Corrected entry: In the middle of the film when we see Cyril throw down a rope to Monique, then they both hear the avalanche, instead of being killed by the approaching avalanche, why didn't he just grab ahold of the rope, and quickly slide down the side of the mountain? He had sufficient time to do this. (01:17:40)
Corrected entry: When Bill Paxton takes out a candy bar on the mountain, and starts chewing it, you can see that he has a piece of the wrapper in his mouth. It shines because of the sun.
Correction: So what if he does? It is not completely implausible that Bill Paxton's character got some in his mouth. And because of the extreme cold and total mental and physical exhaustion, he probably didn't know or care.
Corrected entry: Monique has the arm of her jacket cut by a helicopter blade, yet this is not visible throughout the rest of the movie.
Correction: You see the cut in the coat when she is helping Peter pull his sister out of the icy tomb.
Corrected entry: When Peter cuts his father's rope, we see him hit the ground. When his body lands, it is quite intact. From falling from such a great distance, his body would have burst apart like a wet cement bag upon impact.
Correction: The director was probably going for a PG-13. If it were rated R you would've seen a body explode on impact, but the director just wanted dramatic effect and to make you feel sad for the characters.
Corrected entry: I'm no explosives expert, but when Chris O'Donnell fills the hole with nitro, he does it in the most dangerous way possible, pouring a stream of it into the centre of the pool from a distance of 1-2 feet up. You should bring the can as close to the target as possible, maybe pouring it down the side of the sloped hole to minimise splashing and agitating the liquid. Or at least tell your girlfriend to not stand right beside you when you do it...
Correction: Well he's no explosives expert either. For a start he is in such a rush to get to his dying sister maybe he just doesn't think straight and pours it the way he thinks is safe enough.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Bill Paxton and the female climber are raising the bag of blood to act as a signal/marker to the rescuers, you can see that the plastic baggie is about half full (and even starts to leak before they get to the top). However, when the bag is shot through the snow and busts, the resulting blood splash makes it seem as though they slaughtered a pig down there and used a couple of gallons of blood instead of a half-filled baggie.
Correction: They attached a signal flare or whatever it was to the blood pack to amplify the blood splash so they would be easier to find. Also, they didn't lose that much blood from the small tear in the bag.
Corrected entry: Monique loses her pack as she's trying to rescue Cyril. Yet she doesn't seem to have ANY problems with her equipment, for she later has got a tent, a sleeping bag, etc. I don't think that the other ones had an extra tent to spare, because their packs were already heavy enough.
Correction: She simply shared a tent with one of the other climbers, and why wouldn't the other climbers bring spare gear, it's smart to have extras when your preparing to climb a mountain.
Corrected entry: Helicopters can not fly above 18,000 feet. There has been one successful recovery from Everest base camp (17,600 feet). The air is just to thin to support the rotor blades.
Correction: This is factually incorrect. In 1996, a French Squirrel helicopter was flown (twice.) to about 19,700 feet to rescue 2 injured climbers. The pilot (Lt. Col. Madan K. C. of Nepal) had to fly alone and with minimal fuel. He had offloaded the co-pilot at Base Camp. This event is well documented in the Everest IMAX movie, "Everest Mountain Without Mercy" book among others.
Corrected entry: Seeing as the first nitro explosion caused so much destruction, how come the second bang to clear the ice cave doesn't cause an avalanche too?
Correction: They only used a little bit of nitro the second time. The first explosion occured because the little bit of nitro that was exposed to the sunlight caused a chain reaction and the whole canister to explode.
Corrected entry: If it's so cold in that cave, why can't we see mist when they breathe?
Correction: Cold weather does not always produce mist in the breath.
Visible breath is caused because the body temperature is warmer than air temperature, thus making vapour. As the body temperature cools down to match that of the air, breath becomes less visible.
Corrected entry: After the avalanche, Cyril is hanging on the side of the cliff while Monique is standing above him. She asks him if he sees the rocks to his left, but looks at his right.
Correction: It times of extreme desperation (like hanging off the side of a mountain) things like 'my left and your right' can be easily confused. You can't really blame either of them for not stating the right direction.
Corrected entry: This film shows the rotor blades hitting something and cutting it up without being damaged. Helicopter rotor blades are very delicately balanced and are easily bent or split if they strike something solid when they are in motion. Hitting a human body would bring the helicopter down.
Correction: As a helicopter pilot, I can tell you that this is wrong. Helicopter rotor blades are made of a steel/titanium alloy and move at several hundred kilometers an hour. If they hit a rock or a tree, you'd have a problem. A human body would simply be cut in half. It does happen - accidents of this type on helicopter landing decks are not uncommon.
Corrected entry: In the shot where we see the father hit the ground when Peter cuts his rope, shouldn't we also see the bodies of the other guys who fell before him?
Correction: They simply landed somewhere offscreen.
Corrected entry: When Chris O'Donnell's sister gets the pack of extra supplies, she takes out a water bottle and shakes it. You hear the water as a liquid. If it is so cold down there, wouldn't the water turn to ice?
Correction: Their canteens are insulated. Simple as that.
Corrected entry: Through the entire movie all the old man wears is the head band and usually it didn't even cover his ears. He must have been a tough guy. And what was with the little scarves that Chris O'Donnell and his sister wear around their necks? What was the purpose of those things? I thought to cover their faces in extreme weather, but they had ski masks for that.
Correction: Wick has a lot of experience, he goes up the mountain all the time to look for his wife so it's apparent that he knows the conditions and what to wear. Also, the scarves are used to keep their neck's warm.
Correction: What a movie character "could have", "would have" or "should have" done are not movie mistakes. Cyril froze when he saw the approaching avalanche. People have been known to "freeze up" for all kind of incidents (like after a minor car accident OR after receiving bad news). Not everyone can think clearly during such a life threatening situation and know what is the "best" thing to do.
XIII