Time Bandits

Factual error: When the roast ox is cut in half by the swordsman, fruits spill out which were totally unknown to the ancient Greeks - most notably pineapples, mangoes and papayas. None of these fruits were available to Europeans for another 3,500 years when they were discovered in South America and the South Pacific. (And Greek explorers did NOT discover them independently, nor did they trade with anyone who did.). (00:54:45)

Factual error: When the Titanic sinks all six dwarves and Kevin end up in the sea clutching a lifebelt. The water in which the Titanic sank was freezing - that is how most of the casualties died, by freezing, not drowning. In water like that you'd be lucky to stay conscious for more than a few minutes. Despite this none of them show the slightest effect of the cold. Maybe the dwarves have some 'magical' ability to withstand lethal cold, but Kevin doesn't even react to being plunged into freezing cold water. He'd be screaming in pain, but he doesn't even show the slightest sign of discomfort.

Revealing mistake: When Wally is firing the laser at random from the small spaceship, we see Fidget running down some stone stairs, and there are violent laser impacts directly behind him that could only have hit where they did if they had passed right though his body. (01:41:55)

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Supreme Being: Oh, I do hate appearing that way, it's an entirely noisy manifestation. Still, rather expected of one, I suppose.

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Trivia: Throughout the film there are several references to a character named Horseflesh, (such as "Horseflesh would never get us into this mess"). Despite the character being credited at the end of the movie he's never properly shown onscreen. There's a paragraph devoted to him in the published "Time Bandits" screenplay: "The trouble is quite frankly that if Horseflesh had been in it he would have made seven dwarves, and we'd have libel suits from Disney and all sorts of things. But we liked the name, so he remains the mystery dwarf." According to the interview with Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam on the extras DVD (produced in 2002), Terry Gilliam states that Horseflesh is the dwarf seen with Evil, though it isn't mentioned who he is; in the original script he had quite a few lines, but they were cut, eg "The map! Evil one, the very map I promised you, is yours" (from script excerpt shown on DVD).

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Answer: None of them appeared in Time Bandits, but all four have worked with director Terry Gilliam (Pitt and Stowe in Twelve Monkeys, Plummer and Ruehl in The Fisher King) - presumably their interviews were about Gilliam generally. The Supreme Being was played by Sir Ralph Richardson.

Tailkinker

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