Corrected entry: When Mikey holds the doubloon up from a distance, the two rocks and the lighthouse are a perfect match for the three holes in the coin. If the coin was really from 1632, how could the lighthouse even be in it? Lighthouses weren't made until a LONG time later in the 1800's or so.
JC Fernandez
7th May 2006
The Goonies (1985)
6th Jan 2004
Batman and Robin (1997)
Corrected entry: Speaking of the insane rocket scheme: 30,000 feet is hardly "the icy cold of space" as Mr. Freeze described it to the trapped Batman. In fact, several species of birds are known to fly in the 23-27,000 foot range when migrating. Their hearts certainly don't "freeze and beat no more", else we'd probably hear a lot about all the property damage that frozen birds cause each year as they die and plummet five miles to earth. (00:10:05)
Correction: 30,000 feet is almost 6 miles high... higher than Mt Everest. Generally air temperature drops about 5 degrees celsius for every 1000 feet climbed... well below freezing. While there have been reports of migratory birds at elevations of 29,000 feet, the temperature would depend on the surface conditions in that area, not to mention wind conditions. Considering it's nighttime in Gotham, the air temperature at 30,000 feet would likely be well under freezing. As to whether it's the "icy cold of space," well, Mr Freeze is prone to hyperbole.
14th Jul 2009
Twister (1996)
Corrected entry: In multiple scenes in the movie, you see objects flying through the air like the cow, yet the tornado itself is a good distance away (at least a half mile). This simply isn't possible, in fact, at that distance from a tornado you normally will either have calm air or strong DOWNDRAFTS, certainly not objects floating around. Only in the tornado itself will objects be flying in the air, and they basically will be lifted up, then dropped, as the tornado passes over.
Correction: It seems you're mistaking the funnel (or condensation) cloud for the tornado itself when really it's a *part* of the tornado. The areas around the condensation cloud (particularly in the inward flow boundary where wind goes from horizontal to vertical) are wracked with violent winds. In images of tornadoes that touch down, the inward flow boundary is often seen as a fountain of dust and debris shooting up in the air near where the funnel touches down. This is where the characters are situated during these scenes. They are not a half-mile away from the tornado... they are *in* the tornado, just not in the core of it.
16th Jul 2009
Star Trek (1966)
Corrected entry: Kirk said that the creatures planet was 1000 light years away, later on in the episode he states that they are only 17 days away from said planet. At the Enterprise cruise speed of warp 5 it would take them about 46 years to get there, even if they could maintain their theoretical maximum speed of warp 9.6 it would take them about 5 years. To get there in 17 days they would have to achieve an impossible warp factor of 27.8.
Correction: Since the show never establishes what the warp factors mean in terms of velocity, the entire point is kind of moot.
12th Jul 2009
Back to the Future (1985)
Corrected entry: "Back to the Future" was originally going to be called "Space Zombies from Pluto."
Correction: Untrue. There was an MCA entertainment exec, noted for his often odd studio notes, who suggested (during post-production) that this should be the title of the film (as this is the title of the comic young Peabody shows to his folks when Marty arrives in 1955). But it was never given serious consideration and was certainly never a used title.
10th Jul 2009
Back to the Future (1985)
Corrected entry: In the beginning of the movie. From when Doc is shot by the terrorists to when Marty drives away to 1955, a few times the area where Marty is standing at the end of the movie (when he watches the scene again) is visible, yet "Marty" isn't standing there.
8th Jul 2009
Gilmore Girls (2000)
Corrected entry: In the episode "That Damn Donna Reed" (1.14), Lorelai suggests that Richard and Emily go to Paris instead of taking their usual trip to Martha's Vineyard. Richard and Emily are strongly opposed to this because they only go to Europe every two years and only in the Fall. Emily feels so adamant that Fall is the appropriate time to visit Europe that she references Fall four times within a thirty-five second period (6:30-7:05). However, in "Emily In Wonderland" (1.19), when Emily meets Michel for the first time they share a brief exchange in French: Emily: Enchantée. D'où venez vous? Michel: Paris. Emily: J'adore Paris. Nous y allons chaque printemps. This translates to: Emily: Charmed [in response to meeting Michel]. Where do you come from? Michel: Paris. Emily: I adore Paris. We go there every Spring. This thoroughly contradicts going to Europe every two years and only in the Fall.
Correction: While she does contradict what she says in the two episodes, it's not contradictory to her character. Emily Gilmore is all about pretenses and appearances. It would be entirely in her character for her to tell a little white lie in order to ingratiate herself.
27th Aug 2003
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Corrected entry: After the fight scene with Count Dooku and Yoda, Anakin gets up slowly because of his missing right arm. As he gets up, when the shot is from far away, if you look very closely you can actually see Anakin's missing arm appear then disappear, then reappear again.
Correction: No, you don't. Depending on the quality of your image, I suppose you could be mistaking Obi-Wan's arm for Anakin's as he helps him up. But since Hayden Christiansen was wearing a false arm for the scene (with his real arm hidden inside the robes) it doesn't make sense for his arm to appear and disappear the way you're describing.
27th Jun 2009
Independence Day (1996)
Corrected entry: The aircraft that deploys the nuclear missile at the saucer over Houston is a B-2 Spirit, a slow moving stealth bomber. It would have made more sense for the human command to deploy nuclear munitions using a more maneuverable fighter/bomber that stands a better chance of escaping the blast and any subsequent alien fighters that would be dispatched.
Correction: This supposes too many things, notably that the military was intact and had every aircraft at its disposal. We see the aliens struck the base at El Toro. Since we don't know what other bases, installations and aircraft may have been destroyed after the initial attack, we can't know what aircraft were at their disposal. Not to mention that the humans could have been hoping stealth would be an advantage over maneuverability.
Correction: The US Military is down to 7% as reported to Mr. Nimzicki earlier in the film. At that point, you use what's available.
25th Jun 2009
The Abyss (1989)
Corrected entry: The whole scene with the rat and the breathing fluid could never have happened because rats can't vomit, so the poor thing would have died.
Correction: Vomiting is the forceful ejection of stomach contents. It has nothing to do with ejecting substances from the lungs. That would be coughing, which rats *can* do.
Furthermore, that scene was NOT simulated. That was an actual rat breathing the actual oxygenated fluorocarbon fluid. It wasn't sci-fi; the concept exists, even if it hasn't seen much wide-scale testing on humans.
22nd Jun 2009
Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997)
Corrected entry: When The Initiative are looking through the thermal goggles, it shows the first three or four people before Spike to be 68.6 degrees. But not everyone's temperature is 68.6 - it's just an average. Running or even talking could make it a different temp.
Correction: As you say, that's the average reading, and there's not a lot of variance from that. It stands to reason that a sampling of only 3 or 4 people could all show the same temperature.
22nd Jun 2009
Star Trek (1966)
Corrected entry: As powerful as the Enterprise is, a 229 meter vessel would not really stand a chance against a several mile long planet destroyer. Despite this, the Enterprise survives several hits with only minor damage.
Correction: Size matters not... sorry, wrong space opera but the correction still stands. There's no way to make this claim without knowing the specific effects from the attack. The size of the ships is irrelevant. Birds brought down a jet in Manhattan not too long ago.
While you have a valid point, consider that the Constellation was turned into essentially drifting junk, after being attacked with the Planet Killer's beam. The Enterprise was attacked by the same power levels, but only gets minor internal damage. If the beam was powerful enough to slice up a planet, and lay critical waste to a starship, then the Enterprise should have met the same fate.
20th Jun 2009
Star Trek: Generations (1994)
Corrected entry: During the battle with the Klingon Bird of Prey over Viridian III, the Enterprise-D is shown sustaining hits to its front and rear. The bridge is shown taking damage from a shot fired at the underside of the Enterprise, despite being on the top of the ship and away from the Klingon's fire. (01:05:25)
Correction: Damage, particularly that inflicted by energy-based weaponry, isn't limited to external structural damage. The attack could have blown or disrupted a power conduit and the surge manifested itself on the bridge or the bridge consoles. Even here on present-day Earth, lightning doesn't have to directly strike your television in order to blow it.
14th Jun 2009
The Simpsons (1989)
Girls Just Want to Have Sums - S17-E19
Corrected entry: When Lisa crosses over to the boys side of the school, she looks in the window of the math class where the teacher asks the class the volume of a three circled snowman with a carrot nose. Lisa corrects Martin's answer by saying, "He forgot the volume of the carrot nose. One-third base times height!" This is incorrect, the volume of a cone (the shape of a carrot) is one-third pi radius squared times height. Or if she was going for the area instead, that is one-half the base time height. Lisa always prides herself on being incredibly smart, so she should not have made this mistake, especially when she was so confident.
Correction: Hence why she's still in school. because she *doesn't* know everything. Not a mistake, just a child's cocky confidence.
9th Jun 2009
Land of the Lost (2009)
Corrected entry: During the scene with the giant crab, after it's boiled alive (relatively close to the "Motel", given the subsequent camera angle) it's nowhere to be found. They begin eating it, and (even considering the possible time lapse that would have to transpire in order to eat an entire crab of that size) no remnants are to be found, save for what they're currently focused on eating.
Correction: Since we only see the crab-eating scene from pretty much a single perspective, the motel and crab residue can simply be off-camera.
8th Jun 2009
Star Trek (1966)
Corrected entry: After Kirk shoots the Horta it retreats down a tunnel which is visible. When Kirk and Spock arrive at the tunnel entrance Spock states it was made within the last two minutes. How could the Horta have just made it when it was already there? (00:18:05)
Correction: The Horta ran through the same tunnel it had created two minutes before.
27th May 2009
Star Trek (2009)
Corrected entry: When older Spock witnesses the destruction of Vulcan, he sees the planet very clearly from the surface of Delta Vega, the same way we see the moon from Earth. For the two planets to be this close to one another would be impossible. The tidal forces alone would cause massive destruction on the surface of both planets. Not to mention the fact that a singularity created on Vulcan would almost certainly destroy the neighboring planet as well.
Correction: It's established that Vulcan has a sister planet in close proximity. Impossible or not, this planet (and its moon) were both visible (and quite large) in "The Motion Picture." Assuming the singularity conforms to our understanding of black holes (and doesn't dissipate because of the red matter), then yes it would consume Delta Vega... eventually.
21st May 2009
Wall-E (2008)
Corrected entry: How are the people of the Axiom able to breathe without any plants to take in any of the carbon dioxide given out by humans, and breathe out oxygen? Recycling air would be impossible.
Correction: Why would recycling air be impossible? Submarines, space shuttles, the international space station, etc. all recycle air *today*. the film takes place in a far future.
14th May 2009
Star Trek: Generations (1994)
Corrected entry: Geordi has returned to the Enterprise with his visor sending what he is seeing back to the Klingon ship. When Geordi is in Engineering the feed to the Klingon ship shows Geordi standing in front of a console despite the feed coming from Geordi's own visor.
Correction: No it doesn't. The feed shows another crew member stepping away from the console as Geordi's view looks down at the panel.
24th Apr 2009
Pocahontas (1995)
Corrected entry: I live in Yorktown, Virginia and have gone as far as Richmond, to Norfolk, and to Virginia Beach looking for this waterfall she dives into. I would love to see a beautiful waterfall around Jamestown, but unfortunately the land here is extremely flat. "The New World" was actually filmed here just as a reference for its flat plane.
Correction: It's not a movie mistake. Like all legends and fairy tales, artistic and sometimes fantastical (talking trees, anyone?) liberties are taken to enhance the story. It's no more meant to conform to the real world than Aladdin, Mulan, or Sword in the Stone.
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Correction: First of all, lighthouses have been around since the Egyptians (Pharos lighthouse was built in 280 BC). It's lens-based lighthouses that were constructed starting in the early 1800's, but there's no reason there couldn't have been another structure or a rudimentary "warning light" station where the present lighthouse was constructed, that the doubloon was made to reference.
JC Fernandez