Corrected entry: At the end of the film, Karl suddenly jumps up, gun in hand, from the trolley to try one last attempt to "get" John. Even though it was assumed he was dead (I guess no-one really checked that too well, either), why on earth would they have put the gun on the trolley with him?
Tailkinker
6th Jun 2009
Die Hard (1988)
18th Jan 2005
Die Hard (1988)
Corrected entry: When Hans, Theo, Karl and Takagi come to Takagi's office, Hans quotes that when 'Alexander the Great saw the size of his realm, he wept, for there was nothing left to conquer.' Actually, he did weep because he couldn't conquer more - but not because there was nothing left, instead because his men refused to go any further (they were homesick); and reluctantly, Alexander had to turn back.
Correction: Hans is quoting Plutarch. Whether the quote is actually true doesn't matter - this is not a movie mistake.
We would not judge here as a movie mistake the words of an ancient historian, obviously. Thing is, Gruber is saying something that is NOT what Plutarch said at all. Plutarch's passage had Alexander say: "Is it not worthy of tears that, when the number of worlds is infinite, we have not yet become lords of a single one?" The story as quoted by Gruber (not that he ever said it was Plutarch, mind you, how could he when Plutarch's story has the exact opposite wording?) is entirely made up, and therefore would qualify as a character mistake. It's like the "Helsinki syndrome": something this movie got wrong but that generated a misconception that still survives decades later.
11th Jun 2004
Die Hard (1988)
Corrected entry: The whole premise of the movie is to rob a very large vault of securities in the form of bearer bonds. The vault rightly takes hours to breach and the last safety feature requires a cut in power. This is patently impossible to accomplish in the short time they had. Firstly, that super-sophisticated vault would have a state-of-art power back-up system that would take hours itself to be disabled. It is likely that the disabling of THAT system would lock down the vault and seal it for days or weeks. Secondly, shutting down the main power would almost certainly lock down the vault. I actually install the back-up systems and know that any odd power surges or especially power losses alert the security systems to prepare a lock down.
Correction: Just because some vaults are set up in this way, it doesn't follow that they all are. Gruber researched his target in enormous detail prior to committing the robbery - it's clear from what happens in the film that none of these features are in place. Maybe, for improved security, they should have been, but the fact that they weren't in no way qualifies as a movie mistake.
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Correction: Karl wasn't on a trolley - he's simply covered himself with a blanket or something (just as many of the hostages have in order to keep warm in the cold conditions), which allows him to conceal his gun while he attempts to get close to John.
Tailkinker ★