johnrosa

13th Jun 2010

Runaway Train (1985)

Factual error: During the collision with the freight train, a long shot shows the right side of the runaway passing as debris rains down on and around it. As the third locomotive passes, a 'truck' (the 4-wheel carriage that the freight cars ride on) bounces off the top, then bounces off the cab of the fourth locomotive. And never causes any damage to either locomotive! The first hit should have mangled, even torn off some of the bodywork covering the engine of the 3rd loco, and the second hit should have torn open the cab of the 4th. It hits that cab exactly where Manny is sitting, so he would have been killed. Of course, this footage is of scale models, so they didn't sustain damage the way the real locos would have. (00:48:15)

johnrosa

16th Jan 2010

Patton (1970)

Factual error: During the early portions of the film, General Bradley's Jeep is a proper WWII Willys Jeep Model MB (wipers on top of windshield), but the second Jeep that follows Bradley's is a 1950-1952 Model M38 (wipers below windshield) which won't exist until five years after WWII ends. (00:10:00)

johnrosa

25th Nov 2009

2010 (1984)

Factual error: The filmmakers here forgot how a centrifuge works to mimic the effects of gravity. It is centripetal force wherein an object is pulled away from the center of rotation (you feel its effect on a merry-go-round when it spins really fast and you are tossed off by the centripetal forces). No gravity is actually created. So when the two astronauts are walking along the outside of Discovery and Curnow announces he is getting heavier, it is impossible. First, he's not within Discovery (and if he were, the force would pull him toward the ends of the ship - correctly depicted later when the men are shown walking on the inside of the pod bay doors). The area they are walking on is dropping away from their feet. Both men should be motionless in space as the ship falls away 'below' their feet, then rotates around and kills them when it clobbers their heads half a rotation later. (00:47:50)

johnrosa

23rd Nov 2009

2010 (1984)

Factual error: While the Leonov has a centrifugal section to simulate gravity, the ship's bridge is not part of it (evidenced by the stationary views outside its portholes). Yet in various scenes, including the one when Floyd rushes in to discuss his plan to return to Earth sooner with Tanya, gravity seems quite evident. Floyd marches across the compartment onto the raised pilot area's floor, then steps down from it, his foot landing audibly. Tanya's open jacket also hangs down normally as she moves about. Yet when Floyd demonstrates his plan using two pens, they float in mid air. (01:26:50)

johnrosa

23rd Nov 2009

2010 (1984)

Factual error: In the vast majority of cases, U.S. Astronauts wear the US flag on their left arm. On the rare occasion the flag is on their right arm, the flag is reversed so that the blue field remains toward the front of the person wearing it. The patch on Dr. Chandra's space suit during the launch countdown to leave Jupiter is on his right sleeve but is a left-sleeve patch. (01:37:00)

johnrosa

27th Sep 2009

FlashForward (2009)

Show generally

Factual error: During the chase scene near the start of the episode, the Cadillac Escalade collides with a small white Ford pickup truck head-on, sending the pickup sailing into the air, and crashing down, rolling onto its roof. The Escalade has absolutely no damage from this impact - literally not even a scratch. Clearly this is an impossible result. The front of the body would be heavily damaged and the airbags would have been activated at the high rate of speed.

johnrosa

23rd Sep 2009

Fast & Furious (2009)

Factual error: When Dom emerges from the tunnel driving F-Bomb, he downshifts and presumably hits the throttle, causing the car's front end to lift. The car is on dirt and wearing street tires. It's not physically possible for the car to get the traction required to transfer whatever amount of horsepower we're expected to believe the car has to the ground, so that the front will lift. The only reaction the car would have had was to spin the rear tires wildly, kicking up more dirt and likely causing the car to swerve 'furiously'. (01:35:30)

johnrosa

Factual error: When Nick leaves from his home in New Jersey to play a gig with his band in New York City, an exterior shot shows his car traveling on the multi-lane ramp that serves the Lincoln Tunnel. On this ramp, vehicles must be heading into the tunnel toward NYC, or exiting the tunnel from NYC. Nick's car is shown arriving from NYC into New Jersey- the wrong direction.

johnrosa

4th Apr 2009

Flash of Genius (2008)

Factual error: The wheels on Gil's Camaro are modern custom wheels that did not exist in 1965 when the events took place. (00:24:10)

johnrosa

4th Apr 2009

Flash of Genius (2008)

Factual error: The film depicts Kearns successfully demonstrating his invention to Ford engineers using a Lincoln Mark III, a model that debuted in late 1967 as a 1968 model. In reality, he demonstrated the wipers, was hired by Ford and then let go after six years. By 1971, he'd moved to Maryland. Simple math shows he was hired around 1965 - two years before the car he demonstrated with was built. Worse yet, his partner Gil was depicted driving a 1969 Camaro that same day. (00:20:00)

johnrosa

17th Mar 2009

Hancock (2008)

Factual error: In the opening chase, Hancock arrives, promptly destroying highway signage that breaks up and collapses. At left on the screen, a large portion of this debris lands on the trunk of a police car, which then defies physics by having its front end (the heavier end) simply rise up off the ground. The car reaches a 45-degree angle, then the rear end leaves the ground as well as the nose lowers again, and the car is momentarily airborne. Nothing falls in front of the car to form a ramp that would send the car upward. The debris would have merely crushed the back of the car and perhaps brought it to an abrupt halt. No lever/fulcrum action would occur as the suspension would collapse first. Nothing like what we see is remotely possible. (00:03:20)

johnrosa

17th Mar 2009

The Dark Knight (2008)

Factual error: Despite the stunt looking really cool, the flipping of the tractor trailer simply would not have occurred as shown. Assuming Batman does exactly what we see regarding the cable, the truck would have just torn the cable out of the asphalt along with the lamp posts, barely being slowed by them. Ignoring this, if the cable's anchor held firm, the cable would more likely break. Failing that, the truck would simply, abruptly stop. But in no case is it capable of generating the force required to make the trailer rise up and turn with the entire rig over its own front end. Further, the tractor and trailer are not a single, rigid piece as shown. The two pieces would form a "V" while in the flip due to the trailer lagging behind the tractor as it rotates over. Once bent, the hitch would fail and the trailer would drop back on its wheels.

johnrosa

4th Mar 2009

Milk (2008)

Factual error: When Harvey sets up his very obvious "SOAP box" and gives his first speech, modern vehicles can be seen parked along the curb behind him, most obviously the small US Postal van and UPS truck. A little later, a 2000s era black SUV is at the curb when Harvey steps out of his camera shop.

johnrosa

23rd Oct 2008

The West Wing (1999)

The Drop In - S2-E12

Factual error: Leo asks how long it will be before the missile system being tested will hit the target, and is told "two minutes, ten seconds". He decides the President should see it, and leaves to fetch him. But doing so results in them both arriving back In the Room exactly 3 minutes later. 7 seconds after that, they are told there are still 50 seconds to impact (but it should have occurred 57 seconds ago). After the 50 seconds pass, Leo states the impact will occur in 20 more seconds, and the moment of expected impact does pass at that time. In all, 4 minutes, 16 seconds pass from when "2 minutes, 10 seconds" to impact was announced. (00:01:30)

johnrosa

16th Aug 2008

Batman Begins (2005)

Factual error: The bat signal at the end of the film defies physics. The spotlight is a few feet across and is projecting the signal onto clouds far above. To do this, the light beam should get wider as it climbs up (like a flashlight's beam aimed at the ceiling). Yet the shot of the clouds shows rays of light getting wider as they go downward, like sun rays through the clouds. For this to exist, there's either a bat signal floating far above and through the clouds, or the one on the roof needs to be several miles wide, focusing a beam that narrows as it climbs. (02:09:15)

johnrosa

28th Jul 2008

The Big Hit (1998)

Factual error: When the hitmen shoot out the windshield of the yellow Firebird, it shatters into pieces and falls apart. All DOT windshields have a plastic coating on both sides of the glass so that it remains one big sheet, regardless of the many pieces the glass in-between shatters into. No US windshield in the last 40 years is tempered - they are all coated. Side and back glass are tempered. As for objects poking holes and other "possibilities", watch the film before suggesting things that do not occur in this specific crash.

johnrosa

Factual error: Cameron tries to stop Ferris from borrowing his father's red sports car, explaining that it's an extremely rare and valuable '61 Ferrari 250 GT California. But the car itself is not a real Ferrari. It was manufactured by Modena Design and Development of El Cajon, California, and is a "Modena GT250" which strongly resembles the 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder. Since the film makers were throwing the car out of a window, using a real Ferrari was 'cost-prohibitive'. Comparing the real Ferrari to the Modena, differences include the Modena's sharper body crease above the grille, the more steeply angled headlamp covers, higher-mounted emblem and counter-sunk hood scoop.

johnrosa

3rd Jul 2008

Thr3e (2006)

Factual error: At the start of the movie, Peters attempts to save her brother from a car bomb. He is bound in the driver seat, and on the steering wheel is at least 5 sticks of dynamite and a digital timer. Just before it explodes, Peters is reaching into the car, grabbing for her brother, and her face is at the open window. The screen goes white as the blast occurs. We next see Peters five months later, wearing bandages on her hands. Five sticks of TNT exploding within 24 inches of one's face will disassemble you, your brother, his car and a significant amount of ancillary scenery. You don't go to work five months later and you don't have hands to wear bandages.

johnrosa

20th Jun 2008

Rambo (2008)

Factual error: An unexploded British 'Tallboy' bomb from World War II is found in the jungles of Burma. First, no Tallboy bomb was ever dropped in Burma. Further, the purpose of the Tallboy is to quake the earth to shake concrete buildings down, so dropping one in Burma's jungle would be pointless. Lastly, if a Tallboy had indeed been dropped, it falls at great speed and is hardened to penetrate concrete structures, embed itself below them, then detonate. It would have been underground, not tangled in branches above ground as if made of balsa wood, for Rambo to easily find.

johnrosa

20th Jun 2008

American Gangster (2007)

Factual error: As Crowe follows the man with the money bag, they cross a street and we see a white Dodge van of mid-1990s vintage parked at the curb. Note the wrap-around tail lights and the high-mounted center brake light above the rear window - a feature not on vans until after 1990. (01:01:45)

johnrosa

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.