Best mystery movie character mistakes of all time

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More The Thing character mistakes
The Amityville Horror picture

Character mistake: When Lisa is taken to the hospital, she tells Kathy that she saw the ghost of Jodie DeFeo. The name of both of the DeFeo's daughters wasn't Jodie. Their names were Dawn and Allison. Jodie was the name of a demonic pig that the Lutz's daughter Missy had befriended.

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Suggested correction: While this is true in the original novel, the writers chose to change it to the DeFeo's daughter's name in the movie. Creative license doesn't count as a mistake.

Torie White

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Safe Haven picture

Character mistake: When Katie's husband arrives in town and confronts her on the night of July 4th, he says "I miss you Katie." He does not know her name to be Katie as that is the name she created when she came to town. He is married to Erin.

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Suggested correction: He says "I miss you, baby" and then "I miss you so much, baby."

Bishop73

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Knowing picture

Character mistake: The newspaper article states that Lucinda was thirty-three at the time of her death in 1988. However, that would make her just four years old when she wrote the time capsule note in 1959 - four years old in the 3rd grade?

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Citizen Kane picture

Character mistake: During the dancing girl scene, as they are singing the praises of Kane, the girl to the immediate right sings out of time with the rest of the dancers during the line "His favorite son." Even though she forgets to sing the line, she can be heard singing it a bit too late. (00:41:00)

Louisville Pittman

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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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Unbreakable picture

Character mistake: In the final scene, one of the newspaper clippings on the killer's office wall reads something like, "Huge Mudslide in Mexico: All Killed Expect Newborn." The penultimate word should be "except." (01:35:55)

More Unbreakable character mistakes
Final Destination picture

Character mistake: At the memorial service the principal says that it's been 39 days since 39 loved ones had died. But there were 40 students on the plane and 4 chaperones, making the total 44. Now 7 people got off the plane, which means 37 people related to that memorial service actually died, not 39. Two pilots would make up the numbers, but there would be flight crew too, which still leaves the numbers off.

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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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Ace Ventura: Pet Detective picture

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.

dishmanchicago

More Ace Ventura: Pet Detective character mistakes
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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Pokémon Detective Pikachu picture

Character mistake: Some characters use the letter "s" at the end of a Pokémon's name when the plural of a Pokémon is just its name. The best example is when Pikachu says, "Roger must've sent the Greninjas to cause the car crash." Being a Pokémon himself, there's no way Pikachu, out of all characters, would say that.

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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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Transcendence picture

Character mistake: The doctor diagnosing Will's illness tells Evelyn and Max that it's caused by "an isotope called polonium." Polonium is a chemical element, not an isotope. The word "isotope" refers to a form of an element (such as carbon-12 or carbon-14) not the element itself. It does not mean "radioactive substance", because many isotopes are stable. A doctor would know this. (00:17:00)

paolog

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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

More Columbo: Prescription Murder character mistakes
The Pink Panther 2 picture

Character mistake: In the film, five items are stolen: the Magna Carta, the Turin Shroud, the Imperial Sword of Japan, the Pope's ring and the Pink Panther diamond. When Alfred Molina's character is challenged that they had found everything but the Pink Panther, he protests that 3 out of 4 is not bad, that's 75%. In fact, they had found 4 out of 5 or 80%.

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Scream 2 picture

Character mistake: During the scene in which they are all arguing whether or not film sequels are better than the original or not, someone says Sigourney Weaver's classic line from the movie Aliens: "Get away from her you bitch", and Randy makes a smart comeback and tries to correct him by saying "I think the correct line was 'stay away from her you bitch'. This is a film class, right?" Wrong - the first guy was right. This line is truly unconvincing for the Randy character, being a big movie buff and all. Jamie Kennedy decided to improvise as Joshua Jackson actually made the initial mistake by saying the wrong line, causing a different mistake. (00:16:25)

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The X-Files Movie picture

Character mistake: Mulder and Scully sneak into the morgue at Bethesda Naval Hospital to view the body of the dead fireman from the bomb blast. Mulder lifts the sheet back on the body to show that the man's tissue is "like jelly." Scully surmises there's been some kind of cellular breakdown, and then says the tissue is "completely edematous." However, Dr. Scully mispronounces "edematous" as ed-a-may-shuss. The correct pronunciation is i-dem-a-tuss. Being a doctor she'd know the difference. (00:37:45)

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