Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In reality, Adolf Hitler ordered his commanders and troops to stand down and allow Allied forces to escape at Dunkirk. The German General von Blumentritt is quoted as saying "He (Hitler) then astonished us by speaking with admiration of the British Empire, of the necessity for its existence, and of the civilisation that Britain had brought into the world...He said that all he wanted from Britain was that she should acknowledge Germany's position on the Continent." But the exact reason for the order remains unknown.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In the Watchmen timeline, Rorschach's polymorphic head mask was supposed to be a commercialized offshoot of Dr. Manhattan technology. It was a double-layered, temperature-sensitive fabric that changed patterns in response to fluctuating body heat, and it was originally intended to be marketed in the garment industry. That is where Walter Kovac (Rorschach) discovered the fabric, when he worked for a dressmaker in his youth. He privately used samples of the fabric to create his own head mask. Unfortunately, the novelty fabric was a commercial failure in the Watchmen timeline, which is why we don't see it used anywhere else in the Watchmen film.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: During the flashback to 1712, Connor and Duncan fight it out with highwaymen who are collecting fake tolls from travelers. Throughout this scene, Duncan McLeod's five-o-clock shadow starts out dark, becoming lighter, then darker, and then almost clean-shaven from shot-to-shot as the fight progresses. This continuity problem persists, to a lesser extent, throughout the film.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: During the real Deepwater Horizon oil spill, actor Kevin Costner offered his services, claiming that a small company he bought from the U.S. Department of Energy could clean up 90% of the oil in a week, using poorly-tested technology. His offer was accepted, despite zero evidence that the technology ever worked; and it failed miserably, of course.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Given that Clint Eastwood has composed much of the music for his films over the last 25 years, it's not surprising that the soundtracks of "Hereafter" and "Unforgiven" are incredibly similar, if not interchangeable.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: At the very beginning, "Hereafter" makes the same factual mistake as was made in "2012" and "San Andreas": Crystal-clear tsunami flood waters. Of course, tsunami floods are always inky-black, filled with churned-up silt, sediment and debris.

Charles Austin Miller

Stupidity: In the scene with the water-jug puzzle, both Zeus Carver and John McClane initially suspect that the small carrying case contains a bomb. McClane goes ahead and opens the case, which confirms that it is a bomb (the electronic readout in the case even says: "I AM A BOMB. YOU HAVE JUST ARMED ME"). If they suspected it was a bomb in the first place, why didn't Carver and McClane immediately try to warn the dozens of pedestrians all around them to evacuate the area before McClane opened it? That would be a seasoned police officer's first instinct. Instead, McClane and Carver banter and bicker and never attempt to warn the public, even as the timer is ticking down.

Charles Austin Miller

When did purely percussive movie and television soundtracks become popular? What landmark movie or TV soundtrack set this percussive precedent?

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: We see Vic outside the halfway house, just starting to chop a 4-foot log with a double-bit axe. In the same scene a few moments later, as Joey approaches, Vic has chopped about a third of the way through the log. Problem is, it's a completely different log (different shape, texture and color).

Charles Austin Miller

Question: The largest sandstorms ever recorded are less than a mile high (reaching only about 5000 feet in altitude). Isn't 5000 feet considered low altitude for a Fairchild C-119G "Flying Boxcar," which could easily climb over such a storm in a matter of minutes?

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: After Charlie Sheen performed brilliantly in such highly-acclaimed Oliver Stone films as "Platoon" and "Wall Street," film maker Stone had a face-to-face meeting with Sheen to discuss him starring in "Born on the Fourth of July." Charlie Sheen came away from the meeting confident that the lead role belonged to him. However, after several weeks, Charlie Sheen was stunned and infuriated to learn (from his brother, Emilio Estevez) that Oliver Stone had chosen Tom Cruise for the lead role. Stone never even bothered to call Sheen with the news.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Prince Nuada defies his father, he kills every royal guardsman in a matter of seconds. There are only two guards left, and he kills them, also, before he kills his father. As Nuada kills his father, we see Mr. Wink in the background, fighting a very-much-alive royal guardsman.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: When Robert Neville is driving golf balls off the deck of the ship, he sees a deer on the mainland. He and his dog go in pursuit. In a wide, distant shot, we see the deer fleeing full-tilt down a city street, with Robert Neville pursuing at the same speed as the deer, only about 10 yards behind the animal. Impossible. A panicked deer can run over twice as fast as the fastest human being.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: In the final scene on the rooftop helipad, Mark Wahlberg raises his semi-auto handgun and shoots Beau Bridges once, straight through the heart. Bridges is dead before he hits the ground: His knees buckle and he falls face-down, with both arms hanging limp at his sides. The camera cuts to a close-up of Bridges face-down on the helipad, but now his left arm is raised with his hand directly in front of his face. That would only be possible if he fell with his left arm raised after he was shot.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Writer/director Adam MacDonald boasted that he studied black bear predatory behavior and black bear attacks on humans for years in preparation for making this film, because he wanted to depict a black bear attack in as factual and as authentic a manner as possible. But, at the most crucial point in this film (when the black bear actually does attack Alex and Jenn), factual accuracy goes out the window. As Alex and Jenn cower in terror, the bear lunges into their tent and bites into Alex's leg; whereupon, Jenn fires a can of bear spray (a stifling pepper-based chemical) point-blank into the animal's face. The startled bear retreats for a moment, but then lunges into the tent again, dragging Alex outside and killing him; thereafter, the bear continues pursuing Jenn for the remainder of the film. However, according to years of extensive study by the University of Calgary, no bear has ever attacked a human after the animal was sprayed with bear spray, much less resumed an attack, as depicted in this film. To date, the success rate of defensive bear spray is 100%. So, the factual accuracy of "Backcountry" was abandoned for the sake of cheap thrills.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: Near the end, when the little league ball field is under construction, mob hit men suddenly appear and Vinnie dives for cover behind a stack of pallets; as soon as Vinnie dives for cover, he almost instantly stands up behind the pallets and opens fire. Of course, Vinnie is played by two people in this shot: A stuntman (who dives) and Steve Martin (who stands up). Watch the right side of the screen, and you will see the shadow of Steve Martin crouched and hiding behind the pallets while the stuntman makes his dive for cover. As the stuntman dives out of sight, you then see Steve Martin's crouched shadow stand straight up.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Near the end, Ethan Hunt and Sean Ambrose engage in a high-speed motorcycle chase that culminates with them crashing their motorcycles head-on. Just before the crash, both men leap off their bikes and their bodies collide in mid-air above the crash. However, if Hunt and Ambrose were racing towards each other at 40 mph (a conservative estimate), then the combined force of their bodies colliding would be equivalent to an 80 mph impact, which would pulverize their skeletons and kill both men instantly.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: At the very end of the scene in which Walter and the Dude are spreading Donnie's ashes at the coast, a dark and unidentifiable figure appears for a few seconds in the upper right screen, apparently hiking a trail along the cliff. Was this an accidental walk-on by an actual hiker, or was it written into the script? With all the star-power in this film, I thought every bit of background action was supposed to be meticulously crafted.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: While rumors of many deaths and strange events surrounding The Exorcist's production were largely fabricated and/or sensationalized for publicity purposes, two of the film's actors did in fact die before the movie was released. The character of Burke Dennings was killed in the film, and the actor who played him, Jack MacGowran, died of influenza shortly after completing his role. Likewise, the character of Mary Karras (elderly mother of Fr. Damien Karras) died in the film, and the actress who portrayed her, Vasiliki Maliaros, also died of natural causes shortly after completing her role.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Actress Eileen Dietz doubled for Linda Blair in many of the film's possession sequences, including the infamous projectile-vomiting scene. Dietz, however, received no screen credit for her work, and she later unsuccessfully sued Warner Brothers and the film makers for puking credits.

Charles Austin Miller