Other mistake: When we first see Jeff Bridge's character on the elevated subway, the car is jostling around in obvious motion. However, the scenary visible through the rear door window of the train is clarly not moving in response to the train. The city background is not moving farther away. The scene quickly changes angle and the background now begins to "move" in relation to the progression of the train car. (00:14:45)
Continuity mistake: In one of the first family scenes, the youngest daughter shows she has lost a tooth. The next shot, the tooth is back in her mouth. (00:15:10)
Continuity mistake: The bowl of green jello that Doris throws at the warden lands the right way up, but in the next shot it is upside down. (00:21:00)
Factual error: The lab technician tells Dr. Powell that Prot is sensitive to ultraviolet light, and says "he can detect light up to 300 to 400 angstroms." Normal human vision is considered to be about 390 to 700 nanometers, which is 3900 to 7000 angstroms. The highest light frequency that an animal is known to be able to see is about 280 nanometers, or 2800 angstroms, so he is saying Prot can see a frequency about 10 times higher than any known animal. 300 angstroms isn't just ultraviolet, it is bordering on X-ray. Prot wouldn't just be unusual, he would be a medical marvel demanding worldwide research for his visual range alone. (00:23:00)
Continuity mistake: When the doctor shuts all the blinds in his office, and then interviews Prot, his left hand collar button is undone/done up in different shots. (00:25:00)
Continuity mistake: The taxi ride to the planetarium begins in a Ford Crown Victoria but ends in a Chevy Caprice. (00:36:02)
Plot hole: When the "Blue Bird" patient finally sees the Blue Jay, he starts excitedly shouting "Blue Bird! Blue Bird!" This uprising causes a riot in the institution, and in the immediate exterior shot of the building, everyone from all four floors already know and are staring out the window at the bird. Within the time-frame of the scene only the people on the floor which saw the bird would actually know about this. Psych ward floors are kept separated as it is even noted by an attendant when he said, "Do you want to go to the fourth floor?" which indicates that the floors are kept separate. This was deliberately done for dramatic purposes. (00:44:00 - 00:45:00)
Other mistake: When Prot visits the doctor's house, he thanks the wife and the camera is zoomed into his sunglasses. The reflection of his glasses shows the doctor looking at him, but the doctor is standing behind him. (00:53:40)
Visible crew/equipment: When Jeff Bridges takes Prot to meet his family the crew is visible in the reflection in his glasses as he shakes Jeff's wife's hand. (00:53:40)
Continuity mistake: When Jeff Bridges is in front of Robert Porter's house, with the sheriff, you can see that the shadows of the background mountains are different to the people's shadows. (01:31:25)
Continuity mistake: When Prot takes his sunglasses off for his "return" (because he would supposedly no longer need them due to the lower light levels on K-Pax), he places them on the nightstand upside-down, with the earpiece flush to the table. Two subsequent shots (including an elaborate effects shot) show the sunglasses right-side-up. (01:48:45 - 01:53:30)
Factual error: At the end of the movie, the son arrives from Dartmouth. But he does so in Grand Central Station. To come from New Hampshire he would have to arrive at Penn Station. (01:53:40)
Continuity mistake: When the woman who never leaves her room is seated at the table with some other patients, she's talking to the doctor and closes her hand fan. The very next scene shows the fan open again.
Suggested correction: There no actual mistake here. Just some additional information surrounding the statement made in the film.
Phixius ★
1) While Prot is painted as having many abilities so unusual as begging people to accept him as not human, the ability to see that light frequency would cause the medical professional to jump out of their skin and start calling everyone else in the medical field, not just go "wow, that's weird." 2) Seeing those frequencies is essentially impossible to occur for a couple reasons, mainly that it would take multiple simultaneous genetic mutations (the lens would have to mutate to pass and focus that frequency where currently it completely blocks it, the fluid inside the eye [aqueous humor] would also have to mutate since it is also opaque to those frequencies, and the retinal receptors would have to mutate to be sensitive to those frequencies) and no such mutations are known to have ever occurred in any animal, plus the ability for a mutation to be sensitive to extreme ultraviolet (again, those frequencies are almost X-ray) is probably not possible due to the physics involved in how receptors work, meaning for it to happen multiple mutations in the receptors alone would be needed. 3) This isn't a superhero movie where a person seeing X-ray is just accepted; it is a movie attempting to portray a person as bizarre but within the realm of possible, which this isn't. Personally, I think the writers meant to say he was sensitive to 300-400 nanometers and goofed and said angstroms (some people with artificial lens replacements have been know to see up to about 380 nanometers). The lab tech on the other hand would know better and wouldn't make such a mistake, so this is a movie mistake, not a character mistake.
jimba