# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/121 "2015-01-24T00:14:08Z")
The most blatant and laughable one I’ve ever seen was in the movie _Anaconda_. There is a shot that depicts a boat leaving a small lagoon with a waterfall. They just used the same shot that shows the boat entering the lagoon, and ran it in reverse. You can tell because the waterfall is flowing _up_. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/122 "2015-01-24T01:46:56Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > [The Incredible Disappearing Fredo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-I4VIR5yGg). At 3:04 in this clip, Fredo is sitting next to Tom Hagan. A few close-ups occur and, 30 seconds later @ 3:34, we see the table and everybody is still where they were… except Fredo. At least the cake Tessio brings isn’t in a pink box. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/123 "2015-01-24T02:05:35Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > The most blatant and laughable one I’ve ever seen was in the movie _Anaconda_. There is a shot that depicts a boat leaving a small lagoon with a waterfall. They just used the same shot that shows the boat entering the lagoon, and ran it in reverse. You can tell because the waterfall is flowing _up_. This is why we need an emoticon with crossed eyes and tongue sticking out. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/124 "2015-01-24T02:59:07Z")
> [@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 Mel’s speed for the rest of the movie, the first time we saw it. I can’t watch movies shot in my city; I get distracted when people walk out of a building and then turn left on a street three miles away. I’ve always wondered how people from LA can watch movies. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/125 "2015-01-24T03:21:18Z")
One of my favorites is the Goldie Hawn/Mel Gibson movie _Bird on a Wire_ which was filmed in and around Vancouver, BC. But it was supposed to take place in Detroit and Racine, Wisconsin. The movie featured a “Detroit to Racine” ferry and a Chinatown district in **Racine**. And naturally lots of lovely Canadian mountain scenery in both Racine and Detroit. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/126 "2015-01-24T03:44:47Z")
In Potok’s \*The Chosen, \* an Orthodox boy turns on the lights on the Sabbath. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/127 "2015-01-24T05:22:45Z")
How about Independence Day? El Toro Marine Corps Air Station is located on the Bonniville Salt Flats. I’m from LA. I can generally deal with location jumps but that one took me right out. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/128 "2015-01-24T15:53:50Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > One of my favorites is the Goldie Hawn/Mel Gibson movie _Bird on a Wire_ which was filmed in and around Vancouver, BC. But it was supposed to take place in Detroit and Racine, Wisconsin. The movie featured a “Detroit to Racine” ferry and a Chinatown district in **Racine**. And naturally lots of lovely Canadian mountain scenery in both Racine and Detroit. I come from that region. Specifically, Indianapolis. I’ll wait and see if someone makes a movie featuring the Indy 500, with mountains in the background. (Except for the land near the Ohio River, Indiana is flat as a pancake.) ---
**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 24, 2015, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/129 "2015-01-24T16:14:46Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > The movie featured a “Detroit to Racine” ferry and a Chinatown district in **Racine**. Detroit to Racine?!? :eek: WTF?!? Do they have to sail all the way around Michigan, or does a ticket entitle the bearer to be trucked overland??? I’ve spent time in Racine, much to my chagrin. I never imagined it was sophisticated enough to have a Chinatown! ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/130 "2015-01-24T17:04:28Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Detroit to Racine?!? :eek: WTF?!? Do they have to sail all the way around Michigan, or does a ticket entitle the bearer to be trucked overland??? > > […] Maybe there are navigable streams running most of the way across Lower Michigan and the overland trip would be only… oh, never mind. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/131 "2015-01-24T18:03:11Z")
Haven’t read the whole thread, so maybe they’re in here; these are two of them. Some people thought “The Hurt Locker” was a documentary, and it does have that feel, but there’s a blooper early on that debunks this. Some soldiers are preparing to defuse a landmine, and one of them notices an Iraqi citizen on a nearby roof with a video camera. He says, “Check that out! He’s probably going to put this on You Tube!” The movie is set in the fall of 2004; You Tube was launched in 2005. And in “127 Hours”, the facial hair of the actor who plays Aron Rolston, who was trapped by a rock and had to cut his arm off, never changes. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/132 "2015-01-24T18:26:42Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > I like the moment in _Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade_ where the bad guy lifts the false grail to his lips, and as he tilt his head back to drain it, you can see a big honkin’ hex nut on the underside of the base. I always thought that that was a nod to the audience, to alert them to what was to come. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/133 "2015-01-24T18:36:42Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I always thought that that was a nod to the audience, to alert them to what was to come. Maybe that hex nut is a clue to the actor’s personality. 😃 ---
**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 25, 2015, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/134 "2015-01-25T02:17:42Z")
There are so many tv series shot in Vancouver, eventually you get to recognize the same alleys that are used over and over again. ---
**Author:** ![MsKaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@MsKaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsKaren)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/135 "2015-01-25T03:23:11Z")
Any movie filmed in New Orleans is always amusing to those familiar with that wonderful city. Pretty much all movies of course totally alter the geography to work in every N.O. landmark on the way from anywhere to anywhere else. I completely get that and it does not bother me. Other wrongs do. Two examples come to mind. In the '76 TV movie Savage Bees what really got me was: [SPOILER ALERT] (like you’ll see this piece of trash anyway from over 30 years ago) in the exciting climax [SPOILER] the boy-scientist-no-one-will-listen-to has the killer swarm covering the VW bug of the girl-scientist-no-one-will-listen-to by attracting them with sciencey queen bee malarky. Still good with me. They drive into the SuperDome!!! Yes, the Dome! :eek: The plan is to to freeze the bees by cranking that AC WAY DOWN while they sit on the 50 yard line. OK maybe they needed 40 not 32 degrees but sheesh! No, you cannot turn a domed stadium into a freezer. Nope. My other favorite NOWTF was Richard Gere’s No Mercy which placed an evil Chinatown with dangerous neonlit dives directly across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter in quiet family-friendly Algiers, LA. Best of all, the plot hinged on smuggling Chinese illegals across the border from China into New Orleans.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/136 "2015-01-25T18:54:26Z")
I would LOVE to see the delimitation of that border!:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/137 "2015-01-26T11:16:21Z")
On the matter of Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park. Although it depends on the director, the actor and the specific production, in most films and TV productions a “named” actor will (despite protestations of making a film being so arduously boring) do as little work as possible. As well as being replaced by a “stunt man” for any scenes which are potentially dangerous there will also, usually, be a “Stand In” or a “Double” who will be used for such menial tasks as standing in position while cameras and lights are set up (“Blocking”) and also will be filmed when the actor’s actual face does not appear clearly. All those close ups of an actor’s feet or his back as he walks away into the sunset or the back of his head as he slumps in a corner. Usually that’s the stand in. Looking at the IMDB credits for Jurassic Park and sure enough it lists Joe Zimmerman as “Stand In” (and uncredited “Photo Double”) for Mr Goldblum. TCMF-2L ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/138 "2015-01-26T12:09:02Z")
I’ve been watching a lot of NCIS lately because the weather has been sucky and it’s an easy show to have on while knitting… [/disclaimer] Minor irritant is when the characters refer to highways around DC as “\*the \*395” or “\*the \*50” - I know that’s a California thing, but it ain’t a DC thing. You’ve got \*the \*Beltway, but everything else is referred to by its number. Like I said, minor, but it still makes me yell at the TV. The one that really cracks me up is how quickly and how often they drive between DC and Norfolk. In reality, it’s about 200 miles. I’ve never worked for NCIS, but I think it’s fair to assume that Norfolk, being a Navy city, would have its own NCIS office and staff, so Gibbs & Co wouldn’t have to zip down there to interview distraught widows and uncooperative suspects. I also saw a rerun last week that supposedly took place in Annapolis, home of the Naval Academy. Except for the rolling surf in the background… Annapolis is on the Chesapeake Bay. The Academy is in a sheltered harbor along the Severn River and it has no beaches. In fact, I’m pretty sure the only beach nearby is Sandy Point State Park which is right next to the Bay Bridge, and while they get the wake from passing boats, there is no rolling surf. One more that made me laugh: a sailor was killed somewhere in DC. According to the story line, he was stationed at NAS Patuxent River, which is a few miles from where I live, but the sailor lived in Anacostia on the east side of DC. Under the best of conditions, it’s a 90 minute drive. And I’m pretty sure housing in the DC area is considerably more expensive than down here in St. Mary’s county. I suppose if his family was from Anacostia, he might live with them to save money… yeah, maybe that’s it. I tolerate these things only because Mark Harmon is some major-league eye-candy! 😃 ---
**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:** [January 26, 2015, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/139 "2015-01-26T13:27:54Z")
In the Fantasy movie _Willow_, the scene at the Daikini Crossroads where Willow and his band first meet Madmartigan hanging in his prison cage, a lone horseman rides by. He approaches, doesn’t stop, then rides past. The shot where he is riding away is the same angle as the one of his approach, the image is just flipped left-to-right to look different. ---
**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 26, 2015, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245/140 "2015-01-26T14:38:15Z")
I was watching an episode of _ **ST: TNG** _ not long ago, and Riker ordered that the temperature of something be brought up to “ degrees kelvin.” A senior Starfleet officer should know that the correct terminology is “ kelvin.” [http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/temps.htm](http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/temps.htm) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-screw-ups-that-made-you-chuckle/710245.md?page=8)