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Machismo - S1-E19

Factual error: In this episode Gideon mentions Andrei Chikatilo, and says that he lived in Ukraine (and that this is why he remained uncaught for so long). While Chikatilo was born in Ukraine, he lived in Russia for most of his life, and all of his murders happened here. An expert like Gideon should not make this kind of mistake.

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Factual error: In the first scene, McGivens appears and demonstrates the new repeating rifle, and even mentions that it is a Henry Repeater. This brand of rifle was not invented until the late 1850s, almost a decade after the events depicted in this movie.

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Factual error: To reveal the invisible ink on the back of the Declaration, Ben and Dr. Chase use pure lemon juice before warming the surface. This is best seen when Chase first test it out on the corner, where the Mason symbol is placed. Lemon juice is in fact also used as invisible ink (that you have to heat to make visible), and this procedure would have ruined anything written on the back of the document.

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Factual error: When Dick has fallen into the hole in the swamp and is shooting at alligators, he manages to fire eight shots from a six-shot revolver.

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Factual error: In the movie, Pontius Pilate is appointed to be governor of Judea around AD 32 (Judah is enslaved in AD 28, spends 3 years as a slave and then at least one year with Arrius before he meets Pilate, who is still not appointed). In reality, Pilate was the governor of Judea from AD 26-36.

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Factual error: The movie takes place in Des Plaines, Illinois, with a couple of scenes from downtown Chicago. However, throughout the movie you can see both palm trees and mountains in the background, none of which actually exist in Illinois. The producers also point this out on the DVD commentary.

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Factual error: In his fight against Dennis and the Jabberwocky, the Black Knight uses a flamberge, a very distinct two-handed sword (note the little "crescent" hooks on the blade). The only problem is that these swords are a German design from the 15th century, more than 200 years after the movie is said to take place.

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Factual error: The damage done by the hobgoblin-induced fantasies is real, as seen several times in the movie. Kyle's car runs off a cliff, Nick's grenades really explode, etc. Nick is in one scene set ablaze by throwing himself on a grenade, and is completely engulfed in flames from his head to his toes. But he shows up in the last scene with nothing but a few minor burns on his forearms and a pair of crutches (that he immediately discards). His hair and eyelashes are not even singed.

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Factual error: During the final fight in the palace, the traitor Takmet wears chainmail, more than 2000 years before it was invented. This movie takes place before the Pyramids were built (ca. 3200 BC), and chainmail was not invented until 1000 BC.

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Factual error: During Memnon's training session, at least one of his opponents uses a Japanese training sword known as a shinai. You can see this most clearly after the fight, when one of the weapons lying on the ground comes into view. Not only did the Egyptians and Japanese not have any contact with each other at this time, but this particular training weapon had not yet been invented.

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Factual error: When Dr. Chase receives the Washington campaign button from Ben Gates, she immediately picks it up with her bare fingers and rubs it with her thumb. An expert collector would *never* handle metal objects with their bare hands like this, as the acid on the fingers will corrode the metal. Cleaning the coin afterwards is also not an option, as this presents an even higher damage risk to the coin. See http://www.stujoe.com/content/view/30/34/ for more details on this subject.

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European Road Show - S3-E20

Factual error: When Peter has his KISS trivia game with Dave the nudist, he asks what the ad read that brought Peter Criss to KISS, and they both answer in unison: "Drummer willing to do anything to make it". In fact, the ad read: "Drummer with 15 years' experience willing to do anything to make it". As the original ad is referenced and shown in several biographies on KISS, as well as the "KISS: eXposed" video, it's not something these two trivia experts would have missed. (00:11:00)

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Factual error: In the deleted scene where Bill kills the black guy and his henchmen, Bill slits the throat of the black man, and then sheathes the sword immediately. This would cause the blood to clot the inside of the scabbard, making it sticky and difficult to draw the sword. And if left long enough, it would rust the blade. The scabbard will have to be taken apart to be cleaned properly, which would be a lot of meaningless extra work, instead of simply taking 5 seconds to wipe the blade. A swordsman of Bill's caliber would never have mistreated his weapon like that. It is like seeing a soldier deliberately burying his rifle in mud to give himself a nice, long job of cleaning afterwards.

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Factual error: Murphy tells the story of the "Mary Celeste" all wrong. As this is a real incident, from real life, there would be no need for him to make anything up or tell it as a "tall tale", and as a professional salvage expert he would be familiar with it. The "Mary Celeste" was carrying 1700 barrels of denatured alcohol, not cotton, like he says. And she did not sail into the Mediterranean on her own to be found off Tripoli, but was discovered straight on course in the Atlantic, despite having been abandoned for some time (according to the last log entry). See http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmaryceleste.html for more details.

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