Corrected entry: In scene of Piccadilly Circus, the statue of Eros is facing the wrong way. This statue was removed for protection during WWII and when returned was put the wrong way around therefore, in this scene the original position should be shown, with Eros' bow landing in Shaftsbury Avenue. (01:04:05)
Tailkinker
30th Jan 2010
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
22nd Jan 2010
Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997)
Corrected entry: When Giles hacks the lock off the cage he's in in the library, he uses an axe - the axe which belonged to the demon going after the glove in "Revelations", who Buffy killed and stole the axe from. The axe cannot be there, however, as Buffy is not in Sunnydale in this reality and therefore could not have faced this demon and taken the axe to the library.
Correction: Just because Buffy wasn't there to fight the demon, doesn't mean that somebody else couldn't have done.
22nd Jan 2010
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Corrected entry: In Diagon Alley, Hermione says, "Oh no, everyone got their wands from Ollivanders!" Hermione should have noticed Ollivanders destroyed when they entered the Alley as you have to walk past Ollivanders to get to Weasley Wizard Wheezes.
Correction: Depends on how they got there. If they used the Floo network to get to Diagon Alley from the Weasleys' house (which they've been shown to do before), we don't know where in the alley they'd arrive. Given the family relationship, they may well have used the Floo network to go straight to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and thus would not have seen Ollivanders.
15th Jan 2010
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981)
Corrected entry: After Arthur presses the "manual improbability control" button which turns the missiles into a whale and a bowl of petunias, Trillion is wearing red trousers. She was wearing a red skirt before Arthur pressed it.
Correction: Compared to turning missiles into a whale and a bowl of petunias, changing somebody's clothing is relatively minor.
16th Jan 2010
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Corrected entry: When the Death Eaters attack Diagon Alley, Lucius Malfoy is walking when he's supposed to be in Azkaban.
Correction: No, he isn't, nor is there anybody who appears to particularly resemble him. The closest is one individual briefly seen from behind who has long white hair, but this is hardly something unique to Malfoy.
9th Jan 2010
Star Trek (2009)
Corrected entry: When the cadets are preparing to enter the shuttles to take them to their ship. Uhura confronts Spock. Spock refers to her as Lieutenant despite her only being a cadet (which is confirmed by Captain Pike when he relieves the COMMS officer).
Correction: Starfleet Academy is a training facility for officers. Upon graduation, cadets will receive their commissions, generally at the rank of ensign, but exceptional individuals may be commissioned as a lieutenant. With the crisis on Vulcan, the Academy's graduating class have been commissioned en masse and assigned to the relief fleet. As such, while still technically a cadet, Uhura legitimately holds the rank of lieutenant.
7th Jan 2010
Terminator Salvation (2009)
Corrected entry: In John Connor's first confrontation with Marcus Wright, he claims that Wright killed his father, Kyle Reese. But at this point, Connor has not yet even met Reese, much less sent him back in time to impregnate Sarah Connor and ascertain his birth. If Reese was in fact dead as John Connor believed he was, then Connor wouldn't even exist.
Correction: He's referring to the fact that the future version of Reese died prior to his birth, in the fight against the Terminator back in 1984, not that he believes that Wright has personally slain Reese in their present.
4th Jan 2010
Doctor Who (2005)
The Unicorn and the Wasp - S4-E7
Corrected entry: In the scene where Donna is examining the room Lady Clemency Eddison had kept locked for the past 40 years, there is a teddy bear on the bed. However, the story takes place in 1926, meaning the room had been locked since 1886. Teddy bears were not invented until 1902.
Correction: Stuffed animals are known to have existed in Ancient Egypt. While the 'modern' commercially produced 'teddy' bear did not appear until designed by Richard Steiff in 1902, stuffed representations of animals go back into history. There is no reason to think that one of the animals represented could not have been a bear and that Lady Eddison could not have acquired such a representation.
4th Jan 2010
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Corrected entry: Near the beginning of the film Sherlock Holmes is in his home with Watson and mentions how the flies in a glass case "fly counter-clockwise". Sherlock Holmes is supposed to be English and therefore would have said 'anti-clockwise'.
Correction: The term "anti-clockwise" is indeed the preferred English term, however, as it was not coined until 1895, at least two years after the setting of the film, Holmes would have had no option but to use the older "counter-clockwise" term.
3rd Jan 2010
Star Trek (2009)
Corrected entry: Judging by the attitude of the Vulcan children, Sarek's decision to marry Amanda was not popular on Vulcan. One child calls Sarek a traitor. The head of the Vulcan Science Academy panel even tells Spock his human mother is a disadvantage. Clearly humans are looked down upon by Vulcans in this movie. Yet, despite the prejudice against Spock for his association with humans, Sarek's egregious act of marrying the human to begin with is apparently overlooked. Despite being the Ambassador to Earth, he also serves on the VSA selection committee (shouldn't he be on Earth?) and his human wife is allowed to hang out in the sacred cave with the Vulcan leaders. If they hate her so much, why is she allowed to be there?
Correction: While Spock's human heritage is seen as a disadvantage, it doesn't stop him being seen as a worthy candidate for acceptance to the prestigious Vulcan science academy; as you would expect from the logically minded Vulcans, his ability is seen as being of greater importance than his links to humanity. Sarek's ability was already long-proven, as seen by his selection as the Vulcan ambassador to Earth, when he made the decision to marry Amanda, so, while his decision might be considered strange, it would hardly be logical to demote or overlook an individual of proven talent because of it. As for allowing Amanda into the cave, she's the wife of an elder of Vulcan. Even if they hated her (and after at least 25 years on-planet, she's likely to be at least accepted by this point), excluding her purely on racial grounds would be illogical.
31st Dec 2009
Timeline (2003)
Corrected entry: The Professor introducing "Greek Fire" into the battle didn't cheat time or give the English a future weapon. "Greek Fire" was invented in the year 672 by the Byzantines, more than 600 years before the story of Timeline takes place.
Correction: You've missed the point. Yes, the Byzantines came up with "Greek Fire" several hundred years before the timeframe of the movie, but that's irrelevant. The English did not have access to it in the period depicted in the film, therefore giving it to them is changing the timeline and handing them a weapon that they would not ordinarily have had at that point in history.
1st Jan 2010
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Corrected entry: At the end of the movie, Lord Blackwood activates his chemical weapon remotely using "radio waves". Radio waves were discovered by Hertz as a natural phenomenon in 1888. Radio was not used for anything practical in the 1880's-early 1890's.
Correction: That's the point - this is new and revolutionary technology that even Holmes, with his great knowledge of such matters, finds intriguing. The existence of radio waves was first postulated by Maxwell in 1865, so it's not remotely unreasonable that, in the fictional reality depicted in the film, Blackwood and his people could have produced a working system nearly quarter of a century later.
3rd Jan 2010
Avatar (2009)
Corrected entry: In the final battle, Jake and Norm access their Avatars from the same portable bunker. Midway through the battle, Norm's Avatar is killed and he exits his 'tanning bed' inside the portable bunker but isn't seen leaving it. He isn't seen again for awhile, not even when the Colonel breaks the windows in the bunker or when Jake starts suffocating inside.
Correction: After being disconnected from his injured avatar, Norm puts on a mask, picks up a human-scale gun and goes out to rejoin the fight in his human form. This is shown in at least two shots.
1st Jan 2010
Avatar (2009)
Corrected entry: In the scene where Jake is looking at the photographs of the Na'vi on the refrigerator, the photographs are three dimensional. They should appear flat. (obviously only visible when seen in 3d.).
Correction: Given the advanced level of technology displayed throughout the film, there's no reason why they couldn't have 3D photographs.
10th Dec 2009
Star Trek (2009)
Corrected entry: When Kirk lands on the Narada's drilling platform over Vulcan, he pulls off his helmet and tosses it aside before charging the Romulan who emerges from the drill. He fights barehanded and has his phaser knocked over the edge. The next shot from Sulu's viewpoint shows Kirk hitting both Romulans with his helmet somehow back in his hands.
Correction: In previous shots from Sulu's vantage point, Kirk's helmet is clearly visible lying on the drill head only a few feet behind where Kirk is standing. Given that Kirk is now unarmed, with his phaser knocked out of his hand, it's hardly unreasonable that he might scoop up his helmet to use as a makeshift weapon, rather than continuing barehanded. The camera is off Kirk for several seconds prior to the first shot of him holding the helmet, so he had plenty of time to do so.
6th Dec 2009
The Longest Day (1962)
Corrected entry: This is a general error in the film (and in Cornelius Ryan's book): no mention is made of Operation Fortitude, the plan to fool the Germans into thinking the invasion would be in the Pas-de-Calais and not in Normandy. In the whole film, it's implied that Germans aren't too bright and think that Normandy isn't the real objective - but it was Operation Fortitude that made them think so. Also, at one point, two allied commanders in the Ops room comment on the Normandy map, saying, "I cannot understand why Jerry hasn't brought his heavy armour into play yet." Allied commanders knew why - Operation Fortitude.
Correction: Making no reference to a particular part of the campaign is not a mistake. The focus of the film itself is the invasion, not the distractions taking place elsewhere and, even in a film of this length, not everything that took place on D-Day can be covered. The Germans had an armoured reserve within range of the beaches, which remained undeployed until late in the day, despite the pleas of their commanders; even allowing for the effects of Operation Fortitude, the continued absence of German armour as the day progressed was a source of considerable surprise among the Allied commanders.
In addition, the Official Secrets Act still kept many details of "Operation Bodyguard," the overall name for the deception plans, including "Fortitude," classified in 1962, when the film was made. We know many things today about all the deception plans that were still official secrets then.
30th Nov 2009
Moon (2009)
Corrected entry: When the "first" Sam gets his hand burned by the hot water, he gets a burn because he sees a girl dressed in yellow with long dark hair sitting on his chair. We don't get an explanation as to who she was (not his wife or daughter because they are blond, and he doesn't know her as a 15-year-old).
Correction: Not being given an explanation for something is not a plot hole, which is best defined as something happening that benefits the plot while making no sense within the context of the film and established characters. Sam is hallucinating; the identity of the person that he's seeing is largely irrelevant to the plot and to provide a detailed explanation would simply have taken up valuable screen time and just sounded like an unnecessary exposition dump, disrupting the flow of the movie.
Correction: The director has stated in interviews that the hallucinated girl is Sam's daughter at her current age (14-15). He sees this through a sort of clone/twin telepathy.
8th Nov 2009
Terminator Salvation (2009)
Corrected entry: When Marcus is using the Terminator's eye (the motorcycle one) he somehow is able to get through the base with another Terminator's eye that is meant to be on the highway. Surely he couldn't get in with that eye.
Correction: Terminators move from place to place as part of their duties - they're not going to be rigidly assigned to one location with no ability to report back to base if required.
27th Oct 2009
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
Corrected entry: Assuming the Decepticons are individuals (which they all have been), the constructicons are all in different places at once. One of the first guys you see is Scavenger: he forms the chest of Devestator but dies to Optimus in one of the fist scenes. It gets worse in the final battle where the individual robots that form Devastator can be seen fighting individually at the same time. You see Long Haul (the big green dump truck) sneaking around a building looking for Sam - he is the leg of Devastator who is stomping around at the time. Bumblebee has a 10 minute fight with Rampage - who is Devastator's right arm. I am pretty sure that was Hightower helping Megatron find Sam as well - though currently he is Devastator's leg. Oh and then during and after Devastator is being destroying you can see Mixmaster (Devastator's head) getting his butt kicked by Jetfire. Also the huge Shovel vehicle afterward is supposed to be Scrapper (the other arm for Devastator). It's as though they had something else in mind for the plot but things changed in editing etc. These were always supposed to be individuals, not clones. They even have the same paint-jobs as their Devastator components. I love this movie but this is an amazing thing to overlook from a continuity standpoint.
Correction: Sorry, but you lose out in the first line of your submission with your assumption that the Constructicons are all individuals with unique alternate forms. They're not. It's perfectly clear simply by watching the film that there are multiple robots with the same alternate form.
27th Oct 2009
FlashForward (2009)
Corrected entry: If the World really had a flash forward to a specific date and time in the future, then that moment would become a worldwide countdown just like the millennium countdown was. Everyone would be eagerly waiting to see what will happen once the world "catches up" to the point that had already been glimpsed - would it flash forward again (perhaps to the end of Season 2's finale?!) etc. The result being that no-one will actually be doing what they saw themselves doing - for example is the chief still going to pop to the loo, or will he hang on 5 minutes next time?
Correction: Why is this a plot hole? One of the key issues of the show is whether or not the future can actually be changed. You're right in that there will be people who will intentionally choose to try to avoid the situation as seen in their flashforward - most of the main characters are in this position. What remains to be seen, and what forms a key plotline, is whether they can actually do that, or whether circumstances will conspire to put them in that position anyway. Your "plot hole" is the premise of the entire show, not a mistake.
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Correction: Unfortunately, you've fallen for an urban myth that the statue originally pointed towards Shaftesbury Avenue, both to acknowledge the philanthropy of Lord Shaftesbury, to whom the monument is dedicated, and as a visual pun, that Anteros (that the statue depicts Eros is, alas, another myth) firing an arrow would "bury the shaft" in Shaftesbury Avenue. While this is a rather wonderful story, sadly, it's not true; early photographs, taken three years after the monument was erected, show the arrow pointing in the opposite direction, down Lower Regent's Street, appropriately towards Parliament, as Lord Shaftesbury was a prominent political figure.
Tailkinker ★