Corrected entry: In 'Normal Again', season 6, we learn that Buffy was in a mental clinic after telling her parents about vampires. In 'Becoming', season 2, when Joyce found out the truth about Sunnydale why didn't she mention this? It had only happened a year or two before, and a simple 'Oh god, Buffy, you were right' or 'Sorry for sending you to the funny farm, sweetie' would have been the obvious thing for her to say.
Tailkinker
2nd Oct 2003
Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997)
27th Aug 2003
Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997)
Corrected entry: In the season 3 episode "Doppelgangland", which originally aired in 1999, Anya told a barman that she was 1120. This would mean she was born in 879 AD. But in the season 7 episode "Selfless", a flashback to 880 AD showed her as a young woman (about 20). She should've only been one year old.
Correction: In the same way that vampires mark their ages from their 'conversion', Anya might be calculating her age from when she became a vengeance demon.
12th Jan 2004
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Corrected entry: When Faramir shows the hobbits and Gollum how they can leave Osgiliath, he says that the sewer "runs right under the river through to the edge of the city". Why would anyone bother to build a sewer under the river? Their job is to discharge waste into the river to be carried away. (01:37:40)
Correction: It makes perfect sense to build sewage tunnels under a river if the aim is to have a sewage system that discharges at a single point. Osgiliath was the capital city of Gondor at one point, it wouldn't look great to visiting dignitaries to have sewage floating about, so arranging a system with a single discharge point downstream of the city would be highly sensible.
6th Jan 2004
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Corrected entry: When Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas etc. are approaching the Black Gate, you can see Gimli on the back of Eomer's horse. Yet when Gimli speaks his line you can see part of Legolas' arm and chest in front of him. In the next (wide) shot Gimli is on Eomer's horse again.
Correction: That's Merry on Eomer's horse.
2nd Jan 2004
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Corrected entry: In the first movie, it is established that hobbit children have pointed ears. Yet Elanor, whom we see at the very end, does not have them.
Correction: Elanor does have pointed ears - visible when being carried by her father.
19th Dec 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Corrected entry: In the Two Towers Faramir is shown holding Boromir's broken horn. In Return of the King their father has it despite the fact that Faramir is still in Osgiliath.
Correction: A day or two has passed at this point - Faramir could have sent the horn to his father in the interim.
27th Mar 2003
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Corrected entry: The beginning scene has Keyser wearing a hat, which you see when he climbs down the stairs. However when the artist's drawing of Keyser gets faxed to the police station, you can see the whole of his hairline drawn true to life. How would the Hungarian know what his hair looked like if he was wearing the hat? The first scene isn't part of the made up story. (00:04:25 - 01:37:25)
Correction: Keyser takes the hat and coat from the room where he kills the informant - they can be seen hanging up there. The Hungarian witness must have seen Keyser before he found the informant, hence was able to describe his hair.
12th Dec 2003
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Corrected entry: The T-X has an inner frame surrounded by liquid metal. How could it copy Scott who is noticeably shorter than Kritanna Lokken? This is addressed as a special effect issue in the special features. It doesn't explain how it fits with the plot.
Correction: Given that the internal frame is able to reconfigure to form weapons, it seems like it should be a relatively simple matter to alter basic physical parameters like height, particularly as the required range of human heights isn't actually that large.
17th Sep 2003
Red Dwarf (1988)
Corrected entry: From the first moments of Red Dwarf eight, it is established that the Dwarfers are in the prison for committing a crime. If this is the case why wasn't Lister sent to prison in the very first episode for smuggling Frankenstein on board instead of being sent into stasis?
Correction: Actually, this is explained in the book. It talks about how, after Kochanski broke up with Lister, he spent about a month trying to find the least serious offence that would get him into stasis - breaking Quarantine regulations. If it hasn't already been explained, he wanted to get into stasis to get back to Earth 'instantenously' (which was his reason for joining the Corps in the first place). But, the plan went awry, creating the series we know and love.
27th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Corrected entry: Rivendell was built by elves and lived in by elves, so wouldn't the balcony ledges be above the Hobbits heads? It seems a little odd that they seem just like normal balcony ledges to them.
Correction: There's also at least one hobbit living there full-time, namely Bilbo. The elves being a courteous bunch, they'd no doubt create an area for him to live in that's scaled to hobbit proportions, so that he'd feel comfortable.
10th May 2003
X-Men 2 (2003)
Corrected entry: When Stryker stands in the Oval Office to talk about his plan for invading Xavier's school, you can see an 'X' behind him in the decor, just above the door.
Correction: This is not actually an addition for the film - the "X" exists as part of the decor in the real White House.
25th Nov 2003
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Corrected entry: Throughout the entire movie whenever Arnie gets hit or involved in some fight with the TX, his hair and clothes are messed up. However, the TX's hair and wardrobe are always spotless-not even an out of place hair.
Correction: The TX's hair and clothing are not real - they're formed from liquid metal. As such, they'd generally stay in their standard (i.e. neat) configuration. Same was true of the T-1000 in T2.
25th Nov 2003
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
Corrected entry: Moriarty brought the League together to steal their abilities: he gets abilities from Nemo, Mina, Jekyll and the Invisible Man. Dorian Gray is his plant on the team. But why does he bother to recruit Quatermain? Having him on the team doesn't help him any. (Sawyer doesn't help either, but he's an uninvited guest sent from the US).
Correction: The League are supposed to believe that they are a real team, authorised by the British government and performing a real mission. Such a team would need to have a leader, which is where Quatermain comes in. None of the others would be plausible in the role - Nemo wouldn't be trusted by the government because of his previous piratical activities, Jekyll is unreliable, Mina is (a) an unknown quantity and (b) female, either of which would disqualify her from the role, and Skinner is a criminal. Without the presence of a credible leader, the other members of the League might become suspicious that all was not as they had been told. As such, Quatermain is recruited, despite any potential problems that he might cause. In fact, it's even more simple: They needed Quatermain to catch Mr Hyde. They actually SAY that in the movie.
25th Nov 2003
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Corrected entry: When George Clooney and Matt Damon first meet, George slides a ticket along the table, which Matt Damon subtly takes, leaving Mr. Clooney quite impressed. But before Matt takes it, George Clooney looks towards the bar, waves his hand, and is then amazed when the ticket's gone. Matt Damon had about 3 seconds to take it - anyone could grab it in that time.
Correction: While Danny looks away for about three seconds, if you follow the motion of his hand, it's only away from the ticket for about a second. Given that Linus wouldn't have known that Danny was going to take his hand off the ticket at that moment, it does require quite impressive reflexes to grab it within the one-second window.
If you watch closely, as soon as George lifts up his hand, Matt goes for the ticket and grabs it all in the same shot. You can see the corner of the ticket briefly flash on the bottom of the screen proving Matt successfully swiped it before the scene cuts. So even just a second is plenty of time to swipe something since the actor was able to do it. Even still, the movie seems to be implying that Matt takes the ticket while George has his hand on it since the camera pans down on George's hand flat on the table with nothing under it at which point George says, "That's the best lift I've seen you make, yet."
27th Aug 2003
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Corrected entry: If the thieves are surprised/concerned when the security guard places the briefcase on top of the cart where their accomplice is hiding, why does the recording they made have the brief case in exactly the same place?
Correction: That's not a tape. So that things remain exactly as they were, Livingston is simply looping a shot of the empty vault taken from after the briefcase was brought in.
27th Aug 2001
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Corrected entry: How come in one of the final scenes the T-1000 at first needs Sarah to call for Johnny when just a few minutes later he can easily transform into Sarah's shape and call for Johnny himself? He's already sampled her from when he scratched her in the lift earlier. (02:11:00)
Correction: The T-1000 needs to consciously sample a subject - otherwise its memory systems would be filled to capacity with everything that it comes into contact with, which would not be efficient. When it scratches Sarah in the lift, it's attempting to kill them, not take samples. Sampling presumably takes a short but finite time, and, in the end sequence, John may be getting further away. It would save time (and probably sound more authentic) to get Sarah to call for John herself during the sampling process. It's only when that doesn't work that the T-1000 makes the decision to switch to Sarah's form.
22nd Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Corrected entry: When Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli encounter Eomer and his Riders on the Plains of Rohan, they have a little talk before Eomer leaves, crying "We ride North." But Aragorn has been running west, pursuing the Uruk-Hai, so is to the south of Fangorn Forest. Eomer has just come from Fangorn, where he slaughtered the Uruks, so he has just come from the North. If you have a map of Middle-Earth, have a look at it, and you can see that Eomer has come from the North so should, technically, be riding east or west.
Correction: The three hunters are tracking the Uruks, who have made it to the borders of Fangorn. If you look at the map and work out how the Uruks will have travelled to get there, then the hunters, who will be using the same route, should be some distance east and slightly to the south of Fangorn at this point. Eomer's unit has therefore been riding mostly eastwards, so his decision to turn north doesn't represent an about-face.
22nd Nov 2003
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Corrected entry: Hermione says they will violate about 50 school rules by making Polyjuice Potion. When it turns her into a cat/human, she has to go to the infirmary and later Harry and Ron say she will be fine in a few days. Didn't she at least get detention for doing something so against the rules? I would think Hermione getting detention would be big news considering her goody goody brainy reputation.
Correction: Her embarrassing predicament might well be considered punishment enough. Plus there's not necessarily any evidence she was trying to make polyjuice potion - it could have been some sort of permitted animal transformation spell.
22nd Nov 2003
Speed (1994)
Corrected entry: When Jack comes up with the idea to hold the elevator with the cable and says that he has an idea, Harry says "You're not going to shoot them are you?" The next scene has them on the roof and Jack answering "No, we're just going to take them out of the equation." Sure, that seemed good while watching the movie since the answer came just seconds after the question. But in reality, they had to climb out of hte elevator shaft, and run up 20+ flights of stairs. This would have taken at least 4-5 minutes. So why is Jack just answering this question NOW, and why does he answer it as if it was just asked?
Correction: Jack's idea is dependant on there being a crane in the right position on the roof to run the cable down to support the lift. He only replies when he gets to the roof and sees that there is one. During the run up the stairs, there wouldn't be time, or breath, for conversation, so Harry's question has just been left hanging.
31st Aug 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Corrected entry: In the scene where Sam and Frodo make a run to the Black Gate, Gollum grabs both of them by their elvish cloaks, but Gollum isn't hurt from touching it. (00:51:05)
Correction: Gollum is frantic to stop the hobbits from entering the Gate - he would most likely have accepted any pain from touching the cloaks in order to stop them. Anyway, watch the rope sequence again - it does seem that Gollum is seriously exaggerating (if not completely lying about) the rope's effects, presumably in the hope that it will be removed. Once it becomes clear that that's not going to work, he becomes quite calm and changes tack to "swearing to serve". He never mentions anything about the rope causing him pain after that, nor does he seem to be in any great discomfort merely from touching the rope - his subsequent discomfort is from Sam nearly throttling him with it when he pulls Gollum off the rocks. The whole elf-related pain may have been a total falsehood, or, at the very least, a severe overstatement of the truth.
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.
Correction: The truth about Sunnydale was something of a shock for Joyce - it would have taken her a while to absorb it properly. Most likely she did eventually apologise to Buffy about the clinic, once Buffy'd come back in season 3, anyway, but it presumably happened off-camera.
Tailkinker ★