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2012 (2009) - 32 mistakes

starring Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Glover, John Cusack, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Woody Harrelson (add more)

Genres: Action, Drama, Sci-fi, Thriller

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Updated this week Plot hole: After taking off from Las Vegas for Tibet, our heroes try to refuel the Antonov in Hawaii, only to find the islands devastated. The route from Las Vegas to Tibet takes you nowhere near Hawaii. In fact, Hawaii is only 500 km (300 miles) closer to Tibet than Las Vegas. Also, they expect to go down somewhere in the South China Sea, but the route from Hawaii to Tibet would take them just north of Japan and nowhere near the South China Sea, which is 3000 km (1900 miles) further south.

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Character mistake: In his blog of the impending disaster, Charlie Frost mentions that Albert Einstein supported the 1958 "Earth Crust Displacement" theory, but Einstein died in 1955.

Edit Submitted by Cubs Fan Time
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Continuity: As the heads of state decide to open the gates, we see the countdown timer in the background go from 14:40 remaining to 14:39. We cut to a different angle, and it's back up to 14:41.

Edit Submitted by Jon Sandys
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Other: Given that the main characters are from southern California, it is unreasonable to believe that a father and his two children would drive the 1000 miles one way to spend a weekend camping in Yellowstone National Park, nor would they be able to return home in only a few hours, following the call from the mother.

Edit Submitted by Scoutmaster253
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Factual error: Gross defiance of the laws of inertia. Cars falling off the back of a moving plane will carry the momentum in the same direction of the plane. It seems to have the opposite effect in this film. The cars are propelled in the wrong direction.

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Factual error: About an hour into the movie the plane with our heroes in it is being chased by a pyroclastic flow from the Yellowstone eruption. The flow at one point fully overtakes the plane. A pyroclastic flow is comprised of hot gas and rock sometimes over 1000 decrees Celcius. It not just dust and smoke. The plane would have been ripped apart by both the temperature and the fast flying rocks. Instead it came out of the flow without a scratch.

Edit Submitted by lionhead
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Character mistake: Nima says that Tenzin will meet them at the West Gate of Cho Ming valley, but a sign at the gate says it is the East Gate.

Edit Submitted by Jedd Jong
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Factual error: The astrophysicists talk about the solar neutrinos "mutating" into new particles. This is pure pseudoscientific nonsense- there are only three possible types of neutrino, none of which interact with normal matter to any significant effect. Neutrinos regularly switch between these types. Also, particles don't "mutate", which is a genetic change. No physicist would use this term.

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Other: When the monk arrives with Jackson and the others at the gate leading into the secret entrance of the ships, the countdown to impact timer reads about 28 minutes. It is highly implausible that the group, which contains elderly and small children, are able to get to the top of what looks to be a 100 story staircase in less than 15 minutes without breaking a sweat. Once they are inside the hatch, the countdown to impact timer reads about 13 minutes.

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Other: When the decision to open the gates to let everyone in is made, the countdown is at 15 minutes. When the gate is fully lowered and people start running in, the timer is at 4 minutes. However they can get all the thousands of people on and raise the gates in 4 minutes? It took 11 minutes to go down and 30 seconds to get back up.

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Revealing: The scene of rioting in the UK features a load of police officers running through a crowd. All the officers shown are wearing black tunics and custodian helmets worn with chinstraps. This is obviously old stock footage from a protest in the 80's or early 90's as nowadays, (and especially in 2012) the tunic has not been worn as general wear for well over 15 years, and Brit cops are now better equipped for protests with body armour, NATO helmets, flame retardant overalls, etc.

Edit Submitted by martinjfox
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Audio problem: An early scene in the movie has Chinese soldiers recruiting Tibetans to work on a secret project which they are told is a dam. As the scene ends, the sound of explosives draws everyone's eyes towards the mountains, where the explosions can be seen several miles in the distance. The sight and sound of these explosions take place simultaneously. Sound travels much slower than light. In reality, there should have been some delay before the sound of the explosions was heard.

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Factual error: American officials, including the president himself, continually refer to the other G8 leaders as "heads of state". They are, in fact, heads of government. The United States is the only G8 country which combines the head of state and head of government into a single position. The others have a separate prime minister (or chancellor in Germany) and president (or sovereign in the UK, Canada and Japan). No American official is likely to make this mistake in reality.

Edit Submitted by Necrothesp
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Continuity: Jackson accidentally pushes Gordon's Porsche into a hole, however, in the overhead shot of the limousine leaving, there is no sign of the hole the Porsche fell into.

Edit Submitted by GalahadFairlight Picture Time
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Factual error: In the poster shot and in the film, the wave carrying the carrier JFK into a collision with the White House comes crashing in from the west because the south portico of the White House is seen. The Atlantic Ocean is east of Washington, so the wave should come from the other direction.

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Factual error: Air Force One is still complete when it strikes Ark 4 which is simply not possible. The aircraft would have been obliterated by the air pressure wave and the resulting huge tidal wave that hit it, so that only debris would have hit the Ark, certainly not the complete intact aircraft we saw.

Edit Submitted by GalahadFairlight Time
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Factual error: It's stated after the Yellowstone Caldera explodes that the Ash Cloud would hit Las Vegas first, then St. Louis, Chicago and so on. We see Jackson and his family land in Vegas, then the action moves to D.C., where we learn the V.P.'s chopper goes down in the ash cloud in Pittsburgh. A pyroclastic cloud that we see moves at 450mph. It would reach Vegas long before it reaches Pittsburgh. Vegas would have been long gone before Jackson and family could reach it.

Edit Submitted by dablues7
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Factual error: Little over an hour into the movie, Yellowstone blows up into a huge volcano. The pyroclastic flow that follows the camper is going at such a speed (the speed of the flow can be seen when the plane is in the air) that it would have overtaken the camper well before it has reached the plane. Even if the cloud would have been slowed down by hills, it would have, after the camper reached the plane, overtaken the plane long before it could take off.

Edit Submitted by lionhead
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Other: As Air Force One is in the air, one of the crew announces to Anheuser that all ground communications are down. Yet after Air Force One has landed in Tibet, Satnam is able to call Helmsley to warn of the approaching tsunami using his mobile phone.

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Continuity: When the RV camper van lands after its jump on the runway, you can see the steering gear and passenger front wheel has collapsed. In the next shot when Jackson enters the camper to retrieve the map, you can see the wheel is fine, and then its damaged again in the next long shot.

Edit Submitted by GalahadFairlight