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Tree Trimmer: Now that's a real shame when folks be throwin' away a perfectly good white boy like that.
Mistakes
When Lane becomes depressed he goes out to the garage and ties a red cord around his neck and to the ceiling to hang himself. He thinks better of it, but his mother opens the door and knocks him off the steps and he hangs by the cord. If you look closely you can see that there is no cord hung around his neck, he merely holds his hand up and mimics grabbing the cord around his neck. The cord seems to be attached to something on his back. See more...
Trivia
During the street race against the Asian brothers, Lane nearly runs over several nuns crossing the street. If you look closely you can see one of the nuns carrying a large ghettoblaster on her shoulder. See more...
Better Off Dead (1985) - 27 corrections
Directed by Savage Steve Holland, starring John Cusack, Kim Darby (add more)
Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.
In the scene when they are sitting down for dinner and Ricky's mom lights her cigarette, there is an explosion out in front of the house. If you look closely, you can see sand bags used in the effect inside the house in both camera shots of it. [Those are throw cushions from the sofa, which is in front of the window.]
When Monique is out front throwing what looks like pears at the street sign, she tells Lane that the only thing that interests her in the U.S. is the "Brooklyn" Dodgers. The Dodgers had been in L.A. for 27 years at the time. Since 1958. [That's the whole point of the scene.that she really knows nothing about the U.S.]
A native French speaker like Monique would never mistake the word 'testicle' for 'tentacle'. The French word for 'testicle' is 'testicule', pronounced almost identically to the English form, so she would know precisely what she was saying . [You've got it backwards. Monique knows that the French 'testicule' means 'male gonads'. She does NOT know that the equivalent English word sounds almost the same. Some French words sound similar to the English equivalents, some do not. The important thing is that she thinks the ENGLISH word 'testicle', which sounds amusingly similar to the French word for 'male gonads' is actually the proper English word for the French word 'tentacules', meaning 'the arms of an octopus'. It is nothing to do with her ability to speak French - it is all about her imperfect English.]
When Roy challenges Lane to ski the K-12, he tells Lane the competition is at high noon, but when they are both at the top of the slope ready to go, the sun is setting. Why would the sun be setting at noon? [Lane is considerably late for the competetion, as is mentioned by someone saying "it looks like he is going to be a no-show." Being early January, the sun could be setting in the afternoon, and since Lane is late by an unmentioned amount of time, it is easily explainable.]
Lane's friend makes mention that the town of Greendale is just a pitstop on the road to a ski area. Before the big race, he also mentions that they live in Northern California. The Space Shuttle kit which Lane's little brother receives in the mail has a ZIP code of 93065, which is Simi Valley, not far from Los Angeles. [Character mistake, not a movie mistake. Mail can still be delivered if the zip code is wrong, as long as the complete address is correct.]
There's a scene in the very beginning that has the father trying to get cereal for his breakfast. Yet, his son has cut the coupons from the boxes before they were empty. Each box the father takes out dumps a ton of cereal out of the bottom backs of the boxes. Now how could the kid have put those boxes back without making a mess? Also, where are the plastic bags that the cereal should be in? [Simple - he did make a mess. He, or someone else, cleaned it up after him. As for the plastic (or greaseproof paper) bags inside the cereal box, Badger cut a hole in those too when he cut open the box to take the tokens.]
During the montage of Lane and Monique putting the Camaro back together, we can see that the muddy tires still have blue dye on the raised white lettering - indicating that they are brand new and freshly-mounted. How'd they get muddy? [By driving back from the retailer who fitted them. They are really on that car, which is being driven during shooting of the film, so obviously the blue lettering/mud from road use combo is possible.]
In the opening scene of the movie the psycho paper boy rides his bike down the street. The distinct sound of cards in the spokes of his bike is heard for several minutes, however it is seen that there are no cards in the spokes. [It is an established quirk of this film that all bicycles make that sound. In a world where eight year old boys can make lasers and working space shuttles, that's certainly allowable.]
While Lane's Camaro is being repaired, There is a scene where the aircleaner is being placed onto the engine. If you look closely you can see that no bolt comes up through the middle to screw it into place - what then does Lane screw the wingnut onto? [This is wrong. The shot starts with the air filter already low on the fitting - you cannot see the spindle shaft. Since Lane does screw a nut on it, it must be there.]
When Lane Myer (John Cusack), the main character, decides he doesn't want to hang himself from the garage door bars, his mother opens the door backwards to back up while she's vacuuming. The opening of the door pushes Lane off the steps and hangs him for a while, but you can see that his mother has to push hard to keep the door open against his flailing body AND that the door is hanging off the hinges. [Lane's mother has no idea what is pushing against the door - she isn't even facing in that direction. She just pushes harder against the door, as anyone would. As for the door being off the hinges - so what?]
While at dinner with Ricky's mom, Ricky, Monique, Lane, and Lane's family; Lane brings a bottle of flammable liquid to the table that he was planning on setting himself on fire with. Ricky's mom mistakenly pours a glass of this liquid and drinks it while Lane is dousing a rag with it and rubbing it on himself. Ricky's mom then lights a cigarette, Lane notices this and shouts for her to stop, then a large explosion. The shot cuts to Lane in the car with Ricky and Monique saying "gee, I'm real sorry your mom blew up Ricky". Why didn't Lane blow up too? He was sitting right next to her and was covered with the flammable fluid as well. [Well, Lane wasn't the one with a lit cigarette in his hand or mouth, so it wouldn't ignite him. And she didn't in fact "blow up" so even though he was in close proximity, he couldn't have caught fire, even though he was daubed in the same fluid.]
At the New Year's Eve dance, when Lane leaves the building, it shows a shot of the band, with the singer wearing a sleeveless silver dress. When it goes back to the band to see Monique leave the dance, the singer has long sleeves on the same silver dress. [During the opening chords of the second song, we don't see the singer for some time - easily enough time for her to put on the jacket that matches her skirt.]
When Ricky and Monique arrive at the dance, Ricky first dances with her, then pushes her away and does his dance. Monique rushes out during this and runs into Lane and talks to him. Ricky then runs out (with a balloon) to find Monique talking to Lane. He tells her his mother will be waiting to pick them up and in a few minutes she's there with Ricky in the car. That was a real short date.... [Yes, it was. This is not a film mistake.]
In the cafeteria scene, where Lane tries to pick up a cheerleader on roller skates, he chases after her to the lunch line, borrowing someone's skates along the way. He must have put them on awfully fast, because even though she got to the very short lunch line ahead of him and there was only one person in front of her, she was only JUST getting her milk when he finally arrived. Roller skates take a while to lace up. [Unless you don't bother lacing them up. Lane didn't.]
After Lane and Monique have been skiing for some time and have a moment alone Charles De Mar runs over his ski and breaks his binding. After everyone leaves the paperboy starts doing his "Give me the $2" thing and Lane skis away only to come to the top of the K12. The K12 is at the top of the mountain. How in the world did he get there without riding the ski lift? [Nowhere in this film is it said that the K12 is at the top of the mountain. Many dangerous ski runs start half way down a mountain, or lower, and the uphill ski runs can be comparatively gentle. .]
When Lane and Charles are on the top of the mountain and Charles is advising Lane on how to ski the K-12 - Charles isn't wearing any skis. How does he get down from the top of the mountain? [He walked down the gentle slope behind him which we don't see (and don't need to), or the ski-lift that brings the skiers up there in the first place, or even a snowmobile parked just out of shot. Obviously the suicidal ski run isn't the only access to and from the summit - or they'd have to climb up it to get there.]
On Christmas day, Ricky's mom says to Monique, "Do you have Christmas in France?" (She squeezes Monique's cheeks with one hand) "Christmas...Christmas." Followed by insane laughter. No mistake in that scene... But in the scene where Monique is throwing fruit at a street sign, Lane comes by and has a discussion with her. At one point he grabs her cheeks with one hand and says, "Friend." Mocking what Ricky's mother did in the Christmas scene... But Lane was not at Ricky's house during the Christmas scene. He did not see Ricky's mom do that to Monique. So why would he have done that exact motion and said, "Friend," the way Ricky's mom said, "Christmas."? [She does that cheek squeezing thing to everyone - the woman is an obnoxious creature of habit. Lane knows her patronising little gestures and is impersonating her.]
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