Best movie factual errors of 2009

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The Informant! picture

Factual error: The movie takes place during the 1990s, but throughout the movie cars are shown with Illinois license plates with "Illinois" written in cursive. These plates were not introduced until 2001. (00:24:45)

illiniman14

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2012 picture

Factual error: In the poster shot and in the film, the wave from the Atlantic carrying the carrier JFK into a collision with the White House comes crashing in from the west because the south portico of the White House is seen. The Atlantic Ocean is east of Washington, so the wave should come from the other direction. And even a wave coming from the east could not have made the JFK (CV-67) crash into the White House because the carrier was retired in 2005 and is berthed in Philadelphia, which is northeast of Washington DC. (01:30:10 - 01:30:40)

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The Damned United picture

Factual error: We see a caption saying "Leeds 0 Luton 1." In reality, that match was a tie game.

Low Cow

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The Descent: Part 2 picture

Factual error: Rios records a message for her daughter on her mobile phone. The phone is a Nokia N81. The film is set two days after the first one, in 2005. But the N81 wasn't released until 2007. (01:02:00)

THGhost

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Law Abiding Citizen picture

Factual error: In the scene when the police are heading to Clyde's house to arrest him, this tactic is highly unrealistic. In real life, when a person is simply a suspect in an investigation, the police do not all drive to the suspect location with lights and sirens going. This loses the element of surprise. They didn't even know if he was home, anyway.

Anthony Lemons

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Fast & Furious picture

Factual error: During the first tunnel sequence, all the cars travel very far into the mountains, turn lots of corners, yet not only is Gisele still able to speak to them over the radios, their GPS still works. GPS signals invariably need a clear 'sight' of the sky and can penetrate light cover, but most certainly not that depth and cover. (00:58:05)

GalahadFairlight

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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen picture

Factual error: In the original Transformers, Tyrese Gibson's character is credited as and wears the rank insignia of a USAF Technical Sergeant. In Revenge of the Fallen, set two years later, Gibson's character now wears the insignia of a USAF Chief Master Sergeant, three ranks higher than his rank in the first movie. The USAF would not jump someone three grades into the top 1% of the enlisted force no matter what his heroics or experience (that does not even happen to Medal of Honor awardees). Clearly the screenwriters recognized this as Captain Lennox is bumped only one grade to Major despite his actions in the first film and Gibson's character, as noted in another mistake, is credited as Master Sergeant Epps, a reasonable promotion. The costume department simply got the insignia wrong.

Guy

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Inglourious Basterds picture

Factual error: When the real German soldiers are playing 20 questions in the bar, one of the cards shows the name of Genghis Khan. This is an English-language word; as Germans, they would have written Dschingis Khan instead. As the whole scene deals with exposing the British/American spies and subtle differences in their language or behaviour, this is especially unfavorable here.

wirthi

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Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Nonsense. Not all can be put out with water, some can.

If you did research on fires you will see that putting water on chemical fires makes it spread. Gasoline and oil float to the surface of the water and continue to burn.

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Sherlock Holmes picture

Factual error: In the scene depicting life on Baker Street (after the "Sherlock Holmes" title), a horse-drawn carriage races through the streets of London. The only problem is, the carriage is driving on the right side of the road with others passing on the left. In England, carriages would be driving on the left. (00:07:05)

mphe

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G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra picture

Factual error: In the underwater scene when Rex blows up the ice pack, ice appears to be denser than water in this situation. The ice sinks when it's blown up, and even if there were pieces of metal on top of the ice, it shouldn't. Some pieces the size of a five-story building have no metal and still sink. (01:43:00)

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Terminator Salvation picture

Factual error: In the scene in the 'cattle car' the shadow and light from outside the bars is moving across Kyle's face as he is talking. But unless the light source moves relative to the shadow source, a shadow will not move. But the light source was just outside daylight - and not direct sunlight - so the shadow inside would not have moved.

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The Fourth Kind picture

Factual error: Abby has trees surrounding her house yet there aren't any in Nome Alaska.

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Solomon Kane picture

Factual error: At the start of the movie you can see the Flag of Great Britain on Solomon's ship. The film is set in 1600 and the Union flag didn't exist until 1606.

p05879

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17 Again picture

Factual error: At the start in 1989, when Mike is dancing with the cheerleaders and also just before he goes after Scarlet, in close-ups of the crowd cheering there is a man (with a white baseball cap) wearing a Paramore t-shirt. However, Paramore (a Grammy-nominated American pop rock band) formed in 2004. The style of t-shirt he is wearing is actually one of the officially licensed Paramore merchandise. (00:02:45)

JasonClark22

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Daybreakers picture

Factual error: In the beginning a calendar says 2019 April, you can see April 1 being Tuesday when actually April 1 2019 was a Monday. (00:01:10)

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Public Enemies picture Public Enemies mistake picture

Factual error: In one scene, focused on a period wood-staked pickup truck parked on the street, you can see clearly a modern Jeep Grand Cherokee parked on the other side of the street.

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Invictus picture

Factual error: When the team is running you can see a new model white Range Rover Sport and a red Honda Civic passing by.

mamu2

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X-Men Origins: Wolverine picture

Factual error: When Wolverine is being chased after the explosion of the barn, there's a Humvee chasing the motorcycle. The movie is supposed to take place in the late 70's - the Humvee started production in 1984 and started service in the late 80's.

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The Human Centipede picture

Factual error: During the surgical operation, Dr. Heiter makes incisions on the buttocks for the triangular flaps of connecting flesh; but the flaps are pointing outward, rather than inward. The only way to graft the buttock flesh to the face of the next subject would be with the buttock incisions pointing inward.

Charles Austin Miller

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