Deliberate mistake: For Hans Gruber's iconic death scene, Alan Rickman's fall was filmed at high speed (for slow-motion playback) against a green screen, and the skyscraper perspective footage was added later as background. However, while Rickman falls away from the camera in slow motion, papers are fluttering around him in the background at normal speed. This was done deliberately to make the shot even more surreal.
Charles Austin Miller
7th Mar 2021
Die Hard (1988)
12th Jan 2019
Common mistakes
Deliberate mistake: Rather than gradually exploring character backgrounds as the story unfolds, characters in cheesier movies awkwardly rush to reveal whole biographies in just a couple of lines, right at the beginning of the film. Such an unlikely conversation might go like this: "I'm the luckiest girl in the world, married to the lead developer and system analyst of NASA's most ambitious interplanetary program ever"; and the husband replies, "Well, it helped that your father created the program and took a chance on me after that Wall Street computer-hacking scandal six years ago." There's no subtlety at all, it's just fast-food character development.
17th Dec 2018
Jurassic Park (1993)
Deliberate mistake: When the raptor breaks into the control room and is hopping around the computer workstations, we see sharp, distinct genetic coding projected from a computer screen and across the raptor's face (starting 1:55:50). Aside from the fact that computer displays have never projected focused images onto nearby surfaces, the projected text shown in this scene oddly reads from left-to-right, when it should actually be a flipped mirror-image (right-to-left). Spielberg probably realised this factual incongruity while filming but chose to use the left-to-right text for the sake of audience recognition, given that the multiple lines of "GATC" genetic code were already confusing enough. (01:55:50)
17th Dec 2018
Common mistakes
Deliberate mistake: Particularly in space-fantasy and science-fiction movies and television series, electronic control panels and components erupt in a shower of sparks when overloaded (as during space battles, collisions and technological failure scenes). Such furious sparking has been used in numerous futuristic films and TV shows dating from the mid-20th Century right up to the present. Of course, this sparking effect is intended to add "gee whiz" action and spectacle to otherwise mundane shots. But the implication is that advanced, futuristic technology idiotically neglects to incorporate electrical fuses or circuit breakers, which are designed to prevent equipment sparking and meltdown during power overloads. In reality, all of these control panels and electronic components should instantly and safely go dark and stop functioning as soon as the breakers are quietly tripped or the fuses are quietly blown.
21st Oct 2018
Common mistakes
Deliberate mistake: Characters who are being pursued on foot frequently hide in plain sight of their pursuers. You see characters (typically the "good guys") duck around the corner of a building, or a tree, or some other obstacle, where they freeze and glance over their shoulders to watch their oblivious pursuers (typically the "bad guys") wander past just a few feet in the background. Nevermind the fact that the good guy's body is only partially concealed by said obstacle, or not concealed at all. This is an old film-making trick intended to heighten audience tension, even though it is totally illogical.
12th Aug 2018
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)
Deliberate mistake: Baron Munchausen sends his courier, Berthold, on a one-hour errand to procure a bottle of the finest Tokay from the imperial wine cellars in Vienna. Berthold returns with the bottle within the hour and (in one continuous wide shot) hands the bottle to Baron Munchausen, who then hands it to the Sultan, who effortlessly plucks the cork from the bottle with his fingertips and pours a glass for himself. But there is no way the Sultan could simply pluck out the cork with his fingertips in one move; this extremely valuable bottle of wine is visibly sealed (in every shot) with a thick, air-tight red wax. This wax must first be cut and peeled away to access the deeply-embedded cork, and the cork must then be removed with a wine key (corkscrew). The action of properly opening the bottle would have required more time than the entire scene itself; so, to expedite the flow of the shot, director Terry Gilliam deliberately chose to forego a proper uncorking.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: You're ignoring the fact that the entire scene is a story the real Munchausen is telling from memory. There are many fantastic elements that do not hold with reality, like him riding his horse out of the window, falling several stories, and landing safety, or Adolphus being able to see and shoot to the other side of the world. The bottle is simply an example of Munchausen not adhering to reality.
In any event, the Sultan's effortless uncorking of the bottle was a deliberate mistake intended to allow a whole series of actions to occur sequentially in the single wide shot in less than 5 seconds.
Yet, at the end, Sally addresses Baron Munchausen directly and asks him the question that the audience has been wondering throughout the whole movie: "It wasn't just a story, was it?" The Baron solemnly shakes his head, affirming that he was telling the truth all along, regardless of how fantastic it sounded. This point is often missed by the movie's critics.
The point I raised wasn't that the Baron's story wasn't true, but rather that he embellished it.
13th Jul 2018
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Deliberate mistake: Blofeld doesn't recognize James Bond in this film, even though they met face-to-face in the previous movie, "You Only Live Twice." There is a production-related reason for this. Ian Fleming wrote "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in 1963 (in which Bond and Blofeld met for the first time), and he wrote "You Only Live Twice" in 1964. However, "You Only Live Twice" was adapted for film first (in 1967), and "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was adapted afterward (in 1969). Because the 1969 film was so faithful to its source material, Blofeld and Bond are basically meeting for the first time... again. The producers were aware of this continuity problem and intended to have James Bond undergo plastic surgery for "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (which would conveniently explain Blofeld not recognizing him, as well as the fact that Sean Connery had been replaced by George Lazenby in the lead role). But the plastic surgery idea was discarded in faithfulness to the novel, resulting in a glaring continuity problem between the 1967 and 1969 films.
4th Apr 2018
The Angry Red Planet (1959)
Deliberate mistake: For all exterior shots on the surface of Mars, the crew's "pressurized" space helmets have no face-plates (their faces are fully exposed to the hostile Martian environment). The transparent face-plates they intended to use reflected far too much studio set lighting, such that the glare would have obscured the actors' faces. On a $200,000 budget and a 10-day production deadline, they simply scrapped the face-plates and shot the scenes with wide-open helmets.
25th Mar 2018
Star Trek (1966)
Deliberate mistake: At the very end, the Talosians send a final visual transmission of Vina and Christopher Pike, now whole and happy and reunited after 13 years, holding hands as they enter the Talosian elevator in the hillside. However, in this last shot, the elevator is still half-disintegrated, exactly as it was 13 years earlier when the Enterprise crew destroyed the hillside with a laser cannon. Within the context of "The Menagerie" storyline, this suggests that the Talosians never attempted to repair the elevator for 13 years (even though they continued using it). This incongruity is due to Gene Roddenberry cannibalizing his Star Trek pilot "The Cage," which contained zero footage of Jeffrey Hunter and Susan Oliver entering the intact elevator together (only the destroyed elevator). So, Roddenberry deliberately tried to "slip one by" the audience in this brief shot.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: There are reasons why the elevator would appear damaged. As the Talosians were in control of everything shown on the ship's viewer, the entire scene could be an illusion, or at least the elevator's condition may have been, with the Talosians choosing to allow the viewers to see the elevator in the same condition they last saw it. Just as likely, however, is that the Talosians truly never did reconstruct the elevator, as the whole point of their having a menagerie of other beings was an attempt to breed a race that could physically serve them, for their concentration on their mental powers had led to a complete inability and unwillingness to perform physical tasks (like repairing an elevator).
Still, as long as the Talosians are creating the illusion of Christopher Pike and Vina in their "restored" bodies, why not create an illusion of the elevator and hillside restored, as well? One big illusion of restoration, rather than a composite of dismal reality and happy-ending illusion? Again, to the point of my original post, the obvious incongruity is due to Roddenberry using the only happy-ending footage he possessed, that of Pike and Vina entering the half-obliterated elevator as they did at the end of "The Cage." Certainly, if Roddenberry only had the foresight to shoot Jeffrey Hunter and Susan Oliver entering the intact elevator, he would have used that footage instead. Any attempt to explain away the 13-year incongruity is mere wishful thinking.
This would qualify as a question, not a mistake. It is entirely plausible that the Talosians wouldn't bother to repair the elevator. It's also possible, as the previous correction points out, that the entire scene is an illusion. Remember, Captain Kirk sees Vina and Pike together on the planet literally moments after Spock wheels Pike out of the room. It's unlikely Pike had already been beamed down.
20th Feb 2018
High Anxiety (1977)
Deliberate mistake: After the hotel murder, Brophy makes a series of photographic enlargements to prove Dr. Thorndyke's innocence. However, instead of holding his magnifying glass directly in front of his face as he examines the photos, Brophy angles the magnifying glass far to his right so the movie audience can see the magnifying glass details, but he can't possibly see anything.
6th Sep 2017
Auto Focus (2002)
Deliberate mistake: Although much of Auto Focus revolves around the 1960s hit television series "Hogan's Heroes," the producers of this independent film could not work out a licensing agreement with CBS regarding the famous "Hogan's Heroes" theme music. As a result, the familiar "Hogan's Heroes" theme music is entirely absent from Auto Focus, replaced with contrived theme music that isn't even remotely similar to the original.
13th Jul 2017
Wrecker (2015)
Deliberate mistake: The wrecker used in this film is a Western Star Model 4964. The manufacturer emblem (a chrome 5-point star superimposed on a large "W") is normally displayed at the top-center of the truck's radiator. Apparently, the film makers could not bring Western Star on board for an advertising agreement, or Western Star specifically objected to their logo appearing in the movie, because the Western Star emblem on the wrecker's radiator is carefully kept out of frame or otherwise obstructed from view throughout the film. For scenes in which a full frontal shot of the wrecker is unavoidable, the Western Star emblem is very deliberately covered up with dark green tape.
12th Feb 2016
The Hollow (2004)
Deliberate mistake: When Brody confronts and then flees from the Headless Horseman, the horses never break into full gallop (it's little more than a stiff-legged canter), which is odd for a life-and-death chase with the bloodthirsty Headless Horseman in murderous pursuit. This was probably done on purpose, for safety reasons, since the actor playing Brody was performing his own stunt riding at night. To cinch the illusion of a real chase, audio was added of a 4-beat gallop.
18th Jan 2016
Ash vs Evil Dead (2015)
Deliberate mistake: Inside the home that has been infested with Evil, the state police confront a possessed girl who attacks them. After some futile gunfire, the possessed girl is still standing. The female officer goes for her backup gun, which for some reason is a small over-and-under Derringer (meaning she has two shots maximum). She ends up firing the Derringer five times in just a few seconds, with explosive damage and without reloading. Director Sam Raimi probably staged the 5 gunshots on purpose, knowing that a two-round Derringer was a ridiculously-limited piece of firepower. Raimi probably did this as a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Ash's bottomless double-barrelled shotgun from Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness.
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