Tailkinker

20th Jun 2008

Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

Corrected entry: Near the end of the movie, Saladin and his army arrive at Jerusalem around sunset. When night falls, they begin an offensive on the walls of Jerusalem with perhaps hundreds of trebuchets. This continues all night, and the next morning they assault the walls directly with siege towers and a ram. There are several things wrong with this set of events. Firstly, there is no way the army could have constructed so many siege towers overnight, even if they had the wood. Remember that they are situated in a barren and apparently treeless desert. Pushing the siege towers with them to Jerusalem isn't a plausible idea either, because they entered through the mountains-very unwieldy terrain to push something such as a siege tower. Secondly, if we are to assume they constructed siege towers on site, it would have taken weeks, perhaps months. There would be near-constant attacks on the walls with the trebuchets and the affected area would most likely be destroyed save the walls. This is why sieges were typically year-long affairs, and dramatic siege battles did not happen within days of the siege being laid. Also, it would not be logical or common for the besiegers to risk everything in a final struggle for a single breach in the walls. A sensible army would simply resume the bombardment and spend another few months building siege towers. The city might run out of food and starve, and the besiegers could take the city without further fighting. The developers most likely sped up the siege length for the sake of the movie, because it would be jarring to the viewer to skip forward months at a time.

Correction: According to historical accounts, Saladin and his army arrived at the city on September 20th 1187 and the surrender of Jerusalem was negotiated on October 2nd, thirteen days later. The accounts also mention the repeated use of siege engines of many varieties. So they either brought the siege engines with them, or were able to create them speedily on-site. While, yes, the filmmakers have compressed events to a small degree, this is simply artistic licence - the film is not intended as a documentary and thus is entitled to take liberties with the precise timeframe. Certainly the historical references do not support your assertation that the creation of numerous such machines should take weeks or even months. Your suggestion that the besiegers of the city would not concentrate all their force on a small area also fails to conform with the historical accounts. There are references to Saladin moving his army to a specific tactically-advantageous location near the Mount of Olives and opening a breach in the walls, much as depicted in the film, with an inconclusive battle being fought at that point. While the film-makers have taken some liberties, which is entirely allowable as artistic licence, the film sticks reasonably close to the true events.

Tailkinker

Corrected entry: Blonsky is referred to as being from the Royal Marines but wears a US military uniform throughout the entire movie. This would not happen.

Correction: It could happen if he'd been seconded to the US unit, if the intent was for him to fit it with his compatriots. Which is exactly what's happened...

Tailkinker

7th Jun 2008

Total Recall (1990)

Corrected entry: Listen to the technician at the recall center when Arnie first gets put in the chain to begin his "vacation", right before he is introduced to his choices for women. You will hear the male lab guy say, "This is a new one, blue skies over Mars", exactly what happens at the end of the movie! So, is it all just a dream?

Correction: Yeah, that's kinda the point - there are many references during the Recall centre section of the film to what subsequently happens, raising the possibility that the whole thing is, in fact, a dream. The references are pretty obvious (and there are more than you mentioned), which invalidates them as worthy trivia. As has been said many times, something that can be readily seen or heard simply by watching the film is not valid trivia.

Tailkinker

5th Jun 2008

Lost (2004)

Greatest Hits - S3-E21

Corrected entry: In the first season of Lost we discover, after Charlie calls for help to save a drowning woman, that he can't swim. But in this episode we see him swimming down to the underwater outpost to enable the castaways to get off the island.

Correction: He's been on the island for some considerable time by that point - more than enough to get the hang of it.

Tailkinker

He may have got the basics but to have learnt how to dive is a bit of a stretch.

Ssiscool

29th May 2008

Iron Man (2008)

Corrected entry: In the scene where Tony is testing the maximum altitude capabilities of the mark 02 suit, a schematic of a jet briefly appears in the bottom right hand corner of his head's up display. The jet is the Blackbird - the same jet used by fellow Marvel characters the X men.

Correction: The schematic shown is of the real life Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" aircraft, not the fictional aircraft of the same name used by the X-Men. While the look of the fictional jet was based superficially on the real-life Blackbird, the two are very different.

Tailkinker

Correction: Okay, so you've pointed that out. Now explain why that's a mistake, because, given the mucked-up nature of Banner's physiology, it doesn't seem unreasonable that his eyes might vary in colour.

Tailkinker

Corrected entry: When Marty shows the video to the 1955 Doc, the 1985 Doc on the video states their location as the "Twin Pines Mall". Since Marty already knocked down one of the pines, the mall should've already been renamed to "Lone Pine Mall" on the video.

Correction: The timestream in the Back To The Future series is demonstrated as being somewhat resistant to changes; when Marty interferes with his parents' first meeting, he doesn't start to fade out for about a week after that happens. When Marty shows Doc the video, not enough time has passed for the effects of the timeline change to appear on the tape.

Tailkinker

When someone time travels, they don't change the timeline they are from, they just create branching timelines every time someone makes a decision. This recording was made in the first timeline, so it would still be Twin Pines Mall.

That's not the case though. The photo Marty brings of his siblings fades out, newspaper headlines brought from the past/future change, etc.

Except he was slowly disappearing at the end of the movie. Which wouldn't happen if he was "branching off." They mix up linear timelines and parallel universes in these movies. They always, always screw up time travel movies.

lionhead

Corrected entry: In the diner scene flexible drinking straws are in the drinks. Flexible drinking straws were patented in 1936 and sold to hospitals starting in 1947. Flexible drinking straws were not common in diners in 1957.

Correction: Something being "not common" is not suitable grounds for an error. The straws existed in the time frame of the movie - unless you have a reason why it would be impossible for the straws to be in the diner, then this cannot be considered an error.

Tailkinker

Corrected entry: Early in the film when the children are walking the streets of England, in the background is a structure that resembles likes of the Seattle Space Needle. Being this portion of the film was suppose to be around the time of World War II, it seemed a little odd to have such a futuristic structure in the background.

Correction: This is an opinion, not a mistake. Futuristic looking buildings have always been built - the Space Needle itself looked pretty futuristic when it was built in 1962. Something being "a little odd" doesn't mean it's an error. If you can identify the building and determine the year it was built in as being post-war, then, fine, that's a valid error. As you haven't, it remains purely an opinion.

Tailkinker

Correction: Since it's around WWII it could be a radio aerial, radar mast, or some other function related to the war.

dizzyd

Corrected entry: When the Falcon hides behind the star destroyer, Captain Needa says he will go and apologise to Vader. But when Vader "accepts his apology," he addresses him as Admiral, which of course is an entirely separate rank.

Correction: No he doesn't, he clearly says "Apology accepted, Captain Needa" immediately after killing him. He then talks to Piett, who he correctly addresses as Admiral.

Tailkinker

Corrected entry: Indy is surprised by finding Jack's pet snake in the plane. But how could he not have noticed it on the flight into the forest?

Jacob La Cour

Correction: The snake presumably wasn't in Indy's part of the plane when they flew in and has simply moved while the plane was stationary and waiting for Indy to return.

Tailkinker

22nd May 2008

Thunderbirds (1964)

Brink of Disaster - S1-E22

Corrected entry: Lady Penelope's driving in this episode - as she evades the crooks in the opening scenes - is very proficient and in complete contrast to the atrocious driving that she exhibited in the earlier episode 'Vault of Death'. Perhaps she has had some driving lessons in the meantime?

Correction: Perhaps she has, prompted by the very incident you refer to. Hardly seems unreasonable that she might wish to improve her skills after her abysmal performance in the earlier episode.

Tailkinker

22nd May 2008

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Corrected entry: The loud noise at the end of the movie is what got the symbiote off of Peter. When he was thrown in front of the train, it was honking its horn, which would have rid him of the symbiote then.

Correction: You're assuming that it's purely volume of sound that affects the symbiote, which doesn't fit with what's shown. The two noises that are shown to affect the symbiote are similar - one is a bell, the other could be described as bell-like, albeit harsher. Given that none of the other loud noises in the film appear to have any effect, it seems reasonable to state that it's that particular type of noise that causes the symbiote problems, not just anything loud.

Tailkinker

22nd May 2008

Lost (2004)

Show generally

Corrected entry: They're often trying to figure out who is on the plane, but it would seem pretty easy to determine just by asking questions about innocuous things, such as the layout of Sydney airport, what food/movies they had on the plane, a description of the check-in counter, etc. There are probably hundreds of possible questions that someone who wasn't there wouldn't know.

Japan-Games

Correction: And how much would you honestly notice about the layout of an airport, or the check-in counter (which look pretty much identical in every airport I've ever been in)? There are airports that I've arrived at or departed from, but I couldn't tell you much about the layout - you just follow the signs; you don't need to learn where everything is. Movies? All they have to say is that they didn't watch any or they were asleep so they don't remember. Food? Early on there's still food remaining from the plane, so easy to determine what was on the menu. Who were they sitting next to? Given that the majority of the plane's passengers died, would be relatively easy to simply claim to be sitting next to one of the fatalities. An infiltrator could work out a plausible answer to just about any question that they might be asked, particularly as initially the survivors have no reason to suspect that there could be anyone there who wasn't on the plane, allowing them ample time to research their story.

Tailkinker

22nd May 2008

Iron Man (2008)

Corrected entry: In the scene where Stark/Iron Man gets off the plane after escaping capture and talks to his assistant (forgot her name), his beard looks as though it has been shaved since his time in that cave where he builds his first Iron Man suit and escapes. Either he carries a shaver with him, or there's one on the plane.

Correction: Clearly time will have passed. Stark will have been debriefed by the military about his experiences, he'll have been checked over medically, they didn't just pull him out of the desert, chuck him in the back of a plane and send him home. There's been plenty of time for Stark to find a shaver, particularly as, given that he'll know that he's facing a press conference when he returns, he'll want to try and clean himself up a little.

Tailkinker

Corrected entry: Once Indy has found the grail, he goes back with Elsa to heal his father. But how was it possible for him to get back? Wouldn't he have to face the challenges again, but in reverse order?

Correction: Yes, but he knows what they are now, so he can pretty much just walk (or run) straight through them. The filmmakers just chose not to waste valuable screen-time showing it.

Tailkinker

Correction: Furthermore, he stopped at least one from working.

dizzyd

Exactly this. He stopped the first one from working – the second trap, he can just walk on the exact letters he used on the way in, but backwards. And finally, the third trap: we see him throw sand on, so it is very visible.

jshy7979

22nd May 2008

Titanic (1997)

Corrected entry: In the dinner scene, Rose points out to Jack "John Jacob" (Astor), the richest man on the ship (and also a real person). During the sinking scene, he is seen holding onto a pole in the grand hall when the glass dome breaks and hundreds of tons of water come rushing in. This is not historically accurate, because he survived and was on a life boat the whole time. (No, he did not get on a life boat afterwards.)

Correction: John Jacob Astor IV died on the Titanic. His wife Madeleine survived, but he did not. He was not, however, inside the ship when it sank, but was swimming away and crushed by the forward funnel when it collapsed.

Tailkinker

Correction: In the mythology that underlies the Hellraiser films, death is the fourth dimension; as a fantasy, it's allowed to make up its own rules. Anyway, time is only considered as the fourth dimension in certain situations, most notably when dealing with the non-Euclidean space-time constructs described in Einstein's relativity theories. Many multi-dimensional constructs deal instead with a theoretical fourth spatial dimension (time, obviously, would be temporal, not spatial), which would readily tie into the statement made in the film.

Tailkinker

Corrected entry: After the Grail protector is shot, his shirt covers up his chest, and then someone opens up his shirt to reveal the logo on his chest. Is this normal Nazi practice to check the chests of people after they've died? The Grail Protector gave no indication to the Nazis as to who he was, therefore it was illogical for the Nazis to check.

Correction: A character displaying curiosity is now a plot hole, is it? Do bear in mind that these are Nazis who are specifically looking for the Grail and have studied the legends surrounding the artifact in considerable detail, so they're likely to be aware of possible opposition groups. When they're ambushed and Kazim refers to himself as a messenger from God, it seems entirely reasonable that they would check his chest to see if he carries any identifying marks corresponding to the legends. Given the circumstances, it would really be pretty illogical for them not to check.

Tailkinker

19th May 2008

Ocean's Twelve (2004)

Corrected entry: When discussing the Coronation Egg robbery, Livingstone Dell tells us that the laser grid is random so they wouldn't be able to plan their moves around them. So how could the Night Fox have come up with that cool dance to get passed them?

Correction: He's adapting his moves as the laser grid shifts - it's not pre-planned.

Tailkinker

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