Factual error: When someone dies with their eyes open and another character can close the dead person's eyes by gently running their hand over their face. The eyes of a dead body won't stay shut that way.
lionhead
21st Oct 2018
Common mistakes
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Suggested correction: This is partially true. If the person is recently deceased then you can close the eyes with relative ease. If however they have been deceased long enough for rigor mortis to set in then the mistake is valid. It's a tough one to be honest.
That's not true at all. Muscles can not contract after death. Therefore, if someone tries to close the eyes of someone who is dead, the eyes will open back up to their original positions. They only way they can stay closed is if someone seals them shut, in the case after death, a wet swap may work, which is not what they commonly do in films.
This isn't correct. Medical staff or family members usually close the eyelids manually immediately after the heart stops. As rigor mortis sets in, the eyelids will stiffen in whatever position they are currently in.
Very true, although rigor mortis is only a later factor. When one moves the upper eyelids over the iris, which is a bulge, it usually prevents the eyelid from opening again. The only problem there can be is the lower eyelids not closing properly. Since they rest at the bottom, the eyelids need to be held together then. But the eyelid muscle is in a relaxed position when closed, so that is the natural state of the eyelid and won't just "pop" open. Not until the eyeball retracts into the socket.
31st Jan 2026
The Terminator (1984)
Other mistake: When Reese looks up Sarah's address in the phone book, it is on the right side of the book. Same thing for Sarah. However, when the Terminator checks the phone book, the names are on the left. Maybe in 1984, Los Angeles had multiple versions of the phone book to cause this "error," but if not, that is the issue.
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Suggested correction: According to a quick search, there were multiple versions of the phonebook available in the 1980s. The most common difference was between versions that held exclusively white pages (residential numbers) and versions that had both white and yellow pages (business numbers), which probably had different formats. But in 1984, there even was a break in AT&T's monopoly on phonebook publishing, causing a widespread number of different phonebook versions to appear, especially in Southern California (according to AI).
30th Jan 2026
The Big Bang Theory (2007)
The Vartabedian Conundrum - S2-E10
Character mistake: Sheldon's is depicted as someone who rigidly adheres to his daily routines, such as knocking three times on doors and his bathroom schedule. In this episode, we see how he wakes up by performing his morning vocal tests. But throughout the show, whenever we see Sheldon wake up, he never performed this test again.
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Suggested correction: Maybe he only does it when he feels he needs to. For example, when he thinks he is losing his voice or coughed a lot during the night. Just because we see it once doesn't mean that he always did/will.
30th Jan 2026
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Other mistake: Talia has connected earlobes, but the child version of her does not.
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Suggested correction: I think there are a lot more differences in appearance between Marion Cotillard and Joey King besides the ear lobes. They are different people after all. It's not a mistake to have two different people play the same character at a different age. It's inevitable.
Explaining why a mistake occurred doesn't change the fact that it's still a mistake.
It's not a mistake if nothing went wrong, though. You can't expect them to find a young actress that is completely similar in appearance to the adult version of that character. That you can see it's not really the same person, only younger, is not a mistake. I think something can be said about eye colour or hair colour, maybe, but earlobes, not so much. Their mouths and noses are different too; you can make a list of mistakes then. They can only get it as close as they can get it, so it's not a mistake.
You're literally admitting they don't look alike, thus creating a continuity gaffe... which is a movie mistake... and then trying to claim it's not a mistake. Yes, it's true that finding a child actor that looks the same would be difficult, but that doesn't nullify the fact that earlobes can't change that radically from childhood to adulthood. That's a completely different thing than face/nose shape, eye colour, and hair colour, which can in fact subtly change with age.
15th Jan 2026
The Terminator (1984)
Visible crew/equipment: Michael Bein runs into a department store after asking the cop what year it is. He turns to the left to run into the actual store, and something that blocks the shot on the left side is moved out of the way.
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Suggested correction: I don't see anything being moved. Can you be more specific? It's a fast scene with him running and a camera running right after him. I doubt there is someone there moving stuff out of the way. There is a pillar in view after he turns left towards the door of the store, and he goes left past it (with a nice whirl) whilst the camera passes it on the right.
5th Jan 2026
Stranger Things (2016)
Stupidity: Eleven could have looked for Hopper and found out that he isn't dead.
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5th Jan 2026
Breaking Bad (2008)
Plot hole: It doesn't make much sense that Marie had to ask Walt and Skyler to pay Hank's medical bills. They both make good money! Hank is a DEA agent and she is some kind of medical professional. There is no reason in the world that this couple cannot afford this. Same thing with Walt.
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Suggested correction: Their insurance doesn't cover the bills; without that, bills can stack up quickly. You need a lot higher salary than a DEA agent to cover it, even if he got as high as 120,000 USD a year. Marie can't work as she is taking care of her husband.
3rd Jan 2026
The Blues Brothers (1980)
Plot hole: I never understood this... if the Good Ole Boys were running so late that the place was already closed, what would the Bunker have done if the Blues Brothers Band never showed up in the first place? There would be no band playing at all and then the amount of beer bottles being thrown around would be 100 times more than what was thrown at the Blues Brothers playing that first song. What would Bob have done with no band showing up at all? So technically the Blues Brothers saved the day.
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Suggested correction: Hardly a plot hole if what they did was save the day for the bar. The original band not showing up is just really lucky for Jake and Elwood; the only thing that could have saved them doing a gig and not have the band members leave again. Without any band, the bar would probably just be more deserted, rather than full like it was.
3rd Nov 2014
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Corrected entry: Doc and Marty could not know where the 2015 Marty lives and go there to get 1985 Jenifer.
Correction: He'd been there once before taking Marty to the future. When hearing about Marty McFly. Jr, he could have done a background search on him, including age, phone number, and address.
Correction: Marty tells Doc twice to look him up when he gets to the future. Marty would have purposely left himself very locatable in the White Pages or whatever public directory was available in 2015, so he could reunite with Doc. Off camera, Doc goes to the future, finds Marty quite easily, and instantly comes back to 1985 to fetch Marty. 1985 Marty does not know where 2015 Marty lives, but Doc does.
14th Dec 2025
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Plot hole: When Marion is being carried in the basket, being chased by Indy, he is hot on their heels the entire time. She's placed on the truck with the ammunition, only to explode when it topples over while trying to get away. Marion's dead. Later, he finds her in Belloq's tent very much alive. Indy concludes they must have switched baskets. When did her abductors have the opportunity to do that, and why would the Germans be in a hot hurry to get the truck out of there if the basket was empty?
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Suggested correction: He concludes they switched baskets, but they didn't. He's not in hot pursuit either because he has to retreat and hide behind a wall from the machine gun once he gets to the truck. They put the basket with Marion inside the truck but simply got it out before it started driving. Indy could have never seen that and there is no basket in the truck that explodes. They wanted it out of there because it is full of explosives and possibly as a diversion for where they were really taking Marion.
28th Nov 2025
Deep Impact (1998)
Factual error: The impact wave hitting the east coast is said to be faster than sound. Despite that, you still can hear the wave coming before it arrives in multiple scenes. If it actually was faster than sound, you would not hear the wave before arrival.
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Suggested correction: The president claims the wave will be going at the speed of sound at first, but as it reaches the coast, it will slow down whilst rising in height. So it will not be going faster than the speed of sound anymore.
28th Nov 2025
Commando (1985)
Plot hole: There's no way nobody could have heard the ruckus when John brutally slams the guy and knocks him out with his elbow on the plane, especially the people sitting right in front of him. (00:22:15)
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Suggested correction: You are making an assumption. The plane was taxiing; there is a lot of ruckus. As for the people in front of him, one was reading and the other sleeping, so quite distracted. The sound could have been some luggage falling.
14th May 2003
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Corrected entry: While they are in the German camp around the well of souls, Sallah is trying to blend in with the other native workers. As he passes a long table of Germans eating, a few call out in German for water (Wasser) yet he replies in English "I'll go and get you some water" a number of times. Not very undercover.
Correction: The scene is set in Egypt, and Sallah is Egyptian, so when the German soldiers want water, he is not going to reply to them in German. He would reply to them in Arabic, but for the sake of expediency with the dialogue, Sallah is speaking in English. Since he is also native to the area, he is also dressed accordingly.
It would not be conspicuous for an Egyptian digger to speak a few words in another language (here English), as they would have worked with foreign archaeologists in the past.
Or the fact that Egypt was then still a British protectorate, so natives learning that language was probably not uncommon.
21st Oct 2025
Stripes (1981)
Stupidity: When Capt. Stillman orders the soldier to launch the live mortar shell without verifying the coordinates, it lands way off course where Sgt. Hulka and his platoon are training, almost killing them. This would have been a court-martial offense for Capt. Stillman, not to mention the national media coverage it would have generated. But Capt. Stillman retains his position without any consequences.
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Suggested correction: Realistically, of course. But this is a comedy. Stupid things are supposed to happen to add to the humour. I mean later in the movie, they steal a top secret military vehicle and use it to cross into Eastern Europe. They should all go to jail for life. But of course, that would be a really bad ending for a comedy.
21st Oct 2025
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Corrected entry: Just before they swing over the chasm to retrieve the statue, the man accompanying Indiana Jones (Satipo) is holding a flame torch. When they swing over the chasm, Satipo is no longer holding the torch.
Correction: That's because he simply discarded the torch. He probably dropped it when he saw the corpse come out of the wall or did it later as they were walking further. It's also not "just before they swing"; there is a long time passing between him holding the torch and seeing him without it.
17th Oct 2025
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Plot hole: Why does the T-800 break the fire door of the mall and walk up the emergency exit corridor? This only makes any sense when he knows that John and the T-1000 are on the way to bump into him there. But he cannot possibly know, nor expect it.
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17th Oct 2025
Men in Black 3 (2012)
Other mistake: When K wipes little James' memory at Cape Canaveral, he uses a small neuralyzer, but we've seen at the beginning that in 1969 the MiB only have the big tubes, and K doesn't have J's future neuralyzer anymore; he gave it back already after their mono-wheels chase.
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Suggested correction: What K has is probably their first and only portable neuralyzer, maybe even a prototype. The big one is their main neuralyzer. You may notice there are no dials on this one, so he has no ability to wipe a specific amount of memory.
15th Oct 2025
The Exorcist (1973)
Other mistake: When Karras throws himself out of the window, why is a man who needs a cane running full speed down those steep steps? It makes no sense since people use canes for balance.
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Suggested correction: Some people have a cane as a fashion statement. Also, it's possible the cane helps but is not totally necessary, certainly able to be ignored when rushing to an emergency.
16th Oct 2025
Alien: Earth (2025)
Factual error: After the spaceship collides with another craft in orbit, it crashes through multiple buildings before coming to a stop embedded in a large structure. Despite this violent descent and impact, scenes inside the wreck show delicate objects, like equipment, containers, and tools, still neatly resting on tables and shelves instead of being thrown around by the crash. (00:48:55)
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Suggested correction: It is a spaceship built and controlled by advanced future technology; there could be several systems on that ship preventing items from being thrown about. A popular technology in sci-fi is inertia dampers or null fields that can hold items in place.
While "inertial dampeners" exist in other sci-fi, Alien: Earth never establishes such tech. The Alien series is known for grounded, industrial realism; objects always scatter in crashes or turbulence. Given the ship's massive impact through buildings, items staying neatly on tables isn't consistent with the tone or physics of the series.
1) The ships have artificial gravity and faster-than-light drives. This means that they are able to manipulate Newtonian physics. 2) Doesn't the fact that everything isn't smashed establish that they have some kind of "inertial dampers"?
15th Oct 2025
The Boys (2019)
Beware the Jabberwock, My Son - S4-E5
Plot hole: In the barn scene, Butcher and the team escape attacking V'd-up sheep using a corpse injected with the virus as bait. Afterward, Sameer is missing, and only his leg is found. Later, it's revealed that Kessler, who supposedly abducted Sameer, isn't real; he's a hallucination caused by Butcher's tumor. This means Butcher somehow kidnapped Sameer, amputated his leg, and hid him during the chaos without anyone noticing. How did he get Sameer away, unheard and unseen, and then make it back?
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Suggested correction: This is in the form of a question, not an actual plot hole. Butcher's abuse of V and the brain tumor gave him superpowers; besides tentacles, it's possible he possesses more. He was able to do all that using his superpowers.
No, asking the question at the end is framing it to make you think; it doesn't take away that this is submitted as a plot hole. And while I understand what you're saying, it still wouldn't really account for him being able to sneak away with Sameer, cut off his leg without anybody seeing or hearing, hide the leg and stash Sameer somewhere, and then make it back in just seconds unless he had speed like A-Train. A serious retcon or shoehorn will have to be put in season 5 to account for this.