Best adventure movie character mistakes of all time

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More The Hunt for Red October character mistakes
Flight of the Phoenix picture

Character mistake: It's all very heroic and manly but the effort put into dragging the Phoenix into its takeoff position once the engine is started is totally wasted. Townes and A.J. are both experienced pilots and Elliott is supposedly a genius aeronautical engineer - they must surely be aware that the engine power required to taxi an aircraft is trivial compared to that required to lift it into the air. Even taking into account the drag of the skids and wheels, if that engine cannot propel the aircraft at a few kilometers an hour on the ground it cannot propel it to take off speed, nor keep it up once airborne. They are not there to steer the aircraft - they are taking the strain of the whole weight of the air-frame, dragging it into place, and the energy input of eight exhausted, underfed people would add nothing to the contribution of a 2500 bhp aircraft engine in moving the Phoenix. They are not trying conserve fuel - they had enough fuel for an extended flight with both engines at full throttle, so they have easily enough to run one engine throttled back to reduce stress on the air-frame, which they say they are going to do.

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Stuart Little 2 picture

Character mistake: When Stuart calls home from the pay phone he's talking into the wrong end of the phone.

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Wonder Woman 1984 picture

Character mistake: Barbara is in her office looking for the one item they need help to identify when Diana walks in. She says "OK, item number 23." She suddenly finds it saying "here it is" and reaches in the box to grab the Dreamstone. The ticket says item #24. (00:22:18 - 00:22:50)

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Die Another Day picture

Character mistake: Near the beginning, when James Bond enters the North Korean complex, Zao is sent information to his mobile phone about James Bond being from the "MI6 Security Service." This is inaccurate information because MI6 is the Secret Intelligence Service and not the Security Service. It is MI5, which is the Security Service. (00:06:29)

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The Final Countdown picture

Character mistake: Following the barricade recovery of the Corsair, the Officer of the Deck instructs the helmsman to return to course "three five oh." No line officer would use the term "oh" in place of "zero", especially when giving course change instructions.

goofyfoot

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Pokemon: the First Movie picture

Character mistake: One of the other trainers said he rode over on a Pidgeotto, but it was a Pidgeot. (00:40:07)

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Avatar picture

Character mistake: In the beginning scene where the shuttle lands on Pandora, as Jake gets on his wheelchair preparing to alight from the shuttle, the man behind him unloading equipment has his exopack mask loose even though he is exposed to Pandora's atmosphere. (00:05:20)

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Sky High picture

Character mistake: In the scene where Steve and Josie prepare to leave to fight the giant robot at the beginning of the movie, Steve tells Will "Oh, Will, a reminder: a lot of the kids at Sky High will only have one super hero parent, not two." When he says "one super hero parent", he holds up two fingers. When he says "not two", he holds up only one finger.

omegaman1144

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Moana picture

Character mistake: When Maui and Moana set sail after defeating the Kakamora, Maui says they must head east. He turns the boat 90° as he says this. Throughout the next scene the setting sun is to the left of them (providing a beautiful backdrop to their fight), meaning that the boat must be heading north, not east.

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The Lost World: Jurassic Park picture

Character mistake: When they're on the island and the INGen helicopters are flying in, Jeff Goldblum takes the binoculars and looks through the wrong end. (00:32:30)

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Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery picture

Character mistake: Austin is supposed to be the archetypal Swinging Sixties Londoner yet he refers to his car as a Shaguar, a pun on 'Jaguar', pronouncing it 'Shag-war'. A native of this green and pleasant land would pronounce it 'Shag-u-ar', three syllables, not two, based on our pronunciation of the car manufacturer's name: Jag-u-ar. He also refers to a truck - a 'lorry' - as a "law-ree." We call them "lurries."

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Goldfinger picture

Character mistake: When Bond is being flown to Baltimore, Pussy calls her assistant Mai Lee twice on the plane: once in person, then telling the co-pilot to give her instructions. However, when they disembark, she calls her Mai Lai.

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Ad Astra picture

Character mistake: During the debrief meeting with the generals, Roy states the Lima Project was "some 29 years ago" and "the ship disappeared approximately 16 years into the mission." A few minutes later, Roy narrates "I was 16 when he left, 29 when he disappeared." This of course is only 13 years into the mission. (00:11:27 - 00:15:03)

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The Great Escape picture

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?

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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

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Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith picture

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)

Tailkinker

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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.

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Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi picture

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)

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Star Trek: First Contact picture

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".

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Thunderball picture

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.

More Thunderball character mistakes
Silent Running picture

Character mistake: While he may not have figured it out the moment he found the forest dying, certainly a botanist like Freeman Lowell would know plants need light to survive.

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