Best action TV mistakes of all time

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The Green Hornet picture

Give 'Em Enough Rope - S1-E2

Revealing mistake: Reid's rear view mirror, missing in all the medium shots (processed in-studio with an obvious rear-screen projection), mysteriously reappears in full shot when his Chrysler pulls into the car shop. (00:14:00)

Jean G

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Battletech picture

Trade Secrets - S1-E5

Factual error: The Strikers steal several suits of Elemental armor in a few minutes and use it to escape after they are discovered. It takes 15 minutes to put on battle armor unaided and that's for an Elemental trained in its use. The armor is custom fit for a 6 and a half to 7 foot Elemental but 5 foot Val wears one. Elemental armor is also protected by voice recognition and code phrase software. Needless to say there's no way they could just walk out with 3 suits.

Grumpy Scot

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The Avengers picture

The Girl From Auntie - S4-E17

Factual error: The bad guys are supposedly auctioning off the stolen Mona Lisa. But they and their prospective buyers aren't very art savvy. The painting is more than twice the size of Da Vinci's actual masterpiece. (00:44:50)

Jean G

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Chicago P.D. picture

Sanctuary - S4-E12

Continuity mistake: During the street scenes it appears to be fall with leaves on the ground, grass green and streets and sidewalks dry. However, when police raid the park worker's house there is snow on the house roof and on the ground. When the police stake out the same house, there is no snow on the house roof or ground. (00:36:00 - 00:41:00)

Snag.1

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Dark Angel picture

Flushed - S1-E4

Revealing mistake: When Logan goes looking for Max at Jam Pony, as he starts talking to Normal there is a woman in a blue jacket with a black-and-yellow bike helmet walking behind him. She travels past the group and can be seen heading for the lockers behind OC and Sketchy. After Normal says, "I can't help you," the same woman walks behind Logan again, going the same direction. (00:16:55)

Phoenix

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Helen of Troy picture

Show generally

Factual error: When they first assault the city, the Greeks construct catapults. Only problem: catapults were invented at 400 - 300 BC, i.e. about 800 years later; and the first models looked similar to giant crossbows. The one-armed onager and similar types (as seen here) were a later Roman invention.

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The Grid picture

Episode #3 - S1-E3

Audio problem: When Muhammad is meeting with the group of Al-Quaeda leaders in the desert, the movements of his mouth do not match what he is saying in the foreign language.

Steph_Jared

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All of Us Are Dead picture

Episode #1.4 - S1-E4

Visible crew/equipment: When Lee is being interrogated, at one point (after the detective says "Are you crazy?") the detective walks towards the large two-way mirror and you can see a clear reflection of a cameraman in the lower part of the mirror. (00:27:31)

Jack Vaughan

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Station 19 picture

Do a Little Harm... - S2-E5

Character mistake: The firefighters state that the acronym for CPR is ABC for Airway, Breathing, Circulation. This is very outdated as in 2010 the American Heart Association changed the recommendation to CAB for Compressions, Airway, Breathing following evidence that compressions first in CPR saves more lives.

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Batman: The Animated Series picture

Heart of Ice - S1-E3

Other mistake: When Batman is watching the security footage of Victor Fries' accident, at first Fries is addressing the camera directly which follows him and pans according to his movements and Ferris Boyle interrupting him, which would suggest a second person was in the room with a handheld camera. But after Ferris Boyle enters the room and orders Fries' experiment terminated, there are several cuts from various angles in the room suggesting surveillance cameras. The surveillance style footage also often conveniently cuts to the face of whichever person happens to be speaking or will cut to a certain angle in order to put emphasis on the action, all of which would require multiple mounted cameras and purposeful editing by either Boyle or one of his subordinates, which would be completely illogical since they don't want anyone to see the footage in the first place. (00:12:20 - 00:13:55)

Phaneron

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Agent Carter picture

Now Is Not the End - S1-E1

Factual error: There is a periodic table shown in the background of the lab, showing an accurate periodic table as of now. During 1945, at least 21 elements had not been discovered. (00:17:40)

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Kung Fu: The Legend Continues picture

Show generally

Continuity mistake: In an earlier season Caine takes a young Peter to a place in the temple and explains that his mother is buried there. However in the series finale he shows adult Peter a picture that someone took months ago and Caine tells Peter that the woman is his mother and he's going to find her.

Madison Kimura

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Iron Man picture

Origin of Iron Man: Part 1 - S1-E11

Character mistake: When young Tony Stark is telling his father that their helicopter's anti-flak chip didn't kick in, he acknowledges that it was his fault by saying he blew it. When his father corrects him and says "No Tony, we blew it. Stark and Son," Tony defensively says "The anti-flak chip failed, it's not my fault," completely contradicting what he said seconds earlier. (00:14:00)

Phaneron

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The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin picture

The Lemonade Stand - S1-E14

Other mistake: When LB comes into Tweeg's room and he sees him covered in spots and he is discoloured he freaks out. Why does he freak out? He just saw Tweeg in the previous episode all covered in spots so he should know that it's him.

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Training Day picture

Trigger Time - S1-E3

Continuity mistake: During the shoot-out near the end, the bullet holes in the pillars Frank and Kyle hide behind change and also disappear at various times. In one shot we see 2 holes when Kyle steps out to shoot, then when he ducks back when fired upon, the 2 holes are gone.

Bishop73

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MacGyver picture

Seeds + Permafrost + Feather - S3-E17

Factual error: Bozer and for that matter I would assume all of the team went to a spycraft academy. A basic subject in any of such academies is surveillance, including proper techniques to follow and stake out someone. Bozer being so inept at tracking MacGyver's father is inconceivable given their training.

toroscan

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

Suggested correction: Not entirely true; although they are rare and may no longer exist now, I've seen traffic lights that followed the red, yellow, green pattern as recently as the mid-1990s.

zendaddy621

Interesting. What state (s) did you see this in? I'm assuming going from red to yellow was to encourage cars to cautiously enter the intersection in case someone was running a red light?

Phaneron

Traffic lights in the UK do this - it's more to give you a second to get ready, in gear, etc., then as soon as the lights turn green you can go. Otherwise you get no warning of when the lights are about to change.

In Illinois; as I said, such traffic lights are rare, but they did exist at least as recently as the time this episode of the series aired, and they may still possibly exist in larger cities such as New York City.

zendaddy621

This traffic light set-up (red to yellow to green) still exists today in the UK. From what I understand, it is to alert the driver that the light will be turning green imminently and to prepare themselves to put their car in gear, as manual cars are still pretty common in Europe. I'd wager this light cycle was phased out of North America due to the abundance of automatic cars today. Could have been different in 1994 though.

critterbonus

It should be noted that traffic lights that go from red to yellow before going green keep the red light illuminated so that both red and yellow are lit up. However, that's not what happens in the scene. I've never seen a traffic light operate the way it's shown. And Massachusetts still has traffic lights that go from red to yellow, however, when red and yellow are lit up together, this allows for pedestrian crossing.

Bishop73

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