Other mistake: Charles starts a discussion on the army having forbidden the use of curare. The following chatter is all about how things in the M.A.S.H. OR have slowed after curare was banned, leaving us with no choice but to understand that the ban came into effect during the Korean War. Actually, curare was not approved for use by the U.S. Army at any time during the Korean War. (See "Notable Names in Anasthesia" - J. Roger Maltby, Royal Society of Medicine, Great Britain, pg. 14). (00:00:25)
Doc
24th Feb 2010
M*A*S*H (1972)
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Suggested correction: The whole point of the discussion is to make it clear that curare was never allowed for use by the US military, however since the majority of the doctors there are not enlisted, they know of curare and how to use it on a patient. At no point is it mentioned that the banned occurred during the Korean war.
While they never specifically say that the ban occurred during the Korean war, at the beginning of the episode, Charles says "Ever since the army forbade our use of curare..." Then at the end of the episode, COL Potter says "It sure is the cat's P.J.s having our curare back." after they get some supply from another non-American unit. These conversations imply that the doctors had been allowed to use curare by the army until this point and the ban by the army is why they aren't using it any more.
Father Mulchahy says "I've noticed the work goes much faster with curare." Father Mulchahy's only experiences in operating rooms are from his deployment at mash 4077 (he mentions he used to work with children before the war), so he must have "noticed" it there. This makes it clear as daylight that curare was used at mash before it was banned.
19th Feb 2013
M*A*S*H (1972)
Corrected entry: When the champ comes in, several soldiers are lying in the post-op ward, and some of them don't look likely to get out soon. After the champ suffers his stroke, the ward is empty and Cavanaugh is the only patient there. Hawkeye even says "Afraid you're going to lose your private room, Champ?" What happened to the other wounded? (00:05:00 - 00:18:45)
Correction: Patients get transferred out all the time. If they knew that they were going to get more wounded in, they would transfer as many as could be feasibly moved. Obviously all could be safely moved.
No mention is made in the dialog of moving wounded out to make room, as it is in many other episodes. The wounded are just suddenly gone. While none is explicitly mentioned as being critical or unable to be transferred (transferring wounded just isn't touched upon at all in this episode), as detailed in the original mistake, some wounded look quite heavily injured, e.g. the guy in the body cast the champ talks to. In other episodes, the doctors show quite a lot of reluctance in moving patients with similar looking injuries.
Correction: They do things all the time without specifically mentioning it. The job of a mash unit is to fix up those in critical need and get them to a recovery/evacuation or their unit as soon as possible.
25th May 2013
M*A*S*H (1972)
Character mistake: Hawkeye and Trapper make Tuttle an alumnus of "Berlin Polytechnic" and translate that (wrongly) as "Berlinishes Polytechnikum". Berlin's polytechnic university was named "Technische Hochschule Berlin" at the relevant time - and at no time offered a medical curriculum. To study medicine in Berlin, Tuttle would have to attend "Freie Universität Berlin" instead.
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Suggested correction: And how are Hawkeye and Trapper suppose to know that? They are after all, making all this up. It is never meant to be factual.
It is intended to fool Margret and Frank, so it has to be assumed that they meant to pull it off. Hawkeye says "It can't be any place they'll check", which is why they select a German university in the first place. That shows it is indeed meant to be if not watertight, then at least convincing. To use an university you don't know the proper name of doesn't make sense under these circumstances.
17th Jul 2012
M*A*S*H (1972)
Other mistake: Rosie says she took the darts away from Klinger and BJ, but there are still plenty of darts sticking in and around the dartboard. (00:12:45)
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Suggested correction: Rosie said she took them away AFTER they began throwing them at the dartboard. Therefore there would be some in and around the dartboard. And since Klinger and BJ were drunk, they likely wouldn't have thought to grab them from the board.
1st Oct 2015
Twister (1996)
Other mistake: When the twister hits the drive in theater, the sirens are wailing, but nobody reacts. Only when Jo screams at the waitresses they start panicking and run. The movie is set in Oklahoma, smack in the middle of tornado alley. The people there know what the sirens mean, they sure don't need no out-of-town big-shots to tell them to get under cover.
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Suggested correction: Sirens go off so many times that true Okies tend to ignore them. We might get nervous if the cable goes out.
Do true Okies also run screaming the second an out-of-town big-shot yells at them? Sorry but that argument just doesn't compute. People ignoring fair warning simply isn't a thing in the movie. The main plotline is people not getting warnings soon enough.
It's also possible that they did hear the siren, but unlike the people at the drive-in who could actually see the tornado tearing the screen apart, the people at the snack bar might not have been able to see it (especially with an awning over the windows). They were probably at most confused as to what was happening and it wasn't until Jo actually said to get underground that they realised it was real and was actually happening.
28th Sep 2016
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
The Informer - S1-E1
Corrected entry: In this episode, the German spy Hogan conducts around the Underground tunnels sees things (i.e., steam room, weapon manufacturing line, barber shop, etc.) that are never seen in the series again.
Correction: It is never made quite clear whether those were really supposed to be a thing or just part of an extremely elaborate plot to throw off the spy. Admittedly, if they were supposed to be part of the plot, the question how Hogan's men managed to set up such a complicated system in the time available would be a mistake in its own right.
8th Mar 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Corrected entry: On the cover of the plan for Operation Hannibal, the top line says. "SEHR GEHEIM" (Top Secret). But the plan is called Operation Hannibal (translated as "betrieb hannibal"). The title says "unternehmen hannibal (translation: Companies Hannibal).
22nd Feb 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Corrected entry: As the scene fades to the Höf Brau (with lighting that would violate black out rules in wartime Germany) passing vehicles can be seen to be modern (mid-1960's) cars rather than the more appropriate early 1940's German vehicles. And they're travelling at 1960's standards speeds.
Correction: Only the headlights of the cars are visible for less than a second, plus, the reporter presumes to accurately judge speeds of cars in a movie scene, which would be difficult at best. Furthermore the mistake depends on the assumption that speeds were significantly different inside closed settlements between 1940 and 1960, which they were not. Legally, in Germany, 40 km/h would be permissible in 1942 whereas 50km/h would be permissible in 1960. In California, the speed limit would have been between 25 and 30 mph, or 40-48 km/h respectively. Even in real life, accurately judging a speed difference of 8km/h would be almost impossible except in direct comparison. This mistake should probably be upheld in part, but either it must be rewritten without the speed stuff, or a comprehensible explanation must be given how the difference in speed is to be explained and judged.
21st Oct 2006
Red Sonja (1985)
Corrected entry: When the evil queen's assistant (who had the bag of gold coins) fights the young prince toward the end of the movie, he gets squished by the giant cement circular door. When Sonja, Calidor, the prince and Vulcan exit this same door, there is no body visible.
2nd Feb 2015
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Request Permission to Escape - S1-E32
Corrected entry: As Schultz goes to salute, the water stream goes up Klink's face to shoot over his head. When the camera cuts to Schultz, the stream now is aimed more directly at Klink's face.
27th Jan 2014
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Corrected entry: The whole story line is a plot hole. The blueprints would be a top secret item, and as such, wouldn't accompany the item they depict (in this case, missiles). Klink carries the prints around as if they were ordinary papers for no other purpose than to be "borrowed", copied, and returned by the Heroes. For this, Klink would have been eliminated.
Correction: Not a plot hole. The rationale for the plans being present was probably because they were to be presented to the assembled general staff. That makes it a deus ex, not a mistake. It's often stated in the series how the Axis general staff considers Stalag 13 a particularly safe place, so there's no reason not to take top secret plans there. As a matter of fact, the safety is precisely the reason the demonstration is held in Stalag 13. As for the reason Klink carries the plans with him, that's not a proper plot hole either. Again, viewed from the German point of view, the plans were safe there, especially rolled up where nobody could peek at them. After all, no prisoner had ever escaped from Stalag 13. Fact is, the Germans have no clue that Hogan's men have ways to get those plans out of country. True, Klink probably shouldn't have put the plans down, but that's just his usual clumsy self, and as already pointed out twice, from his point of view he had no reason to suspect duplicity.
2nd Mar 2014
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to London - S3-E5
Corrected entry: When Hogan goes to shake hands with Baumann, he grabs and raises Baumann's arm to make the wrist gun fire upwards. As it fires, it takes Klink's hat off. Upon inspection, Klink's hat has only one hole, as if fired through from underneath. The gun fired at the peak of the hat, therefore, there should be a second hole about the level of the top of the eagle on the front of the hat.
27th May 2003
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965)
Corrected entry: The "British" plane is a French design.
Correction: The dialogue never states it is a British design, neither is there a logical reason why a British pilot shouldn't fly a french design. The dialog explicitly states that "until three years ago" there were no British fliers, so instead it makes perfect sense to see British fliers use imported designs.
11th Apr 2015
M*A*S*H (1972)
Good-Bye Radar: Part 1 - S8-E4
Corrected entry: Hawkeye gives the nurse an order of one quarter gram of morphine (250mg) for a soldier. That dose if given by IV, which is almost always how drugs were dispensed in MASH units and specifically on that show, would almost certainly kill him. There is no way Hawkeye with his talent and expertise wouldn't make absolutely certain that he would have made clear it was to be given orally, and more relevant is he simply would not order morphine, "by the gram."
Correction: Hawkeye does not order one quarter GRAM of morphine but one quarter GRAIN, being 19.2 milligrams, which is a perfectly logical dosage: "5-20 mg every four hours as needed" according to some medical almanac I had lying around. Also, wikipedia states 200 mg as "the minimum lethal dose" unless a person is oversensitive and goes on to explain that persons with a high tolerance (especially addicts and regular users) can take up to 3000mg per day, so this mistake is wrong in more than one way, as it wouldn't "almost certainly kill him" either.
25th Nov 2013
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Reservations Are Required - S1-E15
Corrected entry: When LeBeau goes to get out under the wire, he raises an entire section of the wire on the inner and outer fences to do so. It can be seen that there is a bar on the bottom of the sections that he raises that suggests the sections are totally framed for the purpose.
23rd Dec 2014
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Corrected entry: The boarding party would include Ryan and maybe the first officer. Not likely the Captain of The Dallas. But never a lowly sonar operator. What does he know about boarding other ships?
25th Oct 2012
Octopussy (1983)
Corrected entry: After a long chase through the Indian streets, Bond goes to MI6's local HQ and gives the egg to Q to put a tracking device/bug into it. This was the same egg Bond showed off at the casino and was why he was being chased. Since MI6 had complete possession of the egg after Bond switched for it at the auction, they could have put the tracking device on it at any time before Bond took it to the casino. It makes no sense for Bond to risk losing the egg before it is properly adorned with the bug, especially given the risk he takes tempting Kamal Khan with it at the casino.
Correction: Bond asks Q "Is the tracking device ready?", thus detailing why it wasn't installed back in London. It is of course true that Bond probably shouldn't have risked the egg before it was properly bugged - but he is rash and daredevil by nature and loves playing situations by ear, so he seems to have trusted his abilities to protect the egg.
16th Sep 2007
Octopussy (1983)
Corrected entry: In the scene in the walk-in cooler at Kahn's palace you don't see any breath - neither from Bond nor from the two guys picking up the bodies.
Correction: It isn't supposed to be a refrigerated room in the modern sense, but a cold room in the traditional sense: a thick-walled chamber in the basement that keeps relatively cool even in the hot summer. If you look closely, there isn't any ice or frost anywhere. Also it was probably meant as a butcher shop first and as a cold room only second: When Gobinda checks in because he finds the door open, cleavers, bone saws and knives can be hanging on the wall. As for why Bond has his collar turned up: when attuned to a hot climate, even the 15°C of a naturally cool room would seem quite cold.
16th May 2004
Moonraker (1979)
Corrected entry: The astronauts aren't visible from the air when Corinne Dufour and James Bond arrive at Drax's palace.
Correction: As a matter of fact, if you look closely, there is something visible where the astronauts should be. The resolution of the DVD isn't good enough to show details, but you can see that the zone where the astronauts should be looks different. Since the paths are generally well raked, the ground should look exactly the same as everything else. It would have to be an incredible coincidence if whatever it is that's where they should be wasn't the astronauts.
30th Aug 2005
Octopussy (1983)
Corrected entry: When Bond's mini-jet runs out of fuel, he coasts into a back-water gas station and tells the attendant to fill it up. However, jet engines do not run on gasoline. They burn jet fuel, which is essentially kerosene.
Correction: You never actually see the attendant fill up the plane. The statement from Bond may be no more than one of his usual wisecracks - after all, he is relieved that he successfully completed his mission and escaped across the border. On the other hand, turbine engines can usually handle a much wider variety of fuels than piston engines - and not all run on kerosene, many require aircraft gasoline in the first place. Even without tinkering from the Q branch, the chances aren't bad that the engine would have run on either gasoline or diesel. (After Q has been left alone with it, who can tell what it would run on?).
Added explanation: Many people seem to think that aircraft fuel is some sort of a magical mixture of stardust and newt eyes. Not so. Kerosene and aircraft gasoline are remarkably similar to diesel and regular gasoline respectively, only with much more predictable and stable properties. Any gasoline engine will purr along happily on aircraft gasoline. A diesel car would probably run fine on JP1, A modern, highly efficient TDI might have some trouble coping, as JP1 - also known as "kerosene" - is less viscous than diesel fuel.