Reign of Fire

Corrected entry: At the beginning of the movie, there was only one dragon (which was male). Where did the female dragons come from by the end of the movie, when there was only one male dragon to start with?

Correction: It's hard to catch, but the movie explains. The females lay the eggs in the ground. The eggs need ash from dragon fires to help fertilization. The dragon eggs can stay in the ground for however long it takes for them to be fertilized, thus the showing up of so many dragons in such a short time. All the eggs from their previous invasion have now hatched from the ashes and fertilization of the one male.

Correction: They show some type of map while the narrator was explaining how they came to take over the planet, and it seemed like they depicted multiple invasion sites burning outward all around the map. He may be the only male but I'm pretty sure most of his species was also in hibernation along with him.

Corrected entry: When McConaughey introduces the female pilot he identifies her as "Jensen, U.S Calvary" instead of "Cavalry." One is an ancient place for crucifixions, the other is an Air Mobile division. (00:41:00)

Correction: This is an incredibly common mispronunciation. It drives me nuts every time I hear it, but it happens so often in real life that it can't really be considered a movie mistake.

Phixius

Corrected entry: When Quinn sets up the last beacon how was VanZan to know he was riding a horse to use as bait to bring the dragon in for him to kill?

Correction: This is speculating too much on the character's knowledge. He could have known easily enough that Quinn had horses at his castle, probably even saw them. Given the distance that the third beacon was supposed to be, an intelligent man like Van Zan could have easily deduced that Quinn didn't travel that distance on foot so quickly.

Quantom X

Corrected entry: A starving, hundred tonne creature incinerates Quinn's little veggie patch, then stops to devour the ash. Later Quinn comes back and finds the tomato vines blackened but still there, their stakes intact (not even knocked down), and even some crisp but still edible fruit on the vines.

Correction: So the dragon missed a few. They are animals without precision.

Quantom X

Corrected entry: The dragons eat ash (weird, but they do say that). Supposedly the dragons are starving, yet nearly every scene in the film is covered with ash from horizon to horizon.

Correction: My guess would be in order to be nutritious it has to be fresh ash from living things.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Alex is flying away from the castle on the way to London for the first time, you can see a train moving along the bottom the mountain.

Correction: It may look like a train from afar, but it's actually a distant shot of the convoy.

Corrected entry: When the tanks are first entering Quinn's compound, at one point, you can see that on one of the tanks the treads aren't moving, but the tank is.

Correction: In the scene in question the tank is turning to the right (the camera is sited just to the right and rear of the tank, facing forward). Unlike wheeled vehicles a tracked vehicle requires independent controls for each track, a turn is usually accomplished by moving one track slower (or not at all, and even backwards) than the other and this "pushes" the tank to the right of left as required.

Corrected entry: At the start of the movie Quinn (as a child) is seen walking quite freely on a major building site. No hard hat and the freedom of a tube-line extension? Me thinks not.

Correction: The written rules may not allow it, but the reality is that things like that happen all the time on job sites. I could list dozens of crazy situations I've witnessed on job sites over the years. Not an error, sadly.

johnrosa

Corrected entry: The dragons used didn't appear as a more traditional Dragon. Its appearance more resembled a Wyvern. Traditionally, dragons appeared with four legs and a set of wings, but these dragons only had two legs, much like a Wyvern (think a dragon w/ two legs and doesn't breathe fire).

Correction: Dragons are mythical characters and, as such, it's entirely impossible to know what constitutes the physical makeup of a dragon. This submission was added solely because the contributor makes a good point regarding the theoretical physical description of a dragon versus a wyvern and it might be of interest to fantasy and sci/fi fans.

Corrected entry: It's proven correct that the Dragons reproduce like fish, the female lays the eggs, and the male comes along later and fertilizes them after they are outside the mother's body. However, when Quinn pulls the egg out of the dead Dragon, we clearly see an outline of a baby Dragon inside the amber-colored egg. The egg was not fertilized as it was still inside the mother, so how did the embryo start growing?

Correction: It's never proven that the dragons reproduce exactly like fish. It is only Alex's and Van Zan's theory. What is proven is that like fish, there is only one male, we don't know if he mates with every dragon or not. Even though Alex talks as if she knows, it's still a theory.

Corrected entry: Quinn's men have fireproof suits, but the only time they use them they take them off just as the dragon reappears. The later expeditions ignore the suits completely, and they don't even attempt to use them when their castle is on fire.

Correction: Even if this entry is correct ignorance happens. Keep in mind that when the dragon attacks the castle, it happens quickly. We can't assume that the suits are in an area that is quick to get to. The suits could've even been left in the trucks used in the same scene. The only other expedition that would've made sense to use them would have been on the way to London. It's safe to assume that Quinn didn't have enough suits for all the men going so why would only at least 3 (the same of suits shown in the movie) men get them? Obviously the other soldiers wouldn't like that.

Corrected entry: The Americans claim to have been on their own, but the plane they used would require in-flight refueling to make it across the Atlantic Ocean.

Correction: This is only supposition as the cargo manifest of the transport aircraft was not mentioned nor listed in the film but it is possible that internal collapsible fuel bladders were used. This does extend the range of an aircraft but at the expense of available cargo space inside the payload section. There also is the chance that wing mounted fuel tanks were fitted to the aircraft as the characters attempting the exodus knew no such in-flight refueling would be possible. One last thought is that perhaps a few other viable transport aircraft were along for in-flight fuel transfers but fell prey to the dragon hoards enroute, a nice bit of backstory heroics overlooked that could have further bolstered the desperation and dedication of the soldiers from America in their quest to save Humanity. I claim no expertise in such matters other than several years in the military seeing many different configurations of cargo bearing aircraft as both a ground loader and an in-flight crew member.

Corrected entry: Where do the Americans get the fuel to run their trucks, tanks, helicopter, etc.? I did not see any fuel trucks in their convoy.

Correction: When the tank and trucks enter the castle compound. If you watch closely you will see a truck with 100 gal drums (metal barrels) loaded onto it. One can say that this is the fuel. it is logical that they would carry fuel in the drums rather then in a tanker so that they could easily hide them when a dragon attacks.

Corrected entry: Van Zan says that Twilight is the magical hour, the dragons cannot focus or see clearly at that time of day. When Van Zan is fighting the bull dragon and jumps from the tower, how was the dragon able to judge timing and distance in order to catch and eat Van Zan?

Correction: It was not twilight.

Corrected entry: When the male dragon destroys the castle he breathes fire down into the basement. The blast kills Quinn's friend and closes the metal door. Quinns hits the door with his hands as he tries to open it but recoils because the fire apparently heated the door. Since the sprinkler installation is working and even the door is wet the water should evaporate but there is no steam at all. So the door cannot be that hot, can it? (01:15:25)

Correction: When there is an excessive amount of water (ex. a pot of water), only then would you see steam when it evaporates.

If you have an outdoor BBQ grill and light it up when it is raining, you will see water evaporate when hitting the lid of the BBQ. It may not be as obvious as a pot of boiling water, but you can see it. If the door was hot enough to make a guy recoil in pain, the water should be evaporating and been seen. The only real explanation for it not to be would be that the water is keeping the inside of the door cooler, and he only recoiled because the door was getting warmer, not due to pain.

oldbaldyone

Corrected entry: In the scene when Quinn rescues the runaway group in the veggie patch, there were guys in fireproof suits operating the hoses on the roofs of the 2 trucks. Then a guy in normal clothes took over one of the hoses. Wouldn't it have been smarter and safer to let the guy in the fireproof suit operate the hose? It was a tremendously stupid thing to do, considering he got cooked moments later.

Correction: A character's stupidity is not a mistake.

Corrected entry: Not only is there the question of how the surviving humans have obtained fuel for their vehicles, but where is the electricity coming from that powers the lights and radio receivers that the humans use. Yes, it could be generators, but you never hear any generators running anywhere in their camp and those things are pretty loud.

Correction: The humans could have had diesel engines. which can run on anything from turpentine to vegetable oil which could have been easily obtained. Also, if you look at the castle, you can see wind generators. They also didn't use much power, since they had candles.

Corrected entry: One scene states that the original dragon was awoken in 2008. The rest of the film takes place in 2020, a gap of twelve years. However, in the scene just before the helicopter arrives at the castle, a character states that no-one has flown in 20 years. Has flying gone out of fashion by 2008?

Correction: He just misspoke. He was talking in generalities, not exact. And with the life they are leading now it would not be unbelievable that he has lost track of time.

Vernon Gilmore

Corrected entry: How come you can hear the wind howling away, but the windmills don't move?

Correction: If the inner workings of the windmill are in disrepair and not able to move the wind can blow all it wants but still not get the wheel to turn.

Vernon Gilmore

Corrected entry: When the male dragon attacks the castle, Quinn and his group takes shelter in the cellar. When they emerge, the entire castle is burnt to the ground - except for a pile of logs at the top of the cellar stairs.

Correction: After surviving and then seeing the aftermath of the fires that raged through San Diego with all the devastation and intensity of the fire not everything was burned. It is possible that some things will not burn no matter how hot/intense a fire is.

Vernon Gilmore

Plot hole: The Americans allegedly landed at Manchester on their way to kill the male Dragon in London. London is due south of Manchester. Why then did they head in the complete opposite direction to Northumberland?

More mistakes in Reign of Fire

Construction Worker #1: Quinn! What are you doing down in the arsehole of the world?
Young Quinn: Well you're passing through it. What does that make you?

More quotes from Reign of Fire

Trivia: In the fight scene between Christian and Matthew, Christian really was head-butted and apparently had a lump the size of an egg on his forehead for some time afterwards - notice how his hair is more down over his forehead in some scenes than others to hide the lump.

More trivia for Reign of Fire

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.