Best action movie factual errors of 2000

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Charlie's Angels picture

Factual error: Near the end of the film Knox is flying a Huey helicopter and the Angels hitch a ride by shooting it with a spear gun and dangling on the line behind it. Suddenly adding about 200kgs to a Huey in flight like that is going to cause all sorts of problems with the trim and airspeed of the aircraft - the pilot would know immediately that something was wrong. (01:23:20)

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Suggested correction: Knox wasn't a trained pilot. Either he had no clue to what was going on, or he thought something may have been wrong, but didn't know what to do about it.

Taking off and landing a helicopter are by far the most intense and difficult part of a pilot's training. Seriously, 99% of learning to fly is learning how to land and take off. If the pilot is skilled enough to take off in a Huey he is easily skilled enough to notice a massive additional drag on his helicopter due to the additional weight of the angels and the air resistance put up by such a bulky protrusion on his aircraft. If he isn't skilled enough to notice that, he isn't skilled enough to take off in the first place.

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Battlefield Earth picture

Factual error: Amongst the essential parts of a nuclear weapon's detonation mechanism is a radioactive isotope of tritium, which has a half life of just 12 1/2 years. The tritium in every nuke on earth has to be replaced every ten years or so. This is by no means unusual; there are other perishable parts including detonators made of conventional explosives which would be completely inert after a thousand years. After lying dormant with no maintenance at all for that amount of time the nuclear weapons the 'Man-animals' find would be big shiny paperweights and not much else.

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Hollow Man picture

Factual error: The serum is transported by blood. Hair has no blood traveling to it, only the root. So, unless Bacon shaved his body clean, his hair wouldn't have become invisible, likewise all of the fur on the gorilla.

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Suggested correction: The serum could have been absorbed by the roots and made its way to the tip of the hair strands (similar to colored water going up a piece of celery, changing the color of the celery).

Mammal hair is not porous and is not subject to capillary action.

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Gladiator picture

Factual error: When a group of soldiers goes to Maximus' villa to burn it and kill his family, his son points them, saying in Italian "Mamma! I soldati!" ("Mom, the soldiers!") and then "PapĂ !" ("Daddy!"). This is because the young actor (Giorgio Cantarini) is Italian and they didn't translate, for some reason. As a result, he's speaking Italian in a movie in English, where people are supposed to speak Latin, in a province where Italian was never ever spoken. (00:43:07)

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U-571 picture

Factual error: In the last battle scene when you see shots of the German destroyer through the periscope the last one shot before it's blown up is really bad angling. The ship is far away but in the scope it's very close and the periscope (in order to get that camera angle) is 100 ft in the air.

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Pokemon 3: The Movie picture

Factual error: In "Pikachu and Pichu," when Pikachu and the Pichu brothers come to the big play structure thing, there are a bunch of Pokemon around, including a red-and-white, ball-shaped Pokemon called Voltorb. The dubbers for the English version made a very noticeable error here: instead of Voltorb saying "Voltorb," (almost all Pokemon say parts of their names when they speak) it says "Electrode," which is the name of a similar-looking, but different Pokemon. The two are both red and white, but the difference is that Voltorb has eyes on the red part of its body, while Electrode has eyes on the white part of its body.

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Shanghai Noon picture

Factual error: The evil man request 100,000 pieces of gold for ransom. Each gold piece looks to be about 10 ounces, and 100,000 of those would make the entire thing weigh about 31 tons, but 2 guys are carrying it around in a little chest throughout the movie.

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Big Momma's House picture

Factual error: In the movie, when the baby is born and Big Momma delivers it, the baby comes out without any blood and there's no umbilical cord. (00:34:20)

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Frequency picture

Factual error: A ham radio requires the person to hold down the button while talking. Numerous times in the movie they are talking without pushing the button.

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Suggested correction: This is actually subtly addressed in the film. The magic which allows the radio to work across time also allows the two men to speak without pressing the button. There is a moment where Frank wonders what is going on with the radio and presses the button a few times to talk but then notices that he doesn't have to press the button to be heard.

BaconIsMyBFF

If that was true, then it wouldn't make sense for them to continue to show Frank and John hitting the squawk bar throughout the film.

Bishop73

That is a separate issue. The mistake entry states that you need to hold the button to talk on a ham radio, which is true, but the magic ham radio in the film doesn't require it. If the actors continue to occasionally press the button that could be considered a character mistake but it could also simply be a force of habit by the characters.

BaconIsMyBFF

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Mission: Impossible 2 picture

Factual error: In the scene at the race track where they show the virus infecting and destroying cells in the blood stream, they clearly show that it is red blood cells being infected. Viruses, in order to replicate, require the cell's DNA replication machinery. However, mature red blood cells in the circulation no longer possess this machinery since they no longer have a nucleus or DNA. It would therefore be impossible for this virus to replicate.

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The Patriot picture

Factual error: In the scene at Lord Cornwallis' outdoor party celebration, right after Benjamin Martin and his Continental Army blows up a British Ship, one of Lord Cornwallis' Captains throws back a big gulp of his drink from his Martini glass in grief and disbelief - the problem is this movie takes place in the mid 1700s and the Martini Glass wasn't invented until the 1920s, during the Roaring Jazz days.

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X-Men picture

Factual error: The helicopter markings and paint schemes are exclusive ONLY to POTUS (President of the United States). Senator Kelly, even thought he's trying to get a Presidential bid, wouldn't be allowed to fly around in aircraft marked like that. (00:30:10)

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Vertical Limit picture

Factual error: Nitroglycerin does not react with sunlight, nor does it boil in sunlight.

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Left Behind: The Movie picture

Factual error: When Buck first sees the videotape left behind by Pastor Billings, Bruce Barnes tells him about a prophecy contained in "Daniel Nine, Chapter 27." As a pastor, Barnes should have known that the Bible is divided into chapters and verses. He should have said "Daniel 9:27," "Daniel Chapter 9, Verse 27," or "Daniel Nine, verse 27." The point is, "27" is the VERSE, not the CHAPTER. (01:15:05)

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Suggested correction: You have to keep in mind that Bruce was one of the only people in the church to be left behind. He admits himself that he wasn't where he should have been spiritually. So it makes sense that he wouldn't quote scripture properly at this point, he was practically a brand new Christian that was thrust into leadership, learning with his new congregation.

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The 6th Day picture The 6th Day mistake picture

Factual error: When Arnold is in the police station reporting that he has a clone and passes through a control room, one computer screen is flashing "OVERIDE." The correct spelling is "OVERRIDE." (00:38:05)

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Red Planet picture

Factual error: The roach-like insects that are apparently eating the algae and "producing oxygen" are continually referred to as nematodes. Nematodes are actually tiny round worms that have unsegmented bodies (unlike an earthworm).

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The Perfect Storm picture

Factual error: The movie was set in 1991, but there is a newspaper with a Kia advertisement. Kia's first U.S. cars arrived in 1994.

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Scream 3 picture

Factual error: In the beginning of the movie, the killer calls Cotton on his cell phone. When the killer hangs up on him, you hear a dial tone. When someone cuts you off on a cell phone, you don't get a dial tone. (00:02:40)

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Gone in 60 Seconds picture

Factual error: Right at the end, Memphis escapes by jumping via a flatbed towtruck. The ramp is put down on those to tow away a vehicle so it should be backed right up to a vehicle to lift it on. That begs the question of why the ramp was down with no vehicles anywhere near it. The maximum distance that any driver would want to maneuver with the ramp down would be a couple of feet straight back.

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Rules of Engagement picture

Factual error: During the "Vietnam Scene" at the beginning you see a very long take of an AK47 muzzle appearing slowly from a bush.The problem is, it has the slopping muzzle brake of the AKM, not the plain muzzle of an AK47. The AKM was not in service in 1968, and was never supplied to North Vietnam anyway.

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