Best movie factual errors of 2008

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SEAL Team VI picture

Factual error: When the captain is arguing with the Armed Services Committee chairman, Homeland Security is mentioned. However this movie takes place prior to Desert Shield, and the Department of Homeland Security wasn't created until over a decade later.

goofyfoot

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The Good, The Bad, The Weird picture

Factual error: Although the movie was set in the 1940s, the railroad track had modern concrete ties.

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The Ruins picture

Factual error: When Mathias is getting his legs cut off, he's raising his head and shoulders off the ground, although his back is broken.

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

Suggested correction: Depending on where the break is, this is possible.

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Milk picture

Factual error: When Harvey sets up his very obvious "SOAP box" and gives his first speech, modern vehicles can be seen parked along the curb behind him, most obviously the small US Postal van and UPS truck. A little later, a 2000s era black SUV is at the curb when Harvey steps out of his camera shop.

johnrosa

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Inkheart picture

Factual error: The Volkswagen Campervan that is used at the beginning of the film has a Zürich number plate, yet the cantonal coat of arms to the right of the number plate is that of the canton of Ticino (red and blue stripe). This is incorrect: The coat of arms should have been a white-blue stripe, which is the coat of arms of Zürich Canton and would correspond correctly to the number plate.

Low Cow

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Let the Right One In picture

Factual error: When Virginia is attacked by Gosta's cats and throws herself down the flight of stairs to get them off her, her clothes aren't ripped or messed up afterward the way they should have been after such a vicious attack.

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Transsiberian picture

Factual error: In the film, the train is hauled by diesel locomotives on a single track not electrified line. Since early 2000 the Trans-Siberian is double-track and fully electrified.

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The Reader picture

Factual error: In the streetcar scene a passenger is a soldier wearing a US Army green uniform with a CIB, Comat Infantry Badge. At the time US uniforms were brown and there is no plausible reason for this US soldier to be in that country.

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Vicky Cristina Barcelona picture

Factual error: We're told over and over that Vicky is an expert on Barcelona and Catalonia, for she has written a thesis. She visits Avilés (Asturias) with Juan Antonio, where he tells her he was born a few blocks from there; however, during their dinner at night the actress mistakes and tells him that he's from Catalonia, instead of Asturian. Anyone with a such an expertise on Catalonia will know that. Besides, it's not real life, but a screenplay, so either Woody Allen screwed up, or the actress did.

Sacha

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Black Ops picture

Factual error: During the opening credits. An LCD screen is shown with lat/long coordinates. The movie takes place in the Persian Gulf. The coordinates are in the vicinity of Oceanside, CA.

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The Machine Girl picture

Factual error: When Ami and Miki are driving nails into the henchman's face to make him talk, it is very clear that the depth of the nails would have killed him, as they would have penetrated deep into his brain. Obviously done for stylistic effect, but a mistake nonetheless.

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Bottle Shock picture

Factual error: During the airport scene, the 737 shown is a model from 1984 or newer, with distinctive large diameter engines. The movie is set in 1976, when all 737s had long narrow engines.

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One Week picture

Factual error: Ben stops at a rest area near Hope, BC. He is headed for Vancouver and Vancouver Island. Leaving the rest area, he turns right, as he should, to head for Vancouver. The highway sign points left for Hope, BC, and right for Vancouver. I've been at this rest area, and the direction he turns toward Vancouver is correct. However, the next shot shows him going through Hell's Gate tunnel, which is north of Hope. He would have had to turn left, go through Hope, and 40 or so miles north to go through the Hell's Gate tunnel. The next scene shows him on the ferry to Vancouver Island, which was in the direction he was headed when he turned right from the rest area. There would be no reason for him to turn around and go through the tunnel, as he was already heading in the right direction.

rswarrior

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Doomsday picture

Factual error: Late in the big chase scene, Sol climbs on top of the Bentley just as Sinclair decides to drive it straight through a bus that is blocking the highway. Somehow, the Bentley levitates from the highway to about 4 or 5 feet in the air, penetrating the bus passenger cabin rather than impacting the chassis of the bus. Also, as the bus inexplicably explodes in a fireball, Sol (who was atop the car) is torn to pieces, with his decapitated head hurtling straight into the camera. Without lungs or diaphragm, Sol's head is still audibly screaming.

Charles Austin Miller

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War, Inc. picture

Factual error: The bar shown in Iqualuit is not real. Iqualuit only has 6100 or so people, and there is no bar like the one shown in the movie. The building is wrong - it doesn't even look like any buildings in Iqualuit. There is one bar that looks nothing like the movie, one Legion, and a bar in the hotel in Iqualuit.

rswarrior

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Righteous Kill picture

Factual error: Spider's club is shown on 125th Street in Harlem, but whenever the officers radio in the location, they say 184th & St. Nicholas, which is in Washington Heights over 3 miles north.

throcko

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College picture

Factual error: When the college students are shooting pedestrians with paintball guns, the guns don't have ball hoppers which hold the paintball ammo, hence no ammo. Yet when the camera angle changes, it shows pedestrians getting hit by paintballs.

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The X-Files: I Want to Believe picture

Factual error: When Mulder avoids hitting the truck, in the shot from the inside of the car he turns the wheel full left which means that the car should start to spin anticlockwise. However, in the next outside shot the car spins clockwise. (01:16:25)

Chop Luftmysza

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Keith picture

Factual error: When Natalie decides to rebuild the carburetor that Keith gave to her, she opens the rebuild kit and starts lying out the parts. The problem is that the kit is for a French Solex type 30 single-barrel carb, and the carburetor in the box is a domestic four-barrel.

goofyfoot

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Swing Vote picture

Factual error: The movie is supposed to be set in Texico New Mexico, however there are mountains in the background. The closest mountains are near Albuquerque, NM while the area surrounding Texico is completely flat.

Hersey

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