Best movie mistakes of 2023

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Oppenheimer picture Oppenheimer mistake picture

Factual error: After the successful Trinity test in 1945, people in a crowd are holding small US flags with 50 stars on them (offset rows). At the time there were only 48 states and the flag had 48 stars in even rows. The 50 star flag didn't exist until 1960, after Alaska and Hawaii were made states in 1959.

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Suggested correction: While this is correct, an argument can be made that since the colour scenes are meant to be subjective and the black and white scenes are meant to be objective, Oppenheimer could have been unintentionally mapping the modern US flag onto this scene.

THGhost

That's a ridiculous stretch with zero evidence, not least as 48 star flags are seen in colour in other scenes. Sometimes a mistake is simply a mistake.

There is evidence, though. Nolan said so himself. Look it up. As for the mistake itself, I'm merely repeating what I've read on Twitter, and this correction was merely a suggestion. Seeing the 48 star flags in other colour scenes still doesn't disprove this theory. It is just a theory though, so no need to shoot it down so hard.

THGhost

He's said subjective in terms of the colour scenes being "first person", and maybe not strictly factual in terms of creating moments between characters and conveying emotion, but nowhere does that stretch to "one random scene happens to feature 50 star flags because Oppenheimer is mapping the modern flag onto it, when nothing like that happens anywhere else in the film."

Meh, take it up with Twitter. I just thought it was interesting, so I posted it here for a different point of view/perspective for others to read. It is most likely bull**** though.

THGhost

The fact that a director realized they had made a mistake and retroactively made up a deus ex machina explanation for it in no way invalidates the mistake. Nice try, Mr. Nolan but this posting is absolutely valid.

While Christopher Nolan's talked about the subjective/objective colour/black and white thing, which is entirely fair and no doubt exactly his intention, I don't think he's actually tried to "excuse" this by using that explanation, that's just other people trying to connect the two things. I'm not sure Nolan has commented on the flag issue in interviews at all.

Precisely, and I was in no way trying to invalidate the original mistake. I just found the whole theory interesting and posted it here. It is rather hilarious that a director with such attention to detail like Nolan would have missed something like this. We shall see if he gets it fixed for the streaming/physical release.

THGhost

It's not fixed in the home video version. However, the behind-the-scenes materials provide a reason for the mistake, in that putting a crowd in the scene was apparently a spur-of-the-moment decision. It's like that in their haste to bring in the crowd, the set decorators bought some modern miniature flags and put them into the scene without anyone realizing the 48/50 discrepancy.

Vader47000

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny picture

Plot hole: At the start of the film, a young Jürgen Voller gets hit square in the face, at high speed, by trackside equipment and gets knocked off the train. But somehow, he isn't killed and survives without so much as a scar on his face.

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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning picture

Factual error: Gabriel kills the engineer and sets the train to full speed, then locks the control room. Without the engine being resupplied with coal it would lose power and stop before too long, never getting as far as the bridge.

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Suggested correction: It is known for firemen to fill the loco up to allow it to run for 15-20 minutes without new coal. However, it could not run that long at that speed without the boiler being refilled with water, so the boiler would have exploded well before the fire reduced.

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Fast X picture

Other mistake: Dante and The Agency both have extensive photos and videos of the team's previous exploits. Trouble is that most of it is simply stills and footage from the previous movies in the franchise, often occasions when nobody was around with a camera to witness and document what was going on, certainly not at the angles we see.

Jon Sandys

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The Super Mario Bros. Movie picture The Super Mario Bros. Movie mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Toad General calls for the council's attention and announces that Bowser found the Super Star, note his shirt buttons. Then, when he says that the Kongs will never agree because their mad king doesn't make alliances, Toad General's shirt is backwards, his buttons are on the opposite side. (00:24:55 - 00:25:35)

Super Grover

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A Haunting in Venice picture

Factual error: Poirot attends a Halloween party in Venice in 1947. Halloween was never publicly recognized as a holiday in Venice or Italy in general in the XX century, especially with the traditional pumpkin-centered iconography. One could argue that, for the most part, Poirot is attending a private party organized by an American soprano. But, besides how unlikely it would be for 1947 Catholic nuns to take part in such a pagan-themed event, there are scenes showing Halloween decorations in the streets of Venice far away from the party location, as if it were a public holiday and not a private gathering from an eccentric foreigner.

Sammo

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Suggested correction: Besides what Oliver says to Poirot in the beginning about Americans bringing over Halloween to Italy, it's not true. Halloween has a European and Christian origin. A day called All Hallow's Day on November 1st has been a national holiday in Italy since the 9th century. There have always been activities in Italy the evening prior to All Hallow's day. This includes games, themes of death, carved pumpkins (turnips before), and masks ("guising"), all of which are very old traditions done all over Europe.

lionhead

Being Italian and having lived in Italy for the past decades, may not make me an authority over all things Italian, but I can assure you that Ognissanti (which is what you quote as being "All Hallow's Day," since we obviously haven't been borrowing English names for our festivities) has never been observed as a national holiday with anything remotely close to what is shown here, which is, like Ariadne Oliver says, plain and simple Halloween. Like I said in the entry, it'd be perfectly fine for Americans to celebrate it, but no pumpkin banners in the public streets and parades with people shouting "Happy Halloween!" with nuns in full garb, no less! Halloween has never been celebrated here with any mainstream fanfare until the very, very recent years.

Sammo

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Plane picture

Factual error: After a power outage the captain states that operating on batteries (?) he has 10 minutes of power, followed by an uncontrolled descent. That is ludicrous. Aircraft can glide to a landing with no power or engines. Further, commercial airliners have a Ram Air Turbine that can supply hydraulic as well as electrical power even if the engines are not functioning.

toroscan

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John Wick: Chapter 4 picture

Continuity mistake: Wick takes the lapel pin off and places it in his right front jacket pocket. Shortly afterwards he takes it out of his front left jacket pocket. (00:49:10 - 00:56:20)

Movie Medic

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Saltburn picture

Factual error: This is set in summer 2007 but they watch Superbad (released August 2007) on DVD.

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Suggested correction: The movie actually takes place in 2006. Superbad coming out in 2007 was correct.

Do a word change if the mistake is valid. Not a correction.

Bishop73

The movie starts in late 2006, then Oliver is invited to spend the summer (2007) with Felix, where the bulk of the movie takes place.

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The Holdovers picture

Continuity mistake: His lazy eye is not consistently on his left or the right. It switches from scene to scene. Even though in the end he says it's his right eye people should always look at.

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Peter Pan & Wendy picture

Continuity mistake: A cannonball fired from Captain Hook's ship hits a cliff where Peter Pan, Wendy, John and Michael are watching. The blast hurls the four into the air. When Wendy regains consciousness, she is lying face down on the shore as waves wash over her. As she runs up the hillside to search for the others, her clothes are dry and her hair is blowing in the breeze. (00:23:20)

Steven Lee

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Ghosted picture

Factual error: A large part of the film takes place in Pakistan, but all the cars there have steering wheels on the left as in the US. Pakistan drives on the left and the cars have steering wheels on the right side of the car. (00:57:21)

thetaz00

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Suggested correction: There's an article on huffpost.com by Jeanette Khan entitled, "Driving In Pakistan: Can You Handle It?" (12/18/08 updated 5/25/11) wherein it is stated, "Driving in Pakistan is like purposely courting death... Sometimes, people prefer to drive on the right-side of the road... The drivers really don't care they're going the wrong way. There really are no rules for driving here. People often do as they please." In fact, then, the actual driving practices do not conform to the written law.

KeyZOid

Or, are you just asserting that the cars should not have steering wheels on the left? The cars could be from anywhere, even if being driven in Pakistan. U.S.P.S. mail trucks have steering wheels on the right – this doesn't mean that they don't belong in the U.S.

KeyZOid

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Air (2023)

Air picture

Character mistake: In the meeting in 1984 when Jason Bateman first appears they have players on the whiteboard in the background. They have "Hakeem Olajuwon." He didn't put the H back in his name until 1991. So it should have been "Akeem Olajuwon." (00:08:40)

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Transformers: Rise of the Beasts picture

Factual error: Kris is playing the original Gameboy and says he can't beat Bowser. No Mario game released before 1994 for the original Gameboy featured Bowser as a boss.

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Creed III picture

Factual error: In the introduction to the movie, set in 2002, a young Adonis has a Naruto: Shippuden poster in his room. Naruto: Shippuden did not premiere until 2007.

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Shazam! Fury of the Gods picture

Continuity mistake: After Freddy gets bullied by the high school jocks and returns to talk to Anthea, he leaves his locker door open to walk her to class. When the camera pans around, his locker door is closed. (00:24:47)

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Strays picture

Factual error: When the four dogs are urinating on each other, we see all of them, including the female dog Maggie, all have their legs in the air. In reality, only male dogs lift their legs to pee; females squat.

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Suggested correction: Sorry, but some female dogs do lift a leg to pee. It isn't common, but my late Schnoodle Lucy did it several times in the eleven years I had her. It was unusual enough that I remember it vividly, and I have seen at least one other female dog do it as well. Strangely enough, I now have a male Standard Poodle who has squatted to pee at least four times in the two years I've had him, including the first night he was in my home.

Sure, but I'm sure the female dog wouldn't urinate in the same direction as a male dog would, like in the movie.

Correct. Lifting a leg is sometimes done to show dominance, and squatting for submission. Regardless of gender.

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Saw X picture

Continuity mistake: SPOILERS: In the post-credits scene, after Henry's trap starts, in the second-to-last shot, you see him sort of start to shake and rear his head back. But then in the next shot, he's no longer shaking. Additionally, his head is down again and he rears it back a second time.

TedStixon

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Scream VI picture

Continuity mistake: When Tara tells Chad that she thinks he should get out of the city while they're cooking in the kitchen, Tara's hair moves on and off her left shoulder several times, depending on the camera angle.

TedStixon

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