Quantom X

2nd Mar 2021

Common mistakes

Factual error: It's common in movies and shows, and even games sometimes, to see characters effortlessly lifting manhole covers. Usually when climbing out from them or even just walking up and lifting them with bare hands. In the case of the TMNT, where they have enhanced strength, it's a little more believable. However, in real life these lids are super heavy and usually require a crane or other heavy equipment to lift.

Quantom X

27th Feb 2020

Common mistakes

Factual error: After waking up from a coma or being knocked out for several days, people in films often get up and proceed to wander around or have a conversation before moving on. But the body continues to function during this comatose state. When someone gets up after sleeping for 3 days straight, they would immediately need to head to the bathroom to relieve themselves. That, or they would smell very horribly to others around them and need to be cleaned up if they were not already taken care of when asleep by the other people.

Quantom X

27th Feb 2020

Common mistakes

Factual error: Almost always in movies or TV, if a person dies and falls down on their back or side and have their hands visible, their fingers will be curled in the relaxed position of someone resting. A person's fingers go to this position in a living person due to natural tension in the muscles from circulation and blood flow. However, when a person dies, all their muscles in the body will fully relax with no tension. Thus when lying down dead, their fingers should actually be flat against the ground and not curled up at all.

Quantom X

7th Nov 2019

Common mistakes

Other mistake: In video games that have a night and day cycle, often times quests and especially side quests seem to be unaffected by the passing of time what so ever. Like a pressing matter of a guy running off with a valuable item, and your quest is to track him down and stop him before he leaves the city. But you can take your sweet time and have several days and longer pass in game time before you finally go to the place where you're supposed to carry out of the mission.

Quantom X

13th Nov 2018

Common mistakes

Revealing mistake: Often times in movies when people are watching footage recorded that was supposed to be from the perspective of someone else, ie. from their eyes or recording glasses, or from a camera, it is not shown correctly. Rather than actually showing the images from the first person perspective, it shows camera footage of that person or previous footage from the movie the people are in.

Quantom X

29th Oct 2018

Common mistakes

Factual error: Any time characters are underwater with no eye protection, they still always seem to have clear and perfect vision to see the world around them, other people and even small objects submerged with them. But to anybody who has ever tried opening their eyes under water, you know this isn't true. It's all a massively blurry mess where you can only make out fuzzy shapes and colors at best.

Quantom X

29th Oct 2018

Common mistakes

29th Oct 2018

Common mistakes

Factual error: Often a person on the run will scale a fence quickly and get over it with little problem. And usually this fence has coils of razor wire or barbed wire at the top, and yet they show no sign of injury. This razor wire would cut you and your clothes to shreds. That's the whole point of it.

Quantom X

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

Suggested correction: I don't agree it's common to see people jump barbed wire fences without injuries. Its more common to actually show cuts and torn clothes, as that adds drama.

lionhead

I'm referring to the countless times these are not shown.

Quantom X

The problem with "common" mistakes is that they are supposed to be easy to recall. From the top of my head I can't think of a movie scene where someone jumped over a barbed wire fence and got off without injuries. How common is it really?

lionhead

Have the same problem with the nuclear explosion one, can't think of any movie where people looked at a nuclear explosion without properly guarding their eyes.

lionhead

I can see what you mean about the barbed wire fence then. I know I've seen it in several films and even CinemaSins has pointed it out a few times... but I can't recall specific titles. As far as the atomic explosions one... The Wolverine, Dark Night Rises, Sum of all Fears, Godzilla 2014 (There's even a dumbass watching the explosion through binoculars), The Crazies, and The Divide to name a few.

Quantom X

Alright for the nuclear explosion, although in some of the movies you gave an example it's simply not true (Dark Knight Rises, Sum of All Fears and Godzilla nobody is watching the flash, Godzilla is even historical footage), it does happen often. So I'll thumb it up.

lionhead

In Dark Knight Rises, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's is standing on the bridge watching Batman fly away. He's staring out at the ocean and watches as the explosion goes off.

Quantom X

No, in the next scene you see he actually fully turned his head to cover his eyes. A group of people are seen ducking too but you don't know they can see the flash directly.

lionhead

29th Oct 2018

Common mistakes

Factual error: People often jump from great heights into bodies of water and avoid fall damage. But the surface tension of water is great enough it would be no different than hitting concrete if you're high enough up.

Quantom X

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

Suggested correction: If you jump in feet first you can survive a jump into water from a very great height without injuries.

lionhead

About the max distance you can fall into water without injury is 65 feet, even at feet first. Professional high divers even struggle to control themselves from that height without doing actions they can control like flips. An untrained individual leaping from a bridge down into water would most certainly kill them in real life.

Quantom X

To dive for up to 90 feet is an official sport, while daredevils dive from up 120 feet. And "dive" means head first. Normal people can and do jump feet first without injury, although is a coin toss. Certainly fatal bridge jumps are from very high ones (The Golden Gate is something like 250 feet).

29th Oct 2018

Common mistakes

Factual error: Wild animals are depicted to be much more violent and vicious than in reality. Truth be told, most wild animals will avoid and run from humans. Even wolf packs, snakes, and jungle cats will avoid humans out of fear.

Quantom X

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

Suggested correction: This is only a common mistake if this always happens in a situation where there is absolutely no way the animal can be aggressive. It can happen, especially with a wolf or snake, so in that movie it just happened. Not a common mistake then.

lionhead

I can see your point. I guess it's not common enough to be considered a common mistake. It is almost always depicted this way in movies with wolves... Maybe the mistake is more about them then.

Quantom X

29th Oct 2018

Common mistakes

Factual error: People are often watching or staring at the explosion of a nuclear bomb as it goes off, and witness the mushroom cloud form. In reality, the flash from this explosion would be so bright that it would cause instant, and usually permanent blindness. True Lies is a notable exception to this rule where Arnie specifically protects their eyes as the bomb goes off.

Quantom X

29th Oct 2018

Common mistakes

Deliberate mistake: In fight scenes, it's often one person against a small army. Despite having the person greatly outnumbered, the enemies proceed to attack them one at a time, allowing each to be easily dispatched. The whole point of having so many is to overwhelm your enemy... not take turns getting punched out.

Quantom X

29th Oct 2018

Common mistakes

Factual error: In almost every sci-fi feature, things like explosions, laser blasts, ships colliding, asteroids hitting, and planets exploding, can all be heard. However in reality sound can not travel though empty space. So almost all of that would really be completely silent.

Quantom X

29th Oct 2018

Common mistakes

Deliberate mistake: Where as its not as common in modern movies, the 80's and 90's movies were really bad about vehicles exploding into huge balls of fire over the littlest things. Cars would hit each other and explode. One would flip over and explode. They would hit walls and boom! Or hilarious ones like Escape from LA, a motorcycle runs into a metal barrel and explodes instantly. As if the cars were filled with nitroglycerin or something.

Quantom X

29th Oct 2018

Common mistakes

Deliberate mistake: In almost every movie with shootouts, highly trained soldiers, or experienced mercenaries or thugs suddenly get "Storm Trooper Aim" when shooting at the heroes. Even cops do this where they have clear shots of people running away from them, often times multiple of them with fully automatic weapons firing rapidly at a semi close target and somehow just hit all around them and even the ground.

Quantom X

25th Oct 2018

Common mistakes

Factual error: In movies, TV shows, cartoons, and videogames people are often depicted as standing right next to molten lava or magma. Frequently walking or fighting next to it, getting inches away or only a few feet above it. In reality the heat coming off it alone would cause people's clothes and skin to catch fire and burn their lungs just from being within like 20 feet of lava.

Quantom X

16th Oct 2018

Common mistakes

Deliberate mistake: Often in rainy scenes in movies, the crew has the rain machines set to have the rain drops far far larger than natural. Huge water drops so that they will actually be visible in the final print.

Quantom X

16th Oct 2018

Common mistakes

Character mistake: Characters will often tell other characters information they already know or overload them with far more information than they need or would even be natural to say or come up in conversation simply for the sake of exposition for the audience.

Quantom X

16th Oct 2018

Common mistakes

Factual error: If a super speed character like Superman or Quicksilver grabbed and/or suddenly stopped people, such actions would most certainly kill the people they are trying to save. Taking them zero to hundreds of miles an hour or vice versa in a split second would snap necks, break bones, slosh brains, and pull apart limbs.

Quantom X

16th Oct 2018

Common mistakes

Revealing mistake: In driving scenes, the driver of the car usually has very over exaggerated movements of his or her hands on the steering wheel. When in reality you're not moving it that noticeably except a few micro corrections every few seconds or taking turns.

Quantom X

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