# Movies/Shows with glaring errors. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 11, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422 "2012-10-11T15:17:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/21 "2012-10-11T18:18:36Z")
In “The Begining of the End” the giant crickets attack Illinois. Specifically, the **Mountains** of Illinois. FYI, Illinois is is SO not mountainous. Much in the same way the Cascade mountains teleport to New York in “Rumble in the Bronx.” ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/22 "2012-10-11T18:30:04Z")
> [@Moonlitherial](#): > > Same error different show - Revolution this week English lady was talking to her kids and asking the nanny why they were still up. It was bedtime in England and she was getting ready to head out for the evening in Seattle. It should have been midday in Seattle. LOL… I came in this thread to mention that little plot hole! No, there’s no way you could reconcile the time zone changes between “dark in Seattle, getting dressed up to go out” and “bedtime for toddlers in England”. Unless Maggie was getting dressed to go out on the town at nearly dawn, or her children were allowed to stay up til after midnight. And even then, the timing doesn’t really work, does it? Also Maggie (apparently) spent several years walking from Seattle to New England to try to find a boat to take her home to England. But wouldn’t it have been easier to find a ship in Seattle? Seems like there’s tons of sailboats and yachts in the vicinity that she could have sweet-talked her way aboard, or simply stolen one, and worked her way by sailboat back to England from there, rather than trying to walk across an entire continent on foot. I think I’d rather take my chances aboard a little sailboat, skirting along the coast, than walk across the northern parts of the United States alone. Also, that most recent episode, I’m fairly certain was set at the failed Hard Rock theme park (where was it, North Carolina? South Carolina?) nowhere near Chicago at any rate. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/23 "2012-10-11T18:36:35Z")
I think the location ones are a little tenuous. Is it general knowledge if you need to have lived there to know what building is in Milwaukee or there are no mountains in Iowa. I think bup (the heart is a giant cell) and Moonlitheriel (bedtime in both London and Seattle) are the sort of things anyone would know is wrong. Otherwise I’d point out that in a 24 episode, Jack Bauer drives California Highway 7 in LA but that highway is not in LA. It is actually[near the Mexico border](http://cahighways.org/001-008.html#007). Honestly, does anyone not from Southern California know that? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/24 "2012-10-11T18:45:18Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > I had a really hard time swallowing the nuke going off six miles away from New York City in the latest Batman movie, but everybody being okay with that because it was “outside the blast radius.” It wasn’t a nuke. It was some sci-fi power generator that had been turned into a bomb. > [@Rollo](#): > > Atonement opens in 1935, and then four years later (as we’re told on-screen), a character is in Dunkirk as the British Army is retreating. But the Battle of Dunkirk was actually in 1940. Not sure that’s really an error either. Rather then saying 4 years, seven months and three days (or whatever) they just said “4 years”. Rounding dates like that is pretty standard English when there isn’t a strong need for accuracy. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/25 "2012-10-11T18:50:15Z")
In _ **The Untouchables** _, Eliot Ness kills mobster Frank Nitti by throwing him off a roof. In reality, Frank Nitti lived for quite a while after the end of Prohibition, and continued running Al Capone’s gang until 1943, when he committed suicide. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/26 "2012-10-11T18:56:21Z")
Notorious among Star Trek fans: Voyager being trapped inside a black hole, and escaping by a “crack in the event horizon”. :smack: For those who don’t know; the event horizon is just the place where the strength of gravity means that it takes a velocity greater than light to escape the hole; it’s not an object, or even a sci-fi force field. Talking about it having a “crack” makes no sense; it’s like talking about Earth’s geosynchronous orbit having a crack. “Our satellite fell into a crack in the geosynchronous orbit!” ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/27 "2012-10-11T19:15:11Z")
But “Event Horizon” is a pretty nebulous concept when you’ve got a spaceship that can travel faster than light. The event horizon is the point where objects that travel at c cannot escape from the black hole. Travel faster than c and you’re golden. Of course in the real universe nothing can travel faster than c, and so your spaceship can never escape the black hole. In the Star Trek universe all sorts of things can travel faster than c, and so the event horizon is more of an event guideline. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/28 "2012-10-11T19:21:48Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > This is probably one of the less glaring ones, but I have never in my life seen anyone use an asthma inhaler correctly **The Hand That Rocks The Cradle** is the poster child for this. The wife holds her inhaler four inches from her mouth and inhales for about one second. Another one that always kills me is the ol’ “using a lighter under one fire sprinkler and all the sprinklers go off” thing. That’s not how buliding sprinklers work - the glass has to melt and break under each one before that one goes off. My favorite was in **Frequency** where Dennis Quaid starts a small fire under one sprinkler and they all go off, so they evacuates the whole building. Better still because he was a fireman. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/29 "2012-10-11T19:23:19Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Maybe I’m mis-remembering, but I thought she served her time and got released fair and square. So the double jeopardy gambit should apply. Except that’s not the way double jeopardy works. If that’s the way it worked then when the police come to an apartment to find a man beating his wife they’d have to let him go if he’d been convicted of beating her two years ago. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/30 "2012-10-11T19:30:08Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > **Double Jeopardy**. Ashley Judd goes to prison for killing her husband, who framed her and is still alive. So she breaks out of prison and kills him again, since according to the movie she can’t go to jail for killing him again due to Double Jeopardy. :smack: No, she gets paroled, and seeks him out, PLANNING to kill him again. But when she DOES kill him, it’s clearly in self-defense, and there’s a witness to that effect. Moreover, there’s never a lawyer who tells her that double jeopardy will apply if she kills her husband. Ashley is following the advice of other convicts who TELL her double jeopardy will protect her. We don’t have to believe this is true- we only have to believe that SHE might have believed it. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/31 "2012-10-11T19:34:24Z")
I remember one of the glaring ones from Die Hard II. It takes placed at Dulles airport in Washington DC, but when he’s on one of the pay phones you can see they’re clearly marked Pacific Bell. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/32 "2012-10-11T19:41:12Z")
In _Timecop_, a gold bar is carbon dated to show it came from the Confederacy. Not only can you not carbon date gold(which not everyone knows)\* it went through a time machine\*. ---
**Author:** ![oft\_wears\_hats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@oft\_wears\_hats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oft_wears_hats)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/33 "2012-10-11T20:08:27Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > No, she gets paroled, and seeks him out, PLANNING to kill him again. But when she DOES kill him, it’s clearly in self-defense, and there’s a witness to that effect. > > Moreover, there’s never a lawyer who tells her that double jeopardy will apply if she kills her husband. Ashley is following the advice of other convicts who TELL her double jeopardy will protect her. > > We don’t have to believe this is true- we only have to believe that SHE might have believed it. AND that her ex-husband believes it, as she uses it to threaten him. Even Tommy Lee Jones’ character “confirms” her interpretation of double jeopardy, stating that he has a law degree (though I’ll admit that he may have been trying to intentionally mislead the villain). I mean, the movie’s title is _Double Jeopardy_. The movie really is asking us to believe the faulty concept upon which it is built. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/34 "2012-10-11T20:22:11Z")
Speaking of gold, boy is its weight ignored in movies. **Die Hard With A Vengeance** , they carry them around one handed, tossing them to each other. Plus I don’t think those fully laded dump trucks would even move. **Italian Job** , I don’t care how much reinforcement was added to those Minis - same problem. **Tower Heist** , let’s not even go there. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/35 "2012-10-11T20:28:51Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Or the Great Canyon of Iowa that pre-Captain kirk’s brother’s car falls into in the recent _Star Trek_ movie. I’ll have to look again but I seem to remember it was clear that it was manmade. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/36 "2012-10-11T20:32:34Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > Except that’s not the way double jeopardy works. > > If that’s the way it worked then when the police come to an apartment to find a man beating his wife they’d have to let him go if he’d been convicted of beating her two years ago. That’s hardly a fair analogy. You can beat your wife as many times as you like, and each beating is a separate crime. But you can only murder somebody once. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/37 "2012-10-11T20:34:29Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Another one that always kills me is the ol’ “using a lighter under one fire sprinkler and all the sprinklers go off” thing. That’s not how buliding sprinklers work - the glass has to melt and break under each one before that one goes off. That may be intentional - like how movies show bad guys holding handguns sideways. I kind of like not teaching dumb jerks how to set sprinklers off the correct way. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/38 "2012-10-11T20:35:16Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > **The Hand That Rocks The Cradle** is the poster child for this. The wife holds her inhaler four inches from her mouth and inhales for about one second. > > Another one that always kills me is the ol’ “using a lighter under one fire sprinkler and all the sprinklers go off” thing. That’s not how buliding sprinklers work - the glass has to melt and break under each one before that one goes off. My favorite was in **Frequency** where Dennis Quaid starts a small fire under one sprinkler and they all go off, so they evacuates the whole building. Better still because he was a fireman. Even worse when it’s the _smoke_ in one corner of the building that sets off all the sprinklers in the entire building. ---
**Author:** ![oft\_wears\_hats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@oft\_wears\_hats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oft_wears_hats)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/39 "2012-10-11T20:38:48Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > That’s hardly a fair analogy. You can beat your wife as many times as you like, and each beating is a separate crime. But you can only murder somebody once. Yes, but murdering someone on May 4th, 1998 is a different crime than murdering the same person on September 12th, 1998. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422/40 "2012-10-11T20:41:54Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Like this example: Mrs. Cad was watching a TV movie about a year ago (I can’t remember the name) but everyone is watching the Moon because of a comet or something. And when I say eveyone I mean EVERYONE. People were looking at the Moon in the middle of the night on the USA west coast, USA east coast, London and Moscow simultaneously because thay all saw the Moon explode at the same time. This pretty much happened in a memorable episode of HEROES, where the eclipse seen in Kansas was simultaneously being seen in California and in Haiti. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-with-glaring-errors/637422.md?page=3)