# errors in movies - only nutcases would detect? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 10, 2006, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854 "2006-02-10T14:00:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/41 "2006-02-10T23:16:24Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > **Brokeback Mountain** : Not actually a film flub, but a ‘revealing tidbit’ (which IMDB refuses to let me post, even though I’ve submitted it three times), but close-ups of BOTH Jake Gyllenhaal & Heath Ledger show that they have piercing-holes in their ears. Heath Ledger has at least three of them in one ear. I can’t imagine it was socially acceptable for rural midwestern guys (especially closeted guys who are afraid of being outed) to have ear piercings in the 1960s or 70s. In _Witness_, Kelly McGillis plays an Amish woman, and you can clearly see the double piercings in her ears in close-ups. Definitely not something an Amish woman would have. > [@](#): > > Posted by **Robot Arm** > Similarly, In Die Hard 2, when the controllers are in a panic because they don’t have any transmitter to talk to the airplanes that are in holding patterns, I just want to shout “guys, every damn plane parked at that airport has a transmitter on it!” Ugh, that whole movie is a nitpick. The planes at one DC airport are all a holding pattern - they can’t land there and are running out of gas. “Oh, no, what are we going to do? We’re going to run out of gas and crash!!!” No, shithead, there’s two more airports within 10 minutes. Fly there and land. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/42 "2006-02-10T23:59:54Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > Ugh, that whole movie is a nitpick. The planes at one DC airport are all a holding pattern - they can’t land there and are running out of gas. > “Oh, no, what are we going to do? We’re going to run out of gas and crash!!!” > No, shithead, there’s two more airports within 10 minutes. Fly there and land. Also, McClain uses a payphone at the airport to call his wife. A PacBell payphone. Pacific Bell does busniess ont he east coast now? ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/43 "2006-02-11T00:53:46Z")
I just _love_ [this site](http://www.moviemistakes.com). It’s got _thousands_ of these kinds of entries, plus trivia and DVD easter egg listings. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/44 "2006-02-11T01:11:41Z")
_In the Line of Fire_. The President is campaigning in the Midwest in late October. The trees are still green with no signs of the leaves changing color. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/45 "2006-02-11T01:35:35Z")
> [@Chanteuse](#): > > I just _love_ [this site](http://www.moviemistakes.com). It’s got _thousands_ of these kinds of entries, plus trivia and DVD easter egg listings. Great site. I prefer [this site](http://www.nitpickers.com/) , myself. I think it even made “Weird Earl’s” once. ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/46 "2006-02-11T01:40:30Z")
> [@Kidchameleon](#): > > Raiders of the Lost Ark. This is a nitpick thread. IIIIIII gotcha…nitpick away! ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/47 "2006-02-11T01:40:56Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > **Brokeback Mountain** : Not actually a film flub, but a ‘revealing tidbit’ (which IMDB refuses to let me post, even though I’ve submitted it three times), but close-ups of BOTH Jake Gyllenhaal & Heath Ledger show that they have piercing-holes in their ears. Heath Ledger has at least three of them in one ear. I can’t imagine it was socially acceptable for rural midwestern guys (especially closeted guys who are afraid of being outed) to have ear piercings in the 1960s or 70s. If either of them served in the Navy then yes it would be acceptable. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/48 "2006-02-11T02:19:39Z")
> [@This space intentionally blank](#): > > Bothers me every time I see it . This reminds me of John O’Hurley’s comment on _Silence of the Lambs_, where he mentions that Hopkins’ pronunciation of “Chianti” is wrong. Hopkins says it “key-ante,” while it’s actually pronounced “key-on-tee.” ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/49 "2006-02-11T04:15:58Z")
The old “cross town in 10 seconds” type error is just standard movie making. I don’t think anyone even tries to get geography right. If you live in L.A. like I do, you don’t even notice anymore. Here’s one from Star Wars episode IV that took me about one million viewings to notice: As Obi-Wan is leaving the control room on the Death Star to shut off the tractor beam, he tells Luke something like “You must stay behind to look after the droids, they must be safely delivered or more systems will suffer the same fate as Alderaan.” Delivered where? Alderaan is blown up, they’re not yet aware of Leia’s presence on the Death Star, and they cannot possibly know where the rebel base is. Had everything worked out according to plan, where Obi-Wan shuts off the tractor beam and they escape, what were they going to do after leaving the space station? And for og’s sake, why didn’t the imperials intercept the escape pod at the beginning of the movie? Did it really not occur to those two gunners that the plans might be hidden in the pod? Didn’t they know what they were doing there? Couldn’t they send a Tie-Fighter after it? I know, it would have killed the whole trilogy right there, but geez. ---
**Author:** ![diku](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@diku](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diku)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/50 "2006-02-11T06:04:17Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > Isn’t Pepsi Free the caffeine free Pepsi that went nationwide in '82? As I remember, there were three types of Pepsi Free. One with no caffeine, one with no sugar, and one with neither. Different color bottles and cans. I may be wrong on the types, I was (an am) a avowed Coke drinker. ---
**Author:** ![BabaBooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dfb087/32.png) [@BabaBooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BabaBooey)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/51 "2006-02-11T06:08:19Z")
Here’s one mistake I noticed, but I’ve been told I’m very wrong/an idiot on the matter. In the horrible film “The Cell”, the baddie keeps his women abductees in a room that slowly fills with water. There’s a toilet in the room, so I figure she can just start flushing excess water away. I’ve been told this wouldn’t work, which may be the case given I’m far from a toilet expert. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/52 "2006-02-11T07:43:17Z")
In “What Lies Beneath”, Harrison Ford’s dead girlfriend is named Madison. When they show her tombstone though, it shows she was born before the movie “Splash”, which is the source of the name Madison, such as it is. In some old spy TV show,our guys chase their guys through a Washington DC outdoor cafe, and right past a sign advertising the California lottery. In the film about the poet Ewan McTeagle, he was throughout wearing the Cameron tartan. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/53 "2006-02-11T07:54:49Z")
Not to hijack, but I’ve heard Madison being solely attributed to Splash before, and while I really don’t doubt that it was made wildly popular by the movie (it enters the SSA’s Top 1000 name index for the first time in 1985 at 624), it seems highly improbable to me that there was never a person with Madison as their first name. Of course, pre-Splash it would likely have been more of a male name, but still… ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/54 "2006-02-11T08:04:42Z")
In the movie Independence Day Jeff Goldblum uses his Apple PowerBook to connect to the Roswell alien ship to introduce a virus and knock the shields off-line. Of course in real life this could never happen because the PowerBook doesn’t have a 73 pin, type II, Zyloxngt-frizqut connector. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/55 "2006-02-11T10:57:50Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > If either of them served in the Navy then yes it would be acceptable. Um, not really. Not commonly done - in the 60s the only navy who would have really been accepted as getting an ear pierced is because they survived a shipwreck [or as mrAru calls them a ‘jonah’ and were serious die hard squids, or who were fairly old and established. Common customs started disappearing during the second world war as sailors from career families started getting thinned out by the influx of nontradition sailors joining up] In the 70 and 80s piercings became more normal but you had to leave the earring out while on duty. A note about my parensed comment - traditional military is generally defined as a family who has a tradition of one or more members serving in the service because someone in the family has always served. My family is traditional army, mrAru’s is traditional navy. The Perry family is a good example of this, there is pretty much a Perry in the navy at any given time, the current generation Perry is IIRC a Rear Admiral, Lower Half right now, and has a kid about ready to go into the academy. mrAru remembers at least 4 current Perry officers between Ensign and RA, LH [old Commodore ranking] On the enlisted side, Koonz has Master Chief Koonz from 1939 to 1992, his son retired as a master chief in 1996, his grandson is currently a serving Master Chief, his greatgrandson just made first class … all in the submarine service. If you want to see a sort of fictional universe for this, the Elizabeth Moon Herris Serrano/Esmay Suiza series has great examples of it. The Serrano family is traditionally officer, the Metharry family is traditionally enlisted, and as is sort of a joke mentioned in passing a few times is that a Metharry will hook up with a Serrano to follow. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/56 "2006-02-11T11:03:54Z")
> [@BabaBooey](#): > > Here’s one mistake I noticed, but I’ve been told I’m very wrong/an idiot on the matter. In the horrible film “The Cell”, the baddie keeps his women abductees in a room that slowly fills with water. There’s a toilet in the room, so I figure she can just start flushing excess water away. I’ve been told this wouldn’t work, which may be the case given I’m far from a toilet expert. Hm, the siphon action of the toilet would actually work - the water pressure would force the siphon action to work - there is NO valve in the system. To demonstrate this, take a gallon or 2 of water and dump it into the toilet bowl, after the water weight increases in the bowl it will start the siphon actiion and ‘flush’ the toilet. It would have to be a noncrapper design to _not_ have this happen [an airplane/boat/rv type toilet that has either a valve closure/holding tank system that has to be opened to flush. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/57 "2006-02-11T16:23:51Z")
> [@diku](#): > > As I remember, there were three types of Pepsi Free. One with no caffeine, one with no sugar, and one with neither. Different color bottles and cans. I may be wrong on the types, I was (an am) a avowed Coke drinker. Hmm…all I know is that all the Pepsi history sites I’ve seen mention Diet Pepsi being introduced in '64, Pepsi Free (and Diet Pepsi Free) going nationwide in '82, and nothing about Diet Pepsi once being called “Pepsi Free”. Perhaps it was “Diet Pepsi” in some locations and “Pepsi Free” in others. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/58 "2006-02-11T16:43:18Z")
[The history page at pepsico.com](http://www.pepsico.com/PEP_Company/History/index.cfm) has “Diet Pepsi” in '64 and “Pepsi Free” in '82. [This page](http://www.usasoda.com/pepsidiet1.htm) has a pictoral history of Diet Pepsi cans. [1964 L.I.C. N.Y. can](http://www.usasoda.com/images/pcdiet5.JPG) [1964 Kenosha Wisc. can](http://www.usasoda.com/images/pcdiet5.JPG) ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/59 "2006-02-11T17:04:34Z")
The goof in _Die Hard 2_ that caught my eye: **Pacific Bell Payphones** in Dulles Airport. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/60 "2006-02-11T17:35:15Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > The goof in _Die Hard 2_ that caught my eye: **Pacific Bell Payphones** in Dulles Airport. If you think about it, the whole movie is a goof. Planes that could circle for so long would have enough fuel to go pretty much anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard! Which reminds me of a goof for _My Cousin Vinny_ that I got the IMDb to delete, with the help of a fellow Doper who started a thread on the subject. Some car nut said that whole movie is a goof because the '63 Tempest and '64 Skylark don’t really look alike. I pointed out that they look enough alike for people that aren’t car nuts, people like the witnesses. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854.md?page=4)