Best crime movie character mistakes of all time

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The Maltese Falcon picture

Character mistake: When Spade leaves Brigid in her hotel room, he says he will buzz her buzzer long-short-long-short, so she will know it's him. When he does return, he only buzzes long-short.

kh1616

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Mechanic: Resurrection picture

Character mistake: On the boat when Bishop went to rescue her, Jessica Alba says to the guy beating her up "get the fuck off me Ray." Then a few minutes later she says to the same guy "let me go Frank."

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Fargo picture

Character mistake: When Jerry and Scotty are talking in Scotty's bedroom, after his Mom's kidnapping, there is a poster behind Scotty's door. The poster says "Accordian King" but should have been spelled, "Accordion King."

CARAMENTE22

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The Book of Henry picture

Character mistake: Henry believed his call to the Saratoga County Help Line #1-518-555-0121 was not effective because Glenn's brother George was the Social Services Director. The genius failed to look above the county level and discover there's a STATEWIDE CPS number that he could have turned to #1-800-342-3720. A call to the State CPS hotline probably refers calls to the relevant county, but Henry could have used what he wrote in his notebook "Why Calling Child Protective Services is not a plausible option." (00:28:56 - 01:01:11)

KeyZOid

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Suggested correction: It isn't clear what number Henry called. He had the county number underlined on the brochure, so I assumed that was the number he called. However, I replayed that part and the person who answered said "Child Protective Services." There was another number above for "National Help Line for Victim Advocacy" 1-800-555-0199, but that's not the National Child Abuse Hotline.

KeyZOid

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Hard Hit picture

Character mistake: The man on the phone told Mr. Lee he wanted $960,000 cash plus $1,726,000 transferred into his account. Because the Deputy Manager was killed when the bomb in his car exploded, Mr. Lee was later told he had to pay for his share, another $1,726,000 - so he needed to transfer $3,456,000. But $1,726,000 + 1,726,000 = $3,452,000. (00:11:20 - 00:20:32)

KeyZOid

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Suggested correction: 2 things are happening; a shell backed stocky Raphael is chasing a lighter human athlete Casey. Casey has freedom of movement, whereas Raphael can't stray much from the shadows in hiding. :-) A knocked out Casey wouldn't be helping the Turtles out of the next evening with that memorable entry so I'm glad Raph lost the chase.

Some can pass

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Patriot Games picture

Character mistake: When Greer and Cantor visit Ryan's home after Miller's escape, they state that he was being moved to HMP Albany on the Isle of Wight (correct, given it was a Cat A dispersal prison at the time and regularly used for IRA prisoners) however Greer later states "it happened in Kent, near the channel", which is incorrect. Lymington (as stated by the guards over the radio in the escape scene) is in southern Hampshire - over 90 miles away from Kent and on the other side of the country.

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House of Gucci picture

Character mistake: Aldo tells Rodolfo to reconcile with his son, saying "Sunday is my birthday." Aldo Gucci was born on May 26th, which was not a Sunday in 1980 nor 1981, which is when the scene would take place. (00:31:30)

Sammo

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Predator 2 picture

Character mistake: When Harrigan is watching the surveillance video by Bill Paxton he states that the helicopter is a silver Alouette when it is actually an AS-350.

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Better Luck Tomorrow picture

Character mistake: When Ben and Stephanie are studying, she repeats the stages of mitosis (which should be prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase, with minor differences in the way textbooks divide them) out order; anaphase, metaphase, interphase, prophase. She is supposed to be an A student and Ben, who is also smart and reading from the notes and textbook, says she is right. (00:18:55)

Sammo

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The Rookie picture

Character mistake: When David is at Nick's house looking at his motorcycles, he says "Oh wow, a '48 FL", then asks for the key and cranks it over with an electric starter. The first Harley with a starter was a 1965 FLH.

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Bad Boys for Life picture

Character mistake: Following the killing of a DEA forensics agent [guy sniped on the boat], a newspaper clipping is shown on screen. Underneath the headline of the article, "Assassinations" is misspelled from omitting an S in the second set of S's. However, if you read the article, you will see the word is correctly spelled in the first paragraph. (00:20:28)

Invader_Gir

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Charley Varrick picture

Character mistake: On finding Harman's dead body in their caravan, Charley says 'You called it, kid'. Great line, but Harman didn't call it. Charley, in fact, called it by giving his address to Jewell., who passes it on to Molly, who then goes to kill both Harman and Charley if he can.

Sir John Danvers

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Tequila Sunrise picture

Character mistake: Mac's cousin says that even if Nick wasn't a cop, he'd have to hate Mac's guts. He says that Mac wears a Rolex and Nick wears a Timex - not true. Nick is wearing a Rolex, also.

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Guys and Dolls picture

Character mistake: Sarah after speaking to Sky when they come back from Havana and the thugs leave from playing the crap game she goes in the Mission she reaches for the light string to turn off the light she doesn't ever get the string in her hand but the light goes off.

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Gully picture

Character mistake: A guidance counselor/principal told Calvin, "You're a very very smart young man. Perhaps even gifted. Last year you scored in the top ten percentile on the PSAT..." Because Calvin deliberately "blew" the SAT, the school official was going to make arrangements for Calvin to retake it. But this would not be necessary. The PSAT score (out of 1520) is considered equal to the SAT score (1600). The school official would be more helpful by getting Calvin admitted to college using the PSAT score. (00:08:35)

KeyZOid

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Double Jeopardy picture

Character mistake: The Fifth Amendment Double Jeopardy Clause does not apply. Libby could be convicted of 1st Degree murder when she gets out and pursues Nick. It doesn't really matter to the plot, however, because it was what Libby believed to be true and motivated her. Further, she ends up shooting Nick in self-defense. So it's all good.

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Super Troopers picture

Character mistake: When Ramathorn and Farva pullover the Plymouth Voyager, Ramathorn radios in and says they have a Plymouth Voyager, Vermont plates Alpha, God, Mustard, 1, niner, decade, china. When Farva gets out of the car to call the driver a chicken f**ker, you can see the licence plate, Vermont plate '1 9415'. Ramathorn radioed in the wrong licence plate number.

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The Gourmet Detective picture

Character mistake: During their bickering about the coffee, the idea is that the officers just drank some coffee made from beans coming from excrements of rhesus macaque. That's how the civet coffee is made; macaques merely chew and spit the beans, they do not 'process' them (that'd be the kopi luwak that he references immediately after). (00:27:00)

Sammo

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