Factual error: Jack listens to an interview with the fictitious novelist Frank O'Toole who appeared on BBC 4's Radio Island Discs. The episode is labeled "Fri 9 Nov 1989", but November the 9th in 1989 was a Thursday, not a Friday. (00:16:00)
Sammo
19th Mar 2020
Death in Paradise (2011)
19th Mar 2020
Death in Paradise (2011)
Murder on the Day of the Dead - S7-E5
Factual error: The story is set in February 2018, but when Jack and Florence go talk to Hugh Davenport, he is reading the latest finance news.from the May 4th 2017 newspaper. (00:32:50)
19th Mar 2020
Taxi Driver (1976)
Factual error: Travis begins the movie at 26 years old, and reports leaving the army with honorable discharge in May 1973. His first diary entry just after being hired is "May 10th." In the newspapers at the end he is still 26, and it says that he has been a taxi driver for 6 months. The movie obviously does not take place in winter, and the only months referenced (plus the timeline of a presidential nomination) are June and July. Besides, 1973 would not be the right year for a story set just before a presidential election, unlike 1976 when the movie came out.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: This error is based on the assumption that he had just been discharged. I don't remember anything in the movie to indicate that as opposed to being discharged three years earlier.
The articles at the end of the movie say "Travis Bickle, 26, has been a taxi driver for six months since he came to New York upon leaving the Service where he fought in a special forces unit in Viet Nam" (sic). I think it's fairly obvious from the context too that he hasn't had much experience with 'real life' after 'Nam, surely not 3 years. The original script didn't have this discrepancy, by the way, because the date of his discharge was May 1971, which would account for just about enough months of difficult civilian life to get involved in the 1972 Presidential race.
15th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Factual error: On a lorry for Lumbini, Nigel comments about this being his first day of work. Even assuming that Nigel and Sydney met first thing in the morning and they just took off for a flight that was leaving for India really soon, it is a flight that takes 17-20 hours. Even considering the time difference between "the US" (the actual location is never specified) and Bangalore (closest hub to their Nepali destination), it is really a stretch, since it's impossible that he did not sleep during the flight, and of course it's just hilarious that they'd have a chat about it only after an intercontinental flight.
15th Mar 2020
Death in Paradise (2011)
Murder on the Day of the Dead - S7-E5
Factual error: The 1966 Ford Mustang 289 belonging to the victim has registration plates from Hawaii, but "DY 536 HR" does not follow the correct format for Hawaiian license plates at that year, or any year for that matter.
13th Mar 2020
Star Trek: Picard (2020)
Factual error: Picard tells his manservant that Laris and him are more needed at the Chateau than with him in space because there's less than a month left before the harvest. Without being privy to the knowledge of a XXIV century agronomist, grapes at the Chateau are grown with traditional methods in a climate that looks reasonably similar to our own. From the establishing shot at the beginning of this episode and what we could see by his walk in the vineyard in the previous, there are no grapes forming, ripening, not even flowers. Hardly the look of a vineyeard close to harvest. (00:07:00 - 00:36:10)
13th Mar 2020
Death in Paradise (2011)
Factual error: The fictional island of Saint Marie where the series takes place is a British territory - after all, the whole gig is about fish-out-of-water British cops in the tropics. Specifically the Commissioner explains the history of the island to DI Richard Poole driving him to the station the first time and says that it was a French territory but in the mid 70s they handed it back to the British. Despite that, throughout the whole series the police and almost every local drive (on the left) vehicles with French registration plates, specifically with the 971 code of Guadeloupe, where the series is shot. In the first seasons the British police also routinely sends evidence and other critical parts of the job to labs in Guadaloupe, effectively out of the country. Seems quite absurd that in 40 years the British wouldn't have established vital parts of administration and rely entirely on French neighbours.
29th Feb 2020
A Street Cat Named Bob (2016)
Factual error: At the book signing, the store features books who are not from the correct timeframe but from the time when the movie was shot in late 2015. Examples include a book of baby names with a big 2016 on the cover, on a shelf right when Betty appears, or "The Complete Discworld Atlas" by Terry Pratchett, between Anthony Head and Beth Goddard in their close-up during James' speech. (01:34:35)
29th Feb 2020
A Street Cat Named Bob (2016)
Factual error: James is having the preliminary chat with the book publishers. They are discussing in a room with several promo posters ("Alice and the Fly", "Solitude Creek") of books that came out in 2015, well past the date the movie itself reveals later. (01:30:20)
29th Feb 2020
A Street Cat Named Bob (2016)
Factual error: James has a meltdown right after New Year's Eve, and to try and get his life back he turns to the good fellas at "The Big Issue", magazine that famously offers an opportunity to the homeless. The issue they give him to sell has Tom Jones on the cover and the title, appropriate to the theme, "What's new, Pussycat?" Problem is, not only it's an issue from 2015 (posterior to the events of the movie) but it's also from October. The two posters we see in the office are covers from early 2012, so those do instead fit perfectly in the timeline. (01:07:00)
29th Feb 2020
A Street Cat Named Bob (2016)
Factual error: James makes a leashed Bob hop on his back. When he announces "This is Covent Garden", to the right there's a new store getting set up; it's the famous international stationery brand Kikki K, which opened for the first time in England in late 2015. The movie is supposed to happen years before. (00:41:00)
29th Feb 2020
A Street Cat Named Bob (2016)
Factual error: When James spots his dad (Anthony Head) and stops him in the middle of the street, they have a brief chat in front of a big marquee advertising "Charlie And The Chocolate Factory - The Musical." First represented in 2013, with the movie ending in 2012. (00:20:50)
29th Feb 2020
A Street Cat Named Bob (2016)
Factual error: James is playing his guitar outside a station. Before the frontal shot that identifies it as Covent Garden, there's a street poster for the musical version of "Matilda." The play was already in existence in the movie timeframe, but the poster is in its "Believe the hype" version that is post 2013. The movie ends in 2012. (00:19:55)
29th Feb 2020
A Street Cat Named Bob (2016)
Factual error: In the montage showing James busking after committing to the program, he picks up his guitar when it gets dark and tries to find shelter. On the side of a London bus, you can spot the ad for "The Hunger Games; Mockingjay - Part 2", a movie that came out in 2015. The happy ending of this movie takes place in 2012. (00:09:55)
27th Feb 2020
Joker (2019)
Factual error: The Waynes went to a theater with 5 movies, with the main spot being Blow Out and Zorro the Gay Blade, who came out on July 24th and 17th of the year. You can also see marquees for other July movies; Wolfen, on the 24th, Arthur, on the 17th. But the narration that opens the movie said it was Thursday October 15, and the events of the movie span across at the very least two weeks (the Joker gets booked on Murray's for "next Thursday" when at least a week has passed since the intro). So the theater is showing in November movies that are over 3 months old (7 for 'Excalibur'. Last movie to be featured) and no new releases. (01:49:10)
27th Feb 2020
Joker (2019)
Factual error: In the so called homage to "Network", the second TV screen from the left in the top row broadcasts a TV PSA with Clint Eastwood ("The thrill can kill") that is from the Reagan era, years after the events of the movie. Specifically from 1987, which is also the year of the Kellogg's ad in the TV under it, with Keanu Reeves. Another ad playing in the bottom right corner is a Rolling Rock beer ad that is from 1986. (01:46:25)
27th Feb 2020
Joker (2019)
Factual error: The subway in the movie has been recreated with exceptional attention to details, including custom Gotham Transport Authority logos and even maps of the fictitious subway. Throughout the movie in general, references to the actual NYC have been carefully removed. However, before he gets to the station just after the iconic stairway dance, Joker runs in front of a store labeled Meat Market that has a 718-992 phone number, from Bronx. (01:31:50)
27th Feb 2020
Joker (2019)
Factual error: It is established that Penny Fleck adopted Arthur and that he's been abused. In her file, when Arthur reads it, you can see that she was admitted the first time to the psychiatric hospital at 15 years of age, had multiple episodes with drug abuse, and the file mentions she is 25 and single on the date of the report, 11-2-1952. A single parent already had rather slim chances to adopt in the 50s, but a known mental patient and drug abuser, not a chance. (01:13:40)
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: She could have bribed her way into adopting a child. Someone who is desperate for attention could find ways to get what they want.
Suggested correction: It is not firmly established that Penny actually adopted Arthur - in fact, it's strongly hinted at that Thomas Wayne forced her into signing adoption papers in order to cover up Arthur's true parentage.
The established, as in recognized, backed up by documents, 'official' version the main character finds out and acts by, is the one contained in the report, newspaper clippings and flashback; son abused by the boyfriend of an adopted mother. Such story is impossible the way it is presented the moment we see details in a document that overblows it painting this 'adoptive' mother as single and with a history of drug abuse since 15 years old. Penny is not eligible to be an adoptive parent, and yet nobody seemed to have raised an eyebrow about that. If you want to assume that rather than being a mistake with overzealous details in a prop (check out of the original script of the movie, which has none of this ambiguity) whoever arranged the fake adoption documents kinda forgot to also make quietly disappear the mental and medical record invalidating their own fabrication, sure, do that! It's not exactly a small oversight - and really one would wonder why Wayne kept his bastard son with her at all.
Arthur is not Thomas Wayne's son. That was all in Penny's head.
27th Feb 2020
Joker (2019)
Factual error: When Joaquin Phoenix and Zazie Beetz are taking a walk after Arthur's performance, between the arcade and the newsstand there's a modern video intercom with keypad, not quite fitting the 1981 setting, since the first model of its kind was introduced in 1984 (kinda odd to leave something like this in when they went through the trouble of placing appropriate arcade posters really close by). (00:45:25)
27th Feb 2020
Joker (2019)
Factual error: Following Zazie Beetz, Arthur arrives in front of the bank. The crossing is using red colored tactile paving. While technically already invented, truncated domes paving was not adopted in the US in the early 80s, but began appearing in the early 1990s at public transportation stations, and it was not until 2001 that they were used in curb cuts. (00:24:35)
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: By the directors own admission, the date the movie is set in is never mentioned, nor is there any mention of a real city it is set in. This movie is set in Gotham City, a city that exists only in the Joker universe, where this paving could have been invented years earlier than the corresponding year in our (real) universe. This is more of a trivia than a mistake.
By the director's own movie, everything about the setting is specific to the early 80s. It's a marginal part of the urban scenery that they didn't find important (or did not think of, it's not exactly obvious) to fix for consistency. I don't see why we have to think that a movie that deliberately puts real life advertising, technology, aesthetics specific to the 1980s (Philips even mentioned specifically in interviews that he had in mind New York City of the year 1981) and flaunts the marginalization and cruelty of society would encourage leaving in deliberately something that improves quality of life for the handicapped. It's the classic mistake of something not supposed to be there that needed to be covered but was not.
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