Deep Blue Sea (1999) - 58 mistakes

Factual error: When the female doctor strips out of her wet suit to shock the shark, she grabs the flexible metal tubing and yanks it off the wall with no problem. Two problems here. It would take more than a struggle to rip that of the wall. Second, the wires should be in "non-flexible" metal tubing. (However, I am not accustomed to electrical codes for underwater oceanic bases and perhaps the code calls for flex.) Either way, though, it would be impossible for her to simply pull the wires out without much struggle.

Continuity: As soon as the three survivors are coming out of the lab through the hatch underwater, they all signal each other to rise to the top. Look at Safron Burrows, her cheeks are full of air and you can almost see the surface above her head. You can also see the exact same shot when she is about to be eaten by the last shark. And what's with that hand gesture - to cut or for the shark to stop?

Revealing: When the sharks first attack and bite off the man's arm - you can clearly see his arm under his shirt as he's scrambling away from the water.

Revealing: At the end of the film, when Preacher is fighting the shark, we can see that it is a white stuntman doing the scene for LL Cool J.

Continuity: In the scene where L.L. Cool J. is in the flooded kitchen and the shark comes in through the door, he climbs up a shelf then falls in the water then climbs out again. Before he makes his way to the oven you can clearly see that under his pants he is wearing knee pads.

Revealing: Near the beginning when the boat pulls up and the guy on the boat tells the blond-convict fella he's got a beauty 13 foot "Tiger shark" that's up in some sort of sling, the so called tiger shark is actually an animatronic great white with stripes on it. Tiger sharks have a blunt rounded nose, not a pointed one like a great white.

Continuity: Towards the end of the movie, the character played by L. L. Cool J stabs the shark through his left eye with his cross, yet in the next scene where the shark returns to eat the female doctor his eye is clearly intact.

Factual error: A double oven has a double or triple insulating wall between ovens, not a single sheet of flimsy steel.

Revealing: In the shot when the helicopter is about to crash into the building, take a look at the blade. There is a wire holding the helicopter.

Factual error: Since the water was always waist high, how could the huge sharks swim inside? Not to mention the corridors...

Revealing: When Samuel L. Jackson is attacked and killed by the shark, you can clearly tell that he is CGI. His arms and legs are segments and it looks really corny.

Continuity: When the shark first smashes the glass with the gurney carrying the man who was first bitten who failed to escape on the helicopter, he releases the gurney about 50 feet away from the glass. How could the gurney maintain its speed underwater?

Continuity: When the shark is brought up to put the needle in his head he bites off the guys arm leaving only a bit left there, yet when they are wheeling him to the helicopter you see that he's got more arm than before.

Factual error: Sharks can swim quite fast (some up to 65kmph). How does Preach, wading at a relatively slow speed, escape the shark the first time he sees it?

Continuity: When LL Cool J is standing on the shelf and reaching for his bird on the pot, it is clear that he could easily reach the pot if he clenched his fingers. Yet, in the next clip, the pot is shown from a different angle and is at least 1 or 2 feet away.

Continuity: When McAlister cuts herself and jumps into the water, you see blood in the first shot. Then when she is swimming and wading etc., there is completely no sign of blood at all.

Continuity: When Carter climbs the ladder to get out of the water after removing the licence plate from the shark's mouth, it shows a shot of his feet and he is wearing sandals. In the tank he was wearing swim fins. He talks to the big boss for a few seconds and the fins are nowhere to be seen. He then walks away with the fins in his hand.

Continuity: Near the end scene, when the three characters came to the surface, L.L. Cool J. was taken by the shark. When he was taken underwater and when he surfaced, the shark had him in her mouth on the right side. When they went under again and resurfaced, L.L.Cool J. was on the left of the shark's mouth. What? Did the shark not like him on the right side so she switched him underwater?

Continuity: Near the end when the survivors has reached the surface and LL Cool J gets attacked by a shark. Notice all the blood in the water. Shortly after, when he is pulled up and rescued, you see no blood at all.

Revealing: As Carter is swimming in the cage under water there is a frontal view of him where you can see the shadow of the camera moving down in the right corner of the screen.

Plot hole: Mako sharks have been known to leap out of the water, sometimes into boats. Therefore, it is quite possible, perhaps even more so, for these specialised Makos to jump.

Plot hole: Considering the size and power of the sharks, why didn't the female just jump the fence at the end of the film. It was only 3 or 4 feet above the water at that point.

Other: The explosion at the end of the movie would have killed Carter, he simply would not have survived the concussion wave.

Continuity: At the end, Carter manages to hold onto the perimeter fence, and the shark goes through. The shark then explodes, and Carter is seen being blown off the fence back the way he came, yet when he surfaces, he's now on the other side of the fence.

Visible crew/equipment: When Preacher falls off the shelving rack into the the water after his bird was eaten by the shark, you can clearly make out the zip for his wetsuit under his jacket.

Continuity: When Samuel L Jackson is talking to LL Cool J for the first time, LL Cool J's facial expression changes instantly.

Continuity: When Preacher is talking to the Lord about his wrath, he is in a wide area of the corridor with "Sub Level 1-A" written on the wall behind him. In the next shot he is approaching the wide area with the sign again.

Continuity: When Preacher is cutting through the oven, between the shots from where he is, and the view from the section of oven above him, the damage is entirely different.

Visible crew/equipment: When Preacher's bird flies off, you can see the shadow of someone at the far end of the corridor on the floor. Since no-one else is around, this has to be the trainers shadow to whom the bird flies.

Visible crew/equipment: When Samuel L Jackson is talking to Carter about the diving mask, a light screen is reflected in his glasses.

Continuity: Throughout the film, people's clothes get drier/wetter instantly. Most noticeable after Whitlock is attacked and rescued by the helicopter - everyone gets soaked but inside are dry.

Revealing: In the wet lab, just after the helicopter explodes into the tower, pieces of concrete are falling all around Thomas Jane, as he reaches to pull the blonde out of the water. The pieces of 'concrete' bounce all around like the foam pieces they are, not actual concrete.

Other: Almost at the end of the movie the doctor cuts her hands and jumps in the water. When she notices the shark turning towards her she swims towards a pillar with metal step bars. She grabs on to the step which breaks. When she goes under water it appears she is signaling the camera "cut".

Continuity: When the shark jumps out of the water and grabs Russell Franklin, it slams him down with his body face-down in its mouth. A few seconds later, in the underwater shot, his body is suddenly face-up in its mouth.

Continuity: When Carter and Scoggins are under water at the panel you can see light on Scoggins face when the camera is focusing on him. However when it cuts to Carter he is pointing his flashlight away from Scoggins. This happens twice during the shots.

Visible crew/equipment: After Preacher says "Feeding time" and the camera moves toward the window, you can see the camera's shadow down in the left corner of the screen.

Continuity: When the parrot lands on the casserole you see a bottle and some other items floating around it. When it cuts none of the items can be seen around the casserole.

Continuity: Even though the shark just jumped out of the water and ate the bird, the water is still when the preacher is falling into it. A big shark should make some waves in the water.

Continuity: When Carter is swimming down to the hatch, just after the technician has been eaten, you can see that when there's a shot showing what he can see, there's a straight beam of light presumably from his torch as that's the only source it could come from. However, when the camera moves back to see Carter swimming through the water, you can see that the torch he is carrying is moving around violently as he is trying to swim to the hatch. There's no way Carter could have held that torch straight enough for it to produce such a straight beam of light, especially since he's busy trying to escape being eaten by a freakishly smart shark.

Factual error: The so-called 'tiger shark' fed to the Makos is quite unrealistic. As someone already mentioned, the snout is that of a Great White. Furthermore, the teeth are that of a Mako. Tiger shark teeth are very distinct; they resemble a cross between a dagger and a saw blade.

Continuity: While Carter is trying to save Jan he is a few feet above the water. But in a shot from above you can see that he has to bend his body so as not to touch the surface. It would be very easy for him to reach her, then! But in the next shot, he's high above the water again.

Continuity: In a scene near the end of the movie, Carter is swimming back to the wet lab through flooded passageways. At the beginning of the swim, his left shoe is completely untied - you can see both laces floating. In the next full body shot (where his shoes show) the shoe is tied again.

Continuity: Carter pries open a door with a knife that is on as sheath on his leg. The knife breaks and he throws it away. In the final scene, when Carter and Preacher are laying on the wreckage, the knife is clearly visibly back in the sheath on Carter's right leg.

Continuity: At the start of the film when the man is trying to remove the licence plate from the sharks mouth you see a shot of him holding on to the fin on the huge shark from above the water. you can see the man is a good bit away from the mouth of the shark yet when we see the underwater shot he is just finger tips from the license plate.

Continuity: When Blake and Dr Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows) emerge to survey the damaged research facility, you can clearly see coastline in the background, although earlier in the movie we see a weather map showing the facility clearly way out in the the ocean.

Continuity: Look carefully at the licence plate when Blake removes it from the shark's mouth.   It bends and flexes as though it's made out of rubber or even cardboard.  Of course in the next scene when he throws it on the walkway, it's an ordinary licence plate.

Factual error: When the rescue helicopter approaches Aquatica, the pilot gives his call sign as "X-ray Alpha two eighteen." Numbers in aviation are read individually; the pilot should have said "X-ray Alpha two one eight."

Continuity: When the shark rises above water with Jan partially in its mouth, its teeth are in about the level of her waist. As Carter grabs onto Jan, it moves its teeth up to the top of her chest. In the wide shot that follows, though, its teeth are back at her waist, then in the last shot of her being pulled underwater, they are up way higher again, at her chest.

Continuity: When the shark is attacking the oven which the preacher is in, the shark severely damages the oven's glass door. Later, when it cuts to a shot from outside while the shark is bashing against the door, only a few cracks are visible in the glass.

Continuity: When Preacher, Susan and Carter realise the only way out of Aquatica is to swim and they start filling the room up with water, Preacher holds out his hands to Susan and Carter. Carter then holds his hand out flat for Susan to take, and she puts her hand on top of his. However, in the next shot Susan's hand is on top and Carter's is underneath.

Continuity: The man with the cross has a wound on the left hand side of his head.  Later in the movie it has moved down.

Revealing: Carter dodges a shark underwater at the end of the film and goes for a ride while holding onto its fin. Watch carefully when you see him from the front, his hair is perfectly blow dried yet he's completely submerged in water.

Continuity: When Carter is sitting in front of one of the small hatch-like doors around the time that they were climbing the ladder to escape from the rising water, one can clearly sea that the door is no more than twice the width of Carter (4 feet at most) yet the 45 foot shark about 10 to 12 feet wide seems to have no trouble squeezing through.

Revealing: As one of the lab crew is showing Tomas Jane the suspended tiger shark you can see a horizontal line in the water in the background. this is the edge of the water tank used to film the exterior scenes (mentioned in DVD extras).

Visible crew/equipment: As Preacher and his parrot are about to go up the stairs to a higher level, you can see a wire attached to the parrot.

Continuity: When Preacher says "Leave that to the white folks, brother" to Franklin you can see that Preacher looks rather serious. When it cuts, he is smiling.

Factual error: Without wanting to go into extreme details, the genetics and biochemistry of the entire film is flawed. No geneticist in their right mind would even think about using gene therapy - a technique which is not entirely successful yet - to increase the size of the gland. One would use any of multiple techniques to identify and clone the gene responsible for the protein in question. It is cheaper, more successful, and a lot safer and quicker to do. A copy of the gene could be inserted into E. coli and produced on a mass scale in a beaker on land. After the protein had been isolated it would not be able to be given to patients in a pill form because it would be digested in the gut (like insulin for diabetics).

Continuity: When we first meet Preacher and he is feeding "Bird" some cream off his finger, the amount of cream on his finger changes between shots.