Grumpy Scot

Trio - S4-E16

Factual error: When Sam breaks her leg, Dr. Keller discusses with McKay the possibility of internal bleeding, then returns to splint her leg and offer her some ibuprofen for pain. A doctor concerned about internal bleeding would never offer a patient ibuprofen, as it inhibits blood clotting.

Grumpy Scot

5th Feb 2008

Stargate SG-1 (1997)

Show generally

Factual error: Before SG-1 switched to P90 PDW's, they carried MP5 submachine guns. They were often shown with a full magazine taped upside down to the one in the weapon, so that to reload, all they have to do is remove the magazine, turn it over and insert the full one. Team members were also shown doing just that in several fight scenes. Problem is, real special ops troops are specifically taught in training never to do this. It's far too easy to damage the lips on the spare magazine, rendering it useless. There are clips that will hold magazines upright side by side, but its easy to see on screen they weren't using them.

Grumpy Scot

31st Jan 2008

The Day After (1983)

Factual error: SAC's airborne command post is shown in several scenes. Problem is, while there is such an aircraft, it is not a KC-135 Stratotanker, which is what is shown.

Grumpy Scot

Factual error: According to "The Doomsday Machine", full impulse drive is one-quarter the speed of light. In the first two movies, Enterprise used thrusters as opposed to impulse drive to leave Spacedock, confirming the notion that impulse drive is far too fast to leave such a (comparatively) small structure. Styles, however, orders Excelsior to one-quarter impulse, which is 18,750 km/s. In one second, she will travel half again Earth's diameter. From the time he gives the order to the time we see Excelsior clear spacedock's doors is approximately 40 seconds. Even allowing 30 seconds to go from rest to one quarter impulse, spacedock must be 13-15 times bigger than Earth! That's some serious engineering. (00:23:45)

Grumpy Scot

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

Suggested correction: I reckon the writers always refer to levels of "impulse power" precisely so they don't have to worry too much about particular speeds (personally I always thought of it as roughly analogous to gears on a vehicle, but your mileage may vary). They use impulse to leave dock in both Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (it's implied to be unusual in both cases, for what it's worth). If all of that contradicts an earlier episode, I think we're looking at more of a retcon situation than a mistake.

TonyPH

Suggested correction: The warp scale has been adjusted several times, so it is impossible to say precisely how fast this fictional technology is, and by extension, how fast impulse is.

Impulse drive speed on starships have been consistent. Although sometimes quarter impulse on a shuttle refers to quarter power and not speed. Even if the speed of quarter impulse is 10 times slower than suggested (and used in the series), spacedock would still be 1.3-1.5 times bigger than Earth, which it wasn't. "It's fictional technology" is usually only a valid correction if the technology isn't explained in-universe. However, when certain parameters regarding fictional technology are established (even if they set wide parameters such as warp speed velocities) violations or contradictions (through bad script writing or whatnot) are valid mistakes.

Bishop73

Factual error: During this game, your mech is carried around from world to world by a Titan class DropShip. Titans are strictly aerospace fighter carriers.

Grumpy Scot

8th May 2007

Gotcha! (1985)

Factual error: The KGB agent hunting Jonathan is carrying a Spanish Campo-Giro pistol. There's no way a KGB agent would carry a foreign sidearm in a Soviet Bloc country, especially one that was phased out of service in the late 1920's.

Grumpy Scot

22nd Jul 2006

The Stand

Factual error: In Chapter 68, Trashcan Man finds a BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) in a guard booth outside a nuclear storage facility in mid 1990. The BAR was phased out of US military service in the mid 1950's.

Grumpy Scot

29th Nov 2005

In The Army Now (1994)

Factual error: Bones calls the Drill Sergeant "Ma'am" or "Sir" several times and she never does anything. Anyone who has been through Army Basic Training can tell you, a Drill Sergeant will NEVER let "Sir" or "Ma'am" pass without comment. And this is not a character mistake, It would be like calling a Senator "Governor" or a Catholic preacher "Rabbi" and having them ignore it.

Grumpy Scot

16th Nov 2005

The Thing (1982)

Factual error: In the kennel scene, MacReady fires at least 7 shots from a pump shotgun. That particular shotgun can only hold 5.

Grumpy Scot

Factual error: Proteus refills its air supply in the lungs. The lungs are filled with normal sized oxygen molecules. How are they supposed to breathe them? (In the book, they had a miniaturizer on the sub, but there is nothing in the movie to explain this.)

Grumpy Scot

25th Aug 2005

Spawn (1997)

Factual error: In the scene where Priest fires at Spawn from the balcony, a magazine can be seen sticking out of the bottom of Spawn's P90. This reveals it is a fake P90 shell on an Ingram Model 10. The P90 has a clear magazine that sits on the top of the weapon.

Grumpy Scot

Show generally

Factual error: Anytime a character fires a missile at an airborne target, it's invariably from an M136 antitank launcher. The M136 is designed to hit relatively slow moving ground vehicles and is useless against fast moving airborne targets. (This is because used M136 tubes can't be reloaded and are very cheap to use as props).

Grumpy Scot

9th Jul 2005

Down Periscope (1996)

Factual error: In the final chase, Orlando surfaces to chase Stingray. WWII subs are considerably faster on the surface, but modern Los Angeles class subs are designed to spend 99% of the time underwater. Orlando must travel slower on the surface as her aft rudders are out of the water, decreasing her stability. On the surface, the greater the speed, the more difficult she is to steer. Her speed and handling on the surface would be greatly reduced. There's no way she would have surfaced to chase Stingray, as it would actually make it more difficult to catch her.

Grumpy Scot

Factual error: When any character's automatic pistol runs out of bullets, the slide doesn't lock open. All the weapons shown are of a type which should.

Grumpy Scot

Factual error: The SAM that shoots the heroes down is absurd. While AGM's can look for their targets on the ground, a SAM will not turn around repeatedly once it has passed its target.

Grumpy Scot

Factual error: We see the nuclear weapon used to destroy the planet Psychlo pulled out of a cruise missile. A warhead cannot be yanked out of the missile and detonated without the fissionable material being removed and built into an entirely new device. This a safeguard to keep them from being pulled out and used in exactly this way.

Grumpy Scot

Factual error: Carver's ship would not be even close to stealthy. Every angle and crevice on it, while cool looking, would be a beacon for radar. Nothing stands out on radar more than a right angle. A picture of the real stealth ship can be found here. http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/sea_shadow.htm.

Grumpy Scot

29th Jul 2003

Waterworld (1995)

Factual error: Regardless of the type of event that caused the ice caps to melt, Waterworld, as shown, is impossible because: A. Scientists have measured that if all landlocked ice (Antarctica, Greenland, and the like) melted, the worldwide water level would not rise by anywhere near enough to cover the whole world in water. B. The melting of the North Pole ice cap would have no effect at all on the worldwide water level because that ice cap is already floating in the water (try putting an ice cube in a glass of water and letting it melt. The water level won't change). C. Unless the event that caused the ice to melt also altered the earth's tilt, the poles would still be cold and would refreeze, lowering the water level.

Grumpy Scot

29th Jul 2003

Heathers (1988)

31st May 2003

U-571 (2000)

Factual error: The yard set has a red and white stop sign. Stop signs during WWII were yellow with black letters. (00:12:30)

Grumpy Scot

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