Smoking Gun - S1-E2
Stupidity: The power generator for Al Capone's secret bunker is located exactly outside the secret entrance door. In case of emergency it would be entirely useless, on top of drawing attention to the entrance itself.
Sammo
20th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Factual error: Entering the secret room in the old part of the castle, the protagonists find there the ring and a specific painting...but doing so, they casually walk in front of another painting kinda hidden in the background...a perfect copy of the uber-famous Leonardo Da Vinci painting "Lady with an Ermine"! Considering that the painting was finished in 1490, the opening caption of the episode said "1430." Even if after the incident the young lord lived into his 80s or 90s, there surely wouldn't be a perfect copy of it in his secret hideout. (00:25:40)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Revealing mistake: When Nigel shows Lord Aubrey's page from the genealogy book of the various lords of the house, the text does not deal with the lord at all, but it's Latin filler from Celsus' "De Medicina." (00:22:10)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Continuity mistake: Curled up in the bunk bed, Nigel apologizes for the plot contrivance hit to Sydney's noggin. He is clutching the book, with his hands in obviously different spots between the two shots. (00:10:55)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Continuity mistake: Sydney is reminiscing about her Peruvian fling; in the foreground her client is taking a sip of wine, and the glass is about half empty. It is already much fuller in the next shot. (00:09:20)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Other mistake: In the Romeo & Juliet-like beginning of the story, Calum looks at his own hand and discovers Elena's blood. Obviously censorship ratings prevent the scene from being realistic and he has barely a smudge of blood on his own hand, but Elena was lying dead on top of him; the fact that his clothes are absolutely pristine for the rest of the scene is laughable - at least she could have gutted herself a little bit on the side and not where she would inevitably bleed him a river right on his white shirt. (00:02:55)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Other mistake: Calum fights off Elena's father and is chased away by the guards. Somehow he has a fight on the top of the stairs with 2 guards, but it takes in excess of 40 seconds for the previous pursuers to catch up with him. (00:04:25)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Smoking Gun - S1-E2
Character mistake: When the bad guys put the generator in front of the air vent, Nigel looks at the white smoke and pointing at it says "Carbon monoxide." Carbon monoxide is colorless, white smoke is mostly condensed vapor. (00:35:20)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Smoking Gun - S1-E2
Plot hole: Lori managed to get to the bunker through the elevator because the modern board was still replaced by the antique one. But that implies that she was able to call the elevator as normal. And if people can just call the elevator back but the normal control board has been replaced, then they wouldn't be able to use the elevator as normal, creating quite a problem in a huge hotel. Sydney earlier was not able to switch the board back to the normal one since she went out from a (mysterious?) exit/entrance, so this situation makes no sense.
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Smoking Gun - S1-E2
Other mistake: Somehow, the pineapple grenade that explodes right against the room's baseboard punches a hole in a thick stone wall, but in the middle of it, preserving the base and creating a gap in a diamond shape that radiates from mid-height. (00:17:40)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Smoking Gun - S1-E2
Other mistake: The episode begins with a caption; "Chicago, 1930." In present day, through internet magic (hotel records from early 1900s somehow digitalized and publicly available!) Nigel and Sydney talk about the history (fictional, no actual historical basis) of the Roxbury. Nigel says that the original owner went out of business "after the war", then the company was sold, and the hotel refurbished, despite being, Sydney says, "only 5 years old." Later in the episode, Sydney looks at a plaque from the Chicago Historical Board that dates the elevator as "circa 1901." (00:12:35)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Continuity mistake: When Sydney talks her inexperienced assistance into a reckless climb, Nigel is leaning against he truck in the close-up, when he was not in the rest of the chat. (00:30:25)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Continuity mistake: Sydney and Nigel are talking with Robert Blaine at the beginning of the episode. When he mentions the Nepalese people there's a close-up on them. One student wearing a white T-shirt is walking up some steps - but in the next shot he is walking down other steps situated earlier in his path. A few seconds later, another flub with an extra; Nigel stops the museum curator just as an extra wearing white clothes enters the frame, but the person is gone in the sudden cut. (00:06:25)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Smoking Gun - S1-E2
Continuity mistake: In the prologue, Young Murray finds a man he does not know sitting at a table. He advances towards him in a wide shot of the room, and the man positions his left hand on the corner of the table, but in the following closer angle on him, his hands are close together exactly like in the initial shot by the same angle. It's like the middle one never happened. (00:03:10)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Visible crew/equipment: When Sydney taps the shoulder of the baddie who nearly disarmed Nigel, a strong light is cast on his face just before the cut. Nobody was supposed to point a flashlight or a torch at the fight. (00:38:15)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Continuity mistake: When Sydney Fox retrieves the parchment with the map, she holds it differently (probably turned 180°) between the close-up and the reverse shots. It also should be noted that the world-class archaeologist just casually dumps on the floor like a piece of garbage a ornate XVI century flask. (00:23:50)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Continuity mistake: Nigel wonders why prisoners write on walls. He moves the flashlight from the left hand to his right. When he walks back and the shot changes though, instantly it is back in his left. (00:22:10)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Continuity mistake: Nigel accidentally (unconvincingly so) steps on the Beautiful Nun 's bathrobe in a close-up. His toothbrush hand is down his hip, in frame, but when they both gasp in a reaction shot, the toothbrush is between them. (00:17:30)
19th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Revealing mistake: In the shot when the captain supposedly beheads the nun, her head flies off, but as the body falls forward, you can see the hood of the mantle that was covering the head is intact. (00:02:25)
15th Mar 2020
Relic Hunter (1999)
Plot hole: Sydney is able to surmise from the artwork (we could also say from the writing, but her rival is one step ahead of her for 2/3 of the episode and it is established that he does not know the language) the precise location of the koi in Lumbini. The map is 150 years old, but there's no way even with a big stretch of imagination to buy that they both'd be able to pinpoint with such ease and certainty its location in the basement of a random building in the bustling market center of a town, that surely changed plenty during the past century and that does not bear any special landmark.
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