Jon Sandys

7th Jun 2019

The Matrix (1999)

Trivia: The Ewoks were originally going to be Wookiees, but because Chewbacca had already been shown to be able to fly a spaceship, not to mention repair it and be adept with energy weapons, Wookiees were too technologically advanced, so a new race had to be created.

Jon Sandys

3rd Jun 2019

Good Omens (2019)

Hard Times - S1-E3

Crowley: That unicorn's gonna make a run for it! Oh, it's too late. It's too late! Ah, you've still got one of them.

Jon Sandys

3rd Jun 2019

Good Omens (2019)

Hard Times - S1-E3

Trivia: Budget limitations means the original plan for the Globe scene to feature a packed theatre had to be cut down, because they couldn't afford hundreds of extras with full costume starting at 5am, in order to finish before the theatre was used for a performance later in the day. Unwilling to cut the scene entirely, Neil Gaiman realised if they altered the sequence such that Hamlet was a flop, they could get away with just a few extras and work that into the dialogue.

Jon Sandys

3rd Jun 2019

Good Omens (2019)

Hard Times - S1-E3

Trivia: The "cold open" for this episode runs for nearly 30 minutes, meaning the "intro" sequence doesn't actually come until halfway through the episode.

Jon Sandys

3rd Jun 2019

Common mistakes

Factual error: Often when bombs are shown falling, they're depicted with a distinct whistling sound. Two problems there. Bombs don't inherently whistle - some bombs in WW2 were specifically fitted with whistles for the psychological warfare element, but the vast majority are silent. Secondly, the standard noise heard from the ground, a high pitched whistle slowly getting lower, is wrong. The doppler effect, whereby a sound changes as it moves closer to someone hearing it, means the pitch heard would increase, not decrease, as a bomb falls towards you. The sound most often used in movies/TV shows of a whistling bomb is what the pilots dropping the bomb would hear, not the people it was falling towards.

Jon Sandys

3rd Jun 2019

Good Omens (2019)

3rd Jun 2019

Captain Marvel (2019)

Video

Trivia: While we never find out in the movie who Yon-Rogg saw when he visited the Supreme Intelligence, being "the person he admires above all", a deleted scene gives the answer...himself.

Jon Sandys

2nd Jun 2019

X-Men 2 (2003)

Trivia: After filming wrapped on X-Men, Professor X's wheelchair was auctioned off. When this film started production, the crew realised it would be cheaper to rent the original back from the new owner rather than build a new one.

Jon Sandys

Trivia: Hugh Jackman agreed to a cameo with two conditions - that money would be donated to his child's school, and that he be allowed to swear.

Jon Sandys

2nd Jun 2019

X-Men (2000)

Trivia: Joss Whedon did a rewrite for the script, but only two lines were kept, uncredited. One is "do you know what happens to a toad when it's struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else", which he maintains was meant to be much more throwaway, but was instead botched by Halle Berry's dramatic delivery. The second, much better line is Wolverine's "you're a dick" directed at Cyclops to prove it's the real him.

Jon Sandys

31st May 2019

Good Omens (2019)

In The Beginning - S1-E1

Trivia: Aziraphale's bookshop has Terry Pratchett's signature fedora and scarf hanging on the hatstand, a tribute to the sadly deceased co-author of the novel. It's visible behind Crowley when he's bemoaning losing the antichrist.

Jon Sandys

Continuity mistake: When Ethan is thrown from the helicopter, he lands with a straight black strap attached to his left wrist. When he comes to a few seconds later, the strap is now doubled up and he's gripping it, it's not attached to him. (02:03:30 - 02:04:30)

Jon Sandys

Such Sweet Sorrow: Part 2 - S2-E14

Question: Jumping to the future to preserve the sphere data was meant to be so that Control couldn't get hold of it. But Control is neutralised before the jump, drones all dead in the water, it's utterly destroyed. So what's the threat? Why jump at all?

Jon Sandys

Answer: Perhaps they didn't want to take the risk that Control - a tactical and strategic analysis program - would choose to place its entire core programming into a single fragile human body (Leland), despite previously demonstrating the ability to decentralise, duplicate and transfer itself to numerous computer, cybernetic and organic systems. If any trace of the Control program still existed, it could make another attempt to seize the sphere data.

Sierra1

Such Sweet Sorrow: Part 2 - S2-E14

Stupidity: The Admiral stays behind to manually pully the blast door lever, sealing off the torpedo from the rest of the ship but dooming herself in the process. Thing is, the lever is right next to the door, takes minimal effort to pull down, and the door moves pretty slowly - they could easily have wrapped a shirt or something around it and pulled it down from outside. Or even taken a gamble, yanked it and dived under the door. Instead she just locks herself in and waits.

Jon Sandys

25th May 2019

Common mistakes

Character mistake: In many space-based action sequences, all the craft involved act like space isn't 3D. Ships fly at each other head on, surround other vessels in a circle, not a sphere, attack with a pincer movement from the left and right, rather than above/below, etc. Most of the time the action is all broadly on one plane. Makes things easier to understand from an audience perspective, makes zero sense tactically speaking.

Jon Sandys

24th May 2019

Hawaii Five-0 (2010)

Hana Mao 'ole ka ua o Waianae - S9-E25

Character mistake: The bad guy escapes on a private jet, narrowly avoiding being run off the runway, and he breathes a sigh of relief, thinking he's got away with it. But anyone with half a brain would know full well that given the cops know the plane he's in and where he started from, it's no challenge at all to track him, and at an extreme scramble a fighter to escort him back / shoot him down.

Jon Sandys

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