Corrected entry: Bond and Goodhead escape from Jaws in the cable car by throwing a chain over the cable and sliding down. A bad guy in the control booth starts up the gears and the cable car is in pursuit, almost chatching up to Bond and forcing him and Goodhead to drop from the cable. Not possible; the cable car is attached to the moving cable and can only move as fast as it is pulled. No matter how fast that is, Bond is moving with the speed of the cable AND sliding down on the chain. There is no way the cable car could have overtaken him.
Doc
8th Oct 2002
Moonraker (1979)
Correction: Cable cars of that type have two different kinds of cables: puller cables, which move relative to the pylons and stay fixed relative to the gondolas which they pull, as the name suggests; and the much stronger, thicker rail cables, which stay fixed relative to the pylons and the gondolas move along using rollers. Bond and Goodhead slide down a rail cable.
19th Mar 2016
Moonraker (1979)
Plot hole: For the shuttle to land at Drax's Amazon hideout he would need a very long runway, something that could easily be detected by satellite.
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Suggested correction: Why would they need to have their own runway? With everybody else dead, they could just pick from any existing landing sites. Also, it is not clear if they planned to use the shuttles for the initial return at all. Apparently, the pods at the end of the spokes are constructed with independent reentry capability, or else how would Bond's comment about the chances of Jaws and his girlfriend make any sense.
Suggested correction: No reason the Amazon crew couldn't construct one once the gas has dispersed, and everyone else on Earth is dead.
20th May 2020
M*A*S*H (1972)
Baby, It's Cold Outside - S7-E9
Factual error: As Hawkeye performs CPR on the hypothermic soldier, he pumps his arms from his ellbows. CPR is done by keeping the arms stiff and pumping with the whole upper body. Hawkeye as a surgeon would know that. Fun Fact: You can perform CPR one-handed in a pinch, but only as long as you keep your arms stiff.
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Suggested correction: True, but doing CPR the real way is going to likely seriously injure the actor it is being performed upon.
Explaining why mistakes occur does not invalidate them.
Chest compressions can definitely be performed by pumping from the elbow, one or two handed. The first documented use was in 1891, so Hawkeye would be aware of it. However, modern CPR standards, including straight arm procedures, were not developed until at least 1960 by the American Heart Association. Using straight arms and bending at the hips uses the larger muscle groups of the core and legs, which provides more control, as well as stamina. This is not an error for the Korean War era.
Additionally, what Lorg said - you don't want to hurt the actor, you can see his shoulders rise as his arms straighten, giving the illusion of compressions. There is another episode where Hawkeye is performing chest compressions similarly, and yells at the unconscious patient that his arms are getting tired, which is what would happen with bent elbow compressions, and one of the reasons modern technique uses straight arms.
10th Jun 2022
Moonraker (1979)
Plot hole: After the six shuttles take off, there are obviously dozens, if not hundreds of Drax' minions left behind in the base. Not regular employees, but the kind that knows what's coming, if only because Drax is obviously talking about it, e.g. to Bond, quite openly. Would they just stoically stay behind to be gassed? One would think they would mutiny and rush the shuttles wouldn't one?
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Suggested correction: No reason they couldn't have been brainwashed into obeying Drax like here was a god. Further, for all we know, the base could have secure facilities for the employees, who have been sterilized, doubtlessly, to wait until the gas in the atmosphere has dispersed sufficiently. Drax needs ground personnel to enable people to land on Earth later on.
If you have gas-tight bunkers on earth, the whole exercise of taking everybody to orbit would be a bit pointless, wouldn't it?
But Drax has a god complex: he wants to stay in his "untainted cradle of the heavens", instead of the planetary surface. Not to mention, just in case something goes wrong with the Amazon bunker, his master race will be safe and secure in the orbit.
12th Sep 2002
Moonraker (1979)
Corrected entry: In the cable car scene you see Jaws bite the cable in half to stop the cable car, in the next scene you see Jaws climbing on to the other car. After that another villain starts the cable car, for some unknown reason both cars start to move, how is this possible if one of the cables has been bitten in half?
Correction: There are support cables and driving cables, he bit through one of the supporting cables.
That is completely nonsensical. He is biting trough the cable that he stopped moments ago, which makes that the drive cable of the car. The support cables of aerial cable cars don't move, they aren't even a continuous loop. Him biting through that cable makes the gondola jerk, which is correct because the car's freewheeling brakes would activate. What isn't correct is the gondolas being set in motion without replacing that cable.
18th Jan 2021
Jurassic Park (1993)
Corrected entry: In order to open a park like that to the public (and obviously it's close to the opening date) Hammond would have to convince more people than just his investors. In reality, the park would have to pass a security review, and those auditors would definitely ask questions like "What happens in case of a catastrophic computer failure?" Something tells me the answer "All the fences turn off and you have to run across the compound to turn them back on manually" wouldn't sit too well with them.
Correction: We don't know that Hammond is not going to do that. Having to convince the investors is just the first step. Without financing, nothing else matters because the park will never open.
The park is all but finished. You convince investors at the beginning, inspectors at the end. Convincing investors after the fact is just not how it works. Thinking about what the security inspectors will ask at the end is equally bad practice, although I have seen it done that way, if not quite at that scale.
The whole manual reboot had to be done because Dennis Nedry locked them out of the system, so they had to do a hard reboot. Dennis Nedry's virus and meddling also shut the fences down intentionally. In practice the reboot would be done with more time on their hands and someone at the compound ready to reboot quickly enough that all fences go back online in time. In this situation however, they didn't have those luxuries. No system can be fully made failsafe from industrial sabotage or hacking.
29th Sep 2016
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Plot hole: Hogan has his men play romantic music over the radio. Earlier they were afraid of the radio in the observation post being detected. Elsewhere in the series, they try to avoid sending too long to avoid being homed in on - which is correct. Now, if they were to play a whole record at once, wouldn't the homing devices pick up on the transmitter at the camp?
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Suggested correction: It is shown several times in the series that the detectors are brought out at specific times / events. With how much control they have over the camp they would know when those times were / more than likely be able to tamper with them. The other times they were worried were simply because either A. They were close to the scanning times or B. New ones got shipped in that they didn't have time to tamper with yet.
20th Jul 2008
Jurassic Park (1993)
Factual error: At the beginning of the film we are shown an amber mine in the Dominican Republic. This amber is only 45 million years old, Hammond would never bother buying the amber from there as dinosaurs disappeared from the fossil record 65 million years ago.
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Suggested correction: This is assuming that Hammond would restrict himself to a specific period of the earth's history, which makes no sense. Of course Hammond would also be interested in Paleogene or early Tertiary fossil blood! All the proto-birds, giant birds (just think about a Gastornis! What a sensation in a zoo!), not to mention giant mammals like the Megatherion, proto-elephants, proto-rhinoceroses.
There is absolutely no suggestion in Jurassic Park - film or book - that Hammond has any interest in any animals except for dinosaurs. We see no facilities for cloning extinct birds or mammals, nor are they mentioned in his promotional film. The post is correct.
It's specifically mentioned in the book that Hammond was buying huge quantities of amber, even museum-quality jewelry. He was likely getting hold of everything he possibly could to increase chances of finding blood-carrying insects.
There is also absolutely no suggestion that he wouldn't be interested. Surely these would make excellent alternatives / backups in the event he couldn't source enough mosquitos of the era he was most interested in.
As has been pointed out on this site before, inventing deux ex machina explanations for plot holes and factual errors does not invalidate them. Cloning non-egg laying mammals would require vastly different technology to that seen in Jurassic Park. Nowhere in the film is it indicated that Hammond is interested in anything except dinosaurs, nor that he is in any way equipped to clone anything but them.
Hammond buying up any mosquito-containing amber is not a plot hole. He didn't say he wanted exhibits from 45 million years ago, but he also didn't specifically say he wasn't interested. Lack of a statement in a film is not a plot hole.
8th Dec 2018
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
German Bridge Is Falling Down - S1-E7
Continuity mistake: During his experiments to create explosives in the tunnels, Carter has a pretty extensive set of glassware on his workbench. Necessarily he would have to replace (most of) that after each explosion - not to mention various light bulbs, furniture and other non-blast-proof stuff by the way. A lot of that glassware is specialty equipment, it would not be easy to come by even one set of in peacetime for a free civilian. In wartime, for an allied prisoner (even with the heroes' connections) it should be nigh impossible, and totally impossible to have an inexhaustible supply of the stuff. So we can either assume a giant plot hole, or treat it (as I did) as a big continuity mistake.
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Suggested correction: Considering they regularly get equipment of all kind air dropped from "London", a few laboratory instruments and containers would hardly be challenge.
Firstly, considering the number of explosions, it's not "a few" but more like "QUITE a few." Secondly, if they had had the option to receive airdrops at the time, they would just as have had them airdrop the explosives instead of the glassware for carter to blow up, wouldn't they? Or are you suggesting they would have more spare laboratory equipment in store than a wholesale laboratory outfitter, "just in case"?
11th Feb 2018
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Plot hole: In several occasions throughout the story, e.g. S4E18, Hogan attends parties at Stalag 13 wearing an immaculate US dress uniform. Where did he get that? Dress uniforms are not part of the usual kit a bomber crew brings along with them on their missions.
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Suggested correction: Considering they have a tailor (Newkirk) and are air dropped everything from explosives to penicillin, a Class A dress uniform would hardly be a challenge to make or receive.
Klink: "Hogan, where did you get that uniform?!" - Hogan: "Oh, I had OSS airdrop it together with our latest shipment of explosives and ammunition. We brought it in through our tunnel last night and stored it there."
I got it from the Red Cross.
Only a few high ranking intelligence officers are aware of Hogan's mission. Hogan's activities would under normal circumstances be considered fraternisation. While it might be true that he could theoretically obtain a class A uniform via the red cross, doing so would brand him as a collaborator and traitor.
19th Mar 2020
M*A*S*H (1972)
The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan - S5-E6
Other mistake: As Frank cocks his gun in the Swamp, the slide locks open and he has to hit the slide release to get it to move forward. Next he fiddles with the hammer. Next we hear the shot go off. Burns' excuse later is that he was cleaning The Gun and it went off (although admittedly, Frank doesn't always stick to the truth that religiously in situations like that). The slide on a semi-automatic locks open only if the magazine is empty or missing. The Gun locking open is also a clear, unmistakable indication that the breech is empty. He would have to insert a filled mag, then pull the slide back again to chamber a round before The Gun even had the chance to go off. One never does that while cleaning a gun. One does what Frank did to begin with: Pull the slide back without a magazine inserted to make sure the breech is empty.
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Suggested correction: Frank has demonstrated on numerous occasions that he does not follow the rules of safe gun handling, so ascribing his failure to do so is not a mistake.
You are missing the point. His gun is demonstrably unloaded when we last see it. He would either have to change his mind about cleaning it and load it instead, or load it first and then try to clean it (which makes even less sense), neither of which is not supported by anything in the dialogue.
10th Feb 2020
M*A*S*H (1972)
Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler - S4-E9
Corrected entry: When Sydney Freedman asked Capt Chandler if he wasn't in the Army or a B-29 bombardier, that would be impossible. The U.S. Air Force was established Sept 18th, 1947. They controlled all bombing missions and bombers with only U.S. Air Force crews only.
Correction: This may be taking "The Army" too literally. It may technically be incorrect, but in this case, one probably could substitute "The Armed Forces", especially out of the mouth of Sidney, who certainly isn't a stickler for military tables of organisation. What bugs me about this is that from the writers' perspective the distinction would have been much more of a given. I guess one could argue either way, so let the voting begin.
11th Oct 2013
M*A*S*H (1972)
Plot hole: Hawkeye calls a number of people into the mess tent over the PA - the ones he allegedly suspects of being behind the thefts he is suspected of himself. Interestingly enough, Ho Jon, later revealed to be the guilty party, is not on Hawkeye's list - yet he shows up uninvited, just to be ensnared by Hawk's clever ploy. Note also that he had no way of knowing what the purpose of the meeting was, so we cannot ascribe to him the motive of wanting to find out how much Hawkeye knew.
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Suggested correction: Of course Ho-Jon would come to the tent; it makes perfect sense, since he is the "houseboy" of the Swamp and, consequently, a sort of personal assistant to the Swampmen (Hawkeye, Trapper, and Spearchucker). He simply followed Trapper and Spearchucker to the tent after the announcement, probably figuring they might need him in some way.
It's late evening. It's, as far as anyone knows, an official meeting. Ho Jon isn't "standing attendance", he's sitting at the table (which is very convenient for him to hide his hands later). If he WERE standing attendance, it would be the only time in the series he does so in the mess tent instead of the swamp. It would also be the only time he's attending a meeting anyone called. Also he isn't a "house boy" - that would be totally out of character for Hawkeye, see "The Moose" - he's more an adoptee and roommate who makes himself useful. And last but not least: What a convenient coincidence, that just the guy who turns out to be the culprit would turn up uninvited, because he "might be needed" instead of staying the hell away because he is guilty and suspicious of the whole affair! Had - HAD, which he hasn't - Trapper said "Ho Jon, you better come too", you could call it a Deus Ex, but the way it is, it's just a plot hole, to quote Margaret Houlihan, "period, end of sentence."
16th Aug 2016
M*A*S*H (1972)
Corrected entry: In this episode, Potter and company are being introduced to white phosphorous that is starting to be used. But in Season 2, Episode 1, "Divided We Stand", as Henry and Hawkeye come out of the O.R. a wounded soldier is brought in on a Jeep with white phosphorous burns, and they knew what to do.
Correction: Even if they knew how to deal with it at the time, the information might not have been common knowledge. As WP came to be used more frequently, the Army would send instructors to field hospitals to make certain everyone was up on the latest technique for dealing with it. (Col. Potter was also not in the earlier episode you mention, and he wants to hear the information).
Understood, but Potter was there in Season 4, Episode 24 "Deluge" when a WP case was brought in.
Remember that the main plot of this episode is that Col. Potter made a rookie mistake that almost cost a kid's life, and is fearing that he's too old to hack it as a doctor anymore. If the Army's learned something he doesn't know, he wants to know it.
Correction: "New" to the doctors on the front lines and "new" to the doctors back at HQ could be two different things.
It might be old news to the 4077th but new to the Army in general. Without asking a real Army doctor, Instructional briefings like this aren't optional. They don't ask if you already know it. The point of the scene is NOT "How many times has the 4077th already done this?" The point is "Potter thinks he's too old and can't hack it anymore, so IF the Army has learned something new, HE wants to hear it." And also shows us "Potter is on edge about something. Maybe we should call Sidney Green."
You could be the world's top expert in White Phosphorus, but if you're in the Army, and they tell you "You're going to attend a lecture on White Phosphorus," That's called an order and you do it, Mr. White Phosphorus, whether you like it or not.
Correction: Captain Simmons said the new weapon is "white phosphorus rounds." Phosphorus before then was likely used as part of artillery shells.
Correction: I know you can't worry about MASH's timeline or you'll go insane, but six seasons pass between this episode and that one. The Army medics could have learned some new things about treating the injuries in whatever time passed. And again, Col. Potter thinks he's slipping in this episode, so he wants to hear every word, and that's the main point of the scene.
23rd Jan 2017
Batman: Arkham Origins
Corrected entry: Batman takes the shock gloves from Electrocutioner's body, but he doesn't take the battery packs that charge the gloves, just the gloves themselves. Later, he fights using the gloves despite them having no power source.
Correction: Having built all of his own gear, Batman is skilled enough in engineering and micro-circuitry to rig up a power source smaller than the Electrocutioner's gear to operate the gloves.
I think that's a reach - just because we're not shown something doesn't mean it doesn't happen. And Batman's gear clearly has a power source already.
We didn't see every stage of the construction of the Batmobile either, but it exists. We can presume there was some time-compression where we didn't see Batman yank wires out of the walls and make spot-welds on circuit boards. Just because we didn't see that doesn't mean he didn't.
20th Feb 2018
M*A*S*H (1972)
Last Laugh - S6-E3
Corrected entry: Leo Bardonaro supposedly left his hat at the hotel where he used BJ's name as an alias. General Fred Fox made BJ put on the hat to prove he was at the hotel. When Leo shows back up at the Swamp he has his hat back on.
Correction: He could easily have more than one hat.
6th Jan 2019
M*A*S*H (1972)
Trivia: After Harry Morgan joined the cast as Col. Sherman T. Potter, the character is shown numerous times painting portraits of the main characters. However, he never painted them. The studio prop master farmed out the work to local talent who was happy for the work. None of those artists have been named.
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Suggested correction: This entry is contradictory with another Trivia item which states that Harry Morgan, being an amateur painter in real life, did indeed produce at least some of the paintings.
6th Jan 2019
M*A*S*H (1972)
Revealing mistake: While painting Winchester's portrait, the camera looks across Potter's position. As it does, the picture is totally finished, though Potter acts like he's working on it.
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19th Dec 2018
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
Character mistake: Toward the end of the movie, the behavior of Newt is totally out of character - not just for him, but for any sane person. Newt tries to save Credence, and he has just gotten him to stop attacking and actually listening - when the other wizards blast what Newt knows to be essentially a traumatized and abused child to kingdom come. But Newt isn't the least bit distressed or mad, he just shrugs it off in a "shit happens, life goes on" kind of manner, catches Grindelwald for them and helps them save the world, happy as a flea and not giving a damn about the recent death of Credence. Only a complete and utter sociopath would be totally unmoved by the death of a child they were trying to save. A sane, feeling person (like Newt) should be at the president's throat spells blazing, cursing her and the whole American Wizard-hood to the nether regions of hell and not giving a blue damn whether or not they are exposed and in trouble, and whether or not Grindelwald goes free, because in that moment, in his eyes they would be hardly better than him. It is even more out of character since Newt is until that moment depicted as extremely protective of his creatures.
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Suggested correction: Newt certainly does show sorrow for not being able to save Credence, but you are putting too much on Newt. Through the whole movie we are shown and told multiple times that Tina is the one close to Credence. She is the one who saved him once before and lost her job for it. Newt is a stranger and tries to help. And also not a powerful enough wizard enough to start fighting the President and her aurors. You decide he shows no emotion which he does, but at the end of the day he is not the one with closest connection to Credence.
Yes, he does show sorrow (which I never claimed he didn't), but only for a moment, and not nearly as much as say he earlier showed when his suitcase, containing mere animals, was taken from him. His reaction neither feels natural nor would be considered normal in a psychological review. Also you completely overlook the fact that newt is close to Tina, and come to think of it, her reaction is hardly normal either considering her history with Newt. Yes, admittedly I drew a rather colorful picture of a possible reaction newt might show, "spells blazing" is probably a bit on the extreme side. He'd probably rather tell her to go to hell and solve her own problems though instead of being eager to help.
26th Aug 2003
The Mummy (1999)
Corrected entry: After the American who wears glasses has had his eyes and tongue taken by Imhotep, he still is able to articulate words pretty well, which, if his tongue was really gone, would be impossible-try talking without moving your tongue sometime, and see how unintelligible you are. (01:04:25)
Correction: It is not true that one cannot verbalize at all without a tongue. Actually the actor does a pretty good job simulating the effect a missing tongue would have on a person's speech. (Ignoring for the moment the fact that a person who just had their tongue and eyes ripped out wouldn't talk at all but scream pretty much non-stop for the time being).
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Correction: Bond cannot be both sliding down the cable AND moving with the speed of the cable as you describe. Either he is sliding: in which case the moving cable will have no effect on his speed, OR his chain is NOT sliding but is in full contact with the cable: hence he would travel at the same speed as the cable. There were also several cables to each car,so he may have been sliding down one that wasn't moving.
I think what was meant was Bond is sliding down a moving cable, which means the motion of the cable adds to Bond's motion, which together is greater than the motion of the cable car, which only moves at the speed of the cable. It is like hurricanes often have the strongest winds on the right side of the eye, because the storm's motion adds to the circulating wind. You are correct that Bond could have been sliding along a non-moving cable.