Best thriller movie factual errors of 2009

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The Informant! picture

Factual error: The movie takes place during the 1990s, but throughout the movie cars are shown with Illinois license plates with "Illinois" written in cursive. These plates were not introduced until 2001. (00:24:45)

illiniman14

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2012 picture

Factual error: In the poster shot and in the film, the wave from the Atlantic carrying the carrier JFK into a collision with the White House comes crashing in from the west because the south portico of the White House is seen. The Atlantic Ocean is east of Washington, so the wave should come from the other direction. And even a wave coming from the east could not have made the JFK (CV-67) crash into the White House because the carrier was retired in 2005 and is berthed in Philadelphia, which is northeast of Washington DC. (01:30:10 - 01:30:40)

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Law Abiding Citizen picture

Factual error: In the scene when the police are heading to Clyde's house to arrest him, this tactic is highly unrealistic. In real life, when a person is simply a suspect in an investigation, the police do not all drive to the suspect location with lights and sirens going. This loses the element of surprise. They didn't even know if he was home, anyway.

Anthony Lemons

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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

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Fast & Furious picture

Factual error: During the first tunnel sequence, all the cars travel very far into the mountains, turn lots of corners, yet not only is Gisele still able to speak to them over the radios, their GPS still works. GPS signals invariably need a clear 'sight' of the sky and can penetrate light cover, but most certainly not that depth and cover. (00:58:05)

GalahadFairlight

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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

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Suggested correction: Nonsense. Not all can be put out with water, some can.

If you did research on fires you will see that putting water on chemical fires makes it spread. Gasoline and oil float to the surface of the water and continue to burn.

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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

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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)

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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.

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The Fourth Kind picture

Factual error: Abby has trees surrounding her house yet there aren't any in Nome Alaska.

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Daybreakers picture

Factual error: In the beginning a calendar says 2019 April, you can see April 1 being Tuesday when actually April 1 2019 was a Monday. (00:01:10)

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The Human Centipede picture

Factual error: During the surgical operation, Dr. Heiter makes incisions on the buttocks for the triangular flaps of connecting flesh; but the flaps are pointing outward, rather than inward. The only way to graft the buttock flesh to the face of the next subject would be with the buttock incisions pointing inward.

Charles Austin Miller

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X-Men Origins: Wolverine picture

Factual error: When Wolverine is being chased after the explosion of the barn, there's a Humvee chasing the motorcycle. The movie is supposed to take place in the late 70's - the Humvee started production in 1984 and started service in the late 80's.

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The Taking of Pelham 123 picture

Factual error: When Pelham 123 gets split in two (as in it's uncoupled from the rest of its train), they do so from a control panel from the inside of the car above the seats. Subway cars, like all rail cars, can only be split manually through a lever near the coupler, not through a control panel. In addition, subway cars have ropes between cars, which must be taken down before cars are split. Otherwise they will still stay connected.

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State of Play picture

Factual error: When Robert Bingham is shooting at Cal, an MPD (Washington, DC) squad car shows up. However, the scene is set in Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia, outside of MPD's jurisdiction. Arlington County Police would have responded instead. (01:13:05)

throcko

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Angels & Demons picture

Factual error: Contrary to what the movie states, priests can be elected Pope - they are simply elevated to the rank of Bishop before taking the office.

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Suggested correction: Him being only a priest was simply an excuse not to elect him. Those who did not want him to be pope were trying to find any reason to keep it from happening.

Any baptized Catholic male can be elected pope, although it has only happened once. Pope John XIX in the 11th century was a layman, ordained after his election.

William Lanigan

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Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead picture

Factual error: When the group discovers the armoured truck in the woods, the officer says it's from the 1950's. After they open the door and are looking at the money, it looks brand new. Money sitting in the weather and heat would get mouldy and deteriorate after 50 plus years.

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Moon picture

Factual error: When Sam speaks with his daughter on the long range phone there is virtually no delay between some questions and answers. It takes over two seconds for radio waves just to travel from the Moon to the Earth and back in a straight line. The interval between question and answer physically can't be shorter than that and realistically should be around 3 seconds or even more, accounting for additional signal relays and time needed for a person to form a statement. Same for the communication between Gerty and the Lunar employees when Sam 2 got out of his infirmary bed.

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Saw VI picture

Factual error: We see Hoffman has to use pliers and force to remove Strahm's hand from the grill. However, since the hand is freshly severed, rigor mortis would not have set in, and he should have been able to remove it with ease. (01:09:30)

Ssiscool

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