Best thriller movie character mistakes of all time

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Species picture

Character mistake: Fitch, who professes qualifications in biology, genetics and biochemistry, says that they made Sil female because she's a natural predator and so she'd be more docile. In almost every species of predator on earth the females are the hunters, aggressors and killers. The males may be socially dominant but they are the 'docile' ones. There are exceptions but Fitch speaks as if female and docile are the same thing - and they definitely are not.

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Suggested correction: This entry is so wrong, I don't quite know where to begin. The idea that all species, without exception, have the females as the aggressors and the males as docile is absolutely one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read. It is not backed up by fact in the slightest. They also did use human DNA; they added the sample of alien DNA to it to create Sil.

The posting states that there are exceptions to the rule and specifically states "almost every species." The mistake is not that a female must be "docile". It is that a scientist professing qualifications in biology, genetics, and biochemistry would make such a stupid statement, believing it to be invariably true.

However, there are exceptions; any one species makes this possible. I will start with African Lions. In Africa, the female lions are the main aggressors.

Noman

Suggested correction: They never said Sil was a natural predator when they created her. She was half human and half alien and it was their belief that human females are more docile (i.e. more motherly, more gentle, more empathetic, and less aggressive than human males). Although the reply to "more docile and controllable" was "you guys don't get out much", meaning that girls aren't that docile and controllable.

Bishop73

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Alien picture

Character mistake: When Ripley interfaces with Mother for the first time and sees the special order, an instruction reads as "Insure return of organism" rather than "Ensure return."

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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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Flight of the Phoenix picture

Character mistake: It's all very heroic and manly but the effort put into dragging the Phoenix into its takeoff position once the engine is started is totally wasted. Townes and A.J. are both experienced pilots and Elliott is supposedly a genius aeronautical engineer - they must surely be aware that the engine power required to taxi an aircraft is trivial compared to that required to lift it into the air. Even taking into account the drag of the skids and wheels, if that engine cannot propel the aircraft at a few kilometers an hour on the ground it cannot propel it to take off speed, nor keep it up once airborne. They are not there to steer the aircraft - they are taking the strain of the whole weight of the air-frame, dragging it into place, and the energy input of eight exhausted, underfed people would add nothing to the contribution of a 2500 bhp aircraft engine in moving the Phoenix. They are not trying conserve fuel - they had enough fuel for an extended flight with both engines at full throttle, so they have easily enough to run one engine throttled back to reduce stress on the air-frame, which they say they are going to do.

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Speed picture

Character mistake: There is no way on earth that a police officer would shoot a hostage in the thigh to 'take them out of the equation'. Anyone who suggested such a thing would likely be taken out and shot themselves. Bullet wounds to the thigh are often fatal, as an injury to the femoral artery causes massive and frequently unstoppable blood loss. Breaking the femur often leads to fat embolisms as bone marrow gets into the bloodstream and then to the lungs. In fact a broken femur is a life threatening injury in itself, and a shattered femur - a typical bullet injury - would almost always result in a total amputation. You cannot aim carefully enough to avoid the bone or artery as their position in the body varies, (as will the bullet trajectory upon impact). Jack is an experienced cop and would know the potentially disastrous consequences of shooting someone in the thigh. He'd shoot him in the foot. (00:21:05)

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Dracula picture

Character mistake: At the beginning of the scene where the vampire hunters leave London in pursuit of Dracula, Jonathan narrates, "By train we can reach the Romanian port in Varna in three days." However, Varna is a Bulgarian seaport. This can even be seen on the map showing the Turkish invasion of Eastern Europe in the movie's prologue, and on the map that Jonathan studies aboard the train at the beginning of the film. (01:45:35)

Catwalk

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Die Another Day picture

Character mistake: Near the beginning, when James Bond enters the North Korean complex, Zao is sent information to his mobile phone about James Bond being from the "MI6 Security Service." This is inaccurate information because MI6 is the Secret Intelligence Service and not the Security Service. It is MI5, which is the Security Service. (00:06:29)

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Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines picture Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines mistake picture

Character mistake: When the Terminator scans the doorman at the bar, a display comes up categorizing each piece of the doorman's clothing. The word "briefs" is misspelled "breifs". (00:13:40)

Phil C.

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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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The Italian Job picture

Character mistake: When Charlie is calling out the brick count to Napster from the subway, he describes it as being "13 across, 4 high, 4 deep". The bricks appear to be 2 deep in the safe (13x4x2), so he could just be lumping two shelves together, which works (13x4x4 = 13x4x2x2). The problem is that when the camera pans down there are 3 shelves in the safe. This means that there are more than the 208 bricks that Napster announces. (01:33:40)

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Law Abiding Citizen picture

Character mistake: In the court scene Clyde mentions a case, Day v McDonough docket number 04-1325. This is a real case, but the docket number is 04-1324.

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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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Avatar picture

Character mistake: In the beginning scene where the shuttle lands on Pandora, as Jake gets on his wheelchair preparing to alight from the shuttle, the man behind him unloading equipment has his exopack mask loose even though he is exposed to Pandora's atmosphere. (00:05:20)

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Iron Man 3 picture

Character mistake: When Harley asks Tony what the light is coming from his chest, Tony responds "an electromagnet." Harley replies "What does it power?" An electromagnet is not a source of power. The arc reactor is the power source which powers both the electromagnet (to keep Tony safe from the shrapnel near his heart) and the Iron Man suit. (00:43:25)

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Sky High picture

Character mistake: In the scene where Steve and Josie prepare to leave to fight the giant robot at the beginning of the movie, Steve tells Will "Oh, Will, a reminder: a lot of the kids at Sky High will only have one super hero parent, not two." When he says "one super hero parent", he holds up two fingers. When he says "not two", he holds up only one finger.

omegaman1144

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Halloween 4 picture

Character mistake: As we know throughout this movie series, Michael's middle name is Audrey. However when the doctor is typing Michael's release form, he types his middle initial as "M".

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Suggested correction: Michael's middle name is only mentioned in an additional scene that was added to the television version of the original Halloween. If going by the theatrical versions Michael's middle name was never known, so not really a mistake.

Doctors at a sanatorium would certainly know Michael's middle name. It's been on file for decades.

Amy Emerick Tice

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Bronson picture

Character mistake: While in the sewing workshop, the teacher approaches and asks, 'What's the matter, Charlie?' but at this point he is still known as Peterson. It's not until later on in the film that he decides upon the name of Charles Bronson. (00:11:35)

carwilhan

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