# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/61 "2006-02-11T18:04:02Z")
**Serial Mom**. Kathleen Turner heads out of Roland Park with the cops on her tail. Next scene shows her pulling up in front of Hammerjacks. This is a trip of about 10 miles, involving one highway (I-83) and then a trip right through the heart of downtown Baltimore. (Hammerjacks was located where the stadiums are now. It was torn down to build Ravens Stadium) With cops on her tail? (nevermind that the BCPD has a strict “do not chase” policy) Impossible! Ruined the whole movie for me. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/62 "2006-02-11T18:05:54Z")
As this is a thread devoted to nitpicking, I better be precise. Hammerjacks was torn down to build a parking lot for the Ravens’ stadium. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/63 "2006-02-11T22:09:31Z")
> [@](#): > > 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? Obi-wan knew what was on the droid. He didn’t know where it had to be delivered to, but he knew the Rebellion existed and woudn’t have been based on Alderaan (and it wasn’t). He also knew Luke would run straight for them if he had the chance - that’s what he and Luke were attempting when they came across the Death Star. > [@](#): > > 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. I can understand this, actually. The imperial forces were taking prisoners in the opening scene, so we know they wanted to know what happened to the plans, and if they’d been sent to anyone. Ergo, once their search on the ship turned up nothing, they tracked the space pod precisely. Blowing it up might have meant destroying invaluable information. Ironic isn’t it, that one of the few times the Empire didn’t take a “kill 'em all and let the Force sort it out approach,” it was the one time it was a bad move? Heh. ---
**Author:** ![Mayo\_Speaks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mayo\_Speaks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mayo_Speaks)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/64 "2006-02-11T22:31:32Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > In the more recent [Elizabethtown](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368709/), Orlando Bloom is in a car, having flown from Oregon into Louisville, KY. A montage while he’s driving has him going past Slugger Field (home of the AAA affiliate for the Cincy Reds), then passing a series of concrete “silos” that have “University of Louisville” printed on them (one to two letters on each “silo”). > > The problem is that Slugger Field is located off of I-64 (it’s on his right, so he’s heading east). The U of L sign is off of I-65. And he’s already passed the interchange for the two highways. And, if he landed at Louisville International Airport, which is the implication, he would already have passed the U of L sign once. > > And, furthermore, when he’s driving into town, you see the cityscape as he approaches, complete with the Ohio River. The problem there is that the Ohio River is the boundary between Indiana and Kentucky. At no time would he have to cross it to enter the city limits if he landed at the Louisville airport. Sheesh. I LIVE in Louisville, and that didn’t bother me at all. I’d chalk it up to artistic license. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/65 "2006-02-11T22:53:11Z")
> [@Harvey The Heavy](#): > > 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. I wish I could remember which movie it was, but it was set in Chicago. A chase scene was going on in the Art Institute, and a character ran through a door _and came out in the Field Museum_! Or maybe it was the other way around. But the bottom line is that someone teleported through a doorway and ended up miles away in a different musem! Argh! ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/66 "2006-02-11T23:27:17Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#): > > I can understand this, actually. The imperial forces were taking prisoners in the opening scene, so we know they wanted to know what happened to the plans, and if they’d been sent to anyone. Ergo, once their search on the ship turned up nothing, they tracked the space pod precisely. Blowing it up might have meant destroying invaluable information. > > Ironic isn’t it, that one of the few times the Empire didn’t take a “kill 'em all and let the Force sort it out approach,” it was the one time it was a bad move? Heh. Besides which, would two grunts manning a gun turret even know what they were looking for? I don’t see Vader making an announcement on the ship’s PA: “Alright, troops, we’re looking for the super-secret plans to our super-secret planet destroying spacestation, which the rebel spies have managed to steal from our super-secret weapons facility. Don’t tell anyone! Also, if you’re a rebel spy, please report to the bridge immediatly.” Odds are, they were told that they were capturing a traitor’s ship, and not to let anyone get off alive. There wasn’t anyone alive on the escape pod, so the crew sensibly decided to conserve their ammo. ---
**Author:** ![mlerose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@mlerose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlerose)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/67 "2006-02-12T02:09:14Z")
I got IMDB to post this one I found: In “Goonies,” set in Portland, OR, the kids end up on the beach at the end of the movie. It’s morning. The sun is RISING over the Pacific Ocean. I’ve only ever seen sunsets over the Pacific, personally. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/68 "2006-02-12T02:13:25Z")
One of my family friends noted that Jim Lovell’s car was the wrong color in _Apollo 13_, but this was due to his working at NASA at the time rather than being a nutcase about space history. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/69 "2006-02-12T04:32:49Z")
Being a “gun nut,” I always see guns being shown to work a way that they really don’t. Like when the weapon is empty, and the slide locks to the rear, yet the shooter keeps pulling the trigger and the gun goes, “Click! Click!” ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/70 "2006-02-12T05:24:59Z")
I clearly remember Knight Rider having KITT track a car through town. Instead of creating graphics for the screen, the show used an Intellivision racing game. I knew because my friend had that game, and I had played it several times. Then there are the times KITT took a 1G turn and didn’t even sway. Then there’s the fact that it could open combination locks from 20 yards without blowing electronics for 200 yards, including its own. Oh, and that ridiculous Turbo Boost that somehow vaulted the car into the air. It was a train wreck, really. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/71 "2006-02-12T05:30:02Z")
I usually don’t notice mistakes in movies but as a former herpetology buff it really stuck out when in “Gladiator” they used a non-poisonous North American snake, slipped into a bed, to kill someone. ---
**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 12, 2006, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/72 "2006-02-12T05:32:57Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > I clearly remember Knight Rider having KITT track a car through town. Instead of creating graphics for the screen, the show used an Intellivision racing game. I knew because my friend had that game, and I had played it several times. > > Then there are the times KITT took a 1G turn and didn’t even sway. Then there’s the fact that it could open combination locks from 20 yards without blowing electronics for 200 yards, including its own. Oh, and that ridiculous Turbo Boost that somehow vaulted the car into the air. > > It was a train wreck, really. This is where my confusion over movie (and television) nitpicks comes in. Many of them, yes, I can understand why people consider them errors. But we’re talking about a show with a car that could not only talk, but was intelligent. I can’t see how a person can suspend their disbelief that far without accepting part and parcel most of the other technological tomfoolery along with it. It wasn’t supposed to be realistic, it was supposed to be fun. The same with the geographic nitpicking. These errors are usually intentional. You don’t think the director notices that they’ve traveled fifty miles in the the wrong direction to film something that on screen is two blocks away? As someone said, it’s creative license. Movies are hardly meant to be letter-perfect factual representations. Honestly, moved coffee mugs, changed clothing, serious errors in geography (like putting a coastline on Kansas), etc. - I can understand why they bug people and how they get nitpicked. But nitpicking impossible situations in shows that revolve around an impossible premise? I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/73 "2006-02-12T05:42:10Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > Being a “gun nut,” I always see guns being shown to work a way that they really don’t. Like when the weapon is empty, and the slide locks to the rear, yet the shooter keeps pulling the trigger and the gun goes, “Click! Click!” If your gun doesn’t go “Click! Click!” then you’re not pulling hard enough… ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/74 "2006-02-12T05:49:18Z")
Yeah, whatever. You don’t like geographical nitpicks. SLC Punk. The scenes downtown: The movie is set in 1985, but was filmed in 1995. They didn’t bother making sure the cars on the streets were at least 10 years old, so we have early 90’s cars in the background downtown. Geographical nitpick: The guys are going to Evanston, Wyoming to get Mickey’s big mouth beer. That would have taken them east through Park City, then north to Wyoming, all the time heading through canyons. Instead we see them headed west, over the salt flats towards Wendover Nevada. ---
**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 12, 2006, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/75 "2006-02-12T05:51:05Z")
Here’s one: in _Jumping Jack Flash_, Terri’s monitor display magically changes from amber monocrhome to EGA after entering the code key. ---
**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 12, 2006, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/76 "2006-02-12T06:01:50Z")
> [@This space intentionally blank](#): > > Sheesh. I LIVE in Louisville, and that didn’t bother me at all. I’d chalk it up to artistic license. I live in Louisville, too. And it bothered me because it could have EASILY been edited to show the correct sequence. What area of town are you in? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/77 "2006-02-12T06:57:10Z")
> [@Fionn](#): > > One of my family friends noted that Jim Lovell’s car was the wrong color in _Apollo 13_, but this was due to his working at NASA at the time rather than being a nutcase about space history. Jim Lovell doesn’t look like Tom Hanks, so Jim Lovell’s car can also appear different. I think that’s fair rationale. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/78 "2006-02-12T07:04:19Z")
> [@Seven](#): > > Of course in real life this could never happen because the PowerBook doesn’t have a 73 pin, type II, Zyloxngt-frizqut connector. And even if it had the connector you still need the male-to-kloopforg adapter. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/79 "2006-02-12T11:45:14Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#): > > Obi-wan knew what was on the droid. He didn’t know where it had to be delivered to, but he knew the Rebellion existed and woudn’t have been based on Alderaan (and it wasn’t). He also knew Luke would run straight for them if he had the chance - that’s what he and Luke were attempting when they came across the Death Star. Obi-wan was also a Jedi Knight. Jedi knights have been known to see the future. There’s a good chance he knew exactly what was going to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Euthanasiast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Euthanasiast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euthanasiast)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854/80 "2006-02-12T12:48:31Z")
The entire premise for the film **Double Jeopardy** was based on deeply flawed logic. The film makers put forth the notion that a woman tried for the crime of murder could get away with later killing the person she was tried for killing if that person was found to be alive after all. Since double jeopardy only protects you from being tried twice for the same crime, she would not be protected from her actions in a seperate incident. The law would not retry her for the first murder (especially since it obviously never happened), but she would be charged for this separate one. And Ashley Judd should be in jail anyway, as hotness to that extreme should be highly illegal. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-movies-only-nutcases-would-detect/343854.md?page=5)