Corrected entry: The film establishes that the core of Mars is made of ice. When planets are coalescing from gas clouds, cumulative gravity draws the heavier materials into the center of the planet. This is why Earth has a nickel-iron core and even gas giants have some solid material in the center. Ice is much too light to occupy this niche in Mars and would have been crushed and replaced by heavier metals in the shell around it, even if the ice was inserted after planetary formation by aliens.
Phoenix
20th Jul 2004
Total Recall (1990)
18th Jul 2004
Stargate (1994)
Corrected entry: Supposedly writing was outlawed because it would prevent the people from having any recollection of history. This totally ignores the idea of oral history, the mechanism used before the development of writing and still used today by Native American and African cultures. In Africa these people are called griots and can literally recite history for days without ever repeating themselves.
Correction: Ra may not have forbidden only writing, but also retelling about the past, which means oral history would be of no help. Furthermore, I doubt even the best of oral retellings could be efficiently transmitted after 3000 years. After all, what would *we* know of ancient Egypt, weren't it for hieroglyphs?
14th Apr 2004
Secret Window (2004)
Corrected entry: The first time Mort sees the mouse in his shower, there are no glass fragments around it. The second time, there are many fragments.
Correction: There is a fragment of glass lying in the shadows. The other fragments are blocked by the shower door, but become visible when Mort slides the door open.
15th Jun 2004
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Corrected entry: When Harry and Lupin are practising the Patronus charm alone, the second time Lupin closes the boggart back into the chest he neglects to lock it in.
Correction: It is opened and locked by magic, as is shown in the close-ups of it opening. After Lupin closes the trunk the second time he leans on it, hits the top of it with his hand, and has a few more moments on and near the trunk while the camera is focused on Harry sitting on the steps. It would have been very easy, during this time, for Lupin to have magically locked the trunk.
1st May 2004
Pitch Black (2000)
Corrected entry: When Riddick and Fry go back for the two survivors, they forget to bring the lights that Riddick offered Fry at the spaceship and instead return with only the first bottle of glow slugs.
Correction: Thie lights Riddick offered are broken. You see him smash them, after he shuts the door of the ship. When he offered them to Fry, he was mocking her.
1st May 2004
Pitch Black (2000)
Corrected entry: How can Riddick possibly examine a skeleton and determine how the sensory system of a completely alien lifeform works enough to discover a binocular blind spot in a predator's vision? Bad enough that a predator wouldn't be able to see something directly in front of it (a massive hole in its hunting ability), but anyone not a trained biologist shouldn't be able to diagnose this from a few minutes with a skeleton.
Correction: He's playing a hunch, nothing more, nothing less. It's not unreasonable to assume that he could make a guess of this nature - given the protrusions on the side of the head, it's a reasonable guess that they might contain sensory organs. And, with regards to their blind spot, you're a predator, too, and you can't see the small area directly in front of your mouth either.
16th May 2004
The Fifth Element (1997)
Corrected entry: It's impossible for Leeloo to learn how to say "Please help" by reading the sign in the back of Korben's cab. She doesn't understand more than a word or two of spoken English, which doesn't prepare her for interpreting graphic symbols and the sounds they represent. (00:35:15)
Correction: I don't think it's possible to state categorically what a supreme being is or is not capable of. Given her 5000-year slumber and the huge change in language in that time period, it would make sense for her to have been given some method to figure out elementary communication as soon as possible.
14th Apr 2004
Hellboy (2004)
Corrected entry: When Hellboy punches the vehicle to save Myers, he knocks the hood off. When the vehicle lands, the hood is still attached.
Correction: No he knocks the front bumper off and creates a huge dent in the front end of the car but the hood stays on the entire time.
23rd Jan 2004
Alien Resurrection (1997)
Corrected entry: Supposedly, the new Queen removed from Ripley is the only vector for recreating the Alien line: Perez is told that the Queen will begin producing eggs in a few days. But at the end of the movie, we find that the Queen is now using a reproductive system based on humans, giving birth to live young rather than laying eggs. If the scientists could salvage eggs from another site, why would they bother cloning Ripley?
Correction: In the script for the film it is revealed that the Alien Queen was able to produce eggs AND give birth to live young, as a result of the cloning process. The eggs the Queen produced for the first batch of hosts probably were created and stored before the hosts arrived. The reference to laying eggs was probably for the second batch of eggs to be laid, as the scientists planned to make as many aliens as possible, and were waiting on other batches of human cargo to arrive for them to impregnate.
21st Jan 2004
Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997)
Reptile Boy - S2-E5
Corrected entry: Why did the frat boys bother kidnapping a girl at least a week before the ceremony? They apparently don't care if the sacrifices are connected to each other and had no trouble attracting women to their frat house.
Correction: They only choose certain girls for Machida - although their criteria are never explicitly stated, the fact that Tom is desperate for Buffy to go suggests that they pick their victims carefully rather than just dragging in some random girl at the party. If they specifically wanted Callie for the sacrifice it would make sense to grab her the first chance they got, even if that meant holding her captive for a week.
2nd Jan 2004
Paycheck (2003)
Corrected entry: Jennings says he could only move things into the delivery envelope addressed to himself if they were innocuous items cleared by security. Why would they allow him to export a security pass?
Correction: Jennings could only get innocent items out of facility security. His pass would have been a perfectly ordinary item for him to carry in and out of the building during his three year service. He obviously wasn't confined to the building during his stay. For the follow-up question of why he couldn't include a letter to himself in the envelope he substituted for the original, recall he got picked up by the FBI who went through his envelope. If he had communicated to himself; he'd have been communicating to them as well. It also seems likely that [don't know the character name] gave up on finding Jennings after he found the watch, even though he knew Jennings was alive. Jennings couldn't have recreated the machine without his partner, and they didn't have the machine intact. Also, since Jennings had beaten them all every step of the way with his foresight, he'd have arranged to have protected himself against further investigation. He, perhaps better than anybody else at the end understood that they were simply wasting their time - he had beaten them before they even began.
2nd Jan 2004
Paycheck (2003)
Corrected entry: When Ben Affleck is figuring out where he sabotaged the machine, he says there are only two things left in the envelope: the bullet and the crossword puzzle. Why didn't he consider the watch on his wrist? He had no idea what it did, and it hadn't triggered yet.
Correction: Mike already assumes that the watch has been 'used' since it was taken out of the envelope in the beginning by the FBI agent and put on his wrist. The watch had a double purpose; identifying that the contents of the envelope was his (the tan lines matched), and warning him to 'go'. Even though it's second purpose hadn't been served yet, it's assumed that anything outside the envelope shouldn't be needed anymore, therefore he wouldn't second guess this.
29th Nov 2003
Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997)
School Hard - S2-E3
Corrected entry: In the scene where Spike is introduced, one vampire boasts, "When I kill the slayer, it will be the greatest event since the crucifixion." But slayers die every 5-10 years, and have for millenia. What makes killing Buffy special enough to warrant this?
13th Nov 2003
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Corrected entry: When Morpheus is pulling the Keymaker off Trinity's motorcycle and onto the truck, he sticks his sword into the side of the truck and stands on it to reach him. However, he sticks the blade in vertically, so the edge faces the ground. Given that the sword cut easily through the greater part of the Twins' vehicle, shouldn't his weight be enough to force that strong, sharp blade down the side of the truck? (01:32:10)
Correction: Debatable, as while he does stick it vertically, the blade is also pointing upwards, meaning the blunt side is facing the ground, and would be a lot harder to force through the metal.
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Correction: Quaid (Arnold) says this, but I wouldn't say that means that "the film establishes it". Quaid is not a scientist and has no idea how this thing works. He sees a big patch of ice in a cave and decides the whole core of Mars is ice, it's probably just one ancient ocean that drained into an underground cave system and froze.
Myridon