Character mistake: Diana losing the race is presented by the movie as some sort of a judgement call from her aunt who tackles her as she is about to finish, to punish her for cheating taking a shortcut. "But I would have won!" she cries, and her aunt explains to her that it would have not been right. Simply put...No! That's not the case; the movie itself shows that Diana missed a checkpoint, which are recorded and represented visually in the main stadium by flags being unrolled each time one is reached. She did not take a shortcut, she went through the wrong path. (00:08:05)
Character mistake: Barbara is in her office looking for the one item they need help to identify when Diana walks in. She says "OK, item number 23." She suddenly finds it saying "here it is" and reaches in the box to grab the Dreamstone. The ticket says item #24. (00:22:18 - 00:22:50)
Character mistake: Greeting Steve in his gardens, the Emir says "Your fortune the last few days has been impressive to say the least." It literally happened overnight, not 'days'. (01:16:50)
Character mistake: When Barbara gives the hilarious back story of the wishing stone, she mentions that "Romulus, the last emperor of Rome, he had it on him when he was assassinated in 476." That's an amazing historical find in itself, because Romulus Augustulus (just "Romulus" is not really correct) was never assassinated; he had to abdicate the title in that year, but then lived the rest of his life in exile. It's worth noting that the novelization of the movie talks about Romulus, Rome's FIRST ruler, and his 'mysterious disappearance'. (01:27:45)
Character mistake: Barbara mentions that Kush went extinct in 4 AD. Maybe the fourth century? In 4 AD the civilization was still alive and well, and the collapse happened around the 4th century. (01:27:45)
Suggested correction: Barbara didn't say it went extinct in 4 AD. She says the stone appeared in Kush in 4 AD.
Suggested correction: Not a mistake in the movie for Barbara to give inaccurate information on history, since she is rushing through all of it without fact checking everything. He focus is the stone, not what happened to Romulus.
lionhead
I don't see what's wrong with saying it's a character mistake, really. By that logic, any bit of historical context provided in a movie could be incorrectly stated as long as it comes from someone who is in a rush. I find more interesting to report when something said in a movie for a serious purpose is wrong and not challenged.
Sammo ★
She's not an educated historian, OK for her to be mistaken. If she however says wrongful things about something she is supposed to be an expert in, that's a character mistake.
lionhead
It's not OK for her to be mistaken because when you specifically research for something (she has super-fast reading powers now and her task was to do some complex history research, it was not a random mistake playing Trivial Pursuit) there's no way to get that piece of information wrong; she is tracing the path the stone took, the fate of its last known owner is important. That being said, I don't particularly care about her status as expert (which she is, having done a specific research as said); dramatically speaking it's the bit of historical context the movie provides, it should not have mistakes in it when they do not have a payoff.
Sammo ★
I agree with Sammo. It's a character mistake.
raywest ★