Factual error: There's no way the gyro helicopter could carry 2 men and four jerrycans of petrol across a desert. It is only built for one person and would never lift off. And where would they put the second person and petrol anyway?
Gavin Jackson
10th Oct 2017
Mad Max 2 (1981)
10th Oct 2017
Mad Max 2 (1981)
Factual error: It's impossible for the Gyro captain's helicopter to land in the compound the way it did. Those type of helicopters can't hover like normal ones and have to land on runways due to their speed. It can't just land on the ground directly.
10th Oct 2017
Mad Max 2 (1981)
Continuity mistake: When Max leaves the compound and is being pursued by Wez and Toadie, the ground is flat as far as the eye can see. When Max's car begins to roll, the ground is still flat. Suddenly Max winds up in a deep terrain which came from nowhere and wasn't seen in any previous shots.
10th Oct 2017
Mad Max 2 (1981)
Other mistake: Max had already driven his car a distance along the highway before he crashed. When the Gyro captain spots the smoke the next morning, it's coming from behind the hill which is way too close and suggests that Max crashed right after passing the knight riders.
9th Oct 2017
Escape From New York (1981)
Question: Could someone please explain to me what I consider two of the biggest plot holes in this film. Firstly, how was Snake going to get his glider back in the air? If it had jets or thrusters on it, that would make sense, but when it first took off, it was being towed by a plane which means it is just a standard glider (Plissken does admit to Hauk that it will be an issue, but that explains little). Also given that it is a one-seat glider, how was he going to bring back the president on it? In fact, how were Brain, Maggie and the President (in their attempted double-cross) all going to squeeze onboard?
Chosen answer: You are correct in citing these problems as plot holes. Writer-director John Carpenter is notorious for glaring plot holes in his films over the decades, inasmuch as Carpenter crafts his films for shock effect, rather than continuity. Other examples of Carpenter's plot holes can be found in the original "Halloween" (for instance, how did the killer Michael Myers, who had been confined in a mental institution since he was a child, learn to drive an automobile like a stunt driver his first time behind the wheel?), and in "The Thing" (why is the Thing discovered frozen in ice only about 4 feet below the modern surface while its spaceship is buried ten yards deep in 100,000-year-old ice?), as well as in "Prince of Darkness," "Vampires" and other Carpenter films. One explanation is that Carpenter tends to edit-out slower, extraneous scenes that more fully explain the plot, in order to maintain a fast-paced storyline.
I would assume he would push free fall and build up enough speed to fly, and then pull up, the WTC was the largest building in NY at the time anyway.
22nd Sep 2017
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Question: Did Eddie Murphy improvise his hotel meltdown speech (where he claims to be a reporter) or was it scripted?
Chosen answer: Much of Axel Foley's lines were improvised, including this scene, according to the commentary. But many other actors improvised their lines too, most notably Bronson Pinchot. The script was originally written with the intent of Sylvester Stallone playing Axel and as such, the issue of his race wasn't scripted and the director tried to avoid mentioning race in the film. It was Eddie Murphy that would bring it up in improvised lines.
14th Sep 2017
Ghost Story (1981)
Revealing mistake: When John Jaffrey is lying dead in front of his medicine cabinet, he is still breathing.
13th Aug 2017
Snowden (2016)
Question: When Edward Snowden obtains the MicroSD card after downloading all the data, he and Patrick Haynes (who's fully aware what he's up to) start communicating via sign language before he leaves to avoid their conversation being recorded. Does anyone know what they are saying to each other?
Chosen answer: The scene is captioned as follows - Snowden: "I might not see you again." Haynes: "You 'gonna leave me here...with Captain America? Thanks a lot." Snowden: "NSA may come after you." Haynes: "I don't know what you're talking about. [walks away.]" I should note that my profession is that of an American Sign Language interpreter. From my observation, they are signing pretty much correctly, if not artfully. The only difference is that what the movie translates as "I don't know what you're talking about" would probably be more accurately stated as, "I don't understand your comment." And there really isn't a sign used for "gonna'." Hayes just says, "you're leaving me here with him? Captain America!"
Thank you!
7th Aug 2017
The Terminator (1984)
Continuity mistake: When Sarah rolls Kyle's body over and looks at him, his face is covered in blood and his eyes are open. When Kyle is later zipped up in the body bag, his face is clean and his eyes are closed.
4th Aug 2017
Baby Driver (2017)
Trivia: During the second heist, all of the crew are wearing Austin powers masks. Kevin Spacey who co-starred in this had a cameo appearance in the third Austin Powers film, playing himself.
1st Aug 2017
Terminator Genisys (2015)
Question: If John Connor and the resistance are so good at reprogramming Terminators (They have done it 3 times during the series), why don't they just use them to help fight the war? Continuously sending them back in time may have kept Connor alive, but has achieved little else.
Chosen answer: As long as Skynet kept sending other Terminators into the past to kill John Connor before he became the leader of the human resistance, it was necessary to keep sending reprogrammed Terminators into the past as well so that the timeline would not be altered, thus resulting in a Skynet victory. While it is possible that John and the resistance may have used reprogrammed Terminators to help them in the future, this was never depicted or otherwise mentioned within the film series.
18th Jul 2017
Another 48 Hrs. (1990)
Factual error: No handgun shots can throw a police officer through the air halfway over a diner. That's just pure Hollywood fantasy (Mythbusters even proved this using all kinds of guns).
18th Jul 2017
Payback (1999)
Other mistake: When Porter cuts the fuel line on the car and is about to light it, Carter's henchmen see him and act surprised. Despite having ample time to get out (as any rational person might do), they just sit in the car and wait for it to explode.
23rd Jun 2017
Smokey and the Bandit II (1980)
Question: In the movie, Buford shoots two flying bottles whilst holding the gun at his hip. Is that even possible?
Chosen answer: Technically, yes, but no matter how adept the shooter, such a trick would always rely more on luck than skill. Shooting from the hip makes it impossible to aim any better than "in the general direction of the target."
23rd Jun 2017
Xanadu (1980)
12th Jun 2017
Runaway Train (1985)
Trivia: In the film Eric Robert says jokingly to Sara "Why are we here? I'll tell you why...We're on our way to Las Vegas to see our good friend Wayne Newton." In Best of the Best 2 (1993) Eric Roberts arrives at Las Vegas at the end to stop a fight, which is being hosted by Wayne newton.
7th Jun 2017
Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
Question: I am really confused by one scene. When Buford realises that Bandit is leaving the same service station he is at, he attempts to drive after him, but the front of his car is cranked up, When it cuts back to that scene, Junior (for no apparent reason) is lying on the hood and a crowd is watching them. Was there some missing scene which explains why Junior is in that odd position? Also why is Buford's car cranked up to begin with?
Chosen answer: There's no missing scene; it's just a joke, albeit not particularly well-executed. Basically, the car was cranked up to replace the tires, and Buford forgot about them in his haste to pull out and crashed into the car in front of him. When we cut back, the joke is that he hit the other car so hard Junior flew out of his seat and wound up on the hood. The crowd gathers, as they tend to do in real life, around the accident to see what happened.
12th May 2017
Under Siege 2 (1995)
Stupidity: Dane is a brilliant man who has invested countless millions (hence his billion asking price) and much planning into the operation. Yet he only makes one copy of the disk? Suppose that disk had been lost or broken? His whole operation would have been a total waste.
16th Feb 2017
Dragonheart (1996)
Other mistake: At the beginning when the king (Einon's father) grabs a torch and sets fire to the villagers' home, he only touches the corners of the roof. Yet seconds later, a fire suddenly begins inside the house...for no reason.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: Someone inside panicked and knocked a candle over?
1st Jan 2017
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Question: When Bond is getting ready to go down the ski jump, he starts getting chewed out by the guy at the top. What is the guy saying to him? I've always assumed that he is demanding to know why Bond has only one ski pole...but that's just a vague guess.
Answer: He's complaining that Bond didn't wait his turn for the ski run. He cut in front of everyone.
Chosen answer: I always thought that the guy in charge of the jump was saying that Bond didn't have the correct skis to do the jump or something. As I saw it Bond's skis were generic ones for cross country and / or regular skiers and to do the jump Bond needed, and didn't have, special, specific skis designed for jumping.
I'm more inclined to agree with you. It didn't appear like Bond had queue jumped. And I doubt the guy at the top would have known (or even cared). The guy did seem to be looking at Bond's attire, so I have to agree that he was chewing him out on that.
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Answer: When Snake is told how he getting in the other guys said he can take off from a free fall.