Continuity mistake: When Elsa is walking down the middle of the street through Storybrooke, she is leaving a trail of ice on the road behind her. Shortly after seeing a wedding dress in a store window, she walks towards the store, and the trail of ice behind her is gone. (00:07:00 - 00:07:35)
AD
21st Oct 2014
Once Upon a Time (2011)
3rd Oct 2014
The Mindy Project (2012)
Continuity mistake: When Mindy arrives at work, she goes into Danny's office and finds him on the floor in his underwear. She closes the door behind her, but a few seconds later, the door is wide open again. (00:02:25)
1st Oct 2014
Agents of SHIELD (2013)
Factual error: When Lance Hunter is about to be captured by the military at the beginning of the episode, the troops arrive in a convoy of humvees. The humvees all have Virginia license plates on them, but U.S. Military tactical vehicles do not use license plates. Even if we assume they were using Hummer H1s instead of tactical humvees (commonly used as a substitute on TV and in movies when producers can't get military humvees), military-owned non-tactical vehicles do use license plates, but they don't use state license plates as seen here. Instead, they use official U.S. Government license plates like the ones on the Ford sedan Hunter was dropped off from prior to meeting General Talbot. (00:01:55)
23rd Aug 2014
Gravity (2013)
Factual error: When Ryan enters the space station and removes her spacesuit, she is shown wearing only a tank top and boy shorts. In reality, according to NASA's official webpage, astronauts wear a liquid cooling and ventilation garment and an absorption garment (space diapers) under their suit. (00:38:45)
6th Apr 2014
The Marine 3: Homefront (2013)
Factual error: On the Miz's certificate of appreciation hanging on his refrigerator, the words "Department of Defence" are visible. "Defence" is the British spelling of the word defense, and any official U.S. military document with that word would have used the U.S. spelling. (00:14:30)
24th Feb 2014
Weeds (2005)
Plot hole: If Andy really did enlist into the Army Reserves and "forgot about it" like he claimed a warrant for his arrest for desertion would have been issued, which the police would have seen when he was arrested for pot possession in the episode "Lude Awakening." After seeing the warrant, the police would have called the Army, and he would have been returned to military control to face desertion charges. He would not have been released and sent a letter a few weeks later simply telling him to report for duty or face military prison; the option to report for duty would have no longer been available when he was gone long enough to get put in deserter status.
24th Jan 2014
Enlisted (2013)
Continuity mistake: After Derrick reveals to Randy that he cheated for him in Basic Training so he would pass his marksmanship test, he smashes his cake, causing some of it to splash on Derrick's uniform. At first, frosting is all over Derrick's top, but seconds later, there is much less of it on him. There wasn't enough time for him to wipe off the frosting between shots. (00:07:20)
16th Jan 2014
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999)
Factual error: The episode took a lot of liberties to further the plot when Amelia Albers was arrested by the Coast Guard in ADA Barba's office. While the story mentioned a real controversial military pamphlet on how victims should respond to a sexual assault, at the time the episode took place, the military was under a massive investigation over sexual assaults in Washington, was being widely criticized for lack of assault victim support, and had a bill being considered in Congress to make it easier for victims to report their attackers. There is no way any military prosecutor would have been given clearance to charge Amelia with adultery or fraternization while the men she was accused of sleeping with were arrested and already on trial for gang-raping her. Doing so would bring a lot of unwanted bad press and a possible congressional investigation on the Coast Guard that would almost certainly want to know why they are attempting to cover up a rape by charging the victim instead, especially when the rape victim was an admiral's daughter.
16th Jan 2014
Enlisted (2013)
Factual error: While the brothers were fighting with each other, they were interrupted by the flag being raised and stopped fighting to salute the flag. The wrong song was playing when the flag was being hoisted. On real Army bases, Reveille is supposed to play during the raising of the flag, but the show had the end of "To the Colors" (what is played when the flag is being lowered in the evening) playing instead. (00:14:00)
16th Jan 2014
Enlisted (2013)
9th Jan 2014
Arrow (2012)
Factual error: There is no way Laurel Lance would have been allowed on the prosecution team for Moira Queen's murder trial. Due to the facts that she both dated and as a lawyer represented the defendant's son, the defendant's daughter used to intern for her, and her boyfriend was one of the people killed in the Glades, it would have taken all of two seconds for the court to have her removed if she didn't willingly recuse herself, since her presence would be a major conflict of interest.
3rd Dec 2013
The Bourne Legacy (2012)
Factual error: Aaron Cross claims he got into the Army because his recruiter lied on his application and added 12 points to his IQ so he would meet the minimum. The problem with that claim is the military does not take your IQ into consideration for enlistment. The military uses the ASVAB to determine academic qualification, and it is not a measurement of your IQ. Also, in order to prevent dishonest recruiters from altering test scores, recruits are tested in a neutral location and have their scores recorded by a third party. (01:21:15)
2nd Dec 2013
The L Word (2004)
Factual error: Throughout the season, there are multiple times where soldiers are shown with major deficiencies in their uniforms. It would take too long to point out every single mistake, so the most obvious ones to point out would be when Colonel Davis is wearing her name tag above her unit awards while in her Class A uniform and when Tasha was wearing the Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB) while in her Army Combat Uniform. The name tag goes below unit awards on the Class A uniform, and the CIB is only awarded to soldiers who are in an infantry or Special Forces job, neither of which were open to women when this episode took place. (00:06:40 - 00:07:30)
2nd Dec 2013
The L Word (2004)
Let's Get This Party Started - S5-E4
Factual error: Two U.S. Army officers arrive at Alice's apartment to question her about her suspected homosexual relationship with Tasha and then start going through her apartment looking for signs of the relationship. In reality, this would be highly illegal and out of the authority of the Army, considering Alice is a civilian with no ties to the military. No JAG lawyer worth his salt would even consider ordering something like this because it would open the Army up to a very embarrassing lawsuit and could potentially lead to harassment charges against the officers as well.
18th Sep 2013
Street Fighter (1994)
Character mistake: When Guile promises to rescue the hostages while on camera with Bison, he makes it a point to mention Charlie by name to reassure him that he wasn't forgotten. Anyone in charge of a major hostage recovery operation would avoid naming a specific hostage unknown to the enemy due to the special focus that the enemy may put on that hostage for further abuse. This was promptly proven when Bison specifically chose Charlie to transform into a beast due to Guile identifying him as a personal friend.
4th Aug 2013
Black Snake Moan (2006)
Plot hole: A few days after deploying, Ronnie returns home due to being discharged from the National Guard because of his anxiety disorder. In reality, being medically discharged could take months or longer, depending on how long it takes the Army to decide on follow-up medical care and possible post-discharge disability compensation. If the Army suspects that he concealed an anxiety diagnosis before he enlisted, that could result in an additional investigation for possible fraudulent enlistment charges.
20th Feb 2013
Valentine's Day (2010)
Other mistake: While flying home from overseas, Kate is wearing earrings while she is wearing the Army Combat Uniform (ACU). At the time the movie took place, female soldiers were not authorized to wear earrings while wearing combat uniforms. I could dismiss this as a character mistake if Kate was a private fresh out of basic (I once corrected a real female soldier who just finished basic that was wearing earrings), but Julia Roberts is portraying a captain in the movie and a captain would have known better.
13th Feb 2013
Melancholia (2011)
Factual error: The movie's final scene spectacularly shows planet Melancholia colliding with the Earth, causing the destruction of the planet and everybody dying. The problem is that, in reality, tidal forces from Melancholia would have at a minimum caused extreme natural disasters when the planet made its first pass of Earth. When it turned around to come back (another mistake in itself considering powerful gravity forces would have been needed to cause the planet to do a 180 to hit the Earth), entering Melancholia's Roche limit would have destroyed all life on Earth before actual impact and may have torn the Earth itself apart before the actual collision.
1st Jun 2012
Battleship (2012)
Factual error: How does the main hero Lieutenant Alex Hopper even get into the Navy as an officer in the first place with a felony breaking and entering on his record? You need at least a Secret clearance and a good moral background to commission as an officer, neither of which would be something Alex can get with a felony on his record.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: He was enlisted prior to becoming an officer. You can get a waiver for a lot of things in the Navy, especially with a good record as enlisted.
This entry was already previously corrected for the same reason (arguing that Alex got a criminal waiver) and returned to being a mistake after more details were submitted. The issue isn't joining the Navy; it's being granted a security clearance required for commissioning as an officer with the felony on his record. It may have eventually been possible for him to get a waiver to commission after an extended period of time, but not within the movie's timeframe between his brother ordering him to join in 2005 and the start of the 2012 portion of the movie showing him already being a lieutenant long enough to be eligible for promotion to lieutenant commander at the end of the movie. Even if we assume they ignored the minimum time requirements to promote to lieutenant commander as a reward for his heroism, there's still the matter of how long he would have needed to be an officer to get to lieutenant in the first place prior to the invasion.
You can get felonies reduced to misdemeanors after completion of things like probation or several years of good conduct in the military.
While it is true that some felonies can be reduced after meeting certain conditions put in place by the court, that doesn't change the fact that the original conviction would be what the military would look at when determining whether or not to give him the security clearance he needed to apply to be an officer. Assuming he joined immediately after he was arrested (which in itself is nearly impossible; while you can get a criminal waiver to join after you complete your sentence, joining the military in lieu of going to jail isn't something the military allowed since after the Vietnam War), that still gives him less than seven years to do his enlisted time, get waivers approved to get a clearance with a felony conviction, go to OCS, and get promoted to O-3 all before the invasion.
31st May 2010
Iron Man (2008)
Other mistake: When Tony's convoy in Afghanistan was ambushed at the beginning of the movie, he was riding in a non-armored HMMWV (Humvee). Prior to 2007, all vehicles that leave the bases in Iraq and Afghanistan are up-armored; under no circumstances would you be allowed to leave a base in a soft vehicle. The Airmen were wearing the Airman Battle Uniform, which was released for use in the Middle East around 2007, so the movie couldn't have taken place before that time period. Some people may try to correct this by claiming that the military doesn't have enough up-armored vehicles to go around, and they just got the short end of the stick. That is not the case today like it was a few years ago. Even if it were the case, the military wouldn't put a passenger who would be considered a "high-value target" to the enemy like Tony at risk for capture or death in a soft vehicle, especially with his knowledge of weapon systems that can be used against the U.S. if he were captured.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.