The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water (2017)

5 corrected entries

(5 votes)

Corrected entry: Security cameras were not used in U.S. Government buildings before the 1970's.

Correction: This is a highly advanced (and fictional) research facility.

Corrected entry: In the early scenes Elisa has marks on the right side of her neck. In the final scene the marks have moved to the left side of her neck.

Correction: She has those marks on both sides of her neck from the beginning, which are revealed to be gills at the end of the film, which also possibly accounts for her muteness.

zendaddy621

Correction: Or he's just saying "the help" because that's what they are. Far too tenuous a connection.

Corrected entry: General Hoyt is shown as a five star General, and he makes reference to it. However, this rank did not exist in 1962. The last person to hold this rank was Omar Bradley in 1950.

wizard_of_gore

Correction: The rank of General of the Army (5-Star general) still exists, it's simply that no one has been given that rank since General Bradley. But as a fictitious character, there is nothing wrong with General Hoyt obtaining the rank simply because no one else has. Though some may say the rank was retired in the 80's after Bradley's death, there have been a few who were considered for the rank in modern times, such as Powell and Schwarzkopf.

Bishop73

Corrected entry: In the film it is advised that the creature be maintained at 5 - 8% salinity. The sea is only around 3.5%. It seems odd that he should need so much salt.

Correction: The film states he's not from the ocean. He's from a specific, presumably fictional, area of the Amazon where he was worshiped as a god. We can simply assume the area has water with a higher salinity level than ocean water. (As there are places around the world that have water with significantly higher salinity levels than ocean water).

TedStixon

Those bodies of water on the earth's surface with much higher salt content are invariably isolated lakes and inland seas that were formerly connected to the oceans in the distant past. Such high-salt lakes are the result of many millennia (even millions of years) of evaporation and reduction, which results in the nearby terrain becoming almost devoid of vegetation (due to the increasingly high alkalinity of the surrounding water table). So, you would expect to see near-desert-like conditions in the vicinity of isolated salt lakes and inland seas and virtually no large wildlife (except maybe migrating flamingos at certain times of the year). Point is, while there is evidence of "marine incursion" across the northern half of South America as far back as 14 million years ago (which did, in fact, produce the largest salt flats in the world at Uyuni, Bolivia), these salt lakes are very hostile and even toxic to complex life. Large animals, such as gill-people, simply couldn't have evolved there, with a saline content more than twice that of the ocean and virtually no food chain.

Charles Austin Miller

He's meant to be a river god, as confirmed by the director, who wrote: "It is a river God. It's not an animal. It's a river God in the Amazon. There was never another one." Therefore, it's entirely possible he survived in such a harsh environment and thrived.

TedStixon

Factual error: While featuring a brand-new 1962 Cadillac, a 1963 Chevrolet and 1963 Ford are shown.

More mistakes in The Shape of Water

Giles: Oh! God, to be young and beautiful. If I could go back to when I was 18 - I didn't know anything about anything - I'd give myself a bit of advice.
Elisa: [Signing] What would you say?
Giles: I would say: Take better care of your teeth and fuck a lot more.

More quotes from The Shape of Water

Trivia: There were rumors right up until the release that the film was a prequel to the 2004 superhero movie "Hellboy" - in no small part because both films feature an amphibious man played by actor Doug Jones as one of the lead characters, and both films were also directed by Guillermo del Toro. Despite the widespread speculation, del Toro consistently denied any plot or character associations between "The Shape of Water" and the Hellboy films.

More trivia for The Shape of Water

Question: Was that egg timer type in use or even invented in 1962?

Answer: Yes, clockwork timers were invented in the 1920's. This sort of egg timer was in heavy use by the 1960's.

BaconIsMyBFF

More questions & answers from The Shape of Water

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