Best sci-fi movie deliberate mistakes of all time

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Zoom picture

Deliberate mistake: When Zoom is moving the documents from the desk to the floor for Marsha to pick up, she quite blatantly catches him two or three times, but continues on with her business.

Brad

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Hollow Man picture

Deliberate mistake: Elizabeth Shue uses a drawer handle as an electromagnet. OK if it's really a magnetic material but lab furniture is generally made of aluminium or stainless steel which is not. There is no way that they would use an iron handle in a potentially wet, and hence corrosive, environment such as a freezer.

tw_stuart

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Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker picture

Deliberate mistake: You might be wondering where Terry suddenly comes up with Jolly Jack all of the sudden after escaping the lab. In the commentary, they say that the Joker, in his transmission to Terry in the lab, was supposed to be eating out of a candy jar with "Jolly Jack" on it, but couldn't have it due to time constraints.

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Resident Evil: Extinction picture

Deliberate mistake: During the scene where Carlos and L.J. are searching the motel, L.J. sees a zombie which turns out to be a reflection in a wall-length mirror. L.J. shoots, breaking the mirror and realizing his mistake. But, if he had been standing in front of the mirror as shown, he should have seen his own reflection standing there as well. This was done as an homage to a similar encounter in the original game. (00:24:20)

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Suggested correction: There are two mirrors. One of which is at angle and reflecting an area that LJ wasn't in. Hence why he turns around about 45° and gets attacked by the woman. As such, he's not going to see his reflection.

Ssiscool

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Predator 2 picture

Deliberate mistake: When King Willie is confronted by the Predator in the alley the Predator approaches him cloaked stepping through the puddle of water. You can see his footsteps causing the water to splash up. However, you can see the water splash up and go through his foot. The Predator is only cloaked, not intangible so the water should have splashed upon his foot, not go through. Water against his foot would be visible too, even though he is cloaked. (00:47:45)

lionhead

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X-Men Origins: Wolverine picture

Deliberate mistake: After Wolverine arrives at 3 Mile Island he approaches through a thick fog. Above him are a series of conveyor belts that are used at a coal power plant, not a nuclear plant such as 3 Mile Island. The belts are unique to coal mines and coal power plants, and would not be found at a nuclear power plant. The filmmakers obviously couldn't film on the site of a nuclear plant, so filmed on a coal plant to fill in.

dablues7

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Captain Marvel picture

Deliberate mistake: The Stan Lee cameo contains a factual error; he's checking out of the Mallrats script and rehearses his lines, but despite coming out later in the year, the movie (and therefore Lee's cameo) had already been filmed, since movie shooting ended in April. Unless we have to assume Stan Lee carried with him all the time scripts of movies he'd been in and randomly read his scenes aloud. (00:30:45)

Sammo

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Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi picture

Deliberate mistake: The shots of the prisoner skiff during the transport to the Sarlacc Pit are reversed. This can, for example, be seen as Chewie's bandolier is on the wrong side, and that Han's shirt is overlaying the wrong way.

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The Omega Man picture

Deliberate mistake: During the opening shot and titles, Neville is shown driving by the same block three times, each from a different angle. The first shot is high, the second shot (00:01:50) is from the hood of the car looking at Neville, and the third (00:02:40) is ground level.

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Zathura picture

Deliberate mistake: The turn count for Lisa's stay in the Cryogenic Sleep Chamber is off. The card reads she should be there for 5 turns. 'Turn' can either represent a single move made by either Danny or Walter, or a complete game cycle where both Danny and Walter have made a move. If we count the turns by player, it comes to 8 and she's awake 2 turns too late as it should have happened at the start of 6th. If we count both players' moves together as a start of a turn, then she's awake 2 turns too early as its turn 4 and not turn 6. It seems obvious from showing us the shower suddenly start up that this is the correct point in the film they wanted her awake, so it's unlikely she was actually awake off-camera during the Astronaut's arrival and we just didn't see.

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Resident Evil: Apocalypse picture

Deliberate mistake: When Alice first fights the Nemesis, she attempts to jump over a fence and make an escape. When she lands on the police car, Nemesis fires his RPG at her. If you look closely, the rocket passes magically right through a chain link fence without touching it at all. (00:44:40)

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Suggested correction: Rocket made a big hole in the mesh. Clearly shown.

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Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind picture

Deliberate mistake: In the end sequence, when the joyous Valley of the Wind people run past Yuppa and the old woman to welcome back Nausicaä among the living, the same group(s) of people are seen twice running from the right to the left.

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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country picture

Deliberate mistake: It's not particularly believable that the away team to stop the assassination would consist of the ship's entire senior staff, and raises the question of who was left in charge of the bridge (the answer: apparently nobody, as they return to a completely deserted bridge). Of course this is dramatic license, and at this point the audience won't care or likely even notice.

TonyPH

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Highlander picture

Deliberate mistake: There's a bizarre editing gaff in the opening fight of the Director's Cut. At one point, Fasil's sword vanishes (for no real reason) and he starts to do backflips. The scene then cuts away, and when it cuts back, he's suddenly running and has his sword again. A few shots later, he's suddenly doing backflips and has lost his sword again. (It's meant to be Fasil doing the flips.) The editing makes absolutely no sense. It's like they somehow mixed up two different scenes during editing.

TedStixon

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Highlander: Endgame picture

Deliberate mistake: In the Director's Cut (the version most readily available on DVD), there is literally an entire 15-second chunk of the final fight that is repeated twice within 60 seconds. (It's the bit where Duncan and Kell are fighting on the ground, Duncan kicks Kell, then Kell kicks and slices Duncan) It's impossible not to notice, and it's not they're flashing back to what just happened... they just repeat the same 15 seconds of footage, add different sound effects, and assume people won't notice.

TedStixon

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Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms picture

Deliberate mistake: When Hellboy is attacked by the spider-lady, as the spiders begin to descend on him to steal the sword, you can easily tell that some of the shots of the spiders coming down are repeated 2 or even 3 times, and simply flopped horizontally to appear different.

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The Final Cut picture

Deliberate mistake: In the last shot of the movie, Alan Hackman looks at himself in a mirror through his own eyes. But when he looks away and runs off, the camera keeps watching the empty mirror in stead of watching what he sees. (01:26:25)

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Rocketman picture

Deliberate mistake: At the end of the movie Rocketman shows his lady friend a space blanket, out of which he states he made something: ballroom dancing outfits. The difference in the material is just too obvious for this not to be a deliberate mistake. The outfits aren't the slightest bit related to the foil they were supposed to be made of.

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Godzilla picture

Deliberate mistake: The pile of fish in the first fish trap is much taller than the trucks. That's impossible without some sort of lifting equipment - and no such thing is around in the aerial shots. (00:42:50)

Jacob La Cour

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