Character mistake: Fitch, who professes qualifications in biology, genetics and biochemistry, says that they made Sil female because she's a natural predator and so she'd be more docile. In almost every species of predator on earth the females are the hunters, aggressors and killers. The males may be socially dominant but they are the 'docile' ones. There are exceptions but Fitch speaks as if female and docile are the same thing - and they definitely are not.
Suggested correction: This entry is so wrong, I don't quite know where to begin. The idea that all species, without exception, have the females as the aggressors and the males as docile is absolutely one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read. It is not backed up by fact in the slightest. They also did use human DNA; they added the sample of alien DNA to it to create Sil.
The posting states that there are exceptions to the rule and specifically states "almost every species." The mistake is not that a female must be "docile". It is that a scientist professing qualifications in biology, genetics, and biochemistry would make such a stupid statement, believing it to be invariably true.
Suggested correction: They never said Sil was a natural predator when they created her. She was half human and half alien and it was their belief that human females are more docile (i.e. more motherly, more gentle, more empathetic, and less aggressive than human males). Although the reply to "more docile and controllable" was "you guys don't get out much", meaning that girls aren't that docile and controllable.
Character mistake: After Pookie is killed (with his eyes open) and the bomb is strapped to him, he blinks his eyes.
Character mistake: When Ripley interfaces with Mother for the first time and sees the special order, an instruction reads as "Insure return of organism" rather than "Ensure return."
Character mistake: Jim Sturgess uses a sentence that contains the word 'me'. He is corrected, being told that the word 'I' would have been correct. However, he was grammatically correct in his use of the word 'me'. The correction was in error.
Character mistake: The last time Doc tries the defibrillator on Norris, he uses it on the abdomen instead of on the chest.
Character mistake: A TV news announcer describes Alan Shepard's first manned launch into space as him being lifted to "an altitude of 116 miles per hour." That's not an altitude, that's a speed. It should have just been "116 miles."
Character mistake: The commentator says "avalanche of power shots by Ivan Drago." Viktor is the one in the ring. Ivan is the father. If you have the subtitles turned on, it even says Viktor in the subtitles instead of the spoken name, Ivan. (00:55:45)
Character mistake: When Whip is in the hospital, standing straight in front of the camera is a ridiculous nurse; she takes down the empty IV bag and pulls the bag away from the IV line, she drops the bag on the floor, a big no-no, but try as she might she can't seem to get the spike to go into the new bag. While she's doing all this, she's waving that sterile spike everywhere, touching everything she can, including herself, and picking up germs that will go straight into Whip's IV line, and into his body, when, finally she gets that infected spike into the infected new bag.
Character mistake: Characters refer to the Dallas and the Red October as "ships," but anyone stationed aboard a submarine would know to call it a "boat."
Character mistake: When Sir informs Kelly that she made the drill team, he says Captain Rigby instead of Major Rigby.
Character mistake: Red says that Andy crawled to freedom through 500 yards - 'just shy of half a mile'. 500 yards is far less than half a mile; in fact, it's less than a third of a mile. It is however just shy of half a kilometer, which may be what King was thinking of when he wrote the book.
Character mistake: When Missy is at her audition, Courtney and Whitney get annoyed and tell her to do a sequence, (front handspring stepout, roundoff back handspring stepout, roundoff back handspring, full twisting layout). However, when Missy starts the sequence, she starts with a cartwheel instead of a front handspring.
Character mistake: It's all very heroic and manly but the effort put into dragging the Phoenix into its takeoff position once the engine is started is totally wasted. Townes and A.J. are both experienced pilots and Elliott is supposedly a genius aeronautical engineer - they must surely be aware that the engine power required to taxi an aircraft is trivial compared to that required to lift it into the air. Even taking into account the drag of the skids and wheels, if that engine cannot propel the aircraft at a few kilometers an hour on the ground it cannot propel it to take off speed, nor keep it up once airborne. They are not there to steer the aircraft - they are taking the strain of the whole weight of the air-frame, dragging it into place, and the energy input of eight exhausted, underfed people would add nothing to the contribution of a 2500 bhp aircraft engine in moving the Phoenix. They are not trying conserve fuel - they had enough fuel for an extended flight with both engines at full throttle, so they have easily enough to run one engine throttled back to reduce stress on the air-frame, which they say they are going to do.
Character mistake: There is no way on earth that a police officer would shoot a hostage in the thigh to 'take them out of the equation'. Anyone who suggested such a thing would likely be taken out and shot themselves. Bullet wounds to the thigh are often fatal, as an injury to the femoral artery causes massive and frequently unstoppable blood loss. Breaking the femur often leads to fat embolisms as bone marrow gets into the bloodstream and then to the lungs. In fact a broken femur is a life threatening injury in itself, and a shattered femur - a typical bullet injury - would almost always result in a total amputation. You cannot aim carefully enough to avoid the bone or artery as their position in the body varies, (as will the bullet trajectory upon impact). Jack is an experienced cop and would know the potentially disastrous consequences of shooting someone in the thigh. He'd shoot him in the foot. (00:21:05)
Character mistake: The Admiral refers to Top Gun as Maverick's final post. As Maverick is a Naval aviator, it should be referred to as his final duty station. The army uses the term post.
Suggested correction: "Post", in the Navy, is also used in the same manner as "adjourned" or "dismissed". It could be argued that the Admiral was stating this is the last duty station from which he will "post".
Character mistake: When Stuart calls home from the pay phone he's talking into the wrong end of the phone.
Character mistake: When Melanie and Scarlett are talking with an (off-screen) wounded Confederate soldier, the soldier says he hasn't heard from his brother since Bull Run. Only Northerners refer to that battle as Bull Run; Southerners have always referred to it as Manassas.
Character mistake: On the day Rebecca arrives home, Junior Douglas says that he was "Valedictorian, Class of '95." Earlier, Drago talked of almost killing Running Buffalo "during that trouble back in the '40's," which would have been about 50 years earlier. That would mean Drago and McLintock were fighting Indians when they were babies, or possibly before they were born!
Character mistake: At the beginning of the scene where the vampire hunters leave London in pursuit of Dracula, Jonathan narrates, "By train we can reach the Romanian port in Varna in three days." However, Varna is a Bulgarian seaport. This can even be seen on the map showing the Turkish invasion of Eastern Europe in the movie's prologue, and on the map that Jonathan studies aboard the train at the beginning of the film. (01:45:35)
Character mistake: Near the beginning, when James Bond enters the North Korean complex, Zao is sent information to his mobile phone about James Bond being from the "MI6 Security Service." This is inaccurate information because MI6 is the Secret Intelligence Service and not the Security Service. It is MI5, which is the Security Service. (00:06:29)