Doc

18th Jan 2021

Jurassic Park (1993)

Factual error: When the goat leg falls down onto the glass roof of the tour vehicle, the wound on it is much too clean. Whether it is actual meat, it looks like it was cut with a knife. Dinosaurs, like crocodiles had conical teeth and had to tear or rip their prey apart - unlike cats or dogs, whose premolars act in a scissor-like way and actually cut the meat. The wound surface should be frayed and messy. Also, a T-Rex wouldn't even be able to tear apart a goat, because it's too small to step on it and tear at it at the same time. Instead, he would chew and shake it a few times to shatter the bones, then swallow it whole.

Doc

20th May 2020

M*A*S*H (1972)

Baby, It's Cold Outside - S7-E9

Factual error: As Hawkeye performs CPR on the hypothermic soldier, he pumps his arms from his ellbows. CPR is done by keeping the arms stiff and pumping with the whole upper body. Hawkeye as a surgeon would know that. Fun Fact: You can perform CPR one-handed in a pinch, but only as long as you keep your arms stiff.

Doc

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

Suggested correction: True, but doing CPR the real way is going to likely seriously injure the actor it is being performed upon.

LorgSkyegon

Explaining why mistakes occur does not invalidate them.

Bishop73

Chest compressions can definitely be performed by pumping from the elbow, one or two handed. The first documented use was in 1891, so Hawkeye would be aware of it. However, modern CPR standards, including straight arm procedures, were not developed until at least 1960 by the American Heart Association. Using straight arms and bending at the hips uses the larger muscle groups of the core and legs, which provides more control, as well as stamina. This is not an error for the Korean War era.

Additionally, what Lorg said - you don't want to hurt the actor, you can see his shoulders rise as his arms straighten, giving the illusion of compressions. There is another episode where Hawkeye is performing chest compressions similarly, and yells at the unconscious patient that his arms are getting tired, which is what would happen with bent elbow compressions, and one of the reasons modern technique uses straight arms.

I didn't know that, but it makes sense that CPR procedures would evolve. You should submit that as a direct correction to my mistake.

Doc

18th Mar 2020

Hogan's Heroes (1965)

I Look Better in Basic Black - S1-E28

Factual error: The American women the SS brings into camp claim to be entertainers having performed for troops. The series is allegedly set in 1942. Before June 6th, 1944 there were no allied troop concentrations in central Europe, certainly not in Germany, and very certainly none of a size and security rating the USO (or probably rather its predecessor organization, since the USO was founded in 1941 and would not have been fully operational yet) would send a troupe of female entertainers to.

Doc

12th Feb 2019

Titans (2018)

Titans - S1-E1

Factual error: When Starfire gets out of the totalled car, there is a road sign visible. It is a settlement exit sign, denoting the exit of Königsstetten and Zeiselmauer as next settlement ahead. Obviously the makers tried to be extra thorough nailing down their "outside Vienna" location. They started OK - both Königsstetten and Zeiselmauer actually ARE outside Vienna - but then they completely botched it: Not only did they use a German black-on-yellow "StVO Zeichen 331" instead of the Austrian "StVO Hinweiszeichen 17b" which has black writing on a white base with a blue rim and doesn't list the next settlement, but they also put 852km as the distance to the next settlement, which is more than the length of Austria west to east. The real distance is 3.8km.

Doc

9th Jan 2019

Elysium (2013)

Factual error: As the shuttles are approaching Elysium Station, their engines are constantly firing. Still, bottles and other miscellaneous items are shown free-floating around the shuttles. Weightlessness exists on space ships only as long as they are coasting. As soon as they are under thrust, things "drop" to the rear of the ship in exactly the same way the bowling ball we probably all heard about in physics class rolls towards the back of the iconic train.

Doc

9th Jan 2019

U-571 (2000)

Factual error: It takes a whole of two minutes from the discovery of the boarding party and the cry "Alarm" till the first Americans even enter the command central of U-571, and another almost 90 seconds till they secure the radio room. German subs were under strict orders to destroy all secret material the instant they had reason to believe a boarding was probable. To that end, all code books were printed in water-soluble inks on water-soluble paper, and even the electrical connections inside the rotors of the enigma machine were seawater-soluble. (Admittedly the latter was more with the idea of enemies salvaging sunk boats in mind, and I have no information on how fast that decay would have happened) All it would have taken is to lift up one of the floor plates and drop the stuff into the bilge below. And yes, since German subs of the era didn't have answering machines, the radio room would be manned around the clock. For that reason, boarding actions of that sort had to be above all lightning-fast. Dramatic as the fight scene is, in reality it would have ensured that the boarding party came away empty-handed. (00:38:30 - 00:41:45)

Doc

27th Dec 2018

Hogan's Heroes (1965)

The Top Secret Top Coat - S2-E29

Factual error: In Klink's quarters, there's an (obviously fake) banana in the fruit bowl. Bananas were luxury items in Europe in the 1940s, and certainly so in war-torn Germany. The majority of Germans didn't have access to exotic fruit until the 1960s, and fake fruit of this type wasn't available then either.

Doc

27th Apr 2018

Hogan's Heroes (1965)

Rockets or Romance - S6-E24

Factual error: Frankel suggests manipulating the missile's gyroscope, and Hogan suggests an electromagnet as means to do it, which is later implemented. Gyroscopes however are not affected by any magnetic force, which is what makes a gyroscopic compass superior to a magnetic one in many situations. To enhance that effect, gyroscopes are deliberately built out of materials with as little magnetic susceptibility as possible. A large electromagnet next to the missile could potentially cause all kinds of havoc with all kinds of parts of the missile guidance and control, but the gyroscope itself would not be among them.

Doc

9th Feb 2018

Hogan's Heroes (1965)

Kommandant of the Year - S1-E3

Factual error: A sharp brass cone has been put over the spike on Klink's Pickelhaube, so Hogan can pin the page torn from the Geneva Convention onto it. The real spike of a Pickelhaube has concave slopes, and it isn't pointy enough to pin a piece of paper onto it.

Doc

16th Nov 2017

Hogan's Heroes (1965)

Show generally

Factual error: In several episodes, the fence around the cooler is visible, and hanging on it, a sign saying "Eingang verboten" meaning "no entry." The correct German term would be "Zutritt verboten." In German, "Eingang" is the opening where you enter a building, not the act of entering one.

Doc

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

Suggested correction: This is wrong. Translations all over show that the sign is not only correct, but images can be found of signs with the exact same wording in real places, with the English translation right under it.

31st Oct 2017

Hogan's Heroes (1965)

The Big Broadcast - S6-E12

Factual error: Hogan calls the radio detection truck "radar" when he orders the SS guard to switch it off. From other episodes, we know that Hogan knows what radar is, and back then, the difference between radio homing equipment and radar was even clearer to people than it is today, because radio homing was an established technology, while radar was brand new, and most people were not even aware it existed.

Doc

31st Oct 2017

Hogan's Heroes (1965)

The Big Broadcast - S6-E12

Factual error: Baker picks up a lot of static in his radio, then suddenly signs off and says "Sounds like the radio detection unit picked up our signal." Unlike radar, radio signal homing relies entirely on measuring the signals emitted by the transmitter that is tracked. It works by comparing the strength of the signal arriving at each component of an array of directional antennae. The process is completely passive and does not cause any alteration of the signal measurable at either receiver or transmitter at all, and certainly not any audible interference or humming.

Doc

30th Mar 2017

Hogan's Heroes (1965)

26th Feb 2017

Hogan's Heroes (1965)

Praise the Fuhrer and Pass the Ammunition - S2-E19

Factual error: In the ammunition dump, a sign saying "Warnung Hoche Sprenggefahr" can be seen. That is not correct German. First, and foremost, it must be "hohe" and not "hoche", the latter form does not exist. Secondly, the word "Sprenggefahr", while not formally wrong, was never used in German. Depending on what the meaning of the sign is supposed to be, it must either be "Explosionsgefahr", if the overall danger of an explosion is meant, or if the property of the ammunition of being explosive is meant, it should be "Hochexplosiv." If the general presence of explosive material is being warned of, "Explosivstoffe" or "Hochexplosives Material" would be possible.

Doc

16th Feb 2017

Hogan's Heroes (1965)

Get Fit or Go Fight - S5-E16

Factual error: In the rec hall where Klink is weightlifting, there is an advertisement poster for the Grindelwald region on the wall, which is in Switzerland. The German propaganda poured a lot of money into promoting the Reich's own recreational regions through the "Kraft durch Freude" program. With the war going badly, they especially wouldn't want a "Look how beautiful Switzerland is" poster in plain view of their troops every day.

Doc

6th Feb 2017

Passengers (2016)

Factual error: The Avalon generates its gravity by rotating, which is made evident by the fact that the elevators connecting the three helical pods are without gravity. When the passengers go spacewalking, the instant they walk out the airlock, they have to be secured by magnetic boots. When they turn them off, they become weightless. Both assertions are wrong for the same reason: If the gravity is created by centrifugal force, that force is present on all points of the ship with the strength depending on the distance to the hub of the ship, no matter whether that point is inside or outside the ship's hull. That of course includes the ledge in front of the airlock. Any surface that is oriented towards the hub of the ship is felt as "floor", surfaces radially oriented to the hub would feel like "walls", surfaces oriented away from the hub would be "ceilings." So if you step off a ledge on the outside of the ship the way the actors do, you'd be drifting away from the ship on a tangent to the ledge you stepped off, and end up hanging by your tethers. You wouldn't accelerate away from the ship like you would in a real gravity field, but you would float away with a speed equal to the acceleration simulated by the artificial gravity. The only way to become weightless would be to cancel the sideways motion imparted by the rotation of the ship. At the rotation speeds depicted in the movie, that would take at least a motorbike to do.

Doc

31st Jan 2017

Hogan's Heroes (1965)

The Swing Shift - S2-E21

Factual error: In this episode, the HofBrau (which should correctly be written "Hofbräu") is displaying a big red neon sign above its door. From 1939 on, air raid regulations throughout Germany strictly prohibited any unnecessary display of light at night. Any light visible from more than 500m away was considered a breach of air raid regulations.

Doc

31st Jan 2017

Hogan's Heroes (1965)

The Great Brinksmeyer Robbery - S2-E18

Factual error: In the restaurant in Hammelburg, where Schultz discovers Hogan and Newkirk, there's an advertisement for "Brauerei der Jager, Stadt Wien." (Wien = Vienna) Vienna and Hammelburg are more than 500km apart, and if Hammelburg were near Düsseldorf, where the series puts it, it would be more like 700km. That's a bit far away for a brewery to advertise in the pre-globalisation era.

Doc

31st Jan 2017

M*A*S*H (1972)

Radar's Report - S2-E3

Factual error: Radar claims in his report that Father Mulchahy tried to calm the prisoner by saying "bang zhao", thinking it means "peace and friendship" when it really means "your daughter's pregnancy brings much joy to our village." There is, unsurprisingly, not even a remotely similar word in Chinese that means either of those things.

Doc

6th Jan 2017

Hogan's Heroes (1965)

Hogan's Hofbrau - S1-E13

Factual error: Hogan mentions a store that offers "thirty percent off on T-shirts." T-shirts were mostly unknown in Germany during the 3rd Reich, and didn't see widespread use before the 1960s. Before that, the traditional Unterhemd, known in America as tank top or wife beater, was worn almost exclusively.

Doc

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