Best adventure movie factual errors of 2009

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

The Descent: Part 2 picture

Factual error: Rios records a message for her daughter on her mobile phone. The phone is a Nokia N81. The film is set two days after the first one, in 2005. But the N81 wasn't released until 2007. (01:02:00)

THGhost

More The Descent: Part 2 factual errors
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen picture

Factual error: In the original Transformers, Tyrese Gibson's character is credited as and wears the rank insignia of a USAF Technical Sergeant. In Revenge of the Fallen, set two years later, Gibson's character now wears the insignia of a USAF Chief Master Sergeant, three ranks higher than his rank in the first movie. The USAF would not jump someone three grades into the top 1% of the enlisted force no matter what his heroics or experience (that does not even happen to Medal of Honor awardees). Clearly the screenwriters recognized this as Captain Lennox is bumped only one grade to Major despite his actions in the first film and Gibson's character, as noted in another mistake, is credited as Master Sergeant Epps, a reasonable promotion. The costume department simply got the insignia wrong.

Guy

More Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen factual errors
Sherlock Holmes picture

Factual error: In the scene depicting life on Baker Street (after the "Sherlock Holmes" title), a horse-drawn carriage races through the streets of London. The only problem is, the carriage is driving on the right side of the road with others passing on the left. In England, carriages would be driving on the left. (00:07:05)

mphe

More Sherlock Holmes factual errors
Inglourious Basterds picture

Factual error: When the real German soldiers are playing 20 questions in the bar, one of the cards shows the name of Genghis Khan. This is an English-language word; as Germans, they would have written Dschingis Khan instead. As the whole scene deals with exposing the British/American spies and subtle differences in their language or behaviour, this is especially unfavorable here.

wirthi

More Inglourious Basterds factual errors
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra picture

Factual error: In the underwater scene when Rex blows up the ice pack, ice appears to be denser than water in this situation. The ice sinks when it's blown up, and even if there were pieces of metal on top of the ice, it shouldn't. Some pieces the size of a five-story building have no metal and still sink. (01:43:00)

More G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra factual errors
Terminator Salvation picture

Factual error: In the scene in the 'cattle car' the shadow and light from outside the bars is moving across Kyle's face as he is talking. But unless the light source moves relative to the shadow source, a shadow will not move. But the light source was just outside daylight - and not direct sunlight - so the shadow inside would not have moved.

More Terminator Salvation factual errors
Solomon Kane picture

Factual error: At the start of the movie you can see the Flag of Great Britain on Solomon's ship. The film is set in 1600 and the Union flag didn't exist until 1606.

p05879

More Solomon Kane factual errors
Aliens in the Attic picture

Factual error: The sheriff mentions that they don't have a license plate on the front of their vehicle, but according to the aliens' map device, they're located in Michigan, where a front plate is not required.

topgun2616

More Aliens in the Attic factual errors

Up (2009)

Up picture

Factual error: After trying to get his balloon back, Carl Jr. falls and breaks his arm. The ambulance that picks him up has a modern-day electronic siren, when in the 30's it would be a mechanical siren and would be much smaller.

Low Cow

More Up factual errors
St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold picture

Factual error: In the movie they search for two matching rings, which contain geographical location of the treasure. The rings were casted in 1589, and uses Greenwich as Prime Meridian. This wasn't established however until nearly 300 years later in 1851.

danindub

More St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold factual errors
Star Trek picture

Factual error: USS Enterprise's onboard computer initially refuses to acknowledge Chekov's authorization code. The reason, it seems, is Chekov's Russian accent, which pronounces the letter "V" (pronounced labiodentally) like a British "W" (pronounced bilabially). Problem: Chekov pronounces his ensign authorization code in the NATO phonetic alphabet. ("Nine, Five, Victor, Victor, Two", which resolves to 95VV2) This alphabet is specifically designed to alleviate this exact same situation. The 26 code words in the NATO phonetic alphabet are assigned to the 26 letters of the English alphabet: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, and Zulu. The slightly mispronounced "Wictor" should not be a problem. (00:42:05)

FleetCommand

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

Suggested correction: You're applying today's standards to a fictional future. We've seen in every iteration of Star Trek that security includes both a passkey/password and voice authentication. The actual mistake here is that regardless of how Chekov speaks, the computer should recognize it as his voice because he always speaks that way.

I am afraid the computer's error message leaves no doubt that there was no voice matching at work this time; only pure speech-to-text.

FleetCommand

More Star Trek factual errors
Race to Witch Mountain picture

Factual error: After the chase scene through the desert and arriving at the abandoned old house, the children hand the taxi driver all of the money they received from the ATM earlier in the movie. When the taxi driver examines the money, it is all hundred dollar bills. No ATM in Las Vegas, Nevada dispenses hundred dollar bills.

More Race to Witch Mountain factual errors
Dead Snow picture

Factual error: Herzog is referred to as "Oberst" (Colonel) both by The Wanderer and in the end credits. But both he and his men wear SS uniforms and insignia, where standard military titles were not used. Herzog should have been called the SS equivalent "Standartenführer".

Twotall

More Dead Snow factual errors
G-Force picture

Factual error: Another problem with Speckles the star-nose mole. Star-nose moles live in "wet lowland areas" (Wikipedia) but in the film, Speckle's history is shown and his home used to be a field with undulated small hills.

roykwok22

More G-Force factual errors
Fanboys picture

Factual error: In the scene of the parking garage in Vegas, as the group is escaping the Trekkies, you can see vehicles in the parkade from the 2000's. The movie is taking place in 1998.

rswarrior

More Fanboys factual errors
Dragonball Evolution picture

Factual error: Despite the film building to a climax during a total solar eclipse, which requires a New Moon, the film constantly shows a Full Moon, which never changes phase over the weeks the film takes place.

The Yeti

More Dragonball Evolution factual errors
Fantastic Mr. Fox picture

Factual error: When we first see Rat, he's noticeably taller than Mr. Fox in a close-up. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

More Fantastic Mr. Fox factual errors
Avatar picture

Factual error: During the hometree bombing, the "sky people" throw gas grenades at the N'avi. It's a cool tactic but because of the helicopter blades rotating right above them, the gas would just get blown away therefore making it a useless thing to use in the war.

bmhorton54

More Avatar factual errors
More Planet 51 factual errors
Land of the Lost picture

Factual error: When Dr. Marshall and team launch the tank of nitrogen into the mouth of the dinosaur, there's absolutely no reason why the tank would explode as it was swallowed whole and didn't experience any sort of impact that could have punctured, ruptured or broken the valve off the tank.

jerimiah

More Land of the Lost factual errors

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.