Driven (2001) - 41 mistakes

Continuity: At the "Prototype Exhibition" party, Jimmy and Joe hop in two cars for a run through the Chicago streets. But, CART cars do not have built-in starters, they need external ones.

Factual error: Champ Cars run on Methanol which 1) burns with an invisible flame and 2) is extinguished by water. Therefore the car in the lake crash sequence would not burn or explode like that.

Continuity: When Jimmy Bly is in the bar and watches Sophie cross the dance floor, she is wearing a white top that is very low cut and open, showing lots of skin. But, as he talks to her at the bar, she is wearing a black top that covers way too much at the neck, for it to have been under the very low cut white top she was wearing earlier, that she is now holding in her hand. The black top would have been visible, had she really worn it underneath the white top.

Continuity: When Memo crashes into the lake the fuel leaks out and the car explodes. Naturally the explosion would have done some massive damage to the car. It then goes to an aerial view of the accident in the next shot and the car is in the same condition it was before it exploded. Then the next scene shows Joe in the garage looking at the wreckage, and the car is blackened and mangled.

Factual error: At the very end of the final race, Bly is racing Brandenburg. When Joe's car starts to spin, it switches to Bly experiencing "tunnel vision" and you can clearly see him make a right hand turn. Then when Bly and Brandenburg pass the finish line, Joe spins across the line after them. It's not very possible that a spinning car (out of control) can make a turn.

Continuity: Gravel traps, grass, and trees in the background at the Toronto track when Joe is doing his "Coin Bit". Toronto is a temporary street course with nothing but tyre and cement walls to hit.

Factual error: The movie says that Jimmy Bly is the champion at the end. - wrong. Brandenburg went in to the final race with a 4 point lead. He led the most laps (4 1) = 5 point lead Bly won, Brandenburg second (20-16 = 4) 5-4 = Beau Brandenburg is the winner by one point. In CART you get an extra point for leading the most laps.

Factual error: In the frontal collision between the two cars where one is catapulted through the air using the other as a firing ramp, the nose section on the flying car is clearly a tubular metal construction. The deformation zone of the car would be made from carbon.

Continuity: When "The Vistion Car" spins going into turn 3 at Toronto on the first lap it shows him sliding sideways into the black tyre barrier which has a large cement wall behind it. The next shot is him going nose first into a red-and-white tyre barrier with a nice big gravel run-off area behind the tires. No more concrete. When he hits the tires there is a small fireball, which would never happen if a CART car were to hit head on like that.

Factual error: After the huge first lap crash involving "The Vistion Car" the CART Safety Team is seen rushing to the crash. They are not only going against track direction (which is allowed only to get them there faster) but they are going through turns 11 and 10. It would have been much faster had they followed track direction because the way they were going they we going to cover about 2/3 of the track to get to the crash.

Continuity: The final race takes place in Detroit. However, at various points during the scenes for the 'Detroit' race, you can clearly see, at least on 2 occasions signs that say 'Chicago Speedway'.

Other: In the final crash scene in the last race the black number six car goes over the wall and loses his right front wheel. Then in the pits you see the same black number six car drive down the pit lane with all four tyres on.

Continuity: In Japan, when Sophie is swimming, doing her first underwater flip, you see a Nike swoop right above her left breast. Then for the rest of the swim scene it is gone.

Factual error: During the scene were Bly is going over different tracks on his laptop prior to going to a night club, you can see a track map for Nurburgring on the laptop screen. The cart series do not race at Nurburgring.

Factual error: The weather forecast that is shown prior to the race in Germany is supposed to be on German TV, yet they show the temperature in "Celsius" as well as in "Fahrenheit". In Germany there is no "Fahrenheit" in the weather forecasts.

Continuity: When Memo has his wreck, it is absolutely ridiculous to think that it would take the rescue team that long to get to the accident. Joe runs all the way from the pit paddock and arrives at the same time as the rescue workers. Furthermore, the methanol fuel is contained in a fuel cell which would not leak as the movie shows. It is impossible for a methanol fueled car to explode like that.

Continuity: When Memo is in the hospital after his accident he is getting oxygen through a nasal canulla. If you look closely you'll see it's upside down. The tab should be facing down not up.

Factual error: In the final race you see the PIONEER WORLDCOM car get hit 3 times in 2 crashes (it was totaled twice!). Not only do they use it after the first crash, you see it in the pits when they make the FINAL pit stop. Pioneer Worldcom only has ONE car in the field. The helmet of the driver didn't even change!

Continuity: When the two drivers jump into the prototypes, they don't put on their seatbelts (which are 5 point straps). When racing through the streets you can see that they both have their seatbelts on. Going 200 mph through the streets of Chicago, you would not have the time or the control to fasten a 5 point seatbelt.

Factual error: In Germany we see an ambulance that says that the emergency phone number were 122, but in Germany its 112.

Other: When Stallone talks with is his team boss in a wheel chair at the paddock the first time. The crowd around them are different depending if it is shot in the front of them or from above. But the conversation is real time.

Continuity: Beaux is talking to Joe in the grandstand at the Japanese race. If you look in the background you can see a nearby city. This cannot be filmed in Japan as there is no city near enough to be seen from the grandstand. I think this may have been filmed in Chicago.

Continuity: When they leave the press conference in Toronto, Sophie is wearing a spaghetti strap sun dress just before she gets into the car and they drive away. Yet in the car she is wearing white pants and a blouse.

Factual error: Before the race in Germany, there is a weather broadcast on TV where it explains how rainy it's going to be during the race. All the country names are in English, but since the broadcast is supposed to be German, Germany should be "Deutschland", France "Frankreich" and Austria "Osterreich".

Factual error: If the computer sim Bly is watching after the first race is a sim of what happened earlier, the cars on the screen are positioned wrongly.

Factual error: During the movie the driver Brandenburg is driving the Target car with the helmet design of Juan Pablo Montoya (former CART driver now in F1). This was done to take video of Acquall races and put them in the movie, but at the end of the movie, before the big race, you see drivers getting ready for the start, including JP Montoya, with the same helmet as Brandenburg. I have never seen two of the same helmets in two same cars in one race.

Continuity: When Sophia is swimming in the pool and Jimmy is on the chair reading an article, his hair changes from messed up to neatly combed about 3 to 4 times.

Factual error: Before the race in Germany we see a weather broadcast on an European broadcasting station. Unfortunately there is no such broadcasting station.

Factual error: In the last race Jimmy Bly is in second place behind Beau Brandenburg. You see a shot of Jimmy's helmet and on it you see the reflection of the car in front of him. On the tail wing you can read the brand 'Motorola' from left to right. However, as it is a reflection, you wouldn't be able to read it form left to right, but rather from right to left.

Continuity: The day before the Japan race when Sylvester Stallone is talking to Til Schweiger, the position of the sun on the stands changes constantly.

Factual error: Before the final race, the first race car seen in background has rain tyres mounted the wrong way (the tip of the V is facing backwards).

Factual error: At the start of the Toronto race, they show a skydiver dropping-in with an American flag. The footage used was shot at Long Beach along with another crowd scene where a Long Beach Grand Prix beer cup is clearly visible.

Plot hole: After the young driver does the 'jump test', he and Stalone are shown walking to their cars. Although in tremendous pain a moment earlier, he now walks without a limp.

Factual error: In the specially shot action scenes the cars used are not Champ Cars. The main giveaway is the shape of the car from behind the driver's head backwards, which is not flat (as Champ Cars) and does not include the turbo pop off valve used in CART.

Continuity: As an introduction of the German race there are two shots of what should be Berlin, The first one really is Berlin but in the next shot you can see a bridge which is American, as well as an advertisement and a shop, also American.

Factual error: After the crash at the German race, there are some ambulances on the track. There are also some Volkswagen buses with the inscription "German Grand Prix" on it. First, the "German Grand Prix" can only refer to the Formula One Championship which is driven on the "Hockenheimring". Furthermore, there is no way a grand prix management would use such weak cars for cases of emergency at any kinds of races.

Other: When Slyvestor Stallone is driving in the car to prove himself to the team, he does the 3 coin trick. When he runs over 2 of the 3 coins, you can see them fly up into the air, however, when they check over the tyres at the end, all 3 coins are in the tire.

Continuity: Throughout the movie the champion is referred to as the "World Champion".   The title World Champion is only used for Formula One drivers.  Driven is based on the CART series.  The champion in CART is called the "CART Champion".

Continuity: When Joe is showing off the "3 coin trick" he throws out a dime, then two quarters. When he is checking his tires to see if he picked up the coins, there are 3 quarters instead of 2 quarters and a dime.

Factual error: In the German race there is an accident in which a car coming out of a turn crashes on another one and then it flies over it and lands in a normal position. In car races the track is higher on the outside than the inside on turns, so that the cars can stay on the track. So the car would not be horizontal but angled and when it crashed it should spin around itself instead of flying straight.

Factual error: Mercedez Benz wasn't even in CART this year, and for the past few years when they were, they only won ONE Race. It doesn't make sense that they would win the driver's championship. Except if they sponsored the film, of course...