Jon Sandys

1st Nov 2007

Mr. Brooks (2007)

Factual error: Towards the end, the Oregon license plate on a Ford is shown. The plate reads "WIE 1Z0". Oregon does not use the letters "I" or "O" on its license plates as they may be mistaken for "1" or "0". (01:28:00)

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Suggested correction: Filmmakers usually substitute fictional information for addresses, phone and drivers licenses for privacy and liability reasons. For instance the '555' exchange is often used for phone numbers since that exchange does not exist in the USA. By using the 1 and the 0 on the license, there is no possibility that a real license number could be identified.

The "555" analogy is wrong since the mistake is saying Oregon wouldn't use the numbers, so it would be like having a phone number with letters or the wrong amount of numbers (both of which would also prevent a real number being used).

Bishop73

Just FYI changing types is an option - some entries get the type "locked" to stop repeated back and forth attempts to change them, but many don't. That said I've just amended the setup so all members can now submit proposed type changes even for "locked" entries.

Jon Sandys

Revealing mistake: When the Charger hits the red truck, the truck turns over with the assistance of a 'pipe cannon' (note the sudden eruption of white smoke from under the truck). This device is like a large gun, pointed down that fires a cylindrical wooden 'bullet' at the ground, and the pressure behind it forces one side of the truck upward, causing the flip. Evidence of its use is seen when the passing cop drives away and in the street is a perfectly circular 'dent' in the asphalt with a burn mark surrounding it. (01:12:50 - 01:16:20)

johnrosa

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Suggested correction: A cannon roll uses a large device, usually a metal pipe that is pointed down, but it does not fire a "bullet" wooden or otherwise. It is just the force of the explosive charge focused downwards that causes the cars to roll over.

A cannon roll shoots out a wooden log to flip a vehicle, it's not just shooting out air.

Bishop73

This is just nonsense, a wooden log would be too dangerous to use, would be highly conspicuous on screen, and would take up room inside a vehicle.

Jukka Nurmi

Then you don't know how they use to do car stunts. It does take up room, but even modern methods do. Cars have to be modified heavily and of course it's dangerous, they're flipping a car with a driver inside. Film makers do everything they can to avoid the stunt car from being detected (just the same way they do everything that can to avoid a dummy being detected). Here's a article that talks about car stunts before the pneumatic flipper. Https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15364815/the-inside-story-of-the-academy-award-winning-car-inversion-device-or-how-to-flip-cars-real-good/.

Bishop73

Bishop73 is right. For example, from Raiders of the Lost Ark: https://www.moviemistakes.com/picture6238.

Jon Sandys

14th Jul 2020

General questions

I'm trying to remember what movie it's from when the bad guy (I think) says "you find something that's important to them, and...you squeeze." Drawing a blank. Anyone know?

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: "Mission Impossible." Kitteridge says it to his colleague, Barnes (when the Feds turn up at the place where Max and her team were, and find them gone) when describing how he's going to get Ethan to come out of hiding.

Heather Benton

That's it! Fantastic, thank you. :-)

Jon Sandys

17th Aug 2012

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Corrected entry: In the scene where Gwen is grabbing the phone cable to not fall to her death, her father and boyfriend (Eddie) arrive. They see her, and show no sign of worry. Her father asks "What is she doing up there?", but doesn't react that her daughter is about to die. Eddie, who likes her very much, doesn't react either. What's wrong with these people?

Dr. James

Correction: There is not to much to do. The building is about to fall, and they only wait for someone to help.

Anastasios Anastasatos

Even if they were waiting for someone's help, it doesn't explain their behavior. They should have showed a lot of concern if they cared about her so much. How could they be completely sure that help would arrive? What would have happened if help wasn't coming? How could they react if she fell but Spider-Man hasn't arrived? There was also possibility that building would collapse much sooner than they expected. Since they care about Gwen very much, they should be very concerned or at least worried. Even if there was not too much to do, they should have tried to take some action if help wasn't arriving or if building was collapsing faster. This entry is correct. This is a mistake.

None of us can dictate how someone "should" act in every given situation. Her dad's literally just realised who it is, he's figuring out of the situation. What, you think he should be screaming and waving his hands around? He's an experienced police officer, well versed in staying calm under pressure. His reaction is entirely appropriate, and idle speculation about "what if she fell without Spider-Man saving her" is irrelevant. Not everyone in life panics over hypotheticals.

Jon Sandys

Maybe Gwen's father is well versed in staying calm under pressure but Eddie is not. At least Eddie should have reacted more intensely.

Eddie's portrayed as a complete and utter jerk throughout the film. Even after Spider-Man saves Gwen, he barely checks on her, only giving her a (very) half-hearted "Thank god you're OK" before turning his focus to Spider-Man. It's clear he doesn't really care about her as a person. Hence, he doesn't really react much to her life being in danger.

TedStixon

Agreed, his lack of reaction and indifference were done deliberately. Filmmakers wanted to hint to everybody how truly callous and heartless a person Eddie is, as he was very willing to photograph Gwen falling to her death. The movie's novelization takes this even further, depicting him as someone who actively hopes to find dead bodies and disasters to take pictures of.

Answer: Yep, and there is, but they're both elsewhere. Doc's been committed to an asylum somewhere. When Marty first meets the alternate Biff, Biff tells him that he's supposed to be in Switzerland at boarding school - that's where the alternate Marty is.

Tailkinker

Wouldn't someone probably see Doc and report that he escaped from the asylum?

Maybe, but no way to be sure, and they're not around long enough for that to be an issue anyway.

Jon Sandys

Answer: Doc would most likely not have been seen by anyone, as the time he spent in the alternate 1985 was primarily inside the DeLorean, at a boarded-up library, graveyard, and his lab (and all at night too) so most likely not spotted by the public.

Even if someone had seen Doc, it could've been dismissed as someone who looks like him. Even if they did report his escape, someone would either call or go to the asylum and verify Doc was still there.

13th Apr 2020

Death in Paradise (2011)

Correction: While subtitles on an official DVD normally count as a mistake, on streaming services I'd be more tolerant, because that's more Amazon's responsibility, and they're often corrected once alerted to the problem.

Jon Sandys

Will remember that in the future! Thanks. I understand the part about the fact that it's easy for them to fix and therefore the mistake could be corrected very easily (although I could take a screenshot, which is hardly worth the hassle for very minor mistakes of this nature) and is in fact corrected if reported (that's a bit like bugs submissions for games tho?), not sure about the responsibilities, since DVD subtitles too are normally done by external companies as well.

Sammo

True, I guess my attitude has generally been that by the time it's crystallised onto a DVD it's been signed off by the distributor/filmmakers, and the whole thing is sort of a package, whereas if Amazon/Netflix get the subtitles wrong or make a strange edit, etc. that's more a one-off, plus can be fixed after the fact. Grey area though!

Jon Sandys

Trivia: Stay until all credits roll. There is a clip with Penelope Cruz you don't want to miss. (02:15:35)

Tricia Webster

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Suggested correction: It's already common knowledge that ALL the Pirate's movies have a bonus scene after the credits. This doesn't count as trivia.

And how do things become "common" knowledge? By being listed somewhere such that people who don't know things can discover them. By your reasoning no trivia should ever be listed anywhere, because everyone should know it all already.

Jon Sandys

Actually, just because something may seem common to your or I, it might not be common knowledge to someone else.

Ssiscool

Other mistake: When Kylo/Ben leaves the Endor system to go to Exogol, he takes an old Imperial TIE Fighter he supposedly found in the Death Star remains. However, it is established in the previous films that that TIE fighters are short range fighters that are not equipped with a hyperdrive.

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Suggested correction: A TIE fighter would never survive the death star crash. Kylo/Ben probably called for a TIE and took that.

But it's an old Imperial TIE, not a new First Order one.

Jon Sandys

Good point.

Stupidity: The commando mission to save Chewbacca starts gunning down a few Stormtroopers in the hangar. The heroes then go on leaving the troopers lying down on the floor in front of the ship, in plain view. They don't hide them nor ask the droids (who have enough strength and tools to pull them in) to, in fact they tell them to stay put. No wonder they are found out later (after a ridiculously long amount of time).

Sammo

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Suggested correction: Hiding the bodies would have been a waste of time, anyone who came to the hangar would immediately notice that the guards stationed there were missing and there was now a strange ship parked there.

BaconIsMyBFF

The droids have all the time in the world, and people just passing by are "more immediately" bound to notice corpses in the middle of a hangar rather than possibly maybe question the fact that you don't see guards in that part of the hangar or investigate the ship - which could approach without anyone taking exception by appearance alone. At least remove the bodies directly in front of the damn ship!

Sammo

Why would they be more likely to notice dead guards than no guards?

BaconIsMyBFF

Anyone passing by might well thing the patrols were just out of sync, or a shift change. Sure they might investigate further, but they might not bother. Whereas a couple of dead bodies? Immediate red alert. Worth taking 30 seconds to hide them, surely.

Jon Sandys

Perhaps, but then it's made irrelevant 1 minute later as Finn and Poe run down a hallway blasting about a dozen stormtroopers.

BaconIsMyBFF

For that matter, 1 SECOND later they kill stormtroopers in the far part of the hangar. They are killing people all over the ship during their mission and it's not like they hide every single one of them, but they leave two bodies *exactly* in front of their ship (and telling the droids to stay put). You can even see later that there is a stormtrooper with his weapon pointed exactly where those two corpses are, with the 'smart' commanding officer asking "whose ship is this?" at the sight of that. Maybe I am spoiled by a trope here, but it's the first time that I see someone in an action movie leaving corpses right in front of their only escape route/vehicle, that's so counterintuitive. (Did they even have an escape plan, actually? I don't like hypotheticals, but gee, if only she did the Jedi mind trick thing to those 2 guards who came over to inspect the ship instead of doing it later. But I digress).

Sammo

Plot hole: Luke deliberately says he does not want to be found and came to Ach-To to die in The Last Jedi, but The Force Awakens is all about finding a map to Luke Skywalker. Why would Luke leave a map when he never wanted to be found?

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Suggested correction: This is a question, not a plot hole. Luke went to find the first Jedi temple. The location of the temple is what they were ultimately needing to try and locate Luke. The map that has the temple was already created before Luke went to the temple, he did not create a map where to find him and then secretly hide it away.

Bishop73

It is a plot hole statement in the form of a question. It ultimately is a continuity error between Episodes 7 and 8. TFA never mentioned it as a map to a Jedi temple Luke might be at. The audience is told in that movie that it is a map to Luke Skywalker. It is believed by the end of TFA that Luke wants to be found if they needed him. It is only after Rian Johnson goes against what JJ Abrams planned for Luke that this error becomes prominent. If this is simply a map to the first Jedi Temple, then the Resistance is betting a lot on the chance Luke went there and still there after all these years.

In The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren refers to the map as a navigational chart recovered from the archives of the Empire. According to the spin-off books, the Empire were using it to find the first Jedi Temple and destroy it. So the map was not in fact left by Luke. Since Luke is believed to have gone looking for the first Jedi Temple, my guess is that whoever discovered the map realised where it led to, and knew that was where Luke was believed to have gone, and thus referred to it as a map to Luke.

What other choice do they have? The know where he wanted to go. If the do not find him there then the have someplace to look abound for clues as to where he went to afterwards. Also it is not like if he is not there they are stuck and cannot return to the resistance fleet.

A map to the first Jedi Temple is a perfectly fine explanation for what the map actually is and if the Resistance thought Luke was there, it was worth the risk to go there and look for him. However, the very identity of the map seems to change between movies and it is introduce in TFA as a map to Luke, not to a Jedi Temple. So in TFA it is a map to Luke and in TLJ it is now a map to a Jedi Temple Luke might be at. That is the problem, a discontinuity of the map's identity between the two films in the trilogy. This stems from the two directors' view of Luke in this trilogy also being completely different.

They think it's a map to Luke, or believe it, or someone else thought it was. It's not a discontinuity, just a semantic difference or miscommunication.

Jon Sandys

This movie or TFA should have explained this miscommunication as it comes across as a miscommunication to the audience and not to the Resistance. There is nothing in either film to show it is a map to a Jedi Temple Luke might be at. A miscommunication to the audience is poor writing, but since this occurs between two movies, it is a continuity mistake. This mistake is obviously due to the character of Luke changing when it moved on from JJ to Rian. This change makes the plot of TFA more confusing, but ultimately a continuity mistake is a much more just denotation for this than plot hole.

Since the Jedi Temple and Luke are in the same place the map is both a map to Luke and to the Jedi Temple. Someone looking for Luke will see it as a map to Luke, someone that is force sensitive may see it a a map to the temple.

This statement does not answer anything. The map was either designed to be a map to where Luke said he was or as map to a Jedi Temple where Luke may be. Not both. Both places can be the same, but the identity of what the map is remains as one or the other. Otherwise we are again back to a bad miscommunication in the Resistance and bad miscommunication to the audience that is just bad writing. Since it is stated in TFA that is is a map to Luke, the audience should believe it as such. It is never described as a map to a Jedi Temple Luke might be at. The continuity error and plot confusion comes from the fact that in TFA it is a map to Luke for when he was needed and in TLJ it is a map to a Jedi Temple that the Resistance hoped Luke would be at. Since TFA came first, it takes precedent and all of Luke's lines of not wanting to be found do not make sense.

While initially the audience is told it's a map to Luke, we find out later that the map leads to the first Jedi temple. This is nothing more than building suspense, which doesn't constitute a plot hole. While one could argue it was only after changes to the script or a director's choice that changed what the map was designed to be, the original mistake is still not valid because Luke never created a map to where he was going and then hide it as suggested.

Bishop73

13th Dec 2019

Die Hard (1988)

Question: They say the wires for the electromagnetic seal "can't be cut locally" - how is that possible? I mean at some point the electricity for them has to come into the building, surely?

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: I took this to mean that cutting the lines themselves wouldn't open the safe. The safe is designed such that the physical locks could be destroyed but the electromagnetic lock wouldn't open unless the power to the entire building was shut off.

BaconIsMyBFF

But my point is they've got control of the building, including the basement/anywhere else. General power has to enter the building from the street somewhere, and I don't see how they wouldn't be able to just cut through a main power cable and achieve exactly the same result as a switch being flipped by a city engineer.

Jon Sandys

The city engineer shuts down an entire city grid. I think that has something to do with it. It's not as simple as cutting a power line or flipping a switch.

BaconIsMyBFF

I get that's the argument, I just don't see how. Because eventually it has to come down to the building being connected to the city grid via...something, and I don't see why the bad guys couldn't just interfere with that "something" themselves. There's either a technical reason or it's a plot hole, but I'm not really bothered about the mistake aspect, it's more just a query my brain can't let go of and I want the answer. :-).

Jon Sandys

Answer: There's no mention as to where the cables actually enter the building. They could come in via the basement, there could be a separate utility room that can only be accessed from outside or the cables could simply be inside a wall somewhere. They'd probably need to find the building blueprints to find out where the cables come into the building.

4th Dec 2019

Shazam! (2019)

Trivia: Spoiler: At the very end of the movie, Superman makes an appearance at the school cafeteria. He is referenced many times throughout the film.

Erik M.

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Suggested correction: How is this trivia? It's obvious in the film.

Some stuff like this is interesting to read about even if you've not seen the film yet. I didn't know that scene existed, for one.

Jon Sandys

2nd Aug 2019

True Lies (1994)

Corrected entry: After Bill Paxton pisses himself at the bridge, you see Arnold and Tom walking back towards the van. If you look, it's not Tom Arnold, but some other guy with the same build. The face is obviously different.

Correction: No it's not. That's definitely Tom Arnold. It begs the question as to why they would have a stand-in just for that one scene.

LorgSkyegon

Re stand-ins, as various Friends mistakes demonstrate, stand-ins are often used when the star isn't really needed, due to the shot being from far away, or them being mostly offscreen, etc. Might be the star is done for the day and leaves set, then they suddenly want a pickup shot or a change of scheduling and they work with what they've got.

Jon Sandys

I agree it is definitely Tom Arnold, but there are many possible reasons for using a stand-in for just one scene, so it begs the questions why you think it begs the question.

But since Tom Arnold was available for the shot it begs the question of why you begged the question about begging the question. I'll get me coat.

I agree with LordSkyegon. There is no reason to use a stand-in in that scene.

lionhead

16th Jul 2019

The Karate Kid (2010)

Correction: This isn't a film mistake and would be more suited to a forum discussion to address the question "why isn't it called The Kung Fu Kid?" Since this is a remake, they decided to keep the original name. Plus, karate, which means "Chinese" "Hand", later changed to "Empty" "Hand", can be used to describe kung fu, and some people use the terms interchangeably. Questions or comments like "Why is it called Karate Kid III when Daniel's not a kid?" or "Why is it called Home Alone 2 when Kevin isn't at home?" are not considered mistakes and neither is this film's title.

Bishop73

When a movie title is inaccurate including getting a martial art wrong it is a movie mistake. An alligator even though it has similarities to a crocodile is not the same animal.

Athletic Jason

Kung Fu is not interchangeable with Karate if that were true most persons would be saying Bruce Lee created Karate.

Athletic Jason

And these are all good points to make in a forum discussion. Perhaps Jon can weigh in on if film names constitute a movie mistake (perhaps mis-titling films/shows can be listed in the common mistake section or trivia for the film). There are already "mistakes" that are not valid, like mistakes needing slow-motion to see, so I think it should be an invalid mistake.

Bishop73

Yeah, I'm with you. Sometimes a title can be a mistake, like Krakatoa, East of Java, which is actually west of Java. But there has to be some leeway, and especially if something's a remake or sequel the understanding of the title is what matters more than the literal meaning. I mean Reservoir Dogs or A Clockwork Orange or The Haunting In Connecticut 2: Ghosts Of Georgia. Sometimes you've got to give some leeway. But as ever it's a grey area and there's not always a one size fits all approach.

Jon Sandys

26th Jun 2019

Good Omens (2019)

Correction: As noted on another entry, no part of this episode takes place in 1991. Adam was born around 2008 and most of the series takes place in the modern day. If the USB port and manual are visible in any of the flashbacks, please specify where.

It's there too in the flashbacks, sometimes more, sometimes less visible; but if the story were not dated, as some claim, then no, in that case it wouldn't be a mistake. (I specifically recall a caption with a date in line with the original story, by the way..).

Spiny Norman

If you can provide the time/scene when that caption is displayed, please do.

Jon Sandys

10th Jul 2019

Good Omens (2019)

In The Beginning - S1-E1

Corrected entry: Crowley boasts to the other demons about having disrupted the mobile telephone network (causing millions of people irritation and so serving the cause of hell). But in 1991, very few people would have been affected - only very few people had mobile phones for work. (In The Book he caused a traffic jam).

Spiny Norman

Correction: The series isn't set in 1991 - it's kept deliberately vague as to exactly when the setting is, but clearly modern enough for the mobile phone network to be an annoyance if disrupted.

Doesn't it say 1991 in the captions then, or anywhere else? But Bush senior is president when the ambassador's wife is giving birth. Briefly mentioned and shown during the video conference (which is another weird mistake).

Spiny Norman

The scene in which Crowley claims to have taken down the entire London-area mobile phone network is set 11 years before the events of the modern day sections of the show. The actor playing the president is simply credited as "George Bush" but does not specify which. It is more likely he is portraying George W Bush based on his appearance and the apparent time frame of the show (2008-2019).

Also, the voice is supposed to be George W's. His father had a very distinct and very different way of speaking.

11 years before 2002, which I think is given at some point in the first episode. So... 1991. Of course, this all doesn't fit very well; that's why it's a mistake.

Spiny Norman

I'm watching it now and it doesn't give a year at any point - just "eleven years ago" and then "the present day." The president is George W Bush given the distinct voice, plus the portable screen the Ambassador is using definitely isn't 1991 technology.

Jon Sandys

But Bush is in some places castlisted as GHW Bush, though. He's voiced by a GW Bush impersonator which perhaps throws people off the scent. (That last bit about the "1991 facetime" would have been yet another mistake - or rather, I'd suspect the mistake would be the contested caption containing a date).

Spiny Norman

The credits simply say "George Bush" - any other cast lists are third-party and can't be taken as accurate. So either the mistakes are the video call, and the wrong president, and the phone network, OR none of those are mistakes because there's no date given, and all of them line up perfectly with being set in 2008.

Jon Sandys

Actually a date can be inferred from episode 2, based on the burning of the witch + "350-odd"/about 360 years (difference on account of the flashback). So okay, it's the last days of Dubya then... Funny how many landlines they are still using then, though.

Spiny Norman

I don't think it's a mistake. While never explicitly stated, it is continuously implied that the series doesn't take place in the 1990s like the books, but in our present day England. As others pointed it out, if we subtract 11 years from 2019 to get Adam's birth year, that's 2008, when George W. Bush was still in office, videoconferencing was already a thing and Crowley could have taken the phone lines down.

Stupidity: Beck wants to kill Peter's friends because they know his secret. Instead of using Edith to attack them directly with a drone strike, or using his illusion technology to lead them into the path of a train like he did with Spider-Man, he instead has a henchman drive them onto a bridge and leave them in the path of his next Elemental attack. Because absolutely nothing is forcing them to stay on the bridge, they all casually walk off the bus and out of immediate danger. It is unfathomable that a man as intelligent and resourceful as Beck would take such an idiotic approach, especially considering all he had at his disposal and how desperate he was.

BaconIsMyBFF

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Suggested correction: He wanted it to seem like they were killed in the Elemental attack because it was cleaner. If they were killed by a drone it would be much more suspicious than being killed in the disaster. Once the plan goes wrong, he does simply send an Edith drone after them. If it wasn't for Spider-Man's timing, he would have been successful as well.

But that is the major problem, and why I think it was an egregious mistake in the movie. The plan "goes wrong" because it was idiotic. So idiotic that it is unrealistic that Beck, a highly intelligent person, would have made such a glaring oversight. Leaving the kids on the bridge but not trapping them at all allowed them to make an easy escape.

BaconIsMyBFF

I think the point is that Beck thinks he is the smartest person in the room and that this plan is going to work. Should he take into account MJ and co's free will, yes, but he is so maniacal (and not thinking rationally) that it does not cross his mind. This is proven by the fact that as his plan is failing around him that he still wants his suit pressed and ready to meet the Queen because it will work out in the end in his mind. Also, to your point, having them walk in front of a train or walk off the bridge, would not make him a hero. He needed real casualties and Peter's friends were the place to start. Finally, in the sequence showing Beck and his team preparing for the attack, he was focused on the theatrics of the attack and, again, thought the size of it alone would work (he wanted it bigger, scarier, more forceful).

Suggested correction: Fury is well aware of the drone system (he berates Peter for misusing it earlier). If Beck simply utilised EDITH to kill the students, it would give away that Beck was using the drones for his own gain. Once Fury was dead, he could have used EDITH had the original plan failed, but he certainly couldn't do it until after Fury (and potentially other SHIELD agents) had been taken out. He was going to attack London no matter what, so he took the opportunity to take out Ned, MJ and Betty at the same time.

This doesn't stop him from using a targeted drone strike to kill the kids, he was planning on using it to kill Fury anyway. The fact that he fails in his strike against Fury is irrelevant to the fact that he needed those kids dead and decided to take a round-about way of accomplishing this goal. Again, he doesn't have to use a drone strike, he is perfectly capable of using the illusion technology to force the bus off a cliff or into some other immediate danger. Having a henchman drive the bus to a bridge and hope the kids are dumb enough not to escape danger when literally nothing is forcing them to just stand there and be killed is ridiculously idiotic.

BaconIsMyBFF

Suggested correction: Characters, even intelligent ones, are allowed to make bad tactical decisions. Real-life history is replete with examples. Just because it seems unlikely doesn't make it a plot hole.

wizard_of_gore

True - this was originally submitted as "stupidity", which is slightly different, but this seemed like such a massive oversight that it qualified as a plot hole.

Jon Sandys

Suggested correction: Beck's intentions were to make it look like the kids were killed in the attack by the monster. Had he just killed them with a drone out right, it would have obviously looked like murder and foul play bringing in more investigations and potential problems for him.

Quantom X

But again, he doesn't need to use a drone strike he can use the illusion technology to trick them into an accident. Even what he chooses to do (just leaving them on the bridge) would have also been fine had he trapped them there at all. Just leaving them there without trapping them is so stupid it is unbelievable. It's like leaving someone on train tracks but not tying them up.

BaconIsMyBFF

Suggested correction: He was an insane person and wasn't thinking fully rationally.

Question: How does he fold the Monet in half to fit into the briefcase? Originally I thought he'd separated it from the wooden frame (ie. just a canvas), but when he takes it out back at his house he holds it up, and the wooden frame's still in one piece. Also, surely folding it in half would crack the paint, but despite the painting being twice the width of the briefcase (it fits snugly when the case is open), he then shuts the case down to a "normal" size. Any ideas?

Answer: I believe that the Monet that Crown hides in his study is not the one that was stolen, it is a copy that he already had prepared. He can enjoy the copy knowing that the original (with the broken spreader bars) is also in his possession. The stolen original then goes to the forger who repairs the broken spreader bars, and then paints another painting (using water soluble paint) over the Monet, so he can "return" it to the museum 3 days later. It gets more complicated when he discovers that Russo is on to him so he has a second forgery made (even the edges forged to match) over the top of "Dogs Playing Poker." He doesn't know if it will be necessary, but given his research into his new adversary, he concocts this contingency. It is likely that he has many contingencies in place, but the "Monet with a ghost underneath" is the only one we get to see. Of course for my theory to hold water, there must be (or have been) that earlier forgery - unless it has been destroyed.

Answer: The only explanation I can come up with is that the inner part of the frame is precut. With the frame cut that way it would allow the picture to fold, but when unfolded it would be fairly rigid with the exception of bending it forward at that point. When he pulls the painting out, it still holds the square shape of the frame. Best I can come up with.

Answer: He doesn't fold it. The frame is solid. It's just movie editing to make the viewer think he put it in her briefcase. You can't fold a Monet.

He absolutely folds it. We see him put it in the case and him then shut the case, folding it in half.

Jon Sandys

Question: Is the dog in glasses a reference to Mr. Peabody, or just a coincidence? I thought if it was, the commentary would mention it, but there was no mention of the gag at all.

Answer: There's no indication that the dog had anything to do with Mr Peabody (especially since the dog didn't speak or do anything other than sit there). It was just a front for a throwaway joke.

GrafSpee

It's a coincidence because Mr. Peabody and Sherman was not released until 2014 and Meet the Robinsons came out in 2007.

But that film is based on the Peabody's Improbable History segment from the 50s/60s TV show The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends.

Jon Sandys

18th Oct 2018

Common mistakes

Corrected entry: Unless the character is being portrayed as a bumbling oaf then their car is always spotlessly clean inside and out. No empty sweet wrappers, drinks cans, receipts, window streaks etc.

The_Iceman

Correction: How is this a mistake? Clean people do exist and it is not a mistake to want to film them. Cleanliness is a virtue, and the films might want to deliberately exploit the fact. Women with hourglass-shaped bodies? Now, that's a mistake.

FleetCommand

Every single person? I've never, in my life, been inside a spotlessly clean car.

The_Iceman

Bear in mind the vast majority of the time we aren't shown the entirety of the car. My car's pretty clean but has bits of leaves, etc. in the footwell because I never clean there - no movie ever shows the footwells! I don't throw random garbage around the inside either, it gets put in the side pockets, again, not somewhere that tends to be of great focus in movies.

Jon Sandys

Films are intended to bend reality. Wanting to have clean cars in the film is not automatically a mistake. It is at best a cliche or trope. Sometimes, it is advocacy.

FleetCommand

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