Corrected entry: It's just a parody/absurd sequence, but it's odd that with over two dozen bullets shot from barely a dozen feet of distance, just a couple entry wounds appear on the body of the runaway Seinfeld. Of course no blood either, but that's a necessity given the type of show. (00:08:55)
Phaneron
25th Feb 2020
Seinfeld (1990)
9th Feb 2020
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
Corrected entry: Grace could not know that Daniela was working in the car factory.
8th Jan 2020
Common mistakes
Corrected entry: Characters that are supposed to be blood relatives, but have no familial resemblance.
Correction: Blood relatives do not always resemble each other.
That's not really a "common mistake", though since it's never a mistake to have blood relatives that do not resemble each other.
I mostly agree. Family members often look too different to be biologically related. Even if an effort is made, for example, to have a son look like his father, some things don't sync - like a different face shape/bone structure or skin tone (not due to tanning). One example of father/son dissimilarities are in The War of the Worlds - the boy playing Tom Cruise's son has a completely different facial shape/structure. Regarding skin tone, in Boyhood the sister of Mason has a different skin tone than the rest of the family - and it stands out.
I'm probably a bit sensitive to this since my family members don't all have a strong resemblance to each other, but it's absolutely possible, especially if your family tree is diverse in genetics/ appearance. It happens more often than not in movies, but it's not a mistake. (And who's to say that in many of these cases people weren't adopted?).
11th Sep 2017
It (2017)
Factual error: Nivea Soft Cream is on the shelves at the chemist - this did not exist in 1989, when the film is set.
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Suggested correction: I think the date is subject to debate. The only thing we really have to go on is it's 2019 in chapter 2, and It comes back every 27 years which would be 1992.
The date is not subject to debate. The marquee on the movie theater is advertising both "Batman" and "Lethal Weapon 2," placing the movie in the summer of 1989.
There is no debate about the date. After the title card it says "June 1989." The opening scene took place "October 1988."
5th Sep 2011
Batman and Robin (1997)
Corrected entry: Batman couldn't possibly have his own credit card. Obtaining a credit card requires proof of identification and a billing address, neither of which Batman would submit for obvious reasons. Nor would it be a credit card that he issued himself through Wayne Enterprises because the credit card company would see that a Wayne Enterprises Corporate credit card was used at a charity event that was attended by Batman and would subsequently reveal his secret identity (not to mention that Batman intends on using the card for a $7 million purchase, which is not a price anyone is going to turn a blind eye to), which is not something Batman would risk. And although the Bat-credit card may be a jokey reference to the 60s TV series, Batman still demonstrates his intent on using the card to secure his bid for a date with Poison Ivy, which means that in the context of the film, the credit card is functional.
Correction: Granted that the movie takes place in the real-time calendar year 1997; keep in mind that major federal banking laws were not enforced too seriously at the time, plus this was the time way before the USA Patriot Act was created and strictly enforced after the September 11 terrorist attacks. I can understand that even if Bruce Wayne did manage to have his own bank and provided a line of credit to Batman still like everyone else he had to submit to US federal banking laws (FCRA, ECOA and the like.) Let alone the general public will find it too suspicious why a private citizen would give a line of credit to a superhero in the first place. Either way, it's all within the DC World fantasy.
I would be too young to remember, but prior to online shopping, weren't people usually required to present their ID when making a credit card purchase? When I had my first job, if someone was making a purchase with the credit card, our boss required us to check their ID. I mean, if I was holding a fundraiser and someone pledged $1 million, I would want them to provide valid ID in case they decided to welch on the payment.
7th Jan 2013
Lockout (2012)
Plot hole: Hock sneaks a gun into the prisoner interrogation area because he is told that guns are not allowed there. If the prison was so strict about keeping guns out of that area then they would surely have metal detectors to prevent such a thing from happening. (00:15:25)
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Suggested correction: Not a plot hole at all. Most of the people who are allowed in those areas will be government employees, who will be deemed trusted enough to follow the rules.
14th Jan 2020
The Ring (2002)
Visible crew/equipment: When Noah and Rachel get back home to Aiden and Noah picks him up you can see a crew member's silhouette in front of a window. (01:36:44)
28th Aug 2014
Boy Meets World (1993)
And in Case I Don't See Ya - S6-E10
Corrected entry: You can see some equipment when the water pours on Jack.
Correction: You should see equipment. This scene/episode is a parody of "The Truman Show," and Eric has placed equipment all over his apartment for the purpose of filming and toying with his roommates, including a rain machine.
14th Jul 2005
Spaceballs (1987)
Corrected entry: When Princess Vespa comes out of Yogurt's tunnel, she says, "Daddy, is it really you?" but her lips don't move.
18th Dec 2019
Common mistakes
Corrected entry: A more recent goof in the action and spy thriller genres, a group of henchmen setting out on a mission in black SUVs will be tailgating each other. If any car other than the one in the rear were to slam on their brakes, it could potentially cause a pileup.
Correction: Some police and military teams practise driving fast and close to prevent other vehicles coming between the ones in the convoy. Since the bad guys in current movies are often shown to be ex-military, this may be the reason they drive like that. That's speculation but it is no more or less credible than them being licensed to carry automatic weapons or explosives. Depends on the quality of the movie and the willing suspension of disbelief of the audience.
The difference being that police and military teams will be sanctioned to drive like that. In addition to being a dangerous driving habit, tailgating is also illegal. So henchmen and mercenaries driving like that in civilian vehicles could also draw the attention of law enforcement who could pull them over and put a monkey wrench in their mission plans, especially if they discover illegal weapons.
19th Jul 2019
Captain Marvel (2019)
Factual error: Vers hit Earth at night in California. Dawn comes, and the Skrulls are coming out of the surf with the sun low on the horizon. The sun rises in the east, not over the ocean.
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Suggested correction: There are west-facing bays in California.
That would still make Earth's rotation in reverse. West-facing bays always feature sunsets, not sunrises as the OP notes.
A "West-facing bay" means the bay (body of water) faces the west. Those standing on the shore looking out into the bay would then be facing East.
4th Dec 2019
Spider-Man (1994)
Neogenic Nightmare Chapter 11: Tablet of Time - S2-E9
Factual error: When Peter is walking Alissa home, the traffic signal at the intersection they stop at goes from red to yellow to green. Not what US traffic signals do - they go straight from red to green.
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Suggested correction: Not entirely true; although they are rare and may no longer exist now, I've seen traffic lights that followed the red, yellow, green pattern as recently as the mid-1990s.
Interesting. What state (s) did you see this in? I'm assuming going from red to yellow was to encourage cars to cautiously enter the intersection in case someone was running a red light?
Traffic lights in the UK do this - it's more to give you a second to get ready, in gear, etc., then as soon as the lights turn green you can go. Otherwise you get no warning of when the lights are about to change.
In Illinois; as I said, such traffic lights are rare, but they did exist at least as recently as the time this episode of the series aired, and they may still possibly exist in larger cities such as New York City.
This traffic light set-up (red to yellow to green) still exists today in the UK. From what I understand, it is to alert the driver that the light will be turning green imminently and to prepare themselves to put their car in gear, as manual cars are still pretty common in Europe. I'd wager this light cycle was phased out of North America due to the abundance of automatic cars today. Could have been different in 1994 though.
It should be noted that traffic lights that go from red to yellow before going green keep the red light illuminated so that both red and yellow are lit up. However, that's not what happens in the scene. I've never seen a traffic light operate the way it's shown. And Massachusetts still has traffic lights that go from red to yellow, however, when red and yellow are lit up together, this allows for pedestrian crossing.
15th Nov 2019
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Corrected entry: Spider-Man and Mysterio fight the Fire Elemental. After his destruction, Peter runs to Mysterio and picks him up. How did he do that if Mysterio's hologram was fighting the Elemental? (00:58:18)
15th Nov 2019
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Corrected entry: Spider-man and Mysterio fight the first Elemental. On the bridge, the elemental beats Peter Parker and he is wet. This could not be, because the water elemental is a hologram. Spider-man couldn't get wet from a hologram. (00:21:35)
Correction: In addition to holograms, Mysterio uses drones to cause real damage. Otherwise, his con would be figured out very easily. In this case, the hologram obscures drones that blast water from the canal (or possibly even collect water and spray it) which then get Peter wet.
I don't think drones are capable of doing that, as we've seen they're only capable of firing guns.
We saw them traveling underwater toward Tower Bridge and firing causing water to spray up.
I think Spider-Man being wet is sufficient evidence that the drones are capable of more than shooting guns. Why call it a mistake when it's perfectly reasonable for it to be drones even if not explicitly shown?
But their firepower could splash water up and make Peter wet though. So he got wet from splashing water from all the firepower upon the water and bridge.
18th Oct 2006
The Departed (2006)
Corrected entry: When Costello's hooligans drive away from 344 Wash after the shoot-out, Queenan's body on the ground is quite obviously a dummy.
Correction: Too vague. What makes it so obvious that it is a dummy?
They ran over it.
And? We know they aren't going to run over the actor for real, so a dummy has to be used. That would be like saying the blood squibs and blanks from guns are obvious because the actors weren't really shot. Putting aside filmmaking techniques, what stands out from the dummy that in the context of verisimilitude, it's distinguishable from a dead body?
14th Nov 2002
The Ring (2002)
Corrected entry: In the scene where Noah breaks into the mental institution's record room and is looking through Anna's files, there is a visible arm with a blue sleeve to his right, even though he is alone. (01:06:20)
Correction: I played this scene three times and couldn't see any arm with a blue sleeve. Noah is standing in a narrow corridor with his profile to the audience with file shelves both in front of and behind him. For an arm to appear to his right with respect to his position, most of, if not the entire body of the owner of the alleged arm would have to be visible. If the arm is supposed to be to his right with respect to the viewer's perspective, it would have to reach out either from behind or through the shelves behind him.
2nd Nov 2003
The Ring (2002)
Continuity mistake: When Noah drops Rachel off at the ferry and hands over Aidan's drawing it is pouring. However, only in close-ups of Rachel we see rain coming down in front of her face, but not when the camera shows Noah. (00:52:45)
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Suggested correction: You actually can see the rain falling when the camera is on Noah. It just isn't as noticeable because of the lighting. It's similar to if you look outside during a rainstorm at night and you can't see the rainfall that well unless you are looking at a street light or porch light.
4th Nov 2019
Dexter (2006)
The Big One - S5-E12
Corrected entry: When speaking with Deb about a current case, she references Brian Moser, aka Deb's ex-fiance aka Dexter's brother aka the Ice Truck Killer. Dexter calls him "Rudy" instead of Brian. (00:11:33)
16th Nov 2018
Walk the Line (2005)
Corrected entry: Roy Orbison in the 50s is playing barre chords on his guitar which were not invented then.
Correction: Barre chords have been around for centuries.
12th Oct 2019
Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)
Stupidity: When Joey is trying to escape from the Cenobites, she bumps into a man who calls her "Baby" and wonders where she's off to in such a hurry, possibly because he's looking for a booty call. The streets are literally on fire (there's a huge flame right next to the man) and buildings are exploding. Even if he's extremely horny, he should still be able to tell a woman doesn't want to stay around with so much chaos and destruction happening around them.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: The dude was probably high on various types of drugs and probably didn't even know where he was. Just a thought.
Too high to recognize buildings exploding and fires bursting from out of nowhere, but not too high to recognize a woman in distress?
He didn't recognize much did he? Well, he saw she was female. But not really what was going on.
He recognized she was off somewhere in a hurry. He also had a pretty instant reaction to seeing the Camerahead Cenobite.
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Correction: It's a dream sequence. It doesn't have to follow the rules of reality. I frequently have dreams that logically make no sense.
Phaneron ★
I know, I know, but never been a big fan of giving a free pass to dream sequences for things like continuity, poor stunts etc. If anything, it'd get a pass because it's a comedy and violence and realism are toned down by default.
Sammo ★
The very nature of dreams give them a free pass for just about anything. I will have dreams where I'm talking to a certain person or holding a certain object, and in the next moment the person will be someone else or the object will be something else. I have dreams where I am back in high school and the layout of the building will frequently change, or the class I go into will change subjects. If you put that to film, it would be a change in continuity.
Phaneron ★
What you say is true for dream sequences played specifically with the purpose to give the viewer a sense of disorientation, experience something obviously 'off', a deliberately disjointed and creative scenario that breaks reality. As I said, I am not a fan of being unable to nitpick scenes or even movies who happen all in someone's head for trivial mistakes that are not something as amazingly obvious as the ones you explained. Your examples are something the viewer would notice and would register as deliberate choice and part of the plot, but Seinfeld wearing earbuds or 2 gunshot wounds instead of a dozen are not really something I can put in the same category. If the dream scene is played 'straight', as that one has been, I don't believe we have to just assume that any take can be edited together since continuity is not an issue, props and tricks can be visible or act weird because who knows what can happen in a dream, etc.
Sammo ★
You make a fair point (which is also why I didn't submit a correction for your separate entry of Jerry wearing ear protection). However, the basis of this submission is that Jerry only has a couple entry wounds and no bleeding after being shot numerous times. That can just be chalked up to how his mind dreamed the scenario. I don't think a sense of disorientation or something being off needs to be established (especially when the sequence is played for laughs) for viewers to accept details like that can suddenly change within a dream since we all dream and understand that those things happen.
Phaneron ★
Not necessarily "established" but "with purpose", which can be seen in hindsight. Anything can happen in a dream, but if he imagined to be shot in such a dramatic fashion so many times and die, the fact that he dies with a cheap effect is hardly serving any narrative purpose. Again, I could see why ultimately the mistake could be seen as stating the obvious since "the scene is played for laughs", which was my first caveat posting the scene, the last being the lack of blood for censorship purposes. They didn't thoroughly cover Jerry Seinfeld with squibs and things like that just for a gag - explanation of the 'mistake' rather than justification, but fair. But as far as the dream goes, the point of that dream scene is to do something more 'violent' and unexpected than you'd see in the 'real life' scenes, not tone it down through a marginal detail that has a clear explanation.
Sammo ★