Best drama movie factual errors of 2000

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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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Mission to Mars picture

Factual error: Gary Sinise looks at a computer screen with a short section (about two full twists) of DNA on it and proclaims that "This DNA looks human." He could have been looking at DNA from any single-celled organism and it would have looked just as human as what he was looking at. All mammals have 90+ percent of their DNA in common, he would have to have sequenced the entire DNA strand (something like 3 billion pairs of nucleotides) to identify it as human, something that would be totally beyond the capacity of anything but a well-equipped genetics lab, something they show no sign of having.

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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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Cast Away picture

Factual error: Shortly after the crash, when Chuck is in the raft, one of the engines continues to run even though it is half submerged in water. The engine would not have exploded like it did, rather, it would have just stopped running as soon as it became disconnected from its fuel source and flooded with water.

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Suggested correction: The aircraft seems like a Airbus A300 or 310 but it is really a MD-11 or DC-10 because you can clearly see that the front body with wing with engine attached sink leaving the tail section. So the tail has a fuel tank and the third engine. The engine normally compresses air then burns it by feeding in fuel and igniting it. But can't compress air because the turbines are in the water. The fuel would in this case would "flood" the engine then the igniter ignites it and explodes.

Fumes explode, raw fuel burns. Igniter will not ignite raw fuel nor would there be anyway to propagate the explosion that took place.

Even if the engine was flooded, and full of water, and the air couldn't, it still wouldn't explode. MD-11 engines run on a fuel that cannot be ignited.

Wrong, the tail section has fuel LINES not a fuel tank.

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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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Almost Famous picture

Factual error: This is a wardrobe error... in the next morning scene after William has been deflowered, he is still in his Fruit of the Looms, which have the name printed on the elastic waistband. Fruit of the Loom did not print their name on waistbands like this until the 90s, in the 70s they just had single blue and yellow stripes. (01:08:27)

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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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High Fidelity picture

Factual error: When John Cusack puts Springsteen on his LP-player, he places the needle at the start of the record. The song that plays is the studio version of "The River." Therefore, the album has to be "The River," which is a double album, but "The River" is not at the start of either of the two LPs, but is the last song on LP #1. (00:18:10)

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Billy Elliot picture

Factual error: In the scene where Billy's brother argues with a miner in the local shop, there is a plastic Polo dispenser that wasn't around in 1984.

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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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Boiler Room picture

Factual error: In the scene where the FBI agents have taken Giovanni Ribisi in for interrogation, one of the FBI agents says at one point "...and I want the whole C:/ Drive backed up on a floppy.", which is pretty hard to do, if not impossible, unless you've got about a 5Mb hard disk drive (depending on compression levels). But later on in the scene where Ribisi is actually doing it, he does it in about 10 seconds...with a 1.44MB floppy.

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The Dish picture

Factual error: There is a a scene showing round bales of hay and as anyone in this district would know we never had those shaped bales out here in Parkes when man first walked on the moon, we only had the old rectangle shape bales of hay.

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The Beach picture

Factual error: When Richard goes to the mainland with Sal, he calls back home to say that he is OK. International phone calls cannot be made from the blue public phones of the type he uses. Only public phones from CAT (Communication Authority of Thailand) can be used for this purpose. Richard was calling from a TOT (Telephone Organization of Thailand) phone.

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Quills picture

Factual error: In one of his first appearances, Proulx the Architect is using a modern pen on a pad of paper when taking notes.

David Mercier

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Men of Honour picture

Factual error: There's a radio broadcast in 'Men of Honour,' which has Milwaukee playing Brooklyn before Braves actually moved to Wisconsin from Boston in 1953.

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The Contender picture

Factual error: Towards the end of the movie when the President is addressing Congress, Joan Allen is seen outside of the building jogging. Joan Allen, being a senator and thereore a part of Congress, should have been inside the building.

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Boys and Girls picture

Factual error: When Ryan and Jennifer are hanging out at their lookout spot, over the Golden Gate Bridge, they are looking at the bridge from the Marin County side. For those of you who aren't familiar with Bay Area geography, the distance between Berkeley and Marin County is about 15 or 20 miles, yet the two refer to walking back to campus a few times.

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The Legend of Bagger Vance picture

Factual error: When the second round of the tournament is starting and Bagger Vance is telling Rannulph Junuh about 'the field', just after Bobby Jones has taken his tee-shot, Bagger hands Junuh a ball and tee. The tee is a red plastic 'castle' style tee. Apart from being illegal in tournament play, I'm pretty sure they weren't around in the 1920's.

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Memento picture Memento mistake picture

Factual error: In the beginning, Leonard looks at a copy of John G/Teddy's driver's license. The expiration date is listed as 2-29-01, but of course, 2001 was not a leap year, so there would've only been 28 days in the month. (00:12:45)

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