Best mystery movie character mistakes of all time

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More Sherlock Holmes character mistakes
Without a Clue picture

Character mistake: Watson says that there are fifteen windows on the front of 221B Baker Street, but if you look, there are only twelve.

More Without a Clue character mistakes
Dirty Harry picture

Character mistake: When Scorpio hijacks the school bus near the end, he says something to the effect that they are going to take Sir Francis Drake Boulevard to the Santa Rosa Airport. Unfortunately, Sir Francis Drake Boulevard doesn't go anywhere near Santa Rosa, it heads west through Marin County and ends up near Pt. Reyes. They should have stayed on the highway and kept going north to get to Santa Rosa. (01:27:25)

More Dirty Harry character mistakes

JFK (1991)

JFK picture

Character mistake: When Garrison is leaving the house to question Clay Shaw on Easter Sunday, his wife is complaining about his working on the Sunday, and at one point calls Garrison 'Clay'.

DavidRTurner

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Rosemary's Baby picture

Character mistake: After Rosemary has the baby and they tell her it died, she calls them liars. They give her an injection and she passes out. When Guy comes back, he says that the Doctor says she was suffering from prepartum (not an actual word) symptoms. It would actually be postpartum.

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Suggested correction: Actually, it depends on which time her 'crazies' were from. If Guy was referring to how she acted while still pregnant, then pre-partum would be correct. If referring to her tantrums after the birth, then it would be post-partum.

The post starts. " After Rosemary has the baby...".

More Rosemary's Baby character mistakes
The Bourne Identity picture

Character mistake: The laser pointer and the subtitle reads "Gemeinschaft Bank". That's wrong. It has to be Gemeinschaftsbank. (00:04:20)

More The Bourne Identity character mistakes
Clue picture

Character mistake: During the conversation in the study about who is blackmailing who, Mrs. White mentions two of her five husbands: An illusionist who disappeared and never reappeared and a nuclear physicist who was found dead at home. During the last ending, Mrs. White says "So this has nothing to do with the disappearance of my nuclear physicist husband or Colonel Mustard's work on the new top secret fusion bomb?". However, during the conversation in the study, Mrs. White says her illusionist husband had disappeared and her nuclear physicist husband was found dead at home. So the correct term would be "So this has nothing to do with the disappearance of my ILLUSIONIST husband or Colonel Mustard's work on the new top secret fusion bomb?". (00:21:05 - 01:27:35)

Casual Person

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Suggested correction: Ms. White's nuclear physicist husband disappeared too, so the line is right.

Daniel Offerman

More Clue character mistakes
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow picture

Character mistake: After the robots first attack New York City, a series of newspapers is shown. One of the headlines in the French one reads "La Tour Eiffeil est détruite". The proper spelling is "Eiffel" (00:15:55)

Dr Wilson

More Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow character mistakes
Congo picture

Character mistake: When the group is escaping from the killer gorillas, they find a cave and Ross say "It's a geode, a giant diamond." A geode is not a diamond at all, it's basically a hollow rock with crystal formations inside.

More Congo character mistakes
One Missed Call picture

Character mistake: On Taylor's phone it says she dies at 8:32PM, but Beth says 7:32PM, when reading the message. (00:27:05)

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The Da Vinci Code picture

Character mistake: During the meeting between Langdon, Sophie and Sir Teabing, Teabing refers to Scatoma as "the mind seeing what it wants to see." Scatoma refers to a partial loss of vision. He probably meant to use Pareidolia, which refers to seeing patterns that are not really there.

wizard_of_gore

More The Da Vinci Code character mistakes
Scream picture

Character mistake: Sid deduces that Billy could be the killer because he could have used his phone call from jail to make the threatening call. However, the deduction has to be incorrect, since if it was really Billy, he could have never used the voice-changing device.

Sammo

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Suggested correction: This will sound pedantic (hey, it's MovieMistakes.com, we're entitled), but I don't think this is what is meant by a character mistake. Sidney isn't presenting an erroneous fact that goes uncorrected, she's explaining an idea that had crossed her mind. Billy immediately gives a plausible response and by the end of the film it's evident who'd called her. The takeaway isn't that Billy could still be the killer but that Sidney can't help but suspect him despite their reconciliation.

TonyPH

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Angels & Demons picture

Character mistake: When discussing the new Pope's name (Luke) at the end of the film, Langdon says: "There have been many Marks and Johns, but never a Luke." In fact, though there have been 23 Pope Johns, there has only been one Pope Mark - reigning for 9 months in 336.

More Angels & Demons character mistakes
Unknown picture

Character mistake: When the EMTs are resuscitating Dr. Harris, they use a defibrillator despite their being on a wet metal dock. Not only is this highly dangerous to absolutely everyone present, it would be completely ineffective at restarting his heart as the water and the metal would dissipate the electric current too much for it to do any good. At the very least, they would have stabilized his spine then moved him to a dry surface before beginning defibrillation. (00:08:30 - 00:09:10)

Phixius

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Suggested correction: External defibrillators are self grounded and so can be safely used on wet or metal surfaces. https://danboater.org/travel-health-and-safety/are-aeds-safe-to-use-in-wet-environments.html.

AEDs are indeed safe to use in wet areas - but in the film, it is not an AED that is used. AEDs are automated, and not operated by humans, so as to reduce risk. Your link explicitly states the rescuer must not have direct contact with the body: they just apply the pads, then move back. In the film, it is shown in detail that the medic applies the paddles and then operates them while still in contact with the body. The mistake stands: it's a traditional defibrillator, thus incorrectly used.

swordfish

More Unknown character mistakes
In the Cut picture

Character mistake: When Malloy first visits Frannie in her apartment, he says the girl was killed on the 15th, but when Frannie is in the cop car for the first time, Malloy's partner says it was the 11th.

Ral0618

More In the Cut character mistakes
Practical Magic picture

Character mistake: In the scene when Gillian and Sally are dragging the boyfriend in to put him on the table Gillian says, "Watch his balls Sal". It is in Nicole Kidman's native Australian accent and the rest of the movie she speaks with a Northeastern US accent.

More Practical Magic character mistakes
Minority Report picture

Character mistake: Near the end of the movie, John's wife calls one of his colleagues and says, "Jad, it's Laura, John needs a favour." Her character's name is Lara. (02:08:30)

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Flightplan picture

Character mistake: When the plane is speeding down the runway at the beginning, a female flight attendant is seen walking, and Kyle is seen buckling her seat belt. Everyone would have been sitting down and buckled in at this point.

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Psycho picture

Character mistake: When Marion is calculating how much she spent her math is wrong. The movie shows 400000 - 4036 = 395963. It should be 395964.

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To Catch a Thief picture

Character mistake: Early in the movie Cary Grant is on the beach and is told he has a phone call. While conversing with Bertani, Cary Grant has the handset backwards - he is speaking into the earpiece and listening to the mouthpiece where the chord is attached.

More To Catch a Thief character mistakes

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