Best crime movie character mistakes of all time

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The Shawshank Redemption picture

Character mistake: Red says that Andy crawled to freedom through 500 yards - 'just shy of half a mile'. 500 yards is far less than half a mile; in fact, it's less than a third of a mile. It is however just shy of half a kilometer, which may be what King was thinking of when he wrote the book.

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The Italian Job picture

Character mistake: When Charlie is calling out the brick count to Napster from the subway, he describes it as being "13 across, 4 high, 4 deep". The bricks appear to be 2 deep in the safe (13x4x2), so he could just be lumping two shelves together, which works (13x4x4 = 13x4x2x2). The problem is that when the camera pans down there are 3 shelves in the safe. This means that there are more than the 208 bricks that Napster announces. (01:33:40)

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The Bling Ring picture

Character mistake: In the scene where Nicki is being interviewed by Vanity Fair, she refers to her younger sister, "Gabby." Nicki is the character based upon Alexis Neiers. In the movie, her younger sister's name is supposed to be Emily. Gabby is the real life name of Alexis' younger sister.

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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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Sicario picture

Character mistake: After Macer shoots the shotgun man during the house raid, she checks his pulse without removing the weapon from his hands first.

Movie Medic

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The Fast and the Furious picture

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)

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Panic Room picture

Character mistake: The mother tells the daughter to keep warm and drink water. In fact that would lower the blood sugar faster. This method is used for high blood sugar to lower it back to normal.

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London Has Fallen picture

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)

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Fast & Furious 6 picture

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)

Friso94

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Home Alone picture Home Alone mistake picture

Character mistake: When Kevin is shooting the toys off the laundry chute with Buzz's BB gun, he's looking through the scope with his closed eye.

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The Fugitive picture

Character mistake: Kimble has just finished talking on the phone with his lawyer when the cops hear the noise in the background. They figure out the sound is that of an El-Train. They then start to list the different places that have an El. One of the cities they name is Milwaukee - there has never been an El-Train there.

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Halloween II picture

Character mistake: The police claim the Myers house is at "45 Lampkin Lane." The address on the front porch clearly displays the number 709.

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Disturbia picture

Character mistake: In one scene, Ashley looks into Mr. Turner's yard with binoculars. She looks through the large glass circles. That would result in seeing everything smaller. If you want to see everything bigger, you are supposed to look through the small glass circles.

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The Transporter picture

Character mistake: At the end of film when the Chinese refugees are being unloaded from the lorry a policeman helps an injured man off, then goes back to help others. The injured man sits and then lies down. As he does, the policeman that helped him throws a bag without looking, which hits the injured man.

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Batman Forever picture Batman Forever mistake picture

Character mistake: When Bruce is looking at Chase's various clippings of Batman on her desk while she's tending to the tea kettle, there is a paper that says "Diagnosis Form #39," and just above it, the word "schizophrenic" is incorrectly spelled as either "schizofrenic" or "schizoprenic" (a metal clip is partially covering the last six letters of the word, so it's hard to determine whether it's an "f" or a lone "p" where the "ph" should be). (01:03:11 - 01:03:32)

Phaneron

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A Few Good Men picture

Character mistake: Lt. Caffey (Tom Cruise) wants the two marines to plead guilty and take a deal because he doesn't want the to "spend the rest of their lives in Leavenworth (prison)." The United States Disciplinary Barracks is indeed located in Leavenworth, Kansas. And the US Army and US Air Force send convicted felons there to do their time. However, Marines and members of the United States Navy are sent to Portsmouth Naval Prison in New Hampshire. It is run by the Marines.

Nimzoman

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Suggested correction: It's perfectly within character that Caffey wouldn't know this. He's been in the navy a short time, never tried a case in a courtroom, and is generally uninterested in military protocol.

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The Equalizer 2 picture

Character mistake: Dave's wife refers to McCall as his "Army buddy" - but the pictures in McCall's house on the shore show him to be a Marine. Not a generalisation a Marine would make.

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Columbo: Prescription Murder picture

Character mistake: After Fleming has murdered his wife, he warns his girlfriend not to touch anything in the apartment, but he hands her a drink which he already prepared for her. At his direction she also makes a telephone call, holding the receiver with a cloth he hands her, but dialling the number with her bare fingers. On top of that, he hands her a pair of gloves after she has made the call - she would have touched or handled all sorts of things in the room by then. Why didn't he hand her the gloves as soon as she stepped in the room?

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Suggested correction: This is a subtle hint that Fleming is preparing to frame his girlfriend for the murder. He would admit to having an affair with her (not a crime) but is going to deny any involvement in his wife's murder. (SPOLER ALERT!) Later he makes it clear that his girlfriend meant nothing to him and he didn't care that she had committed suicide (or so he thought).

Nowhere in the episode is this sub-plot explored or even mentioned.

Not only that, but the idea he was going to subtly frame his girlfriend doesn't make sense because he used her to establish his alibi. He tried to make it look like she was killed by an random intruder.

Bishop73

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