The Aviator

Revealing mistake: Early in the film, when Hughes and another guy are walking past one of the replica WW1 aircraft used for the "Hell's Angel" scenes, you can see the ends of the cylinders of the modern air cooled engines they used to power it. The original aircraft (SE-5A) used a water cooled V8 which wouldn't have been visible.

The Aviator mistake picture

Revealing mistake: During the filming of 'Hell's Angels' Howard gets the idea to build a single wing mono plane. He and another take an axe and smash the support holding up the upper wing. If you notice the upper wing is already broken, hinged and a very poor covering has been laid over the joint. It is very obvious and noticeable in a few shots leading up to this.

Revealing mistake: When Leonardo DiCaprio is wiping blood off his hands in the bathroom scene, you can tell the blood doesn't really come from cuts. It's just fake blood they put on his hands for that scene.

Continuity mistake: In the dining scene where Howard Hughes' girlfriend has a sundae sitting in front of her, the cherry which is on top of the sundae changes positions in several different shots. First, the stem is turned towards the left, a few shots later, it is turned towards the right, then left again. It also shows up in the bottom of the dish, then in the next shot, it is back on top of the sundae.

More mistakes in The Aviator

Ava Gardner: You listened to my phone calls?
Howard Hughes: No! No! No! Honey I would never do that! I'd never do that! I... I just read the transcripts, that's all.

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Question: The colors in this film are otherworldly, (almost like the colors in a black and white movie that has been artificially colorized) and could not have been natural or achieved with any net or filter. I'm fairly certain that there is no method of stylized pre-exposure, and digital colorization, while possible, would have been painstaking on such a grand scale. How did they accomplish it?

Answer: The first sections of the film are shot in two-strip and three-strip technicolor, a common practice in the early versions of color filmmaking that were happening at the time. The scene on the golf course between Howard and Kate Hepburn is a prime example. As far as the later sections of the film, never underestimate the power of digital effects. :)

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