Vader47000

22nd Jul 2023

Oppenheimer (2023)

Oppenheimer mistake picture

Factual error: After the successful Trinity test in 1945, people in a crowd are holding small US flags with 50 stars on them (offset rows). At the time there were only 48 states and the flag had 48 stars in even rows. The 50 star flag didn't exist until 1960, after Alaska and Hawaii were made states in 1959.

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

Suggested correction: While this is correct, an argument can be made that since the colour scenes are meant to be subjective and the black and white scenes are meant to be objective, Oppenheimer could have been unintentionally mapping the modern US flag onto this scene.

THGhost

That's a ridiculous stretch with zero evidence, not least as 48 star flags are seen in colour in other scenes. Sometimes a mistake is simply a mistake.

There is evidence, though. Nolan said so himself. Look it up. As for the mistake itself, I'm merely repeating what I've read on Twitter, and this correction was merely a suggestion. Seeing the 48 star flags in other colour scenes still doesn't disprove this theory. It is just a theory though, so no need to shoot it down so hard.

THGhost

He's said subjective in terms of the colour scenes being "first person", and maybe not strictly factual in terms of creating moments between characters and conveying emotion, but nowhere does that stretch to "one random scene happens to feature 50 star flags because Oppenheimer is mapping the modern flag onto it, when nothing like that happens anywhere else in the film."

Meh, take it up with Twitter. I just thought it was interesting, so I posted it here for a different point of view/perspective for others to read. It is most likely bull**** though.

THGhost

The fact that a director realized they had made a mistake and retroactively made up a deus ex machina explanation for it in no way invalidates the mistake. Nice try, Mr. Nolan but this posting is absolutely valid.

While Christopher Nolan's talked about the subjective/objective colour/black and white thing, which is entirely fair and no doubt exactly his intention, I don't think he's actually tried to "excuse" this by using that explanation, that's just other people trying to connect the two things. I'm not sure Nolan has commented on the flag issue in interviews at all.

Precisely, and I was in no way trying to invalidate the original mistake. I just found the whole theory interesting and posted it here. It is rather hilarious that a director with such attention to detail like Nolan would have missed something like this. We shall see if he gets it fixed for the streaming/physical release.

THGhost

It's not fixed in the home video version. However, the behind-the-scenes materials provide a reason for the mistake, in that putting a crowd in the scene was apparently a spur-of-the-moment decision. It's like that in their haste to bring in the crowd, the set decorators bought some modern miniature flags and put them into the scene without anyone realizing the 48/50 discrepancy.

Vader47000

Other mistake: When Centauri "dies", he had a smile when stopped moving. After Grig closes Centauri's eyes, not only is the smile gone, but you see his now-closed right eye flinch after Grig's hand is gone.

Movie Nut

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

Suggested correction: As the entry itself notes by putting "dies" in quotation marks, Centauri is not really dead. His body simply shut down to repair itself, which means it is still operating on some level, which allows for the possibility of small movements as described.

Vader47000

Corrected entry: SPOILER ALERT. In Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, Death was able to bring Bill and Ted back to life because their bodies were still fresh and undamaged, and he was able to put their spirits back in. In this film, Bill and Ted, their daughters, Ted's dad and the historical musicians were all vaporized which meant they would have no bodies to return to and would have been stuck in their spirit form when Death returned them to earth. But for no explainable reason, they all come back in human form.

Gavin Jackson

Correction: The bodies were not a factor in their resurrection. The Reaper was also able to resurrect Station, who were a pair of aliens who had no bodies on Earth.

Vader47000

Corrected entry: After the big fight between Team Cap and Team Iron Man, Steve and Bucky fly to the bunker where the others winter soldiers are sleeping. Tony takes Rhodes to the doctor, then goes to the prison where Falcon and the others are caught, then flies to the bunker and he arrives almost at the same time as Steve and Bucky.

oswal13

Correction: It all depends on the speed at which Cap and Bucky could find the base plus any additional time that they might have needed to take to stop/refuel/sleep/etc. versus Tony/Iron Man's top speed when he departs for the base. (Especially as the Iron Man armor is faster than many military jets by this point in development.) It's clear that at least some time has elapsed by the time Tony leaves.

I was wondering this myself so I did some calculations of travel times. The big red flag is the travel from Germany to the Raft, which is in the middle of the Atlantic. Tony is shown making this flight in a helicopter, but a typical flight of this type would probably take about 4 hours. Now, remember that Sec. Ross needed time to arrest Cap's team, transport them to the Raft, process them, and they appear to have been in the cells for a while by the time Tony meets with them. So if it takes Tony 4 hours to fly to the Raft, and he does so after helping Ross arrest Cap's team, then takes Rhodey to the hospital, and likely gets treated for his own injuries while watching Rhodey get an MRI, It would be generous to say that Tony arriving at the Raft would be 7 to 8 hours after the airport battle at the earliest.

Vader47000

A plane trip from Germany to deep in Siberia would take 10-12 hours. While the Quinjet is much faster than a commercial flight, we see Cap is flying lower to the ground, probably to avoid whatever detection systems can be deployed to find the jet (assuming it has stealth capabilities to hide it from standard radar, but that Tony has advanced systems to find it). So while the quinjet is fast, a lower altitude would lengthen flight time. If Cap is keeping the plane under Mach 1 to avoid a detectable sonic boom, then he'd be going 600-700 mph, which would take 11-12 hours to fly to the Hydra base.

Vader47000

If the Iron Man armor can go Mach 5, it would take Tony about 2 hours to fly from the Raft to deep into Siberia. So if Tony leaves the Raft 8 or 9 hours after the airport battle, and it takes him 2-3 hours to fly to SIberia, then he is arriving in Siberia 10-12 hours after the airport battle. Thus, the idea that he arrives not long after Cap and Bucky is actually a plausible timeline.

Vader47000

19th Sep 2005

The Naked Gun (1988)

Corrected entry: The Angels score a grand slam home run, but it is not reflected on the scoreboard. There should be at least a "4" shown in one of the innings, but there isn't.

Correction: There is nothing evidenced to say it was a grand slam. Yes we see a few runners round the bases, but it could be also be a 2 or 3-run homer.

We see four runners. That's a grand slam.

Vader47000

Correction: The scene is done as a joke. Yes, you see 4 players, but they are all seen rounding 2nd, which means 3 of them had to be on 1st.

Bishop73

Correction: Also, present Bill and Ted hear their future selves introduce him as Rufus. Thus their learning his name is part of the time loop.

Vader47000

Correction: He doesn't tell them his name on screen, but they spend a lot of time together off screen. He could easily have told them without it being shown.

Rufus never told Bill and Ted his name when they first meet him so there's no way future Bill and Ted would have known Rufus' name too.

8th Feb 2003

Armageddon (1998)

Corrected entry: Truman is seen in Florida talking with the astronauts prior to lift-off. From the same command center, he controls the entire mission. But Mission Control for all missions is in Houston, Texas. Once the rocket "clears the tower," Mission Control in Houston takes over. How can Truman be in Florida, then appear in Texas a few seconds later?

Correction: Several hours pass between when the shuttle crews leave the NASA building to board the shuttles, and when they actually launch. Notice how it changes from sunlight to dusk in the shot of the two spacecraft after the astronauts board. The launch control room aka the firing room (the one with all the windows) is very different from the mission control room. There is plenty of time for Truman to fly back to Houston after watching the crews board the crew buses in Florida.

Vader47000

3rd Jan 2009

Armageddon (1998)

Corrected entry: Just before A.J goes down the chute in the Russian space station to refuel the rockets, you can see an American flag behind him. Odd that an American flag would be on a Russian space station.

Correction: Odd, perhaps, but far from impossible. Someone has made a character decision to bring it on board, simple as that.

Twotall

The American flag is upside down, indicating a nation in distress. It could be the Russian taking a dig at America.

Vader47000

25th Mar 2003

Armageddon (1998)

Corrected entry: Throughout the movie, the United States is making all the decisions about how to do things. This is most demonstrated when the President of the United States gives the order to remote detonate before the 800 ft. hole is dug. Why does the President get to decide and almost doom the whole planet? Shouldn't the UN make decisions like that?

Correction: Remember the quote: "The United States government just asked us to save the world..." It is a NASA mission (with some co-operation from Russia), not a joint world mission. The President is head of NASA's chain of command, hence he gets to make all the decisions. He is also the sole person to authorize if, when, and where a US nuclear warhead can be detonated.

The UN is not a sovereign body nor an entity with any governmental authority unless specifically tasked with enforcement power via treaty or resolution, neither of which exist in this case. The U.S. wouldn't be gung-ho about ceding authority to the UN in matters such as this anyway.

Vader47000

21st Mar 2002

Armageddon (1998)

Corrected entry: At the beginning when the Chinese people arrive on Harry's rig, Harry says that Grace is going out with AJ due to a lack of choices because no one else is in her age bracket. However, after AJ proposes to Grace, Harry says that Oscar is 5 minutes older than Grace.

Correction: Harry didn't literally mean that Oscar was born five minutes before Grace, he's saying that Oscar is not old enough to have been a father figure to her. We also don't know if Oscar is single or not, he might have a girlfriend we don't get to see, if so he wasn't an option for Grace to date.

Was Oscar even on the oil rig?

Vader47000

7th Jul 2004

Armageddon (1998)

Corrected entry: When the two teams visit the space-station, NASA tracks them each through their green "blips" from their locaters. When A.J. and the Russian were locked in the fuel pod, the control team at NASA could see their green "blips" on their screen. The Russian didn't make the trip, why would he have a locater on him?

Correction: He would have been given one when he went up by himself. NASA would fit him with the correct equipment, being there by himself and all. It's common sense.

He's Russian and was sent up 18 months prior to NASA planning this mission. Why would NASA have given a Russian cosmonaut a tracker?

Vader47000

27th Aug 2001

Armageddon (1998)

Corrected entry: In the scene of the asteroid being split by the nuclear explosion we see the blast from Earth's point of view in settings which are on opposite sides of the world. This is impossible since the asteroid is coming from one direction and only half the planet would be able to see it.

Correction: The only location that is definitively identified is India and the Taj Mahal, which is shown in the daytime. The next shot could be in Africa which is west of India as it shows the sun setting. In the final shot could be anywhere, the only thing you see is a home with an American flag which does not mean it has to be in America, they could be flying the flag showing support of the MISSION or they could be US citizens living in a foreign country! So, it is very possible the three locations could be on the same part of the earth where they could all see the explosion.

Ronnie Bischof

The shot of the explosion in space shows it's over North America. So India would be on the other side of the planet at that time and couldn't see it.

Vader47000

30th Sep 2007

Armageddon (1998)

Corrected entry: If "NASA doubles up on everything.", why didn't the nuclear bomb on Independence go off when it crashed? Colonel Sharp stops Stamper from hitting their bomb with a wrench since it would set it off, so why didn't the one on Independence detonate?

Correction: A crash wouldn't set a nuclear bomb off; it takes a very precise set of events to occur for that to happen, which a crash couldn't possibly replicate. Nor, for that matter, would hitting one with a wrench, which Sharp undoubtedly knows, but with the fate of the Earth riding on that bomb, he can't risk Stamper damaging it. The easiest way to ensure that he doesn't do it again is to tell them that it might actually go off. It's not true, but Stamper and his men aren't going to know that.

Tailkinker

A better question would be why they couldn't remote detonate the Independence nuke from the ground at the same time they try to activate the Freedom nuke.

Vader47000

Corrected entry: When Spock analyzes the call of the probe and compares it in a phylum search, he's presumably interfacing with the Federation memory bank as mentioned in Sulu's pre-launch status. However, the alien probe was disrupting all power and communications in the vicinity of Earth. It's extremely unlikely the ship could've interfaced with the Federation memory bank at the time of that search. (00:24:55)

Correction: There's no reason to assume the Federation memory bank is centralized on Earth, or not networked throughout several member worlds. The original series episode "The Lights of Zetar," for example, showed a Federation central library facility on a planet called Memory Alpha (which is where the Star Trek wiki gets its name).

Vader47000

Other mistake: During the inquiry at the start of the movie, the Klingon Ambassador is going over the footage of the destruction of the Enterprise from all the exterior views. This is very nice, but how would they have access to all of these different viewpoints of the destruction? Bearing in mind no-one was there to film it. It couldn't have been the Klingon Bird of Prey that filmed it, because in most of the destruction scenes, the Bird of Prey would have been no-where near or in a position to film it, and was of course captured and still being commanded by Kirk during the course of the inquiry. (00:04:10)

GalahadFairlight

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

Suggested correction: Most of the visuals we see on view screens in Star Trek are created from sensors rather than cameras, so what we see doesn't necessarily have to be from the visual perspective of the ship taking it. Though yes, it is quite an amusing coincidence that it all looks exactly like they're watching a copy of Star Trek III on home video.

TonyPH

Suggested correction: It's possible the Grissom and/or the Bird of Prey launched drones into orbit to aid in the scanning of the planet or for communications or sensor relays, and this is where the footage could have come from. This isn't unlike the beginning of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in which crewmembers of the space station mentioned such drones as the reason images of the aftermath of the V'ger destruction were able to be seen despite no ships being left.

Vader47000

Continuity mistake: The Bird of Prey is the one captured by Kirk's crew in ST III. That ship's bridge showed Klingon Cmdr Kruge in his elevated command chair with his helmsmen arrayed circularly below him, and nothing else. ST IV has this same ship; however, the bridge now resembles The Enterprise layout with Kirk's command chair behind Sulu and Chekov at their rectangular helm, with Spock, Scotty, and Uhura at their usual positions.

tedloveslisa

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

Suggested correction: According to the captain's log at the beginning, they have been on Vulcan for 3 months. As they prepare to depart, we see several Vulcan technicians moving equipment in and around the ship. It's quite conceivable that the bridge was reconfigured according to the crew's specifications to facilitate their use of the ship. This may seem a bit excessive, as the remodel includes the door onto the bridge, and the frame of the door, and possibly most of the rest of the ship. But it's not outside the realm of possibility. The real mistake, though, is why they would go to the effort of installing new workstations on the Klingon bridge and marking them with Klingon labels, instead of standard Federation text. Interestingly, though, the "Starfleet" style bridge layout of the Klingon ship is being used by the Klingons on the Bird of Prey in Star Trek V.

Vader47000

21st Jun 2019

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Corrected entry: When Thanos is struck by Mjolnir thrown by Captain America for the first time, he is holding Stormbreaker in his hands and trying to kill Thor. In the next shot with Thor and Thanos before Mjolnir returns to Captain America, Thanos is holding his sword. (02:13:00)

Correction: Stormbreaker is knocked from his hand. He could have easily picked up his sword instead.

His sword would have to be right next to where Stormbreaker falls to achieve that, but as Thor is thrown around several meters after he disarms Thanos I don't see how the sword could be in the same spot they are.

Actually it seems that Thanos can summon his sword, just like Thor can summon Stormbreaker. You can see it in 02:22:34, just before Ebony Maw notices Hawkeye with the gauntlet.

Follow the action, he throws Thor in the same vicinity.

Agreed about the proximity. Thor gets thrown around a few times before he summons Stormbreaker. In retrospect, though, Cap's lucky that when he hit Thanos in the back he dropped the axe to the side instead of forward, which would have pushed the axe more into Thor's chest.

Vader47000

Thanos' sword was thrown several meters away by Thor, hooked to Stormbringer. There is simply no time for Thanos to have moved to recover the sword and come right back to standing over Thor as shown.

Corrected entry: One of the big sources of tension in the heist is the fact that they supposedly have a limited number of Pym particles, as stated by Scott Lang. So after the test run they only have enough for everyone to take one round trip through time. Cap and Tony use their return supply to go to 1970, which is why they needed to steal more particles to get back. However, Ant-Man's shrinking tech is also based on the Pym particles, and his shrinking suit seems to work without restriction in 2012. They also have enough to both shrink the Benetar in 2023 and re-grow it in 2014. So either Scott is mistaken about how many Pym particles he has, or he is lying about them. And before someone says they calculated the number of particles it would take for the shrinking during the mission before assigning them to the team members, Scott discusses the limited supply before they had any plan of what they were going to do in the past.

Vader47000

Correction: Shrinking for those more common actions would not eat up as many Pym particles as say, shrinking enough to go sub atomic, as well as controlling where you're going and doing time travel.

Quantom X

This was addressed in the post. Scott calculated all the Pym particles he had on hand and said there was enough for 1 round trip each and 2 tests. Not '1 round trip, 2 tests and an indeterminate amount of shrinking during the mission which we haven't planned yet.' Plus, he uses a whole vial in mistakenly shrinking before the test, after which he says there's enough for 1 test, not 2. So, maybe there are enough extra Pym particles to do some shrinking after they plan the mission, but this is never brought up and would seem to contradict what Scott has already said about it and what we see onscreen about how many Pym particles it takes just to shrink (though the shrinking tech has never really been consistently portrayed in any of the films featuring it). So, a justification for one perceived mistake just raises a question somewhere else. There's just something off about how the film conveys the circumstances of using the Pym particles, however it is parsed.

Vader47000

Thanos has access to technology centuries beyond Earth. It's definitely possible his crew of henchmen were able to replicate the particles.

To add to Quantom X's correction: Thanos' men reverse engineered the Pym particles to allow evil Nebula to return with the others and pull the ship through the timestream. Remember it can take as long as they want to reverse engineer it before sending evil Nebula back, nobody would notice. There were never any more particles used than what Scott had available. Either more were obtained (from Pym himself in 1970's), or more made (by Thanos' men). I agree with the original correction that the small size shrinking obviously doesn't use up as much particles as the subatomic shrinking does and that's why he could do it.

lionhead

The shrinking tech for Scott and the shrinking tech for objects are two different things, remember he has those red and blue discs that shrink and grow things and he uses the vial in the suit.

Corrected entry: In the final battle Captain Marvel saves Spider-Man and gets the Gauntlet but she didn't use it. She probably has power enough to use the Gauntlet and save everyone, without sacrificing herself.

Correction: This is merely speculation. You don't know that she is powerful enough to survive and neither does she. The plan was to get the stones back where they belong. With the stones gone, they would have been able to fight off Thanos and his army. Keeping the stones around is a massive risk, and it has been shown in the comics that if you lack the willpower to use them correctly, it can have devastating effects on you and the area around you. It simply isn't worth the risk, especially with the less advanced Iron Gauntlet which was not made by the Dwarves.

Correction: But the plan was never to use the gauntlet again. They only wanted to bring everyone back. They didn't anticipate Thanos arriving. Not knowing someone could even use the gauntlet again the plan was made to keep Thanos away from it and beat him this time. Using it whilst not knowing if that person would survive would be too dangerous, Thanos could get to it. Tony improvised the last part where he decided to wear the gems and snap, as a last resort.

lionhead

Another question would be, was Captain Marvel going to just fly into the time tunnel without a nanosuit or quantum tracker? It sure looked like it. And then Thanos, who is behind Captain Marvel, is able to throw his sword past her into the van to destroy the tunnel. If Carol has the power to fly into orbit, she can fly faster than a thrown object at ground level.

Vader47000

Thanos can throw a sword pretty fast I'd say, being strong enough to battle a god and easily overpower Hulk. But yes, She was going to fly into it to get the gauntlet and stones away from Thanos forever, that was the plan. However Carol is going to handle the situation of going through the tunnel without any plan is up to her, she is pretty powerful though and could find a way I'd say.

lionhead

30th May 2019

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Corrected entry: While Clint's family is vanishing from his Iowa farm it should be night. The snap was in Wakanda, the other side of the world.

oswal13

Correction: Clint's farm is in Iowa - Wakanda is roughly near Uganda, which is 8 hours ahead of the US. So without a clear-cut timeframe it would be perfectly possible for the snap to take place at say 4pm in Wakanda, which would be 8am in Iowa. Or even as late as 6pm/10am.

I believe the correction is wrong. I may be mistaken, but wasn't the family eating hot dogs? Unless you are positing that they were having that for breakfast, which is highly doubtful, it doesn't make sense that it was early/mid morning at Clint's farm.

Well, we later see in Spider-Man: Far From Home that the snap happened while kids in New York were in school. So maybe the snap happened at 7 p.m. Wakanda time just before sunset, and 11 a.m. in NY and 10 a.m. in the Midwest where the farm supposedly was, and they were enjoying a nice hot dog brunch.

Vader47000

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.