Tag Archives: Movie errors

10 Movie Errors That Bug You…

Love the concept behind this list, from Entertainment Weekly:

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20483133_20588281,00.html

There are a few movies with “errors” in them, both annoying and, at least to me, humorous/delightful.

The one I found very annoying?

In the 1995 sci-fi movie Twelve Monkeys, Bruce Willis plays a man who may be out of his mind…or possibly a time traveler sent from the future to save humanity from a devastating virus that is about to be released.  In the course of the movie (no big spoiler here), Willis’ character is very disoriented and the people he meet, naturally, don’t quite believe him when he says he is a time traveler.

In one sequence in the film, he is suddenly thrust in the middle of a battle in the Civil War.  He sustains a bullet wound to his leg before coming back to the movie’s “present”.  In the present, the bullet is removed and its examination proves very important to the movie’s plot.  For you see, when the bullet is examined, a character discovers it is “from the Civil War”.  This, in turn, convinces another character that Mr. Willis isn’t crazy after all, that he is telling the truth about his time traveling.

HOWEVER, what bugged me was this:  How did they know -and so quickly and convincingly- that the bullet was from the Civil War?  The movie implies the people examining the bullet dated it by, perhaps, using some kind of carbon dating.  But if you think about it, that makes no sense.  Willis’ character traveled back to the Civil War era, sustained the wound, and was then almost immediately transported back to the present.  The bullet within him, thus, might be an “older” model bullet, but it would be *brand new* to anyone examining it.

Now, this scene would have worked far more effectively if when the bullet was examined the examiner said: “Say, this model of bullet is of a type they used back in the Civil War!”  However, that was not what was said or implied.  It was clear that the examiner knew the bullet was from the Civil War.

I suppose its a small annoyance, but given the significance to the movie’s plot, that bit really bugged me.

Now, to the film with errors that, instead of bugging me, amused and delights me:

In the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (Sean Connery’s last “official” outing as the super spy), one should watch very carefully some of the stunt work in and around Las Vegas.  For example, when James Bond is driving around in the moon buggy, toward the end of the chase if you look carefully on the left side of the screen, you’ll see that one of the moon buggy’s wheels came off just outside camera range when the final pursing car does its flip (this happens at the 2:33 second mark of the clip below):

A second amusing screw up occurs just a little later and also involves stunt work.  In this case, James Bond is being pursued by people while driving a screaming red Mustang.  He goes into a too tight alley and has to drive the car on two wheels.

Only problem?  He goes into the alley using the car’s right side wheels but comes out of the alley on the left side wheels!  This occurs in the following clip at the 3:45 second mark.

They tried to fix the above glitch with a little moving camera work, implying that somehow in the alley the car switched sides, but clearly this was a goof!

Mind you, I still absolutely LOVE Diamonds Are Forever.  I think these goof ups add to the movie’s charm and most certainly are not errors that “bug” me.  There are those who hate the film, but I happen to think its a great action/comedy.  Perhaps more of a comedy than the typical Sean Connery Bond films, but I love it nonetheless.