The Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone (1959)

31 factual errors - chronological order

(9 votes)

The Lonely - S1-E7

Factual error: Corey is in solitary confinement on an asteroid. However, asteroids are neither large enough nor stable enough to hold an atmosphere. In addition, the distance from earth stated in the episode wouldn't be much further than the moon; there are no asteroids in a stable, regular orbit around the the moon or the earth, nor around the sun anywhere that close to earth.

mirtom

The Last Flight - S1-E18

Factual error: At the end of the episode, Major General George Harper looks out the window, puzzled. As he looks out the window, we see a palm tree in front of the building that is facing the window. Reims, France, is in northern France, where it is too cold to support that kind of tree. (00:23:00)

thatsabear

The Last Flight - S1-E18

Factual error: Decker is flying a Nieuport 28, which entered service in early 1918. However, the date is supposed to be March 5, 1917. Furthermore, the Nieuport was a French-built aircraft that was flown by the French and Americans but not the Royal Flying Corps.

mirtom

The Purple Testament - S1-E19

Factual error: Captain Riker and Lt. Fitzgerald are wearing their insignia, which is incorrect. Officers serving in front line units did not wear their insignia because it identified them as high priority targets for Japanese snipers.

mirtom

Elegy - S1-E20

Factual error: The astronauts land on an asteroid said to orbit a binary star 655 million miles from Earth. This is impossible, as that distance would place them well within our solar system. In fact, they'd be inside the orbit of Saturn, where of course there aren't (nor could there be) any extraneous suns. The nearest star to our system is, in fact, trillions (not millions) of miles away. (00:02:15 - 00:04:00)

Jean G

Long Live Walter Jameson - S1-E24

Factual error: When Walter is reading the diary of the Civil War soldier at the beginning of the program, he reads an entry from "Tuesday, September 11, 1864." Tuesday, September 11, 1864 was a Sunday.

mirtom

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The modern lighter, which use ferrocerium to create a spark, was developed in 1903. Caswell was from 1880. This would have been different then anything he would have seen.

Bishop73

The Mighty Casey - S1-E35

Factual error: The baseball field is said to be in Hoboken, New Jersey, but palm trees are visible outside the ballpark at the beginning of the episode.

Mr. Dingle, the Strong - S2-E19

Factual error: Though this episode is set in then-present-day 1961, the fistful of prop money the bartender is holding is not contemporary. It appears to be copies of 1880s U.S. Currency, though it's been reproduced as smaller, 20th Century sized bills rather than the larger ones that were standard in the 1800s. All in all, not something his bar patrons would likely be paying the bartender with in the 1960s. (00:16:40)

Jean G

The Rip Van Winkle Caper - S2-E24

Factual error: When they looked at Mr. Herbie's case, they only saw the skeleton. Problem is the clothing was missing, where there should have been some remnants. And the vehicle started with no trouble. After a hundred years, the battery should have been dead, and the engine inoperable.

Movie Nut

The Midnight Sun - S3-E10

Factual error: The premise for this episode has a major flaw: the only things that could shift the Earth's orbit significantly are a near passage of or a collision with an astronomical body of sufficient size to alter the course of a body weighing 6.6 sextillion tons - the mass of the Earth. Either event would cause sufficient disturbances that cities would probably not be left standing, nor would there be anyone left to stay in or flee from them. While the events of the episode are mostly a dream, the revelation is that the earth is actually moving away from the sun, not towards it, so the mistake applies regardless.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The Earth's orbit moves outward and away from the Sun about 1.5cm every year. Eventually though the Earth will lose orbital energy and spiral into the Sun. Norma and the rest of Earth exist in a time when the planet has moved away from the Sun.

immortal eskimo

Five Characters in Search of an Exit - S3-E14

Factual error: When all 5 prisoners stand on each other's shoulders with the ballerina on top, she still can't reach the edge of the cylinder. But when just the 4 men do the same thing and the major throws his rope over the edge, he is somehow far closer to the top than he should be. He ought to be the ballerina's height and then some away - but he isn't. (00:21:30)

Jean G

A Kind of a Stopwatch - S5-E4

Other mistake: When McNulty uses the stopwatch to rob a bank, he goes through a small wooden door and past the employees. With time frozen, the small door should have stayed open but immediately swings shut.

More mistakes in The Twilight Zone

The Obsolete Man - S2-E29

[A bomb in Wadsworth's room is seconds from going off, causing the Chancellor to panic].
Chancellor: Please, please let me out. In the name of God, let me out. Let me out! Let me out!
Wadsworth: Yes, Chancellor. In the name of God, I will let you out.

More quotes from The Twilight Zone

Come Wander with Me - S5-E34

Trivia: Producer William Froug rejected an extremely nervous young singer/actress auditioning for the part of Mary Rachel, and recalls thinking that "I'll probably kick myself. She'll probably be a big star." He turned out to be right on both counts. The aspiring young singer's name was Liza Minnelli.

Jean G

More trivia for The Twilight Zone

Answer: It's explained in the episode. The aliens are experimenting to see how humans react to various scenarios. This just happens to involve them using super strength.

Thanks. It's been a long time since I saw the episode so I forgot.

More questions & answers from The Twilight Zone

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