# Movie screw ups that made you chuckle **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 19, 2015, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245 "2015-01-19T02:11:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/61 "2015-01-21T00:29:44Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > I thought is was more screwy that the engine room appeared to be about three times the size of the \*Enterprise \*. The new _Enterprise_, like the TARDIS, is obviously transdimensional! šŸ†’ ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/62 "2015-01-21T00:54:37Z")
> [@ruh-roh](#): > > I Think that Panther hitting the end of the carrier flight deck has been in just about any movie with a plane crash on an aircraft carrier. Whenever it is obvious that someone is going to crash trying to land on an aircraft carrier my first thought is ā€œhere comes that Panther footage againā€ā€¦ [A bit more explanation on the Panther crash](http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/F9F-Duncan.htm). The guy lived, FWIW. The phone calls in the war zone were a little weird for me too, watching the movie. The thing is, Iā€™ve read of anecdotes where people claim they witnessed guys actually doing it, either during OIF or OEF. Must be nice to be able to use a satellite phone to chat with the missus. Weirder still for me, and I donā€™t know if itā€™s explained in the book, but where the hell was Kyleā€™s spotter while all of this was going on? You never see him with one in the movie,instead thereā€™s just a guy watching his back. But his ā€˜bodyguardā€™ isnā€™t spotting targets, reporting movements, or any of the other stuff a scout or scout/sniper team is supposed to be doing. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/63 "2015-01-21T02:39:27Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Someone mentioned this in another thread several months ago. He was likely headed to Canada, where he could have either enlisted directly (the RAF/RCAF would have been glad to have him) or booked passage to Great Britain (though Iā€™m pretty sure ships continued to sail between NYC and Britain even after the war began). I wouldnā€™t be surprised if I was the one who mentioned it as this is one of my stock answers to these type of threads. My stock answer to this rebuttal is ā€œif he was going to Newfoundland, they should have said something.ā€ ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/64 "2015-01-21T03:11:13Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > Thereā€™s a recent movie - I forget which one - where at the beginning the airplane takes off with one engine on each wing then crashes with two engines on each wing. carry on engines. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/65 "2015-01-21T21:53:00Z")
The Mission Impossible movie that had a motorcycle chase. I want the magic tires that switched from skinny dirt bike knobbies to fat street tires and back depending on the terrain. ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/66 "2015-01-21T22:33:48Z")
Specialized knowledge brings out a certain attention to detail that typical viewers missā€“or at least, donā€™t LOOK for. For many here, itā€™s the planes. But for ME, itā€™s horses. šŸ™‚ There are extremely frequent screw ups that we equestrians just roll our eyes at, annoying as they areā€“incorrect era (or just plain wrong for the purpose) tack, REALLY bad riding, yanking the heck out of the saintedly patient horsesā€™ mouthsā€¦that sort of thing. But in _Cowboys Vs. Aliens_, the horse switching from one shot to another was really, really bad. They usually use make up to cover up/add markings of the riderā€™s horse for the scene, but in that flick, the make up was just BAD. It was really obvious to where it took me out of the movie a bit, although perhaps that was a good thing, considering. Thereā€™s a scene, IIRC, where Daniel Craig is riding a bay (read: plain brown with black mane/tail) horse, then later in the scene when everyone is walking heā€™s leading the chestnut (bright red color, no black) with flashy white facial markings he usually rides, then when they mount up heā€™s back on the bay. Maybe he was, uh, helping someone with that horse. IIRC, the chestnut is the one having atrocious make up trying to cover up all his white markings. Thatā€™s where I just have to throw my hands up and say, ā€œItā€™s freakinā€™ Cowboys Vs. Aliens.ā€ (TOTALLY want Harrison Fordā€™s horse from that movie though. Apparently so did heā€“[he tried to buy it, but was refused!](http://www.dailycamera.com/longmont-news/ci_18676084)) ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/67 "2015-01-21T22:41:43Z")
Oh, also, in the 1998 _Black Beauty_ movieā€“one of my favorite filmed versions of the storyā€“the romping foal shots of young BB are very, VERY obviously that of a black FILLY. ::tail swish::: Hmmā€¦I donā€™t recall BB having vulva. ::swish swish::: _sigh_ FINE. I shall pretend I did not see that. _mumble grumble_ This happened again recently when I regretfully watched the abominable _Young Black Stallion_ with my 8yro son. Again, young black ā€œcoltā€ was a very, very obvious filly. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/68 "2015-01-21T22:55:50Z")
In an episode of _The Mentalist_ which is set in Sacramento, a body is found in Auburn, CA and theyā€™re all investigating it. In the background is the Sacramento County Coroners van. The only problem is, Auburn is in Placer County. Another thing that bothers in me in a lot of shows is when they are showing someone knitting and it is so obvious that the item they are supposed to be knitting has been crocheted. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/69 "2015-01-21T23:46:29Z")
> [@Frazzled](#): > > One I saw and now canā€™t unsee is in Jurassic Park. When Alan Grant and Ellie (sp?) see the Brachiosaurus\* for the first time pay attention to Jeff Goldblum. Heā€™s sitting next to Alan but disappears completely when the shot focuses on Alan standing up and taking off his glasses. But funnier to me is that heā€™s replaced with a dummy when the shot focuses on Laura Dern taking her attention from the plant to the dinosaur. I love the mouth slightly agape look they gave the dummy. I saw the movie 100 times before I noticed fake Goldblum, but now I canā€™t unsee him and now itā€™s the only thing I focus on in that scene. No offense, but a quick web search doesnā€™t bring up any other claims to it being a dummy. Can you point to one? In those shots you mention, he keeps very still and it is kinda funny they way is mouth is agape and framed between the rearview mirror and the roll bar, but there isnā€™t anything that screams out mannequin to me. ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/70 "2015-01-22T00:14:16Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > No offense, but a quick web search doesnā€™t bring up any other claims to it being a dummy. Can you point to one? > > In those shots you mention, he keeps very still and it is kinda funny they way is mouth is agape and framed between the rearview mirror and the roll bar, but there isnā€™t anything that screams out mannequin to me. This is a good clip: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJlmYh27MHg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJlmYh27MHg) At the 10 second mark heā€™s real. At 11 seconds as Alan stands heā€™s clearly gone. At 19 and 20 heā€™s completely still and looks like heā€™s made of plastic. I have no proof that itā€™s a mannequin but it surely looks like one to me. Iā€™m open to see what others see - is Goldblum real or fake? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/71 "2015-01-22T00:21:45Z")
Speaking as a former railroad employee and railfan, pretty much anything you ever see concerning railroading in a movie is likely to be wrong. Iā€™ll just focus on a few that come to mind. _Unstoppable_ was a lot of fun, but my eyes were rolling like marbles pretty much throughout. I could name twenty or thirty things, but the two that stuck out the most were: ā€¦a derailing set of locomotives blowing up like a bomb, presumably from ignition of the diesel in the locosā€™ fuel tanks (to be fair, that just seems to be a rail version of the movie meme that cars blow up spectacularly every time they crash); ā€¦my all-time favorite silly train scene, in which a several-thousand ton freight _lifts up on one set of wheels_ as it goes too fast around a sharp curve. On a high bridge. Which happens to pass directly over an oil storage facility. And a bit less egregious, in _White Christmas_, I always crack up at the scene where Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye are traveling from Florida to Vermontā€¦on Southern Pacific and Santa Fe trains in what is pretty clearly Southern California. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/72 "2015-01-22T01:28:42Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Stuff like this happens all the time with movies filmed in and around L.A. Like _Lethal Weapon_, where Mel Gibson starts running after a car in the San Fernando Valley, turns a corner and is suddenly on Sunset in the middle of Hollywood. Very glaring to people in Southern California, totally missed by everybody else. We made jokes about Melā€™s speed for the rest of the movie, the first time we saw it. South Parkā€™s ā€œImaginationlandā€ story arc had Kyle running or walking all the way from the US Capitol Building to the Pentagon casually. No mention was made of crossing the Potomac river. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/73 "2015-01-22T03:09:31Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Speaking as a former railroad employee and railfan, pretty much anything you ever see concerning railroading in a movie is likely to be wrong. Iā€™ll just focus on a few that come to mind. Did you ever see that great Burt Lancaster / Paul Scofield movie ā€œThe Trainā€? Itā€™s one of my favorites. What did you think of it? The way Lancaster sabotages the train at the end seemed pretty realistic to me, but of course I really have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/74 "2015-01-22T03:55:25Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Did you ever see that great Burt Lancaster / Paul Scofield movie ā€œThe Trainā€? Itā€™s one of my favorites. What did you think of it? The way Lancaster sabotages the train at the end seemed pretty realistic to me, but of course I really have no idea. Hah, you sucked me back in on that one; one of my all-time favorite films. The photography is beautiful, the set pieces spectacular, Lancaster and Scofield are great and itā€™s actually better than most at simulating actual railroad operations, but they donā€™t get everything right: 1. When Scofieldā€™s character orders the art train underway, no one even attempts to get clearance to enter the main line, which, being Paris, would be occupied by commuter and long-distance trains running on headways of a few minutes. Departing without getting authorization from a dispatching station would very quickly result in disaster. 2. In the scene at the railroad yard and shops just before the air raid, we see a tower operator throwing switches right in the face of an approaching locomotive. Thereā€™s no reason to do that, and in a typical interlocking plant, you canā€™t; you have to line all the switches first, and only then do the signals allow the train to go through. Then, in the same scene, there are a couple of extras carrying a long board on their shoulders who cross the tracks right in front of a rapidly approaching train, clearing it only by a few meters. I have a feeling it wasnā€™t planned to be so close, and I shudder every time I see that one. 1. Lancaster seems to do every job on the railroad. Heā€™s referred to as an ā€˜Inspectorā€™, a job classification Iā€™m not familiar with, but in the movie seems to be roughly what would called ā€˜superintendentā€™, basically mid-level line management. At various times, however, he carries out jobs that might be done by a dispatcher, yardmaster, road foreman of engines, crew caller, engine driver and mechanic. Now, I recognize all the job-switching is necessary to make sure heā€™s in the right place and time to advance the plot, so no big thing. With all that said, the authenticity of the actors playing railroaders, including Lancaster, and the general look and feel of the various operations, are spot on. Most of the scenes where the railroaders try to stop or impede the art train are at least plausible, although I doubt the whole notion of faking out the Germans on board as to which way they were going would ever have really worked. For the specific scene you mention, however, yes, if I wanted to derail a relatively slow-moving train in occupied France in 1945, thatā€™s just the way I would have done it. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/75 "2015-01-22T04:15:47Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > OUnless it was a B-52 bomber which has a very unique gear. > **["Columbo" The Most Crucial Game (TV Episode 1972) - Connections - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068402/movieconnections/)** > > "Columbo" The Most Crucial Game (TV Episode 1972) - Referenced in, Featured in, Spoofed and more... ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/76 "2015-01-22T04:16:21Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > South Parkā€™s ā€œImaginationlandā€ story arc had Kyle running or walking all the way from the US Capitol Building to the Pentagon casually. No mention was made of crossing the Potomac river. If thatā€™s the biggest geographic/distance ā€œscrew-upā€ youā€™ve noticed on South Park, you havenā€™t seen many episodes.šŸ˜‰ How about the one where Cartman and Kyle ride their Big Wheels from Colorado to Hollywood? > [@Frazzled](#): > > At 19 and 20 heā€™s completely still and looks like heā€™s made of plastic. I have no proof that itā€™s a mannequin but it surely looks like one to me. Iā€™m open to see what others see - is Goldblum real or fake? I donā€™t see any evidence thatā€™s a mannequin. And anyway, what would be the point? Itā€™s not a stunt scene. It would be more expensive to make a mannequin than to have Goldblum sit there for two seconds. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/77 "2015-01-22T04:26:22Z")
For me itā€™s out of place bird calls. Every jungle scene, no matter what continent, has a [Kookaburra](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtBaE4IKirU) or [Screaming Piha.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYXdf4sZvSQ) Every desert scene has a [Red-tailed Hawk scream.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33DWqRyAAUw) ---
**Author:** ![sich\_hinaufwinden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@sich\_hinaufwinden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sich_hinaufwinden)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/78 "2015-01-22T05:22:17Z")
> [@Frazzled](#): > > This is a good clip: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJlmYh27MHg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJlmYh27MHg) > > At the 10 second mark heā€™s real. At 11 seconds as Alan stands heā€™s clearly goneā€¦ I think heā€™s still there. At the 13 second mark I see what looks to me like the back of Goldblumā€™s black jacket. It looks like heā€™s leaning forward with his head obscured by the roll bar and the small section of black, soft-top roof. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/79 "2015-01-22T06:15:55Z")
In **Gladiator** , Maximus is wounded in battle in Germany. He hops on his horse and rides it to Spain to visit his family. When he gets to his villa in Spain, heā€™s still bleeding. In **Pearl Harbor** , Ben Affleck is training on Long Island. With visible brown Southern California mountains in the background. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/80 "2015-01-22T06:34:12Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Well, even though you guys are talking about more obscure stuffā€¦I definitely laughed out loud in the theater when that bus in _Speed_ made the chasm jump. Yeah, that jump scene was ludicrous. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245.md?page=5)