Arachnophobia

Arachnophobia (1990)

5 suggested corrections

(6 votes)

Continuity mistake: When they perform the autopsy on the three victims, Metcalf is all grey and stiff, whereas the two exhumed victims look alive and fresh.

Jacob La Cour

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Not that what you said is wrong, but it actually makes sense. Metcalf was bitten by the original, non-bred spider. The other victims were bitten by spiders that were part house spider, part deadly spider. Therefore, the effects of the bites were different. I'm quite glad that I only had to see one gray, shriveled-up body.

Actually all three were bitten by hybrids.

Factual error: With Irv and Blaire, one of them picks up the handful of popcorn and presumably eats the spider. While inside the eater, the spider would bite and poison whoever it was inside. When they find both of them dead, the spider crawls out of one person. Why would it leave one body and actually take the trouble to go inside the other rather than just bite them on the skin like the others? It's not like it would crawl out and back into the bowl to be eaten by the other person.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: We actually don't see either Irv or Blaire "eat" the spider at all. We just see Blaire take a handful of popcorn with the spider inside. Next we see both dead bodies, and then a spider crawls out of Irv's nostril. So the spider could have bitten both people on their skin in short order and then crawled into Irv's body, for whatever reason, after he was already dead. Or, there could be two completely different spiders that killed the pair at around the same time. As the action happens off-screen, it can't be a factual error, we simply don't know exactly what happened.

BaconIsMyBFF

The whole scene doesn't make sense. The fact that Irv pours the butter on the popcorn with the spider in the bowl, Blaire doesn't feel the spider in her hand when she picks it up with the popcorn, and they are still sitting in the same position watching Wheel of Fortune after being bitten. Only Irv's Coca-Cola can is lying on the floor with some popcorn pieces. The popcorn bowl is still on Blaire's lap, showing they did not have seizures to the spider's venom like the other victims. It also doesn't make sense that the spider doesn't bite Irv when he carries the bowl from the kitchen to the living room.

The mistake entry as written states that the spider is eaten by one person and then eaten by another, with both people dying afterwards. Since we do not actually see that happening, this doesn't count as a Factual Error. The fact that the victims do not seem to have violently seized prior to death should be submitted as a separate entry.

BaconIsMyBFF

Factual error: Towards the end Ross pours wine on the egg sac to light it. Wine doesn't contain enough alcohol to ignite.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: He uses cognac and not wine, which is why it burns.

Revealing mistake: At the end when the dock 'kicks' the king spider off him into the fire, we hear it scream like a stuck pig. Then additional screams from the 'burning' spiders inside the pulsating nest, and when the doc torches both the king spider afterwards.

eaglegrad16

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Not sure how this is a mistake. Sure real world spiders don't making squealing noises but real world spiders also don't jump 30 feet or have venom potent enough to kill a human within seconds of being bitten.

It's a mistake because spiders cannot vocalize at all. The film creates a new spider species with exaggerated aspects of real life spiders: extremely potent venom, highly aggressive behavior, jumping ability, etc. What the film can't do is give the spiders traits they couldn't possibly have in real life.

BaconIsMyBFF

Continuity mistake: After Becky's dad comes into the bathroom, and she screams, covering herself with the shower curtain, you can see her brother, who had died at the football game considerably earlier in the movie, through the bathroom's doorway, standing in the hall. It's only for a split-second, but as long as you're looking in the right spot, it's very clear.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: They aren't the same character. The football player that died was Todd Miller. Becky and her family's last name is Beechwood.

Phaneron

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
More quotes from Arachnophobia

Trivia: Near the start of the film, when Atherton is examining the spider after returning from the valley, several butterflies are seen pinned up in front of him. Several of these are not South American butterflies - the top left one (blue with long tails) is Papilio Ulysses, a species of tropical Australia, and the big green-and-black one near the bottom right is Ornithoptera priamus or O. euphorion. Whether this qualifies as a mistake, I don't know - Atherton is supposed to be an expert, so they may not be the most geographically accurate 'colourful' butterflies to use.

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.