Technical Inaccuracies / Plot Holes

[Danoff]

What are the worst technical inaccuracies you've seen in movies or TV shows. I'm sure that people here associated with the medical or legal fields can rail on shows like ER, Law and Order, Boston Legal, or Chicago hope - here's your chance to geek out.


(try not to post about suspension of disbelief that you're supposed to have - like crouching tiger or LOTR)

Since I'm a space guy, I'll get the ball rolling there:

Star Wars Episode V:
What's with walking out into the belly of the worm without a space suit on? Did the worm have some kind of atmosphere or something? How is that possible?

Star Wars Episode II:
In the chase scene between the bounty hunter and Obi Wan, where did these seismic charges come from? I assume this has something to do with sound in space (especially because they let of a big sound when they went off)?

Mission to Mars:
There are a couple of gems in this one. The one I like best is the DNA helix of M&Ms rotating in the space ship. How exactly again do you get these M&M's to rotate about a random point in air? Sure there isn't any gravity and you can make them levitate, but what is it that makes them orbit?

or what about the scene where they try to "catch" the satellite? The difference in their velocities would have been something on the order of a km/s. That would be like trying to catch something going several times the speed of sound.

or the part where they guy doesn't "catch" the satellite and starts to drift off into space... and they go after him... and when they get half way and have used half their fuel they have to turn back. What is it that prevents them from drifing toward him and drifting back? Drag? Friction?


Ok, time for some of you to get your geek on.

 

[///M-Spec]

Any sci-fi space movie that portrays fighting ships which can travel at the speed of light and beyond, yet lumber across the screen at what appears to be --tops-- a couple hundred miles per hour. It is especially bad when they have a battle. They not only putter around the screen, they close to what amounts to ridiculous point blank ranges. Even present day warships don't even travel so slowly (as a factor of their speed potential) or close to "eyeball" range.

I fully understand this is so the audience can follow the action and also to give an impression the USS Enterprise or the Imperial Star Destroyer is a very large and ponderous object. But still. Every time I think about it, I wince.

But its easy to just forget about it so I can enjoy the movie.

EDIT: Here's a good example of this. Ever see Star Trek: First Contact? At the end of the battle with the Borg Cube, a Federation ship actually flies so close to the exploding cube, it is engulfed in the explosion and subsequently destroyed.

WTH? Are these people so moronic they can't hit this gigantic thing in space without being, like, 3,000 feet from it?? Why are the flying towards it anyway, when phasers will fire in any direction and torpedos will TURN??


M

 

[Famine]

The Core - where, attempting to explain the structure of "Unobtanium", the guy holds up a Buckyball...

 

[Gil]

How about another Lucas Film? In American Graffiti, when Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford) wrecks his Chevy, the car that overturns is a different year Chev than the 55 that Starts the race.

I've seen many car crashes where a Lincoln starts over a cliff. But a Mercury lands at the bottom.

 

[///M-Spec]

I've seen many car crashes where a Lincoln starts over a cliff. But a Mercury lands at the bottom.

Now that is justice.

It's my turn to reveal my uber BMW geekness. In the movie Ronin, the super cool car chase at the end with Price's BMW vs. De Niro's Pug, the "M5" switches from a real M5 to a normal 525i and back several times. In several shots of the dashboard, you can see red needles in the instrument cluster (real M5) but in a couple shots, you can see white needles (non-M BMW). The reason, of course, is that they used several normal 5ers for film an only a couple of real M5s for the "hero car" shots.

Wow, I'm a geek.


M

 

[Ev0]

I'm sure I could write a novel on the inaccuracies in James Bond films if I had the time to watch them and go through them all. Besides, I think there is a website for this sort of thing.

 

[Duke]

OK, I've been waiting to get this off my chest for 30 years.

The stupidest thing I've ever ever seen in the movies or TV was in an episode of CHiPs. I mean OK, CHiPs was about the stupidest thing ever, but this was even stupider... er.

There were these "Freeway Bandits" who had rigged up a forklift sticking out the side of their van. They would match speed with a hapless victim, lift the car off the ground as the van drove alongside, and then rob the driver at gunpoint by leaning out the side door of the van. Stupid so far, but nothing that violates the realm of possibility or the laws of physics.

Here's where the lobotomy kicks in.

The intrepid Ponch and John come up with a fabulous idea. They take a car and fill it up with concrete or lead bars or neutronium or something so it weighs 5 times as much as normal, then try to get robbed by the bandits. Obligingly enough, the bandits pull up along side and try their stunt on the super-heavy car.

But for reasons known only to brain-dead Hollywood TV writers, when it is unable to lift the super-heavy car, the van is lifted off the ground instead, leaving it spinning its wheels while the bandits gape in disbelief (for a different reason than I was, for sure). Then it was just a matter of pulling over and snapping the cuffs on 'em...

 

[Danoff]

But for reasons known only to brain-dead Hollywood TV writers, when it is unable to lift the super-heavy car, the van is lifted off the ground instead, leaving it spinning its wheels while the bandits gape in disbelief (for a different reason than I was, for sure).

 

[Ev0]

That has to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Writers should not be allowed to disobey the laws of physics...

 

[Swift]

That has to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Writers should not be allowed to disobey the laws of physics...

talk to the writers of Knight Rider. I loved that show when I was a kid. But do you know what kind of super hydrolics you'd need to have for "Turbo Boost"? I've recently seen that Bose has a suspension that can boost. But it's only a few inches high.

OH well, it was cool in the 80's though.

 

[Danoff]

Tomb Raider

Granted you're supposed to believe that whatever it is that the doomsday machine does - actually works, but they were talking about the planets needing to be in alignment for the machine to work.

It was a countdown sort of thing at the end of the film. The planets were getting closer and closer to alignment and soon the machine would spring to action - OH NO!!!

So you get these nice shots were you can actually see the planets lining up - I mean like you can see Mars and the Earth in the same shot and they're large enough on film that Mars would have to be closer to the Earth than the moon... but it gets better.

As the planets near alignment they say something to the effect of "We'd better hurry, one of the planets is already lined up!"...

What? One of them is lined up? How does that work? If they're going to line up, they'd have to do it at one instant since they're all moving at different rates... If one of them is lined up before the rest then it isn't going to happen this time buddy.

That always bothered me.

 

[Anderton Prime]

Now that is justice.

It's my turn to reveal my uber BMW geekness. In the movie Ronin, the super cool car chase at the end with Price's BMW vs. De Niro's Pug, the "M5" switches from a real M5 to a normal 525i and back several times. In several shots of the dashboard, you can see red needles in the instrument cluster (real M5) but in a couple shots, you can see white needles (non-M BMW). The reason, of course, is that they used several normal 5ers for film an only a couple of real M5s for the "hero car" shots.

Wow, I'm a geek.


M

Okay this is not a technical accuracy, but merely the filmmakers trying to save money. I'd call it a gyp before calling it an inaccuracy. At least they got the cars close enough so non-geeks would be hard-pressed to tell the difference.

Can someone clear up the definition of "technical inaccuracy" so we can differentiate between it and merely an anal-retentive pointing-out-of-a-flaw-so-minute-you-have-to-have-graduated-with-honors-from-the-Geek-Academy-to-notice-it?

 

[Famine]

Tomb Raider

Granted you're supposed to believe that whatever it is that the doomsday machine does - actually works, but they were talking about the planets needing to be in alignment for the machine to work.

It was a countdown sort of thing at the end of the film. The planets were getting closer and closer to alignment and soon the machine would spring to action - OH NO!!!

So you get these nice shots were you can actually see the planets lining up - I mean like you can see Mars and the Earth in the same shot and they're large enough on film that Mars would have to be closer to the Earth than the moon... but it gets better.

As the planets near alignment they say something to the effect of "We'd better hurry, one of the planets is already lined up!"...

What? One of them is lined up? How does that work? If they're going to line up, they'd have to do it at one instant since they're all moving at different rates... If one of them is lined up before the rest then it isn't going to happen this time buddy.

That always bothered me.

The same thing happens in McGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis.

*whistles innocently*

I noticed an erroneous reversed patch of film in Mission: Impossible 2, due to being Captain Geek of Geekland. His Porsche 911 was right-hand drive suddenly - and the car hadn't been made in right-hand drive at the time of filming. A couple of frames later and you could see his German registration plate was mirrored.

 

[Swift]

The same thing happens in McGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis.

*whistles innocently*

I noticed an erroneous reversed patch of film in Mission: Impossible 2, due to being Captain Geek of Geekland. His Porsche 911 was right-hand drive suddenly - and the car hadn't been made in right-hand drive at the time of filming. A couple of frames later and you could see his German registration plate was mirrored.

Now that's pretty weak.

 

[///M-Spec]

Okay this is not a technical accuracy, but merely the filmmakers trying to save money. I'd call it a gyp before calling it an inaccuracy. At least they got the cars close enough so non-geeks would be hard-pressed to tell the difference.

Can someone clear up the definition of "technical inaccuracy" so we can differentiate between it and merely an anal-retentive pointing-out-of-a-flaw-so-minute-you-have-to-have-graduated-with-honors-from-the-Geek-Academy-to-notice-it?

Sure it is. This entire thread is meant to be for anal nitpickiness. That's what makes one a geek. Surely you don't think pointing out that Han Solo and co would suffer decompression by stepping onto the stomach of the space worm is anything less than full on geekery?


M

 

[Swift]

Sure it is. This entire thread is meant to be for anal nitpickiness. That's what makes one a geek. Surely you don't think pointing out that Han Solo and co would suffer decompression by stepping onto the stomach of the space worm is anything less than full on geekery?


M

Yep, or how about in Spidey 2 at the very end of the last action sequence when Spidey carry's off MJ on a web line attached to nothing I mean that's just bad on so many levels.

 

[///M-Spec]

^^^ I just realized that my nit was picked by Anderton Prime for being the wrong kind of nitpick. Kinda funny, in a way.


M

 

[Danoff]

^^^ I just realized that my nit was picked by Anderton Prime for being the wrong kind of nitpick. Kinda funny, in a way.

I thought it was a legit nitpick on your part. Films can try to save money all they want, and we'll keep noticing their shortcuts and it will keep taking us right out of the film.

Here’s another one

Independence day:

Opening scene: the mother ship flies past the moon (making lots of noise that doesn’t travel through space) and we watch as the dust no the moon vibrates and fills in the footsteps of the Apollo astronauts. Which would be cool if there were some reason for the vibration to be occurring on the moon. I can’t figure that one out.

Contact

They overlook the fact that Jodie is out of her chair and that her chair is detached from the pod as evidence that something went on while she dropped through the machine.

Every sci-fi movie besides 2001

Noise in space. Comeon people, there are no wooshing or whirring sounds being transmitted through space. Its fine to have noise when the camera is on the inside of the ship, but not outside in space.

 

[daan]

The whole of Driven.

Driving the wrong way down the track.

Methanol, which is put out by water, catching fire whilst upside down in a pond whilst it was raining.

Driving Indycars on the street with no earplugs or helmets.

etc

etc

etc.

 

[Swift]

I thought it was legit. Films can try to save money all they want, and we'll keep noticing their shortcuts and it will keep taking us right out of the film.

Here’s another one

Independence day:

Opening scene: the mother ship flies past the moon (making lots of noise that doesn’t travel through space) and we watch as the dust no the moon vibrates and fills in the footsteps of the Apollo astronauts. Which would be cool if there were some reason for the vibration to be occurring on the moon. I can’t figure that one out.

Contact

They overlook the fact that Jodie is out of her chair and that her chair is detached from the pod as evidence that something went on while she dropped through the machine.

Every sci-fi movie besides 2001

Noise in space. Comeon people, there are no wooshing or whirring sounds being transmitted through space. Its fine to have noise when the camera is on the inside of the ship, but not outside in space.

Everything you mentioned is totally obscure to the common viewer. And it's really sad. But think about it. How weak would that last star battle of Episode IV have been without "sound in space" It would've been horrible.

 

[Danoff]

Time for me to geek out...

How weak would that last star battle of Episode IV have been without "sound in space" It would've been horrible.

It would have been AWESOME!!! It would have been so much more real!

 

[capnlarge]

How about Signs? If the aliens were hurt by water, why would they try to invade a planet that's 75% water?

Moreover, how did it take a mere accident by a little girl to find out their weakness on a planet where it's always raining somewhere?

This movie just infuriates me...

 

[Flerbizky]

Ha !.... I had a plothole REMOVED from IMDB.com....

Back in the days when I discovered IMDB, one of the goofers from Aliens was : "Why would they send someone to a place from where an emergency beacon was being transmitted ?".. (The reason they set down on LV246 in Alien..)

Well - My response to IMDB - isn't it possible, that the "alien" spacecraft, somewhere in the 56 years that Ripley spend floating in space, simply shut down, due to a low down on power ?....

They ate it and the goof is no longer at IMDB...

 

[Anderton Prime]

I always thought the only reason the Nostromo ever honed in on the beacon was because they were flying in a specific path close to LV426. Then they sent the "shake and bake" colony to set up the atmospheric processors. Anyway, either way you look at it the "goof" was stupid. Good call Flerbizky.

 

[Ev0]

Independence day:

Opening scene: the mother ship flies past the moon (making lots of noise that doesn’t travel through space) and we watch as the dust no the moon vibrates and fills in the footsteps of the Apollo astronauts. Which would be cool if there were some reason for the vibration to be occurring on the moon. I can’t figure that one out.

Thanks for jogging my memory on this movie. Near the beginning where Will Smith is in a marine F/A-18 dogfighting with an alien fighter, they go down into a canyon. Now, the speed at which they show them going through the canyon was probably close to about mach 4 or 5, something which is impossible for the F/A-18, considering it's top speed is mach 1.8 at high altitude.

Although I did enjoy the movie, eventhough it was hideously cheesy.

And since the title of the thread was edited to include plot holes, I would have also pointed out the water thing. But, that's just the tip of the iceberg (Hardee har har). For example, these aliens were capable of intergalactic space travel, and had hind legs powerful enough to jump onto the roofs of houses, yet they were blocked by a wooden door.

And, how the hell does a little boy kill a fully grown german shepherd with a common fork? Someone please explain that one to me.

And of course, I have to give credit to Maddox of maddox.xmission.com for making those plot holes clear to me.

As for more plot hole goodness, how about the ending of The Last Samurai? Great movie, right up until the end. What a lame ending. One of the main points of the movie was making the viewer understand the mind of a Samurai, which does not fear death. Yet, even though the Samurai are supposed to all die in a massive battle in the end, Tom Cruise somehow manages to survive, and carry on with life. This, despite the fact he and his allies fought off thousands of well armed infantry, survived a charge on an artillery position, and he even survives getting shot numerous times by a gattling gun. I could go on about how it seemed that the Samurai magically had at least 1,000 more troops than they had claimed to have, but I'll just quickly summarize by saying the ending ruined the movie, left a very bad taste in my mouth, and completely contradicted one of the main points of the movie. 👎

 

[Mike Rotch]

danoff hit many nails on, er, many....heads?

Anyway, this applies to any hollywoodised car chase when cars ramp and land on their wheel, but it was most recently blatent when i watched the end of Gone in 60 Seconds on sunday. Old Cagey ramps the mustang over some traffic and when it lands, just for a moment, one can see body panels and bumpers falling off. In the next scene all is ok. Who seriously believes one can jump a car 40 feet, land and continue driving as nothing happened?

Any cheesy cops 'n robbers film when a cop car inevitably hits a car from behind and barrel rolls into the air. Yea, that obviously happens in real life. One doesnt need airbags, just a roll cage

Shootouts. Ever see a classic good guy fends off 10000 bads guys with a gloch and a single clip of ammo. Only his special gun holds about 100 rounds of ammo. New age revolvers also can hold up t0 50 round nowadays The need to reload is no more!

Besides the fact that the movie sucked entirely, MI:2 had something else which chipped me off. Old Cruisey is on a Truimph Motorbike being pursued by baddies in an uberfast......landcruiser? Yet he cant outrun them and they 'ram' him from behind because everybody knows Triumphs can not outrun a 2 ton SUV. Honourable special mention to later "mid air collision on beach".

Oh and Thelma and Louise's car going off the end of the cliff. Last time i checked, cars dont "ramp" off level surfaces. It should have "fallen" off the cliff rather then "flown" off it.

Great thread

 

[Famine]

Anyway, this applies to any hollywoodised car chase when cars ramp and land on their wheel, but it was most recently blatent when i watched the end of Gone in 60 Seconds on sunday. Old Cagey ramps the mustang over some traffic and when it lands, just for a moment, one can see body panels and bumpers falling off. In the next scene all is ok. Who seriously believes one can jump a car 40 feet, land and continue driving as nothing happened?

Not to mention the film crew you can also see...

Besides the fact that the movie sucked entirely, MI:2 had something else which chipped me off. Old Cruisey is on a Truimph Motorbike being pursued by baddies in an uberfast......landcruiser? Yet he cant outrun them and they 'ram' him from behind because everybody knows Triumphs can not outrun a 2 ton SUV. Honourable special mention to later "mid air collision on beach".

And the self-changing bike tyres, which oscillate between semi-slicked road tyres and studded dirt tyres scene by scene.

 

[Duke]

Well, I'll briefly re-point-out the plot hole that ruined an entire phenomenon for me:

In The Matrix, the machines somehow use billions of human beings for power, despite the fact that billions of human beings are currently sucking this planet dry just trying to keep themselves alive, let alone have excess energy to power the other machines...

 

[Swift]

Well, I'll briefly re-point-out the plot hole that ruined an entire phenomenon for me:

In The Matrix, the machines somehow use billions of human beings for power, despite the fact that billions of human beings are currently sucking this planet dry just trying to keep themselves alive, let alone have excess energy to power the other machines...

Well, Morpheus did explain that the people's engery was used in a special kind of "fusion" So I'm sure that's how they harnessed our energy. I wish fusion was a reality now. We'd never need fossil fuels again. At least not for our major power needs. Maybe still in cars.

 

[Arwin]

Well, I'll briefly re-point-out the plot hole that ruined an entire phenomenon for me:

In The Matrix, the machines somehow use billions of human beings for power, despite the fact that billions of human beings are currently sucking this planet dry just trying to keep themselves alive, let alone have excess energy to power the other machines...

Maybe they didn't feed them meat, but something slightly more efficient? Well except of course that all dead people and extrements were recycled into food again. Yuck.