Character mistake: The scene in the outdoor Parisian cafe is incredibly daft. First, the cafe owners call James Coburn's bizarrely-accented Australian to the telephone to keep him out of the way as their accomplices assassinate three uniformed German officers seated in the cafe in a drive by shooting. They then toast the killings with cognac, and that is the mistake - not the shootings, not the luring away of Coburn - the mistake is that the cafe proprietors celebrate the assassination of the German officers in broad daylight, in the open, without even stopping to think that such an action would have them shot, because all of this is done in the direct view of passers-by in broad daylight. Do they think those three German officers were the only ones in Paris? How did they know Coburn wasn't an undercover Gestapo agent or a French collaborator? Don't they stop to consider that in an occupied city machine gun fire is going to draw some attention from the authorities, who might just wonder what a couple of bullet riddled corpses are doing lying about the place?
Character mistake: After Macer shoots the shotgun man during the house raid, she checks his pulse without removing the weapon from his hands first.
Character mistake: On the way approaching town the camera pans to a woman's hanged body with a sign written in German around her neck. One of the crew asked Wardaddy what it said, to which he answered something like "It reads 'I am a coward who refused to fight for the German people'." That sign actually translates to "I wanted my children not to go fight" or Anglicized for better effect, "I refused to let my children to go to war." Interestingly, once into town, there appears the corpse of a hanged man with a sign written in German that does translate to what Wardaddy said of the first sign. (00:43:00)
Character mistake: In the opening scenes when Brian goes back to the shop, he demands that he needs some nitrous to boost his low top speed. Well I'm sure that most tuners will agree that more horsepower doesn't equal more top speed, it only contributes IF you have a transmission that can handle it and distribute it. (00:09:53)
Character mistake: During the opening space battle, Obi-Wan's ship falls under attack by buzz-droids, who proceed to cut into his fighter, disabling a number of systems and leading Anakin to try some decidedly dangerous moves to get rid of them. Both Anakin and Obi-Wan are acknowledged experts in the use of the Force and both have been shown to use the Force routinely, even for relatively mundane activities. It's also been firmly established that the Force works on droids and that the Force-user can still affect others through windows, viewscreens and so forth. Yet neither thinks to use the Force to deal with the buzz-droids. (00:05:10)
Suggested correction: There's no evidence this is a mistake. In fact, it's logically self-defeating. As you noted, both Anakin and Obi-Wan are trained Jedi Knights. If the option of knocking the droids off with the Force was indeed feasible, presumably they would have done it. There are any number of reasons why they didn't (they couldn't concentrate enough in the middle of a pitched naval battle to commit a Force attack, the droids could have been attached magnetically, etc.) but the bottom line is that if telekinesis was an option they would have done it.
Character mistake: As they take Han away, watch Lando. Just before he tilts his mask down so we can see who he is, he whacks his head on the doorway. (00:16:20)
Character mistake: When Mike and the SAS team leader first meet, the team leader introduces himself as Will Davis, Captain. However at the near end when they say goodbye to each other, Mike addresses him as Lieutenant. (01:07:35 - 01:25:35)
Character mistake: When Picard is explaining the Enterprise to Lily he states that it has 24 decks. Yet earlier on, a crewman had reported to Worf that the Borg had taken over "decks 26 up to 11".
Character mistake: When Angelo sets the Vulcan down in the sea, he blows the canopy and extends the landing gear. As the plane settles, he attempts to release his harness, then has his air line cut by Largo. He futilely beats on the harness release when all he had to do was pull the face curtain handles to trigger the ejection seat, which would not only blow him clear of the plane but would separate him from the seat itself. Having trained for two years for this specific mission, he would undoubtedly be familiar with ejection procedures.
Character mistake: In the scene at Roger Podacter's condo building, you hear the reporter mention that he allegedly leaped to his death from his own 20th story balcony. As the camera pans down, you can see the flashlights and people up on his balcony doing the investigation. This is the 2nd from the top floor. If you count the floors as the camera moves down, there are more than 20 floors to this building. The number is actually closer to 30. Even though it is difficult to get an exact count of the floors, it is still possible to tell with 100% certainty that his unit was on a floor higher than 20.
Character mistake: When Richard Pryor is on the computer attempting to formulate Kryptonite to kill Superman, a screen shot of the computer shows the word "recieved." The I and E should be the other way around. (00:59:25)
Character mistake: When Ray and Winston are driving across the Brooklyn Bridge around midnight in the Ectomobile, Ray quotes a verse of scripture claiming to be "Revelation 7:12". What he quotes is actually Revelation 6:12. (01:03:38)
Character mistake: The crew many times refers to the sub as a ship - subs are always called a boat.
Character mistake: The story arc set on the Mole covers one week. The Highlanders attempt to refloat the beached trawler on the last day of that week. One of them confidently states that the tides are three-hourly. (The audience know this isn't true because we've seen a similar conversation between the Admiral and the Colonel.) At least some - if not all - of those Tommies have been on the beach all week. Have none of them have noticed that the tides are six-hourly?
Character mistake: When the biologist guy talks about writing code for DNA he names the four codes as A, G, T, P, when they are actually A, G, T, C.
Character mistake: When airport control makes the call to "change the boards" to delayed, Auckland (New Zealand) is spelled Aukland.
Character mistake: In the first scene inside the Prometheus, after she comes out of deep sleep, Vickers asks David for a robe, and asks "how long?" meaning how long have they been asleep. David, a robot, answers "2 years, 4 months, 18 days, 36 hours, 15 minutes." The actual statement from this highly precise robot character would have been "2 years, 4 months, 19 days, 12 hours, 15 minutes."
Character mistake: After Spike comes out of the evolution device, he asks Iggy "Do you know what the square root of 26481 is?" And then answers "191". 191 squared is actually 36481. (00:47:20)
Character mistake: Tej mentions that the BMWs they used were factory-line, ie. unmodified. Hobbs then says that they were twin-turbo V8s "spitting out 560 ponies". The BMW M5s they have are E60 models (2005-2010) powered by a naturally aspirated 5.0 liter V10, producing 507 horsepower. (00:38:30)
Character mistake: In the courtyard of the castle there is an anti-aircraft gun. You could probably not find a worse place for a gun like that even if you tried (except maybe if you put it inside, in a windowless room). In the position it is placed it can only fire at targets directly above the castle. What you want to do is fire at targets before they reach the castle. It would be better if they placed it on the roof, or even near the village below.
Suggested correction: Regarding the French cafe proprietors making a toast, if questioned, they could simply claim they were celebrating surviving the incident and/or needed a calming drink. Considering any ensuring panic and confusion after the shooting, pedestrians would hardly notice the waiters. Attention would be on the dead Germans. French citizens most likely wouldn't care or cooperate with the authorities. Being indifferent to German officers getting killed is not proof of involvement. Most French hardly be remorseful over their enemies' deaths. Antagonism toward the Germans was normal. It would be more suspicious if the proprietors showed concern. As far as helping James Coburn, it was pretty obvious he was neither French or German, and they took a chance to protect an innocent bystander. Also, it was to inject some subtle levity into the scene.
raywest ★
Rubbish. During the occupation Paris was crawling with collaborators and undercover German agents. The cafe owners are drinking champagne - not much of a nerve stiffener! - and they clink glasses in celebration of the shooting of the German officers. Their actions are beyond obvious to anyone that can see them. They simply would not take the risk and would act as if they were horrified to see their customers shot dead in their cafe.
Nope. Even if collaborators were "crawling" around, no-one would expect any French citizen to care about Nazis being killed. If questioned they can claim it was for the other reasons already stated (and they are not drinking champagne). It does not prove their involvement. Little would come of them being interrogated. As mentioned, this is a movie, and the scene injects subtle humor and is intended to show the audience that they are involved in the coordinated plan.
raywest ★
Again, rubbish. The Nazis occupying Paris arrested anyone suspected of belonging to or assisting the Resistance on the slightest pretext, and the cafe owners who were celebrating the deaths of three German officers would be in a Gestapo prison cell before the bodies of the dead Germans were cold. What they do after the Germans are shot is blatant, irresponsible, dangerous and completely unnecessary. They could have saved their celebrations for later when it was safe.
Once again, NOPE. Clinking glasses is not proof of possibly belonging to or aiding the Resistance. They also were not wildly celebrating. It was a quick, low-key action, and they looked both nervous and relieved. Also, I re-watched the scene on YouTube. When the car pulls up to shoot the Nazis, the street around them is completely empty. No witnesses anywhere. People are only seen far in the background. The phone call just before the shooting is a signal and indicates this was well-coordinated and timed. Secondly, the story needs to move quickly, and insignificant characters would not be seen toasting later. This also showed James Coburn (and us) that the waiters were potential allies.
raywest ★
You think the Nazis needed proof of someone's involvement in the Resistance? They arrested, tortured and shot innocent people on the unsubstantiated word of pro-German informers! No witnesses anywhere? What about Coburn? They didn't know who he was or where he was from. For all they know he could have been a Gestapo agent himself. The scene is absurd. Nobody is so stupid as to do what they did at the risk of dying horribly if caught doing it.
It should also be noted that the cafe owners duck behind their counter before the car carrying the gunmen shows up, and they get Coburn to do the same. They just provided incontrovertible evidence that they knew about the assassinations ahead of time.
Yes, they absolutely were part of it, and the hit was timed and planned in advance for the opportune moment. This was not a random act, and the phone call is the signal that sets the events in motion. When they made the toast, they knew the street was completely empty and obviously felt it was safe to do so. Also, if Coburn was a spy or collaborator, he would have warned the Nazis, not hidden behind the counter. THIS IS A MOVIE, NOT REAL LIFE.
raywest ★