Best movie mistakes of 1986

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The Fly picture

Plot hole: The whole problem with the teleporter occurs when fly DNA is mixed in with Seth Brundle's DNA, starting his transformation into the Brundlefly. Brundle is on a hiding to nothing from the word go, and the fly is irrelevant. Humans are a walking talking mass of foreign DNA - we are host to one trillion bacteria all of which has a complete complement of DNA, as do various tiny mites that live in our hair follicles and all sorts of single cell organisms in our gut. If the transporter serves to mix the DNA of all living creatures which are in the transporter pod at the time Brundle would turn into a half-man, half-bacteria. Incidentally, DNA from a bacteria, an amoeba or a hair follicle mite would be just as 'compatible' with human DNA as that from an insect. It's quite a simple chemical, really.

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Suggested correction: Being as how the bacteria and mites and such were IN or ON Seth, the machine was able to organize those symbiotic relationships accordingly as teleporting one would teleport all. The fly was separate, not touching. The machine was not programmed to anticipate two separated entities and so combined them into one on the other side.

Phixius

We leave behind a vapour trail of bacteria and viruses (among other things) as we walk, in our breath and emanations from pores in our skin, and Brundle isn't trapping any in his clothes as he isn't wearing any. Brundle has an invisible cloud of DNA floating around him in that teleportation chamber and as far as the machine is concerned their DNA has exactly the same status as that of the fly.

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About Last Night... picture

Continuity mistake: When Danny & Debbie are having their New Year's dinner at home, the champagne foam instantly disappears in the very next camera angle after pouring it.

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Top Gun picture

Visible crew/equipment: When Charlie walks down to the front of the class in the hanger, Jester is the only one at the front. Look at the reflection of Maverick's glasses, and the reflection shows lots of people standing in front of him, likely film crew. (00:26:20)

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Iron Eagle picture

Factual error: Doug Masters and his friend Reggie would be grounded on the spot and have their pilot's licences suspended (and in all likelihood cancelled) after buzzing the motorcyclist. Their flying is grossly unsafe. They would be visible for miles flying well below a safe altitude, but even if they were not seen their radio traffic and radar tracking would tell the authorities everything they needed to know.

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Jumping Jack Flash picture

Continuity mistake: When Terri is at the party, her blonde wig changes shape and size many times.

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Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home picture

Other mistake: After they take off from California, Kirk gives a heading to Alaska. He then tells Sulu "full impulse power", and Sulu says "aye, ETA 12 minutes." Full impulse is 1/4 the speed of light. No way they would use speeds like that to go a few thousand miles.

ckstaats

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Crocodile Dundee picture

Factual error: That is not a crocodile that attacks Sue. It more closely resembles an American alligator - the squat, rounded snout gives it away. Australian crocodiles have a much sharper, more angular snout. There are other tell-tale physical features, most notably the placement of the alligator's teeth when it closes its mouth, but that's the main one.

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Suggested correction: You can tell by the shape of the snout and the ridges above the eyes that, although animatronic, it is meant to be a Marine Crocodile that is native to Australia. It doesn't resemble an American alligator, which doesn't possess those pronounced ridges. Also, freshwater crocodiles can be seen in the boat ride scene where Mick motions for Sue to lean up off the edge of the boat. They have the narrower, angular snout that you referenced.

The placement of the alligator's teeth when it closes its mouth shows that it is more like an alligator than a crocodile. In fact, the animatronic puppet is a bizarre mish-mash of physical characteristics of both crocodiles and alligators.

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Labyrinth picture Labyrinth mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: Jareth says, "Sarah, don't defy me," and tosses the snake at her neck. In the next shot facing Sarah as she holds the snake, a crew member's hand is seen holding the end of the 'snake' below her right shoulder. (00:13:25)

Super Grover

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Hoosiers picture

Factual error: During most of the basketball games, you can see an American flag in the background. This is not the problem, the problem is that it is hung wrong, the stars should always be on the top LEFT not RIGHT.

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Armour of God picture

Visible crew/equipment: During the final fight scene where Jackie takes on the Amazonian women, there are several shots where dressed up stuntmen double for the women.

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Ferris Bueller's Day Off picture

Visible crew/equipment: Near the beginning of the movie there is a brief scene around the empty house. While the camera is in the kitchen you can see a reflection of one of the set guys moving in the fridge handle.

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Police Academy 3: Back in Training picture

Revealing mistake: When a baddie in a red jacket repeatedly punches Hightower, who's in the water, the fist always stops about 15 cm from his face.

Sacha

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Aliens picture

Revealing mistake: When Ripley first burns the egg plants inside the nest, the Queen screams and moves her head. The steel rod used to hold the Queen's head to the rest of her body is easily visible.

Jack Vaughan

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Short Circuit picture

Visible crew/equipment: When Newton is playing with the robot arm and the piano you can clearly see wires attached to the top of it controlled by the puppeteers.

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The Karate Kid Part II picture

Other mistake: When Chozen is buying vegetables from the villagers, one of the weights from the scale is knocked onto the ground. Daniel picks it up and realises that its not a real weight and breaks it in half. If Chozen wanted to cheat the villagers when he weighed their vegetables, he would need weights that were heavier than normal, not lighter plastic ones. Lighter weights would mean that Chozen would need to add far more of the light weights to make any amount of vegetables balance out, therefore he would be paying more for the vegetables than they are worth.

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Stand By Me picture

Continuity mistake: When the boys are dunking each other in the swamp Gordie starts to wade away, when he passes the camera his hair is dry but when he reaches the bank it's wet again. (01:04:56)

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Manhunter picture Manhunter mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When William Petersen is talking to his kid in the supermarket, the cereal boxes behind him on the shelves change between two shots. The items behind Kevin also change during the scene. (01:09:05 - 01:10:20)

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52 Pick Up picture

Visible crew/equipment: When Alan is struggling with Barbara on the drawbridge, the shadow of a camera/operator is on Alan's back as they get near the car. (01:30:30)

johnrosa

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