Best movie mistakes of all time

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The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers picture

Continuity mistake: Gimli is lying with his face under the water, after jumping off the Deeping Wall and landing on the Uruk-hai. In the close-up, the right arm that grabs Gimli's shoulder to help him out of the water is Legolas' right arm. Yet, in the wide shot, suddenly it is Aragorn helping Gimli to his feet, not Legolas. (01:11:10)

Super Grover

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Ace Ventura: Pet Detective picture

Other mistake: When Ace rescues the dog and replaces it with a toy dog, the toy dog is in an impossible position. Ace had to place it there when the door was still open, but if the door was closed after that the man would have knocked it over. (00:03:25)

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Kong: Skull Island picture

Plot hole: The idea that Marlow would simply take a taxi to his wife's address after being missing in action for thirty odd years is stupid beyond belief. He was on a ship sailing from the central Pacific for days and those ships have radios! The US military would have known he was coming. Someone, somewhere would have notified the authorities that a US serviceman long thought dead was actually alive and on his way home and his wife and son would have been there on the docks to greet him, not standing slack-jawed in the kitchen dropping trays of drinks on the floor when he turned up! What would have happened if she had remarried? Or moved house? Or she was dead? Don't tell me the US military didn't know he was coming - he is wearing a brand new uniform, clean and pressed.

PEDAUNT

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The implication is that Marlow went through an extensive debrief and nobody had contacted his family until the debrief had concluded, based on the top secret nature of the mission. As you say, the fact he has a brand new uniform suggests that he has contacted the US Military prior to ever contacting his family. The fact that his wife would have moved and re-married is irrelevant, he still would have made an attempt to contact her so he could see his son.

BaconIsMyBFF

And they wouldn't have contacted her after the debrief had been completed? What utter nonsense. Allowing him to just turn up on the doorstep without notifying his wife first is an utterly irresponsible and even dangerous act. She could have fainted with shock or even had a heart attack. She would absolutely, definitely, 100% carved in stone, been advised of her husband's survival and return.

Since we know very little about the completely fictional organization Monarch, we obviously cannot say they would "carved in stone" do anything. In order to be a mistake in the movie, it would have to be something that is impossible. A secret government organization that doesn't even exist in real life not behaving the way the real military would is not impossible. At least not by the rules set forth in the film. It's perhaps improbable but it is most certainly not impossible.

BaconIsMyBFF

It is an inviolable, carved in stone, fur lined, ocean going, top of the list rule that the next of kin are immediately advised of the change of status of military personnel. MIA, now confirmed dead? They'd be the first to know. MIA, now confirmed to be alive, same outcome. His wife would know he was on that ship coming home.

This is true in real life but in the fictional world of the movie Monarch is a secret, government agency that has some degree of control over the military. You can't apply the same rules as in real life in this situation.

BaconIsMyBFF

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Geostorm picture

Character mistake: Jim Sturgess uses a sentence that contains the word 'me'. He is corrected, being told that the word 'I' would have been correct. However, he was grammatically correct in his use of the word 'me'. The correction was in error.

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Back to the Future Part III picture

Factual error: Though extremely modest on today's standards, the dress worn by Clara to the hoedown shows far too much cleavage for the time. No schoolteacher would ever wear a dress like that in the 1880s.

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Anaconda picture

Revealing mistake: In one shot when the boat is pulling away from the waterfall, you can clearly see that the shot is the same one they used earlier in the movie. The water from the waterfall now is going up the cliff! They have just put it in reverse.

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Roxanne picture

Factual error: It is not possible to be "allergic to all known anaesthetics". Amongst the amide local anesthetics lidocaine, prilocaine, bupivicaine, mepivacaine and dibucaine are naturally occurring substances and if administered without a preservative they cannot trigger an allergic reaction. If Bales is allergic to them, he'd be allergic to the metabolic processes of his own body. They are all powerful local anaesthetics and could easily be used for a radical rhinoplasty such as that required by Bales.

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Pee-wee's Big Adventure picture

Visible crew/equipment: When Pee Wee is chaining up his beloved bike you can see the long chain coming up through the bottom of the bike box. Full screen version only. (00:13:40)

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Ant-Man picture

Factual error: Twice in the film it is made clear that the Pym particle works by reducing the space between atoms in order to shrink an object, and by increasing it to enlarge them. This means that the object will weigh the same, whether shrunk or enlarged - it cannot be otherwise. A 90kg man the size of an ant would punch a hole through any surface upon which he stood (and couldn't ride ants), Doctor Pym has been walking about with a 60 tonne tank in his pocket, Darren Cross lifts a full grown sheep between finger and thumb, and the supersized Thomas The Tank Engine would be far too light to crush the police car (in fact it would float harmlessly away as it would probably weigh less than the air it displaced).

PEDAUNT

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City by the Sea picture

Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the movie, when Joey Nova is trying to get out of town, he sells his football ring to the drug dealer, but in the final scene he is clearly shown wearing the ring when he points the gun at his father.

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Independence Day picture Independence Day mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: When Dr. Okun is about to unlock "the vault", and says, "The freak show," a crewmember wearing a black and white striped shirt is hiding under the vault's floor, right behind Okun. (Only visible on fullscreen DVD.)

Super Grover

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Get Smart picture

Factual error: During CONTROL's paintball training session, a barrel view of a bullet exiting the gun is shown as it travels to its target. However, the entire bullet is shown, casing and all, instead of just the bullet. (00:09:10)

Razvaluha

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Happy Gilmore picture

Continuity mistake: In the final round, when Happy and Shooter McGavin are about to tee off on the first hole, they show a picture of the 18th green with the Volkswagen Beetle already crashed into the TV tower. However, this doesn't happen until Happy gets hit by the car later in the game. (01:09:25)

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Bowfinger picture

Factual error: The whole Bowfinger scenario is impossible. They are using a 35mm Panavision cine camera which cannot be focused through the lens; it needs precise measurements on the set in order to be properly in register. Then there are the light readings required to ensure proper exposure. Wouldn't Kit Ramsay notice the man with the light meter, or the one with the tape recorder? Both measurements would have to be done with him or an identically dressed and made up stand-in (a "lighting double") on the spot. Then there is the sound. Any sound recordist worth his salary will have the microphone within centimetres of his subject, and he'll have a boom operator keeping in there. We don't even see a microphone in use! Please don't tell me this is based on the clandestine filming of Mary Pickford during her Russian visit: that was done with old black and white film which has very wide tolerance to exposure and most of all it was silent, and she was aware of the camera crew, she just thought they were news crews. (And the results were rubbish anyway).

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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood picture

Continuity mistake: During his conversation with the director, while discussing his costuming, Dalton's hair changes from messy and curled to gelled up and straight.

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Ocean's Eight picture

Plot hole: When Sarah Paulsen pulls the necklace out of the water, the necklace clasp is obviously closed. Since the circumference of the necklace is too small to fit over the top of Anne Hathaway's head, why would anyone believe that it fell off her when she was running to the bathroom? The only way that could have happened is if the clasp (which we were earlier told can only be opened by a magnet) had opened. The trained security guards wouldn't have suspected something wasn't right about a closed necklace falling off over of her? They were following her. They saw that at no point did she lower her head on her way to the bathroom for the necklace to fall off over her head to begin with. It also could not have fallen off her when she was vomiting into the toilet in the bathroom since the clasp was closed. (01:18:25)

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Broadcast News picture

Other mistake: How could Jane not be aware that Tom had only used one camera for the date rape interview, recording his fake tears later? That's the way things are done on television news shows and as an experienced, hard-bitten television producer she could not possibly be unaware of that. The reporter always records his or her reaction shots (called 'noddies') after the interviewee has left. Shooting with two cameras would involve two crews, two lighting rigs, a vision switcher and so on and so on and a straightforward interview simply would not justify such a complex and expensive set up.

PEDAUNT

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D2: The Mighty Ducks picture

Other mistake: When Adam comes in and says "when I woke up this morning, the pain was gone", Connie is mouthing his lines behind him.

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Mission: Impossible 2 picture Mission: Impossible 2 mistake picture

Continuity mistake: The tyres on the crotch rocket motorcycles they were riding kept changing from knobbly tyres to road slicks, back and forth depending on what terrain they were on. Easiest to see when Ethan skids on the road to avoid the white van - clear shot of slick tyres - then about 30 seconds later they're on the dirt, he skids into the old car and you can easily see that he's got off-road tyres front and back.

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