Best adventure movie factual errors of all time

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Captain Marvel picture

Factual error: Carol Danvers' name appears on her dog tags as "Carol Danvers," but US military dog tags list the surname first, then given name. E.g. "Danvers, Carol."

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Passengers picture

Factual error: During the 31st year of the Avalon's voyage, the ship passes close to the star Arcturus, which is about 37 light years from Earth. Later in the movie, it was stated that the Avalon was moving at around 50% of the speed of light. The ship would not have reached Arcturus in the time allotted.

Blathrop

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Broken Arrow picture

Factual error: The United States Air Force does NOT, ever, allow its pilots to box competitively! Ground staff, yes; pilots, no, never. A pilot can be suspended from flying if he/she receives a blow to the head in day-to-day life; boxing is right out. Almost all air forces (the RAF included) impose this rule.

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Poseidon picture

Factual error: When performing CPR on Elena, Robert doesn't tilt her head back. As a former firefighter, he would know one of the first steps of CPR is to tilt the victim's head back to clear the airway. His rhythm is also way off.

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Suggested correction: Tilting the head back to clear the airway isn't practised any more, due to exacerbating possible neck/spinal injuries. Instead, one would do a chin lift to clear the airway. But alas, he didn't do that either.

Paramedic here. The head tilt-chin lift is absolutely still practised today and is definitely our go to manoeuvre for CPR. You're thinking of the jaw thrust manoeuvre where we do it when we suspect spinal injury, which Elena did not have.

Former Volunteer First Responder and Ambulance driver part-time but also volunteer here. It actually depends on the SOP of the company in which you serve. Liability purpose has us practising caution in otherwise duty-to-act scenarios. While you are always to remain either Red Cross or American Heart certified in CPR, ALS guidelines and SOPs still govern the practice in which you are performing and can be effected by the decisions of your local Medical Director, but I digress.

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Tristan & Isolde picture

Factual error: The poem Isolde recites, John Donne's "The Good-Morrow", is a 17th-century work, which is centuries later than the movie's time period.

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Road To Perdition picture

Factual error: Tom Hanks is driving his car over a bridge in downtown Chicago in 1931. In the background is the elevated train structure. An aluminum bodied train passes on the trestel in the background. This aluminum bodied train is of 1980's contruction. In the 1930's the train cars were of wood construction and painted brown. They were still in service in the 1950's.

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Ad Astra picture

Factual error: It is not possible that Pitt could have gone up to the ship when it was already blasting off. There was literally fire in the tunnel.

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Suggested correction: It was a bit confusing, but what I saw was a shower of sparks or hot particles and some fumes, and no fire in the tunnel until he was through the hatch. The makers may have been influenced by seeing vapour prior to a rocket launch, and then some rockets use a shower of electric sparks to ignite the engines. It was implausible, but no fire in the tunnel.

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Enola Holmes picture

Factual error: The old percussion double barrel shotgun is firing modern shotgun shells, which would never work or fit in that gun, and furthermore are also made of plastic, wrong for the era.

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Time Bandits picture

Factual error: When the Titanic sinks all six dwarves and Kevin end up in the sea clutching a lifebelt. The water in which the Titanic sank was freezing - that is how most of the casualties died, by freezing, not drowning. In water like that you'd be lucky to stay conscious for more than a few minutes. Despite this none of them show the slightest effect of the cold. Maybe the dwarves have some 'magical' ability to withstand lethal cold, but Kevin doesn't even react to being plunged into freezing cold water. He'd be screaming in pain, but he doesn't even show the slightest sign of discomfort.

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Bird on a Wire picture

Factual error: Mel and Goldie board a ferry. A visible sign states 'Detroit-Racine Ferry'. Detroit is on the east side of the state of Michigan but Racine, Wisconsin is west of Michigan, across Lake Michigan. The only water route to get from Detroit to Racine would be to circumnavigate the entire state of Michigan.

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Leap! picture

Factual error: In the movie, we see the Statue of Liberty with its current bluish-green color. The statue only got that color over time, and as it was still being built, it should be its original brown.

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Independence Day picture

Factual error: There is a shot of the Imperial Valley at night with the edges of the Los Angeles destroyer spinning over the mountains. The center of the destroyer is hovering over downtown LA. Imperial Valley is over 200 miles away from downtown LA, and the destroyer is no more than 20 miles in diameter. There would be no way the edges of the destroyer would extend far enough to be seen from Imperial Valley as shown unless it was over 100 miles in radius. The ship does not even hover over Steven Hiller's house which is in LA, it can nearly be seen whole from there. The destroyer would be obscured by the mountains and from 200 miles it would appear much smaller.

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Hobbs & Shaw picture

Factual error: The grenade booby trap in Hattie's flat gets triggered, with the pin coming out and lever comes off. Once that happens the fuse is set and there's no way to stop it exploding, but Shaw puts the pin back in and renders it inert again. (00:25:50)

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The Mummy picture

Factual error: It is roughly 120-135 dB inside of a C-130, especially one that hasn't been specifically modified. It is so loud that it is painful to be in the cargo hold without hearing protection (besides it being outside of military regulations) and you certainly couldn't have a normal conversation while it was in flight.

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Kingsman: The Secret Service picture

Factual error: When the barracks are completely flooded, Eggsy uses his bare fist to punch through a large two-way mirror to escape. The fact is that any glass (or plexiglas) thick enough to contain hundreds (or thousands) of tons of water without bursting would be as impenetrable as concrete to Eggsy's bare fist. He would need a chisel-tipped jackhammer to penetrate such a mirror.

Charles Austin Miller

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The Expendables 3 picture

Factual error: Their 'spot' for drinking is apparently in the French Quarter because of the street signs. That said, they are drinking Budvar beer. If you know about Budvar, it is the original Budweiser beer from the Czech Republic. Budweiser sued Budvar and won, preventing them from using the name 'Budweiser', even though Adolph Busch came up with 'Budweiser' after going to Pilsner, Czechoslovakia. Budweiser being the bully, and their lawyers and all, won the lawsuit. So now the beer is sold as 'Czechvar' in the US and 'Budvar' everywhere else, meaning they couldn't be drinking it in the USA.

22theman

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Minions: The Rise of Gru picture

Factual error: The story is set in 1976. "Funkytown" is used in the movie and the end titles. The song was not released until 1980.

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Aladdin picture

Factual error: The animators have clearly tried to make all the writing in the film look Arabic. However in one scene we see the faces of Jafar and the Sultan as they read a scroll. Their eyes move from left to right; Arabic is read right to left.

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Twister picture

Factual error: When they are at Aunt Meg's the first time, they get word that a tornado has been spotted and somehow they already know its rating. Tornadoes get their ratings from the amount of damage they do. This is determined after the tornado is gone.

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Suggested correction: The scale back then was based on the size of the tornado, it's only more recently it is based on damage. So during the time of the movie, the scale was being used correctly for size not damage.

The Fujita scale was introduced in 1971 and was in use during the 90's when this film came out. The Fujita scale measured the damage caused by a tornado to man-made structures after ground or aerial surveys, it was not a measurement of tornado size (an F5 tornado is a tornado that's rated on the Fujita scale). It is true the Fujita scale was replaced by the enhanced Fujita scale in 2007, but that was only to align the ratings to the damage better, it did not change rating tornadoes from size to destructive powers.

Bishop73

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