Best sci-fi movie mistakes of 2000

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Battlefield Earth picture

Factual error: Amongst the essential parts of a nuclear weapon's detonation mechanism is a radioactive isotope of tritium, which has a half life of just 12 1/2 years. The tritium in every nuke on earth has to be replaced every ten years or so. This is by no means unusual; there are other perishable parts including detonators made of conventional explosives which would be completely inert after a thousand years. After lying dormant with no maintenance at all for that amount of time the nuclear weapons the 'Man-animals' find would be big shiny paperweights and not much else.

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Hollow Man picture

Plot hole: Why on earth would the military be interested in a soldier (sailor, aviator, whatever) who has to go into combat naked and unarmed, and who is detectable by an enemy equipped with a pair of cheap, mass-produced goggles? How would you treat them if they were injured? They would be utterly useless in any form of military operation, even espionage.

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Suggested correction: Presumably the military are interested because Sebastian's research could lead to advanced forms of invisibility technology, such as the ability to turn materials and weapons invisible for use in combat.

You cannot second guess the film like that. Sebastian is making no effort to make non-living items invisible and throughout the film we see that is not possible (why else would Sebastian have to walk about naked?). His research is on animals (and later humans) not "materials and weapons" and is based on their physiology, anatomy and metabolism. How would you inject a rifle or a tank with a serum? They don't have a bloodstream. The military wouldn't see any value at all in this research - maybe they would be interested in invisibility, but not if it was restricted to living creatures as we see here.

You know how easy it would be for an invisible person to infiltrate an enemy's compound undetected and take out powerful leaders or dictators? Especially if no-one knew the technology existed.

Easy? Impossible. First, they would be naked and unarmed. Too bad if you are trying to knock off Vladimir Putin - a taekwondo black belt - with your bare hands during a Moscow winter! Being invisible doesn't mean you can avoid making a sound or triggering a pressure plate or an infrared detector and so on and so on. Final answer - a naked, unarmed combatant would be about as useful as a chocolate teapot in any form of operation, covert or otherwise.

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The Cell picture

Plot hole: Peter goes into Carl's mind to save Catherine. When he's in there he sees the tank with the water nymph. On the tank are strange symbols which provide the FBI with the clue needed to find the latest victim. Makes sense so far. But, go back to the scene just after the FBI have captured the comatose killer and are looking in his basement. The FBI are looking at the contraption that the killer uses to suspend himself over the victim. On the contraption is the same symbol seen later on the water nymph's tank. Why didn't the FBI follow up the symbol then?

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Mission to Mars picture

Factual error: Gary Sinise looks at a computer screen with a short section (about two full twists) of DNA on it and proclaims that "This DNA looks human." He could have been looking at DNA from any single-celled organism and it would have looked just as human as what he was looking at. All mammals have 90+ percent of their DNA in common, he would have to have sequenced the entire DNA strand (something like 3 billion pairs of nucleotides) to identify it as human, something that would be totally beyond the capacity of anything but a well-equipped genetics lab, something they show no sign of having.

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X-Men picture

Continuity mistake: When Wolverine crashes into the tree knocked over by Sabertooth, notice that the entire front of the truck gets completely folded up and the windshield breaks into a thousand pieces. In the next frame, Wolverine gets thrown through the unbroken windshield and the front of the truck is practically undamaged... (00:18:05)

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Frequency picture

Factual error: A ham radio requires the person to hold down the button while talking. Numerous times in the movie they are talking without pushing the button.

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Suggested correction: This is actually subtly addressed in the film. The magic which allows the radio to work across time also allows the two men to speak without pressing the button. There is a moment where Frank wonders what is going on with the radio and presses the button a few times to talk but then notices that he doesn't have to press the button to be heard.

BaconIsMyBFF

If that was true, then it wouldn't make sense for them to continue to show Frank and John hitting the squawk bar throughout the film.

Bishop73

That is a separate issue. The mistake entry states that you need to hold the button to talk on a ham radio, which is true, but the magic ham radio in the film doesn't require it. If the actors continue to occasionally press the button that could be considered a character mistake but it could also simply be a force of habit by the characters.

BaconIsMyBFF

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Battle Royale picture

Other mistake: When Sugimura is looking for Kotohiki, he activates his scanner to see if she is nearby. The scanner shows her location, but fails to show either Mitsuko or Kiriyama, who show up quickly after.

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Highlander: Endgame picture

Continuity mistake: After mowing down all the Immortals during the Sanctuary scene, one Watcher tells another to take their heads because they might be Immortals. You see the Watcher to the left side of the screen and a robed figure to his left about four feet away drawing his sword. Suddenly, that same robed figure is now to the Watcher right side and about two feet away.

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Red Planet picture

Character mistake: When the biologist guy talks about writing code for DNA he names the four codes as A, G, T, P, when they are actually A, G, T, C.

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The 6th Day picture

Continuity mistake: Near the end of the film, Adam and his clone make a jump for the helicopter to escape the explosion. In one scene, you'll see Sport Jacket Adam holding the ladder to the helicopter with Leather Jacket Adam holding onto the legs of the first Adam. After a cutaway scene, you'll see these two have switched places (Leather jacket on ladder, Sport jacket on bottom). The next time you see them, they're switched back in the correct order. (01:52:30)

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Space Cowboys picture

Revealing mistake: While the guys are going for their physicals, there's a scene in which blood is drawn and you can clearly see the tube connected to the end of the syringe pumping fake blood into the container.

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Pitch Black picture

Deliberate mistake: In Paris' death scene, he blows alcohol onto his torch that illuminates the creatures around him. However the area is still illuminated after the light from his torch has disappeared. (01:12:05)

THGhost

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Supernova picture

Continuity mistake: At the end where Nick and Kaela swap eye colour, Nick's blue eye switches positions from right to left.

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Titan A.E. picture

Continuity mistake: During the scene where Akima gets out of the shower, we see Cale going over some of the stuff she collected that's sitting on her table. On it there is a baseball and a picture frame that's lying flat on the table. Cale picks up the baseball, says something to Akima and puts the baseball back down on the table, where it rolls over the picture frame as if it was flat as the table.

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2001: A Space Travesty picture

Continuity mistake: When Leslie Nielsen came back from robbing the guys house the man who lived in the house came over to Leslie & started to talk. Later on Leslie put some blue paint on the man. When the camera angles change, parts of the paint splashes are missing on the right side of the man's chest.

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Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker picture

Deliberate mistake: You might be wondering where Terry suddenly comes up with Jolly Jack all of the sudden after escaping the lab. In the commentary, they say that the Joker, in his transmission to Terry in the lab, was supposed to be eating out of a candy jar with "Jolly Jack" on it, but couldn't have it due to time constraints.

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On the Beach picture

Plot hole: When Captain Towers gives his XO an injection to allow him to die in peace, he, properly, swabs the site with alcohol, and slips the needle into the vein. However, immediately below the injection site, is a hep-lock.a port installed into a vein to allow injectables to be administered. I cannot imagine that a senior Naval officer would be so ignorant of the port's function.

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Spiders picture

Continuity mistake: When Marci escapes from the web in the elevator shaft, she closes the door on the spider chasing her. In that sequence, the door closes automatically; in other scenes, the door opens and closes manually.

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Python picture

Continuity mistake: In one scene we see a police officer investigating his colleague's disappearance. In the long shot we see him walking towards the other police car and it can be seen that the number plate is a fake. A fake paper number plate has been placed over the original number plate. When the wind blows you can see the side of the paper blowing in the wind. (01:16:05)

keiko

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