Charles Austin Miller

6th Apr 2017

Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Stupidity: Early in the film, Peter Parker desperately wants to see Mary Jane's performance, but he is turned away at the theatre doors because he is a few minutes late. Defeated, Peter shuffles away and sulks. Seriously? Why couldn't Peter simply enter the theatre through a side door or the roof? He's Spider Man.

Charles Austin Miller

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

Suggested correction: There's two things to consider here. First, a major theme of the film is Peter struggling with keeping his Spider-Man and Peter Parker lives separate. Peter makes every attempt to get to the show on his own, as Peter by riding on his scooter. Simply breaking into the theater after he has been turned away would ruin the idea that keeping his two lives separate is a struggle. It would instead imply the opposite, that Peter can simply use his powers to solve his problems whenever it's convenient. Secondly, the usher makes it clear that no-one is to be admitted after the show has started as this would disturb the guests and possibly the performers as well. Sneaking into the theater could very well ruin the performance and Peter obviously wouldn't want that.

BaconIsMyBFF

If there's one thing we know about Spider-Man, it's that he is incredibly stealthy, often coming and going without any detection whatsoever. He could have easily accessed the building and watched the show from a secluded vantage and even met Mary Jane backstage afterwards. Certainly in this case, using his powers would be justified, given that it was more important for Mary Jane to know Peter attended the show, rather than simply giving up.

Charles Austin Miller

He doesn't want to do any of that, though. He wants to go to the show as Peter, with a ticket, sit in a seat with the rest of the people, enjoy the show, and see Mary Jane afterwards. He stops the car chase as Spider-Man after his scooter is wrecked and instead of web-swinging to the theater, which would have been much faster, he chooses to change back into his regular clothes and drive the criminal's car. Sure, he certainly could have used his powers to get into the theater but the point is he doesn't want to. The fact that he chooses not to use his powers and instead deal with the consequences of hurting Mary Jane's feelings is the entire point.

BaconIsMyBFF

And besides he'd probably get kicked out of the theater if he was caught.

6th Apr 2017

Steel (1997)

Character mistake: When John Henry Irons is arrested, two police officers lay him face-down in order to zip-tie his wrists behind his back. A close-up of Irons' hands, however, reveals that the zip-tie only wraps around his right wrist while crossing about mid-way on his left thumb, meaning that he could easily remove his left hand from the restraint with very little effort. Arresting police officers would never make this mistake in real life.

Charles Austin Miller

30th Jan 2017

The Haunting (1999)

Revealing mistake: When Luke tries to ram the gate with his car, a huge piece of spear-point wrought iron falls and impacts the roof of his vehicle. As the others rush to rescue Luke from the car, we can see the wrought-iron spear points flexing and bending, because they are made of rubber.

Charles Austin Miller

30th Jan 2017

Drag Me To Hell (2009)

Continuity mistake: Petite Christine Brown goes to the cemetery and spends hours digging up the grave of Sylvia Ganush in a pouring rainstorm. In spite of the rain, the 6-foot-deep grave is completely open and the soil is still dry and loose when Christine reaches the bottom. As soon as she reaches the bottom, however, the grave suddenly fills up with over a thousand gallons of water in about 45 seconds.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Harry is narrating a letter to Padfoot, he sees a Thestral flying in the far distance, and it disappears behind a mountain. He hikes (presumably) all the way to where he thinks the Thestral went, and he finds Luna Lovegood in a clearing with a few Thestrals. For one thing, the Thestral that disappeared behind the mountain was MILES away, and it would have taken Harry a couple of hours, at least, to hike that distance through mountainous terrain. But, when he arrives at the clearing with the Thestrals, the daylight hasn't changed at all (should have been noticeably different lighting). Once he arrives there, he sees that even the largest Thestral is no bigger than a horse. But, when he first saw the Thestral disappear behind the mountain, at that distance the Thestral was about the size of a commercial jet airliner.

Charles Austin Miller

30th Jan 2017

The Eye (2008)

Stupidity: Near the end, Sydney Wells and Paul Faulkner try to rescue a little 10-year-old girl who is trapped in the recreational vehicle. Sydney is banging on the door from the outside while the little girl is banging on the door from the inside. Paul then smashes out the door window, reaches inside and easily releases the door latch in one move. So, a 10-year-old girl was "trapped" because she couldn't simply open a door latch? Stupid.

Charles Austin Miller

30th Jan 2017

On the Beach (1959)

Trivia: When Moira and Bill Davidson are strolling in the pasture, they pause to admire a beautiful mare that is posing for them, and Bill offers the horse something to eat from the palm of his hand (sugar cubes or some other treat, presumably, but it's not visible). However, the horse does not react to the treat nor eat anything that Bill offers, because the actor's hand was actually empty. The trained horse was obeying cues from her trainer, off-camera, and only her trainer carried the real treats.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Near the end, in the "Leap of Faith" scene, Jones steps off the edge of the abyss and discovers an ingeniously-camouflaged stone bridge. The camera pans to show the camouflage effect from another angle, and it's obvious that the stone bridge is only about one foot thick from one end to the other. Relieved, Jones scampers across to the other side, and the camera cuts again to show that the bridge is now a full three feet thick.

Charles Austin Miller

23rd Jan 2017

Patton (1970)

Trivia: Strangely, when "Patton" was first released, the most controversial scene in this film was that in which General Patton shoots a pair of mules that are blocking a bridge and dumps their carcasses over the side. While the true fate of the two animals is still unknown (were they actually shot, were they anesthetized, were they poisoned, were those real carcasses thrown from the bridge?), the fact is that no actual animal cruelty appears onscreen. Rather, in distinct cuts, Patton draws his revolver, gunshots are heard, two dead mules are seen in the roadway, followed by a wide, distant shot of the carcasses as they are tossed from the bridge. Any actual shooting or cruelty was, therefore, only inferred by the audience. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals protested the scene loudly in the press, but they did so with absolutely no evidence of animal cruelty in this scene.

Charles Austin Miller

23rd Jan 2017

San Andreas (2015)

Factual error: Near the end, Emma Gaines drives a small fiberglass boat at high speed straight through the plate-glass window of a downtown skyscraper. Plate glass is incredibly dense, much more dense than the fiberglass hull of a boat. On high-speed impact, the plate glass might indeed shatter, but the fiberglass hull of the boat would be utterly demolished.

Charles Austin Miller

23rd Jan 2017

San Andreas (2015)

Factual error: We repeatedly see Ray Gaines and his daughter, Blake, swimming and thrashing about in crystal-clear floodwater following the tsunami. But floodwater from a tsunami is invariably inky black with thick, churning silt, sediment and debris. The same crystal-clear tsunami floodwater mistake appears in the movie "2012"

Charles Austin Miller

23rd Jan 2017

Hollywoodland (2006)

Trivia: Although Adrian Brody was officially the star of "Hollywoodland," his character (private detective Louis Simo) was a completely fictional role in the movie. Virtually all of the other characters in the film are based on real people, but there never was a Louis Simo, and he's not based on any actual person (s). George Reeves' mother did hire an attorney and a detective agency in real life; however, "Hollywoodland" director Allen Coulter said that the character of Louis Simo wasn't even partially based on anyone in real life.

Charles Austin Miller

Other mistake: When Raymond shoots Senator Jordan, his first shot penetrates the carton of milk that Jordan is holding in his left hand. From Raymond's perspective, that carton of milk is positioned over Jordan's upper left arm; so, the first shot should have merely wounded Jordan in the left bicep, hardly a mortal wound. But Jordan's eyes roll up and he collapses as if shot in the heart.

Charles Austin Miller

23rd Jan 2017

Ash vs Evil Dead (2015)

Home Again - S2-E9

Plot hole: Old Ash travels back in time to 1982 to snatch the Necronomicon before Young Ash ever finds it (which should, presumably, erase all of the evil events from the original Evil Dead film right up to the present). Upon escaping the cabin, Old Ash finds that the timeline has self-corrected, and his amputated right hand has reappeared on his arm. But he is still in the 1980s. If the timeline had truly self-corrected, then Old Ash's car, his friends, and he himself would have vanished instantly from the 1980s, because the purpose of their mission never existed.

Charles Austin Miller

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

Suggested correction: Time travel is not real. The rules of it are dependent on what the writers deem fit. Ergo, this isn't a plot-hole.

TedStixon

By that rationale, plot holes don't exist in any films, because the screenwriters are making all the rules. But, of course, plot holes do exist because screenwriters forget their own rules. In this case, the screenwriters chose to go down the path of correcting the Evil Dead timeline, but then they forgot to correct the timeline.

Charles Austin Miller

Baal was messing with time.

16th Jan 2017

Poltergeist (1982)

Factual error: Robbie is grabbed by the big, gnarly tree outside his bedroom window during a severe thunderstorm, and Steve rushes outside to save the boy as a full-blown tornado passes overhead. The tornado sucks up the tree (which certainly weighs several tons); yet, completely defying physics, Steve and Robbie remain unaffected by the powerful updraft, even though the two are directly beneath the tornado vortex.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: The government operatives go to great lengths to cordon-off and sanitize Elliott's home with extensive hazardous material preparation. Controlled airflow, Hazmat suits and everything. But as soon as E.T. "dies," everybody takes off their Hazmat masks. So, E.T. was only a Hazmat threat when he was alive? A real government Hazmat team would never drop their guard like this, as long as the alien body was still present.

Charles Austin Miller

6th Jan 2017

Will Penny (1967)

Trivia: When Charlton Heston first arrives at the Flatiron Ranch, some ranch hands recognize the pack-horse that Heston is leading, and they call the horse by name: "Bright Eyes." A year later, Heston appeared in the first "Planet of the Apes" movie, where he himself is nicknamed "Bright Eyes" by Dr. Zira.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Charlton Heston is shot in the throat and captured by the apes. During his healing in captivity, Dr. Zira nicknames him "Bright Eyes," because of his obvious intelligence. A year earlier, when Charlton Heston appeared in the western "Will Penny," Heston's pack-horse was also named "Bright Eyes" in the film.

Charles Austin Miller

Show generally

Question: Does anyone know who appeared in later seasons as the Outer Limits "Intro Girl"? This question has circulated on the Internet for the last 20 years with no definitive answer. There is unsubstantiated speculation that the Intro Girl was either Diane Venora, Sofia Shinas, or even Paz de la Huerto; however, none of these actresses look anything remotely like the Intro Girl.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: The blonde girl with bangs in the intro does not appear to be a Jerry Uelsmann model, whose still photographs were used to set the theme of the intro. Although the "Intro Girl" clips are in the Uelsmann style, they are video motion clips. The end credits identify a video production company responsible for creating the introduction, but they seem to be out of business. My best guess is that she is a local model hired by that company to shoot the intro.

Trivia: In the boardroom of the Very Big Corporation of America, the company's holdings are listed on the wall in the background. It is a repeating list of names, some which are Monty Python puns, inside jokes and references to other scenes in the movie. The listed names are: Acme Construction Company; Payne, Bickers and Dogood Ltd.; Stn. Pendons Ltd.; V. Rich and Son; Doneys (Florence) ; Mirage Land Co.; Arctic Geo. Lab Co.; Liver Donors Inc.; World Wide Wine Corp.; Universal Amalgamations Ltd.; Consolidated Steel Co.; Micro Computer Inc.; Moonscape Products Ltd.; Rubber Goods Incorporated; D.Odgey Enterprises Ltd.; Money Factor Printers Ltd.; Better Plastics Corps.; D.Crepid Holdings; Super Big Ltd.; Space Propulsion Lab; Interstellar Travel Corp.; Dawking's Mining Co.; Lange and Sons (International) ; Cooper's (Purveyors) ; Dickinson Kincain Association; The All Enveloping Co. Ltd.; O.Verpaid Associates Ltd.; E. Normons and Sons; A. Maze and Lee Huge; Horace Mann and Yure Ltd.; R. Devious Inc.; Wakefeld and Daughter; Vast Holdings (Europe) Ltd.; Phil Thevich Consortium; Fastness and Vast Co. Ltd; Star Bright Merchandise Org.; X. Tortion World Wide Ltd.; Cartwright Tutorials; Black and White Picture Co. Ltd.; R. J. McArthur Parks Ltd.; Walker, Walker and Jones Bros.; Data Travel and Experiments.

Charles Austin Miller

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