Best action movie factual errors of 2008

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Journey to the Center of the Earth picture

Factual error: Trevor - a Professor of Geology - boasts about having an article published in Scientific American, and that is not something any scientist would do. Scientific American is looked upon with slight disdain by the scientific community, considered to be a populist crowd pleaser. It is not even peer reviewed. Considering that he has just turned the geological and archaeological worlds on their heads he would have been better off publishing in Journal of Geological Research or Geology, both prestigious professional journals.

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Hancock picture

Factual error: Basic physics - Hancock throws Michel from a dead stop to above cloud level in about eleven seconds. The clouds are bog standard cumulus which form at around 7,000 metres in temperate zones. This means that Michel accelerates to about 700 metres per second instantly, from a dead stop. Obviously he cannot accelerate during his ascent, so his starting speed has to be at least that. (In fact he would have to start his ascent much, much faster than 700 metres per second as he would be constantly decelerating due to gravity and air resistance, but it will do as a start point.) Michel accelerates from 0 to 2,520 kilometres per hour - twice the speed of sound - in zero seconds. He would be accelerating at around 5000 Gs, turning him into a very long streak of fine, pink mist.

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Get Smart picture

Factual error: During CONTROL's paintball training session, a barrel view of a bullet exiting the gun is shown as it travels to its target. However, the entire bullet is shown, casing and all, instead of just the bullet. (00:09:10)

Razvaluha

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The Hurt Locker picture

Factual error: In one scene they are playing on an Xbox 360, but the Xbox 360 did not come out until 2005, and the game being played, Gears of War, wasn't released until 2006. The movie takes place in 2004.

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The Dark Knight picture

Factual error: After escaping the hospital, Harvey Dent wears the same charred suit he was wearing when he was brought to the hospital. That suit would not have been neatly taken off and left intact. It would have been cut off with shears so as not to accidentally remove any damaged skin and flesh when pulling the pants and shirt off. The blazer might still be intact but certainly not the pants and shirt.

BaconIsMyBFF

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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull picture

Factual error: In the warehouse scene, the lights and other metal objects are affected by the box's magnetic field. Yet the soldiers easily lift the box into a metal truck to load it and slide it forward. If the box's magnetic field was as strong as suggested, it would have dragged the soldiers forward as it was magnetically attracted to the truck, and it would have taken much more effort for them to slide it onto the truck bed once it was stuck there.

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Quantum of Solace picture

Factual error: During the boat chase scene, Bond throws a grappling hook/anchor from the old boat he is driving onto the deck of the rubber boat "riding" his. The rubber boat is then violently yanked off of Bond's boat and crashes. This makes no sense. For the rubber boat to be yanked off that way, the other end of the anchor line would have to be tied to something stationary. However, the other end of the line is just lying in Bond's boat. There's even a shot of it sitting there.

Guy

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Cloverfield picture

Factual error: During the scene where everyone runs outside, the Statue of Liberty head crashes into the street. The head is scaled too small and its size can be compared to the people taking pictures. In real life the statue head is large enough for people to walk into (17' from chin to cranium).

frecklejam

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The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor picture

Factual error: The aircraft used to fly to Shangri-La is a Bristol Beaufighter, a single seat long range fighter bomber. It was not a transport aircraft and could not carry passengers. Some variants of the Beaufighter were two seaters but none at all could be used as small airliners as they do here. It is not possible to simply reconfigure the aircraft as shown here - the centre of gravity, balance and trim would all be thrown out. The resulting jury-built aircraft would be uncontrollable in flight.

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Eagle Eye picture

Factual error: There is no possible way to cause a power line to drop from its support pylons and hit a person on target. These wires are fastened extremely securely, designed to withstand extremely high tension through all kinds of weather, and they are not equipped with some sort of explosive charges to release them.

throcko

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Rambo picture

Factual error: When John is going back to the pirates boat to set it on fire you can hear his boat's engine running. However in the closeup the pulley for the water pump is not turning. This means the engine isn't running.

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Gran Torino picture

Factual error: Walt's medical records contain an error - on the left side of the folder, his address is listed as "Detroit, CA" and it's correctly listed as "Detroit, MI" on the right side, although as pointed out in another entry, the house number is completely wrong in the medical records.

MovieFan612

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Iron Man picture

Factual error: When Iron Man catches the Audi SUV, the front wings/fenders don't bend when he catches it, the car weighs close to 2 tons, some damage should occur to them as they are made of such thin metal.

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The Incredible Hulk picture

Factual error: At one point during the final battle, Betty puts her hand on the minigun. Having been recently fired for long periods, that thing would be scalding hot and would badly burn her hand.

Friso94

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Jumper picture

Factual error: Shortly after David and Griffin jump to Japan, Griffin goes to a car dealership and takes a Mercedes. Griffin then drives on the right side of the street rather than on the left as he should in Japan.

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Max Payne picture

Factual error: In the film, Sgt. Jack Lupino is depicted as a United States Marine Corp Sargent. However, when Max is watching an interview with Lupino it shows him wearing either a Gunnery Sargent or Master Sargent chevrons. Not only that, but the chevrons happen to be upside down. No US Marine would ever make a mistake like that.

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The Forbidden Kingdom picture

Factual error: When it says that in 2 nights the moon will hide (New Moon) but the image that shows the moon is in waxing crescent phase, when it must be in waning crescent. (01:09:30)

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Transporter 3 picture

Factual error: In order to detach wagons from the train you have to do more than simply taking off an unsecured lid in the ground and ripping out some cables.

BlueCell

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Impact picture

Factual error: The Moon is pushed into a "more elliptical" orbit. When the orbit it shown, it is more eccentric than the Moon's real orbit. However, it is centered directly on the Earth. This violates Kepler's first law of motion, which states that a natural satellite has the primary body at one focus of an elliptical orbit. In other words, the Moon should come much closer to the Earth at one end of the ellipse, and recede very far from it at the other end, rather than receding to the same distance in both directions.

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Miracle at St. Anna picture

Factual error: When the soldiers return to HQs, the American flag, hung vertically over the entrance, has the blue field with stars on the right. The flag, when hung vertically, is supposed to have the blue field on the left..

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