Corrected entry: In the emperor's throne room, sometimes the stars move and sometimes they don't.
Bruce Minnick
8th Nov 2003
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
5th Nov 2003
The Thing (1982)
Corrected entry: In the TV edit, when they are examining the dead Norwegian on the table, he is blatantly blinking his eyes and looking around. Edited out of the normal and DVD versions for obvious reasons.
Correction: Originally, this scene was cut from the movie. Several scenes were cut and then readded in the TV edit, to replace the running length (time). This scene was never supposed to be in the final movie and was not endorsed by the director.
27th Aug 2001
Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
Corrected entry: At the end of the movie, the script on the screen says that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not specify when Holmes and Watson met. That is not true. They met for the first time in "A Study in Scarlet."
Correction: The script at the end was added to keep with the theme of the movie. The movie was based on the premise of what would have happened if Holmes and Watson meet each other when they were teenagers. The script just helps show that this is not an "official" Arthur Conan Doyle story.
21st Oct 2003
Top Gun (1986)
Corrected entry: Throughout the movie, Charlie keeps referring to Maverick as Lieutenant, even though his rank insignia (2 silver bars connected) is Captain. One silver bar is the rank for Lieutenant.
Correction: This is wrong. In the Air Force and the Army, the double silver bars are the insignia of a Captain (grade 0-3). In the Coast Guard, the double silver bars are the insignia of a Lieutenant (grade 0-3). The Navy does have a Captain rank, but it is a few grades higher (O-6) and is represented by a silver eagle (like an Air Force or Army Colonel), so Lieutenant is correct.
1st Aug 2003
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Corrected entry: Judging from the make of the cars and the hippie peace signs on the walls, I'd say the movie was set in the early 60's. How then did Wonka parody Neil Armstrong's moon landing line?
Correction: They never specifically say when the movie or the story takes place. It was released in 1971, but a date was never said in the movie.
27th Apr 2003
Wayne's World (1992)
Corrected entry: In the scene where Russell and Benjamin are flattering Vanderhoff into sponsoring the show, Vanderhoff mentions how he doesn't talk about specific video games in his commercials. However, at the very beginning of the film in his advert (watched by Benjamin and a girl in bed) he can be heard listing some of the video games available at his arcade.
Correction: Vanderhoff means that he does not talk about the video games (characters, story, weapons, etc). He did not mean that he does not name some of the games he has.
20th Feb 2002
Willow (1988)
Corrected entry: When the beast-dog attacks the Nelvin village Vonkar stabs it with a spear, and is thrown back. After he lands you can see he has another spear attached to his belt. Then another Nelvin has to throw him a spear so he can finish the beast off.
Correction: That is because it was quicker for someone to throw him a spear, then it would have been to pull one from his belt.
26th Apr 2003
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
Corrected entry: When R2-D2 and C3-PO arrive at Jabba's palace, C3-PO comments to R2 that "...poor Chewbacca never made it out of this place." But Boushk shows up with the "captured" Chewie later in the film.
Correction: This was part of the story that they made up and told C-3P0. They did not tell 3P0 what they were going to do, because they were afraid he would say something by accident, so they made up a story to tell him.
26th Aug 2003
Star Wars (1977)
Corrected entry: Luke's landspeeder changes sizes at least once. As he and Threepio are searching for R2, you can see that its about the size of, say, an El Camino or similar car from the '70s. But when the Tusken raiders are ransacking it, its barely as long as they are tall.
Correction: The speeder looks bigger when they are searching because of the camera angle and light, it is an optical illusion. They used the same model for all of the speeder shots, so it would be the same size for every shot.
22nd Sep 2003
Titanic (1997)
Corrected entry: When Cal finds the drawing of Rose, he is angry and scrunches it up. It doesn't make sense that he or somebody else would then smooth out the wrinkles and carefully put it back in the folder and into the safe, where it would be found years later. I also find it hard to believe that it would have stayed in such good condition after 80 odd years in the water.
Correction: Cal crumples up the note Rose left him with the picture, not the picture itself. And you would be amazed at the things they have recovered that are in almost perfect condition, journals, letters, etc. So it is not so far fetched - this is was another well preserved artifact.
8th Sep 2003
Batman Forever (1995)
Corrected entry: Riddler's big riddle for Batman is "Who will he save...Chase or Robin". How did Riddler know Robin exsisted? Didn't Dick just put on the robin suit 5 minutes earlier?
Correction: You would think that he would get this information when they captured Robin.
27th Aug 2001
The Untouchables (1987)
Factual error: The film shows government agent Eliot Ness throwing Al Capone's right-hand man, gangster Frank Nitti, to his death from the roof of the Chicago courthouse in 1929. It never happened. Frank Nitti died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1943.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: The movie was not meant to be exactly like real events. The movie was loosely based on the events (aka "inspired by actual events"). There are a lot of differences between the movie and the real events, these were done on purpose, to make an exciting movie.
That's a lame excuse. There are lots of opportunities to embellish on the truth when dealing with a historic topic. The station scene with the baby is an excellent example of that. But, you can't go changing the relationships of main characters or the time and methods of their deaths. Especially ones so well documented like Capone and Nitti. Why even bother using real names? The character they called "Nitti" was just a completely made up character. Nothing about him resembled the actual Nitti. Nitti wasn't skinny and he didn't wear white suits. He wasn't a loner, often scene hanging with his crew. Nitti was an exceptionally short man with a Chaplinesque moustache. Always jovial for the cameras.
It's simply your opinion that it's a "lame" excuse. The fact is the film is highly fictionalized. It's not a documentary, it's a drama. They combine and eliminate characters, give them different names and characteristics, and show events that never happened. These are not mistakes, they're known as creative license. They would only be mistakes if they film claimed everything in the film was true and accurate to history.
While calling something a "lame excuse" isn't acceptable, the mistake is still valid. The film isn't set in an alternate timeline, so historical inaccuracies regarding real life people are considered valid mistakes. Artistic license extends to adding things that could have happened that didn't impact historical events for dramatic purposes (love interests, made up characters, etc). Historical inaccuracies regarding real life figures would be the same as pointing out anachronisms in a film set in the past, like have a car from the 40's in a film set in the 30's. And just because a screenwriter or film maker wants to change facts to make the film more exciting doesn't mean the mistake is no longer valid.
Might as well toss the whole movie with your logic. Ness was never an active agent and never had any contact with Al Capone. Like already stated, this isn't a documentary, so expect some creative license.
3rd Sep 2003
Spider-Man (2002)
Corrected entry: In the scene where Peter Parker has to change into his costume at the World Unity Fest, he rips open his shirt in the middle of a HUGE crowd and his costume is revealed. It is really hard for me to believe not one person saw him do that.
Correction: It is definitely possible that no one saw it, everyone would have been watching everything else going on (besides, no one ever saw Superman do that).
29th Aug 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Corrected entry: When Aragorn and company first encounter the Riders of Rohan, we see that there are only about 50 men at most in the group. Before Theoden leads his people to Helms Deep, Gandalf leaves to find Eomer and his riders to aid in its defense. During the final battle, Gandalf returns with the Riders of Rohan, but now there are hundreds, if not thousands of men with him. Where did all of these "extra" men come from?
30th Sep 2002
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Corrected entry: After beaming down to Ceti Alpha 5, Chekov discovers the SS Botany Bay name tag and says, "We've got to get out of here". They put on their helmets and go outside. Judging by past Star Trek movies/episodes, why wouldn't they have used the "Beam me up quick" method instead? The Botany Bay's cargo containers were sitting on the surface, not underground, so there shouldn't have been a problem.
Correction: I'm sure the very strong sand storm was causing interference with the ship's transporter (this has been shown in other Star Trek episodes). Also, the metal in the container probably has some degree of interference. Combine the two factors (storm and metal container), it would be enough of a problem, causing them to want to go outside to beam.
22nd Dec 2002
The Santa Clause (1994)
Corrected entry: When Scott Calvin is wearing the Santa suit in the early part of the film, the coat has a strip of white fur down the front. However later, as Santa Claus in Dr. Miller's living room, when he gets arrested, the coat has two fur pom-poms down the front. And after he gets released and comes back to the house, there is only one fur pom-pom on the front of the jacket.
Correction: He may have changed the coat or had a new one made. It was a year later and they made other changes (sled, hat, fire-proof jump suit, etc...)
21st Mar 2002
X-Men (2000)
Corrected entry: When we first see Wolverine, his sideburns are thick and full, but when he wakes up in Xavier's school, his sideburns are not nearly that thick, in fact, they look rather scrubby. They change back to thick at the end of the movie, when Logan puts on the X-men uniform. (00:22:10)
Correction: They used the same make-up/hair pieces for Wolverine through the whole movie. The variations in thickness are an optical illusion, based on the lighting conditions (more light makes them look thinner, less light makes them look thicker).
27th Jan 2003
The Princess Bride (1987)
Corrected entry: In the shot of Westley climbing the Cliffs of Insanity, they show where the boats should have been moored but neither of the ships are there.
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Correction: According to blueprints published in technical books, the Emperor's throne room is on a tower at the "north pole" of the Death Star. The Death Star was rotating both left and right (or hold position) to get open shots on the rebel's capital ships. This would explain why the stars move sometimes and don't sometimes.
Bruce Minnick