019

Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)

The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor - S3-E6

Plot hole: It is revealed towards the end of the episode that the painting Mrs. Maltravers did when the murder took place was not painted that day and that time of the day, because it had the wrong shadows. But we actually saw what was on the canvas when the secretary was leaving to go to the bank, and it was that exact painting in an early state. She also came up with the idea for the murder the night before, making even more unbelievable that she'd just have the alibi painting ready and waiting the morning after. That without mentioning the fact that the murder itself as described is not something that would have required an amount of time needed to make a whole painting, and that she could have finished it later anyway (she gave it to Hastings a day later, after all).

28th Dec 2019

Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)

The Mystery of the Spanish Chest - S3-E8

Continuity mistake: During the party, the colonel expresses to Poirot his disappointment for the jazz record being played, music "from the inferior races." He puts a tart in his mouth, closing his lips past the piece of fruit. Cut to the wider shot, and he is still holding a tart that sports the strawberry he just chewed on. (00:19:00)

28th Dec 2019

Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)

The Double Clue - S3-E7

Factual error: Poirot is visiting an art exhibition with the Countess, and expresses his admiration for a painting by Marc Chagall. Amazingly enough, that painting is "Les Plumes en Fleurs", something Chagall will create in 1943, years after the time when this pre-WW2 episode takes place. (00:24:50)

28th Dec 2019

Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)

The Mystery of the Spanish Chest - S3-E8

Continuity mistake: Poirot enters Japp's office when the inspector is dealing with the tribulations of modern machinery. As Poirot sits down, you can notice the crumpled paper by the phone being different in the reverse shot, when you can also see Japp's hand being at the corner of the typewriter. But he brings it up from his lap in the next shot. (00:38:15)

28th Dec 2019

Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)

Agatha Christie's Poirot mistake picture

The Double Clue - S3-E7

Factual error: Attention to detail in props is always extremely high in this series, and tubular flashlights have been in circulation since the beginning of the century. However the one that the supposed burglar is holding as they make their way through the top floor of the villa looks perfectly modern and unlike any model compatible with the 30s. (00:10:20)

28th Dec 2019

Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)

The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor - S3-E6

Continuity mistake: Poirot and Hastings are in front of the corpse at Marsdon Manor. When Miss Rawlinson makes her comment about him taking advice, she is almost with her back against Hastings and in a dramatic light totally different from what shown in establishing shot. (00:17:45)

28th Dec 2019

Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)

The Double Clue - S3-E7

Factual error: Hastings and Miss Lemon decide to investigate on their own. In the outside view of the first suspect they go question, a large contrail is visible on the left of his building (contrails were not a complete impossibility in the 30s, but it's rather odd to randomly see one in an establishing shot for this timeframe). (00:22:40)

28th Dec 2019

Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)

The Mystery of the Spanish Chest - S3-E8

Continuity mistake: In the flashback during Poirot's narration, the scene with Colonel Curtisstalking to the victim at the military club happens differently from the first time around, with Clayton switching hand position after a different line of dialogue, starting off in discontinuity with the previous shot (originally the continuity was flawless). (00:44:40)

28th Dec 2019

Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)

The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor - S3-E6

Continuity mistake: The morning after his arrival at the village, Poirot sits with Hastings for breakfast (prime minister Baldwin is mentioned on the radio). Hastings is holding the newspaper with his left hand and the right is on his knee. New shot and both hands are on the table. It keeps happening during the scene. (00:14:25)

28th Dec 2019

Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)

The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor - S3-E6

Revealing mistake: In the reveal at the end of the episode we see a prolonged close-up of the newspaper "Nairobi Daily Press." Not only the fateful article linked to the murder is written in a font different and larger from the one used in the rest of the first page, but you can also see where the fake part abruptly ends, resuming mid-sentence the article of a real (or realistic) newspaper used as base for the prop, back to the right font and consistent style. (00:50:30)

28th Dec 2019

Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)

The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor - S3-E6

Continuity mistake: Poirot holds the widow's painting for Hasting and asks "You do not see?" In the reverse angle with Hastings (obviously) not seeing a thing, Poirot's hand in frame is holding the painting differently. (00:39:15)

28th Dec 2019

Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)

The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor - S3-E6

Continuity mistake: The car with Poirot and Hastings enters the village. Right as the camera begins to pan to the left, notice a woman with a maroon tailleur and a powder blue hat. She walks in the same direction of the car but turns around a moment later. Several seconds after, when we see the two protagonists in the car, the same woman can be seen amongst the passersby through the back window. (00:04:15)

27th Dec 2019

Knives Out (2019)

Continuity mistake: Marta picks up the phone at the beginning of the movie. In close-up she is holding it with her left hand, but at the cut it switches to her right hand. (00:03:20)

27th Dec 2019

Knives Out (2019)

Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the movie, Marta is sitting at the kitchen table with her mom while her sister watches crime drama. The arm position of her mom keeps changing during the scene. When she says "Turn it off NOW" she has her elbow on the table leaning on, and then lowers it, still keeping it on the table. In the shots before and after both her arms are off the table. (00:03:00)

27th Dec 2019

Knives Out (2019)

Stupidity: Spoiler. The protagonist is a trained and competent nurse, paired with one of the greatest murder mystery writers. Neither finds strange in the slightest that after jabbing his vein with a dose of drugs 30 times the norm he is absolutely fine, not just conscious but even able to concoct on the spot a convoluted plot, speaking normally and quite at length, no trouble at all. He should be dead "in 10 minutes" sure, but it's not a time bomb. You'd think one would not be so blasé about slitting their own throat and the other would have to notice how amazingly unaffected and lucid the other appears to be minutes later. Not to mention that his plan would have never worked with the toxicology report, which should be routine in a suicide case also to assess the mental state of the person who left no note or anything behind.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: It is explained that the drug overdose will kill Harlan in 10 minutes based on the dosage. The implication is that Harlan's heart will stop, not that he will become gradually and obviously sick over those 10 minutes. Regardless, based on what they believe will happen, even if they did notice that Harlan wasn't getting sick they wouldn't have the time to test that theory. The fact that neither Marta nor Harlan thought about a potential toxicology report is a pretty major part of the plot, and it is perfectly reasonable given the circumstances. The plot was hatched on the spot within a few minutes and there are several holes in the plan that drive the story throughout the film. Although a brilliant man and a great writer, Harlan simply didn't think of everything.

She explicitly says "You'll feel symptoms in 5" and when he shuts her up putting a hand on her mouth she says "We have 6 minutes."Then his daughter interrupts them and more time is wasted. By the time when he begins his convoluted explanation of the big plan he should have already been disoriented, sweaty and the whole gamut leading to his respiratory failure. And he goes on for minutes after that. It's very true, it moves the plot along, but by what they say themselves (which is from I understand not medically accurate and contradicted also by what happens later in the movie with the second death) they should have realised that time has passed with nothing happening. You could even say it's Rian Johnson's intentional deconstruction of the artificial nature of the whoddunit contrivances! But also, just saying, one of those "Stupid actions and decisions people take in movies, which no-one would ever do in real life."

Even taking that into account, what you are saying is Harlan should have said "Hmm, a few minutes have passed and I haven't felt any symptoms, so I'm not actually poisoned. Carry on then, false alarm." It moves the plot along because Harlan isn't willing to risk Marta getting in trouble for poisoning him and they have less than 10 minutes to act. This would count as a stupidity entry if Harlan didn't care about who took the blame for killing him, but obviously he does. Remember, stupidity entries are not for poor decisions by characters, they are for minor plot holes. This being "an act no-one would ever do in real life" is kind of the entire point of the movie. Nobody believes Harlan would do this because, well nobody cares about their nurse that much. But he does.

The part I was quoting is the description of the category in the metadata on google, or if you prefer the hover text description just above this very page go by "Something just plain stupid. Not as deal-breaking as a plot hole, but something daft, like running upstairs with a killer behind them, instead of out of the front door." I call "slitting your own throat feeling totally fine after you yourself have been calling the minutes with precision earlier", pretty silly, to say the least. Again, this is all stuff the script itself unnecessarily calls attention on. If he didn't mention twice the time before, if she hadn't said that the symptoms happen after 5 but just "your heart is gonna exploded at the 10 minute mark", then, maybe, I would have simply reported the factual error that this is not how it works. It's the script itself that points out (Harlan himself says it twice) the exact minutes, and the symptoms and how they are gradual.

This still ignores the fact that they don't have time to test the theory. They would have to notice the lack of symptoms, and assume somehow that the lack of symptoms after 5 minutes must mean that Harlan isn't actually poisoned, and stop their plan right then and there. The audience knows that Harlan isn't really poisoned, but we don't find that out until later. I doubt very seriously that anyone watching this film for the first time believed, as you suggest, that Harlan obviously wasn't poisoned because he didn't show any symptoms and it was therefore stupid for him to kill himself. It seems to you to be stupid in hindsight, but I honestly don't believe, based on what the characters knew, that Harlan's action was so egregious that it constitutes a mistake in the script.

We definitely had a very different impression watching it the first time. The thought that this old man could be shot a big dose of morphine in vein and calmly think of perfect murder plans for the next minutes was 200% absurd on first view here. I could say that others thought the same but it's just anecdotical and I respect you having a different take. For the rest, it's again just the script itself drawing attention to it. From the mouth of the same character who nonchalantly slits his own throat feeling still fine. It seems egregiously stupid and contradictory.

But he wasn't shot a big dose of morphine. He got his normal meds, they only think he overdosed.

We don't know that yet. We know that, in their words, he was shot 100 mg instead of 3 (does not matter if true or not, we are fed this information and the characters believe it). Again, the whole scene would have worked if they didn't, themselves, add details. Makes the overdose sound huge, and inserting the 6 minutes mark (which means, barely 1 min till the symptoms show up) before the daughter arrives when more than half of the scene has still to be played, weakens it terribly. Some things are maybe just stupid in hindsight, like the fact that all he needed to do was to write in his own penmanship a suicide note saying he killed himself with an injection once Marta left, but the overdose bit felt absurd on first viewing.

27th Dec 2019

Knives Out (2019)

Factual error: The drug in Marta's bag is incorrectly labeled as Ketorlac, when it's Ketorolac, with an extra O. It's the name of the molecule, not a brand name that could have been altered for legal reasons - and they mention the commercial name just minutes later during questioning, with no alteration. (00:36:00 - 01:49:00)

27th Dec 2019

Knives Out (2019)

Factual error: The damning vials of medication are in close-ups. It is printed on the label that we're talking about 20 ml vials. The morphine vial is 5 mg/ml. When Marta says that she gave Harlan 100 mg of drug she is then wrong; unless she administered the full vial. The two vials have in fact different concentrations: the Ketorolac is in a 30 mg/ml solution, so Marta would have administered 600 mg of ketorolac tromethamine, not 100. The maximum dose for a geriatric patient is 60 mg per day; even the fact that she'd administer it in IV for days for just a pulled shoulder is definitely overdoing it anyway - and she puts even morphine on top of that. (00:36:00 - 01:49:00)

19th Dec 2019

Christmas Inheritance (2017)

Continuity mistake: Ellen squeals, scared by the hot water bottle. Fellow hotel patrons poke their head in. A guy is the first and only one, but in the next shot a woman is next to him already. (00:31:00)

19th Dec 2019

Let It Snow (2019)

Continuity mistake: When Julie and Stuart have breakfast at the Waffle House, the position of the fork in her hand is inconsistent between shots, and so is whether it has food on it or not. (00:14:40)

19th Dec 2019

Seinfeld (1990)

The Robbery - S1-E2

Continuity mistake: When Jerry tells Elaine to "Do it in the shower", he gestures with his fancy retractable umbrella. But he is holding it by opposite ends in the two consecutive shots. (00:02:30)

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