Arachnophobia

Arachnophobia (1990)

7 corrected entries

(6 votes)

Correction: Some species of spider do in fact hiss, and since this is a brand-new species of spider made up for the film, it too can hiss if the writers so desire.

Phaneron

Corrected entry: The spider specialist should have known that when he vibrated the web he would be attacked by the giant spider, but still he did it. (01:04:02)

Correction: The spider specialist wanted to get the giant spider out in the open so he could take a look at it. He expected it to come out and walk along the web so he could study it, not leap out and kill him like it did. The spider attacking him was an accident.

Correction: He was about to see something spectacular, I put it down to him being foolish in the moment and paying the price.

Corrected entry: Toward the end when the doctor climbs up and throws the alcohol on the pulsating egg sack to torch it, the fake king spider suddenly "pops' up on its hind legs, like a Halloween special effect.

eaglegrad16

Correction: Spiders can stand on their hind legs in real life, so this isn't a mistake.

Phaneron

Corrected entry: When Dr.Atherton determines to test the toxicity of the venom, he extracts a sample from one of the 3 tiny poison sacs on the (now) deceased spider. However, the distance he retracted the plunger on the syringe would have been sufficient to obtain 10-15 cc's, far more than the sac could hold.

Correction: So he drew air in after the venom was extracted. The syringe is not shown to hold 15 cubic centimeters of pure venom, so there's no mistake.

Phixius

But when he injects the mouse, the syringe is pointing up. So, unless the syringe was full of venom, he would only inject air into the mouse.

subspace

Corrected entry: When Jeff Daniels is in bed and he thinks he sees a spider on the wall across from him but it turns out just to be a clothes peg, look carefully, they did use a fake spider then swapped it with a peg. The easiest way to tell is because the top left leg disappears when he gets closer to the spider.

Correction: The first shot with the spider is a "perspective" shot. It's what Dr. Jennings sees, not what's actually there.

Phixius

Corrected entry: The deaths as a result of the spider bite are quite inconsistent. The old lady bit off her own tongue because the reaction to the bite was so severe - there are also signs of her struggling because phone off the hook, table knocked over etc. Yet when the couple watching Wheel of Fortune are BOTH bitten, they appear to have just died nice and quietly, his arm still casually draped over her shoulder, and the big popcorn bowl was unspilt.

Correction: This is entirely consistent with medical science. The 'old lady' may have had an epileptic fit as a result of the shock of being bitten. She may have been allergic to spider bites (not only the venom; they use other chemicals like anticoagulants which can trigger severe reactions) and gone into anaphylactic spasm. She was standing when bitten and may have injured herself post mortem as she fell. The couple watching television were relaxed and seated, and would leave no evidence of their struggles as they would fall anywhere or dislodge anything. There are dozens of explanations; they all work.

Corrected entry: In the scene where the main character is fighting the second big spider with a home made flamethrower, you can see that the fire is coming out of the Spraycan itself instead of the fire source.

Correction: Because the spray coming out of the can is flammable, of course the flame spreads all the way back to the tip of the can. But it is still the fact that the character is holding the fire source to the can that is causing the fire spray.

Revealing mistake: When Jerry Manley gets bitten by the spider in the tent in South America, the others come to look at his corpse, you can see clearly see his neck pulsating, when he should be dead. (00:15:35)

More mistakes in Arachnophobia

Doctor James Atherton: In this first generation, the original male also produced a queen, and together they will construct a primary nest which the queen will guard. But eventually, she will create reproductive offspring of her own. And when that happens, this town is dead... and the next town... and the next town... and the next one, and so on.

More quotes from Arachnophobia

Trivia: Since spiders really aren't a trainable type of animal, the filmmakers used hairdryers to blow on them, in order to get them to move correctly.

More trivia for Arachnophobia

Question: Which spider attacked the doctor in the barn, killing him? Was it the general, the queen, or just one of the offspring?

Answer: It definitely wasn't one of the offspring, as you can see when it jumped out at him that it was a very large spider, likely the general since they mentioned the queen would be guarding the egg sac in the wine cellar to defend it from other spiders.

Phaneron

Answer: I think he's referring to the Brazilian doctor they brought in to help. If that's the case, it was the main spider that hitched a ride with the body.

lartaker1975

Answer: One of the offspring. There was a brief shot of the little one crawling into the doctor's slipper.

Wrong doctor.

lionhead

The question is actually referring to the entomologist played by Julian Sands, not the town medical doctor that Jeff Daniels moves in to replace.

Phaneron

More questions & answers from Arachnophobia

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.