Best sci-fi movie mistakes of 1997

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Cube picture

Deliberate mistake: Leaven spends too much time thinking about if 645 and 372 are prime numbers to be believable. But she knows the factors of 649 and the result of 26 to the power of 3 almost immediately. Plus anyone with any maths knowledge whatsoever would know that any even number (or one divisible by 5) can't be prime, so 645 and 372 could be dismissed without even thinking about it.

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Men in Black picture

Audio problem: When Will Smith is looking at the two space ships at the MIB headquarters, if you look in the background Zed and K are there typing on the computer. But if you look closer you can tell that they're not even touching the keyboard and the sounds are just added into the movie. (01:16:00)

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The Saint picture

Continuity mistake: In the beginning of the movie, when the little girl is falling, they film her falling all the way down backwards. When they flash to the young Simon's face and the priest and back to the girl she lands face down.

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Face/Off picture Face/Off mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: In the shoot 'em up scene at the hangar near the beginning of the film, right after Tito and Wanda take down Pollux, when Troy shoots an agent in the stomach and the agent flies back - you can see at least two cable wires pulling him backwards. You can first notice the 2 wires when the agent is running in slow motion right before he shoots him. (00:14:15)

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The Lost World: Jurassic Park picture

Character mistake: When they're on the island and the INGen helicopters are flying in, Jeff Goldblum takes the binoculars and looks through the wrong end. (00:32:30)

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Starship Troopers picture

Continuity mistake: Toward the end, Carmen Ibanez gets stabbed through the shoulder when she is brought before the big master alien thing. If you were to sustain such an injury, there would be so much swelling, not to mention just destroyed tissue, that you wouldn't be able to move that arm for weeks. Yet a few minutes later, she is seen hefting around a very large assault rifle, and seems to have no difficulty. I guess it's a pretty standard action movie "heroes can temporarily ignore injury in order to save the day" kind of oversight, but it just seems exaggerated in this case, considering how severe the shoulder trauma looked. (01:48:15 - 01:53:40)

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Contact picture

Factual error: The geography around the VLA in New Mexico is actually relatively flat - in fact one of the reasons why the array complex is there is because the land is flat. The canyon in the film was actually Canyon de Chelly, in Arizona, more than 170 miles (270 km) away. But in the film, when Ellie goes to the canyon, the radio antennas seem to be right there, insinuating that the canyon is part of the VLA's magical desert scenery.

solarpilot

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Gattaca picture

Visible crew/equipment: When Ethan Hawke is picking out a suit and shoes, you see a distinct hand on the left side of the closet holding up what must be a false wall. (00:33:25)

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The Fifth Element picture The Fifth Element mistake picture

Revealing mistake: Right after they "create" Leeloo and she is lying in the plastic cage with the little straps on her, the guy approaches her and says, "if you want out, you are going to have to work on your communication skills." She gives him a dirty look, and then you can see a huge hole, pre-cut in the glass, that she busts her hand through. (00:29:47)

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Rocketman picture

Continuity mistake: When Fred Randall keeps expelling gas, the glass on his helment keeps reappearing and disappearing.

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Alien Resurrection picture

Continuity mistake: Ripley kills the alien in the corridor after it has killed the first member of the Betty crew but there is no melting of decks or bulkheads from the creature's acidic blood. Also, the Betty crew seem unaffected by all the acid. (00:46:00)

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The Creeps picture

Continuity mistake: When Miss Christina is caressing the Jane Eyre manuscript against her chest the book is open, then stops because she thinks she hears something, but in the wider shot the book is now closed.

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Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves picture

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Wayne makes his speech at Szalynski Labs, he pretends to stand in a strange shape. When he does so, his speech cards are facing down. In the very next shot, the cards are facing up.

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Asteroid picture

Revealing mistake: Although the revelers in Dallas are celebrating the 4th of July, it's very obvious by the characters' clothing that the film was shot during cold weather.

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Mimic picture

Continuity mistake: Peter walks into the bathroom holding a box of Chinese and a bottle of wine. He puts them down and hugs Sarah. She falls backwards into the bath and now he too is holding a glass of cloudy looking water. (00:08:25)

jle

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Future War picture

Revealing mistake: When the Cyborg Master enters the police station, he shoots two police women before a third cop starts shooting back with a shotgun. The third shot he fires hits the wall behind the cyborg, and the entire wall wobbles as the squib goes off to make the hole in the wall.

Twotall

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Orgazmo picture

Continuity mistake: When Joe goes to quit, it is late afternoon (it is getting dusky). But when he shows up at Ben's house afterwards to tell him that he just quit, it is lighter, like it's the middle of the day.

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Habitat picture

Continuity mistake: When Hank Simes reappears in human form, he is wearing a red shirt that materialised with him. But when the blue laser disintegrates him, the shirt falls to the ground.

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Event Horizon picture

Factual error: When D.J. is attacked by Dr. Weir, he is grabbed by the throat and is squeezed until his windpipe is broken, shown by the way he was breathing (or struggling to). When Weir seizes him again and throws him against a support beam, he screams in a way impossible for someone who just had his windpipe crushed.

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Suggested correction: Dr. Weir doesn't crush DJ's throat at all. The noises he makes are simply choking noises because he is being picked up by his throat, there isn't even anything in the scene to imply his throat is being crushed, which in reality requires considerably more effort than most people believe.

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DNA (1997)

DNA picture

Continuity mistake: Costume continuity throughout the whole film. When the female scientist gets changed into khaki pants they are tight fitting, they alternate between tight and baggy throughout.

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