Best mystery movie character mistakes of all time

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Spiral: From the Book of Saw picture

Character mistake: Zeke makes the bold claim that "John Kramer didn't target cops." This is completely and utterly false, and a cop like him should know better. Kramer repeatedly targeted cops. In fact, both "Saw II" and "Saw IV" have officers (Detective Mathews and SWAT Commander Rigg) as Kramer's main target.

TedStixon

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Hostel picture

Character mistake: When the main character follows the Dutch businessman down the stairs (the same scene the girl with the white jacket and white bag walks downstairs before we see her walking up the stairs) there is a commercial which reads "JETZT AUCH AM DVD" which is wrong and should be "JETZT AUCH AUF DVD." (01:22:45)

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Basic Instinct picture

Character mistake: When we see the door to Elisabeth's, her name is spelled with a s. Later when Nick looks her up on the computer, it's spelled Elizabeth.

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Last Seen Alive picture

Character mistake: The patrol officer who stopped Will for speeding fired two warning shots in the air when Will ran. Patrol officers should not (and generally do not) fire "warning shots." (00:49:57)

KeyZOid

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Oldboy picture

Character mistake: When Joe and Marie are going over files in the old school, Joe finds a staff letter announcing the enrollment of Amanda Pryce. The top of the letter is dated 1984. However, Joe then proceeds to ask Marie to search for Amanda's file, and tells her to search for the year 1986.

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Suggested correction: It's possible the incident happened up to 2 years after her enrollment (starting as a freshmen and the incident being when she was a sophomore or junior).

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Identity picture

Character mistake: There's no way that using a regular needle and thread to sew up that wound would work the way it's shown. Anybody who knew what they were doing - which John Cusack is portrayed as knowing - would also know that using unsterilized materials and instruments without a sterile field from an uncleaned massive open wound is a great way to kill your patient.

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Suggested correction: The main plot of this film takes place inside the head of a murderer with dissociative identity disorder. The fact that stitching up a wound in that matter wouldn't work is irrelevant to the fact that it is how Malcolm is playing out the scenario in his head.

Phaneron

You're making a good point to invalidate a "character mistake", but couldn't the entry be reclassified as a "factual mistake" and stand as written?

KeyZOid

I would say no, as it is still assigning a mistake to something that is happening in someone's imagination. Unless Jon disagrees, I don't think those types of factual errors in this instance count as movie mistakes.

Phaneron

If it was all being imagined, I'd have to agree.

KeyZOid

More Identity character mistakes
The Nice Guys picture

Character mistake: Twice over in the movie (when Healy wakes up and when March at the end of the movie drives to his place) billboards for The Comedy Store appear. The program of the evening features comedians such as Tim Allen, Richard Lewis, Robert Klein and "Elaine Boosler." So they misspelled Elayne Boosler's name. (00:10:50 - 01:48:35)

Sammo

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Psycho II picture

Character mistake: There's a note from "mother" on the wheel at the diner. Right beside it is an order with the wrong total. 2 hamburgers for $1.95 each. 2 fries for 90 cents and 2 drinks for 90 cents for a total of $5.70. The waitress put $3.70 for the total.

Amy Emerick Tice

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The Free Fall picture

Character mistake: Over the phone, Julie told her sister Sara, " I got them [parents] a bouquet", pronouncing the "T" in bouquet. Bouquet has French origin so the "T" is silent. Bouquet is properly pronounced like bow-kay (American English) or boo-kay (British English). (00:00:55)

KeyZOid

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The Manchurian Candidate picture

Character mistake: When Marco is trying to raise his rifle to assassinate Senator Arthur, he held it upside down with his scope below and turned over in the same scene, He is an expert marksman.

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Daphne & Velma picture

Character mistake: Daphne's mother is the one who pressed her husband to tell her the truth, but she is cheering when he says about the basketball anecdote that it was 'real', when later he corrects himself saying "real-ly me, disguised as a mascot." (00:17:25)

Sammo

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Appointment With Death picture

Character mistake: On the way to Jerusalem, Poirot says that "that man, Weizmann, put it rather well the other day, before Lord Peel's commission", and gives a famous quote about the world being divided in 'two places' for the Jews (those where they are not allowed to live, and those they cannot enter). The movie takes place in May 1937, and Chaim Weizmann's quote is from November of the previous year. 6 months are hardly "the other day."

Sammo

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Thirteen at Dinner picture

Character mistake: When David Frost interviews the fictional actor Bryan Martin, he adds a last question to the interview saying "before you go" and acts as if the guest is not gonna stay (as it often happens in talk shows, when some guests, especially the more famous ones, leave after their bit is over). However Martin is staying and in fact there is a special mystery guest a bit later that makes sense only if he is in fact staying. (00:02:00)

Sammo

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Texas Chainsaw 3D picture

Character mistake: The Sheriff calls for Drayton Sawyer to bring out his son Jed (Leather Face) in the movie's opening scene. But it's long been established that they're brothers.

Rob245

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Suggested correction: This is meant to be a direct sequel to the original film, and ignores the other sequels. And if memory serves correctly, the first movie never made any mention of them being brothers. (I just checked and the Texas Chainsaw fandom Wiki backs this up - the original film makes no reference to them being brothers.) So therefore, it is not a mistake if this movie re-writes him as being Leatherface's father.

TedStixon

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Flight 7500 picture

Character mistake: During communication with ATC the co-pilot states their call sign followed by the read-back of ATC instructions. This order is incorrect. In reality a pilot or co-pilot reads back the instructions from ATC and then their call sign or tail number prior to ending their transmission.

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Planet of the Apes picture

Character mistake: A space traveler would not be "going to Orion." The major stars in Orion vary in distance from the earth from 243 to 1,360 light years. Orion is only a constellation as visible from Earth; once you get away that far, the stars would not be in the same alignment as they are from Earth. They would have been going to a specific star, probably Bellatrix at 243 light years, as Taylor mentions being at 320 light years.

apolloguy

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Suggested correction: I'm not sure what scene you're referring to, but I never heard anyone say they went to Orion. Taylor says they're on a "planet in orbit around a star in the constellation of Orion. That could be Bellatrix." To Taylor, who is from Earth, the star is still in the constellation of Orion.

Bishop73

I agree with your take, but I still think it could be interpreted as Orion's stars all being in close proximity. And I would hope they would know about the 320 - 243 light year issue.

apolloguy

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