Hollow Man

Factual error: The serum is transported by blood. Hair has no blood traveling to it, only the root. So, unless Bacon shaved his body clean, his hair wouldn't have become invisible, likewise all of the fur on the gorilla.

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Suggested correction: The serum could have been absorbed by the roots and made its way to the tip of the hair strands (similar to colored water going up a piece of celery, changing the color of the celery).

Mammal hair is not porous and is not subject to capillary action.

Factual error: Rats have very poor eyesight but an extremely keen sense of smell. The rat introduced into the gorilla's cage would know right away that there was another animal in the cage and would never scamper happily into danger, as this one does.

Factual error: When they put the gorilla back into the cage in the movie, who is said to be female several times, you can spot that it has a silver back. Female gorillas do not ever have silver backs - it's strictly a male thing.

Factual error: At the end of the movie, Sebastian Caine tries to hit the girl and her lover, but misses and gets electrocuted. With that amount of water on the floor, all three of them would get electrocuted.

Factual error: When the crew pour liquid latex over Sebastian's head and neck, in order to create a fairly life-like mask of his face, it simply pours over his head as though he is completely bald, and he is able to remove it later by pulling it off, exactly like a glove. However, the film creators seem to forget that Sebastian has quite a thick head of hair, and technically, when they pour the latex over his head, it should stick and/or pour along the outline of his hair. Whilst drying, the mask should equally have stuck to his hair and become very difficult to remove, and yet as they create the mask, no hair appears to exist on Sebastian's head. They did not shave Sebastian's head - later in the film he falls into a swimming pool and we see a clear outline of his entire body, with a full head of hair. (00:47:15 - 00:48:30)

Tom

Factual error: During the scene in which Sebastian is chasing Elizabeth Shue and her boyfriend up the ladder in the elevator shaft, not only would the heat from the fire burn them, they would have all suffocated as the long-burning explosion quickly consumed their oxygen.

Factual error: When they inject the serum that counters the invisibility into the gorilla, you see the serum flow backwards toward the gorilla's hand. Veins have special valves that prevent blood flow from going backwards and to force blood to go to the heart, so how the serum manages this is beyond me.

Factual error: When they make the gorilla visible again, her heart becomes audible at the same time it becomes visible. This happens with Kevin Bacon as well. But that shouldn't happen, because it was just invisible, not inaudible. And it wouldn't make a noise like that unless you were listening through a stethoscope.

Factual error: There is no way for the vet and Shue's characters to intubate Dr Caine when he was attempting to come back from phaseshift. He had not completely re-appeared and it would be impossible to tell his airway from his esophagus.

dablues7

Factual error: The speed used to administer the serum to Sebastian is not close to the reality. At that speed the vein would have exploded.

Factual error: Duct tape would not stick to bloody skin at 40 below zero, and probably not at higher temperatures either; again because of the blood.

Factual error: The braking system on lifts (elevators) is designed to stop a free-falling car safely and quickly (using gravity and a wedge system). It would not take a long time to stop the car or break up as shown in the film.

Factual error: When we first see Caine (Bacon) enter the military base, there are Willy's Jeeps used by military personnel. By the year 2000, the Willy's Jeep was long-since replaced in the U.S. Military by the HUMVEE, which we also see in the film.

Matdan97

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Suggested correction: It's not a Willy's jeep. It's a Ford M151 Mutt, which was still in occasional use at the time of filming.

LorgSkyegon

Factual error: You see the serum flow toward the heart and then branch out through the rest of the body. The same thing happens when they try to do it with Kevin Bacon. In ANY normal circulatory system, blood that reaches the heart from the veins has to go straight to the lungs to be deoxygenated before it gets sent to the rest of the blood. The serum clearly doesn't do this - the only way that anything could skip the lungs so blatantly is if there was a hole in the heart.

Plot hole: Why on earth would the military be interested in a soldier (sailor, aviator, whatever) who has to go into combat naked and unarmed, and who is detectable by an enemy equipped with a pair of cheap, mass-produced goggles? How would you treat them if they were injured? They would be utterly useless in any form of military operation, even espionage.

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Suggested correction: Presumably the military are interested because Sebastian's research could lead to advanced forms of invisibility technology, such as the ability to turn materials and weapons invisible for use in combat.

You cannot second guess the film like that. Sebastian is making no effort to make non-living items invisible and throughout the film we see that is not possible (why else would Sebastian have to walk about naked?). His research is on animals (and later humans) not "materials and weapons" and is based on their physiology, anatomy and metabolism. How would you inject a rifle or a tank with a serum? They don't have a bloodstream. The military wouldn't see any value at all in this research - maybe they would be interested in invisibility, but not if it was restricted to living creatures as we see here.

You know how easy it would be for an invisible person to infiltrate an enemy's compound undetected and take out powerful leaders or dictators? Especially if no-one knew the technology existed.

Easy? Impossible. First, they would be naked and unarmed. Too bad if you are trying to knock off Vladimir Putin - a taekwondo black belt - with your bare hands during a Moscow winter! Being invisible doesn't mean you can avoid making a sound or triggering a pressure plate or an infrared detector and so on and so on. Final answer - a naked, unarmed combatant would be about as useful as a chocolate teapot in any form of operation, covert or otherwise.

More mistakes in Hollow Man

Janice: What was the clientele like?
Frank: This guy comes up to me and he says: "l like my women like my coffee."
Janice: People still use that line?
Frank: Maybe he meant cold and bitter.
Janice: Very funny.

More quotes from Hollow Man

Trivia: The infamous scene where Sebastian kills a dog was thoroughly investigated by the ASPCA - a non-profit animal welfare advocacy group. They reportedly felt the scene (despite being only shown in heat-vision footage) was so graphic, they suspected it might have been real. Director Paul Verhoeven ended up having to demonstrate how the scene was accomplished - star Kevin Bacon picks up a real dog, but through some slight trickery, was able to quickly switch it out with a realistic fake dog filled with stage-blood when he goes out of frame for about a second.

More trivia for Hollow Man

Question: What is the song playing when Kevin Bacon is driving his car? It wasn't "Power Struggle" by Sunna.

Answer: Do you mean the scene where he is invisible, wearing his mask? If so, the song is called Charlie Big Potato by Skunk Anansie.

Answer: I checked the movie's credits (original concept, I know) then I listened to the song in the film and found the lyrics at http://www.letssingit.com/sunna-power-struggle-1bdk7zz.html and http://84210992.home.icq.com/lyrics.html and I can assure you that it was, in fact, "Power Struggle" by Sunna.

Answer: It's actually Skunk Anansie. I know this song from memory and can attest as a fan of the movie and the scene.

More questions & answers from Hollow Man

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