Best sci-fi movie deliberate mistakes of all time

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Men in Black II picture Men in Black II mistake picture

Deliberate mistake: When MIB agents exit the lift to get into the main hall of the MIB Office, the lift opens halfway up the wall and they need to go down a little platform. But when K and J return during the lockdown and face the trashcan with guns, the lift opens at floor level, so it can be conveniently peppered with bullets. (01:02:05)

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Suggested correction: The building is in lockdown so it is no surprise that the lift is changed to a less flamboyant version. Even in the first scene, there are some doors there.

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Cube picture

Deliberate mistake: Leaven spends too much time thinking about if 645 and 372 are prime numbers to be believable. But she knows the factors of 649 and the result of 26 to the power of 3 almost immediately. Plus anyone with any maths knowledge whatsoever would know that any even number (or one divisible by 5) can't be prime, so 645 and 372 could be dismissed without even thinking about it.

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The Matrix Reloaded picture The Matrix Reloaded mistake picture

Deliberate mistake: When Morpheus is facing the twins' car, the road's not all that wide, and there are concrete barriers both sides of him. After he rolls to the side and slices their car, we see a side shot, quite far back from the road, and the barrier closest to the camera has disappeared (presumably so we get a better view). In a closer view, both barriers are back again. (01:29:25)

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E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial picture E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial mistake picture

Deliberate mistake: When Elliott and ET are on the bike heading to the forest on Halloween night, ET is covered with the white sheet, but in the closeup of ET's face right before the bike flies he's covered with the white blanket (note the material), which is from the scene later in the movie.

Super Grover

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The Island picture

Deliberate mistake: Gandu Three Echo, the clone who hits the screen showing the first lottery winner in the movie, complains that he has been around for 7 years and never won the lottery. However, McCord explains later in the movie that the last name tells how old the clones are. Lincoln Six Echo is 3 years old because he is in the Echo generation, and the Delta generation (Jordan Two Delta) is 4 years old. Going backwards, this would make Charlies 5 years old, Bravos 6 years old, and Alphas 7 years old. Gandu Three Echo should have really been Gandu Three Alpha. (00:05:55)

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Diamonds Are Forever picture Diamonds Are Forever mistake picture Video

Deliberate mistake: The famous car chase ends with Bond's car tipping up on its right wheels to fit through a pedestrian path. However, when it emerges the other side, it's tipped on its left wheels. When the car enters the alley, this was filmed in a studio. When the car exits the alley, this was filmed in Vegas. The first few times the exit was filmed, the car emerged on the correct wheels, but the shots were unusable because of the crowds in the background watching the filming. This shot was temporarily abandoned and eventually re-filmed with a different stunt driver who famously performed the stunt on the wrong wheels. Realising this, the producers filmed a somewhat clunky insert shot featuring a close-up of Sean Connery and Jill St John, which shows the car tip back onto four wheels and then up onto the opposite two wheels, even though the alleyway would be too narrow to manage this.

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The Lost World: Jurassic Park picture The Lost World: Jurassic Park mistake picture

Deliberate mistake: When the ship crashes into the dock, all of the scenes leading up to the crash and after it show a clear view across the harbor as we can see lights and land on the other side. It's not until the ship is about to crash that a thick and dense fog appears and disappears within a minute to mask the ship to create a more dramatic effect.

jerimiah

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The Matrix picture The Matrix mistake picture

Deliberate mistake: When Neo and Morpheus are in the construct place (where it is all white), you can see that Morpheus' glasses are a matte grey and then a second later they are totally reflective. [The shot where Morpheus has flat black glasses was shot with a steadycam. A cameraman using a special camera strapped to his body walks in a snaking path from behind Neo, to behind Morpheus. He passes in front of Morpheus at least once. His glasses were painted flat black to prevent the reflection of the steadycam operator showing up on film. At the end of the shot, you can see the back side of the lens. While doing this scene and saying his dialogue, Laurence Fishburne couldn't see anything.] (00:38:10)

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Back to the Future Part II picture Back to the Future Part II mistake picture

Deliberate mistake: When Old Biff and Young Biff are sitting in Biff's car, the car's rear-view mirror vanishes during all shots of Old and Young Biffs together. Presumably this made the split-screen effect easier to do.

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Galaxy Quest picture

Deliberate mistake: When Commander Taggert and Lt. Madison are about to press the blue button to stop the ship exploding, Lt. Madison's tunic is mostly zipped up. A few seconds later it is suddenly mostly unzipped. Those of you who have access to the DVD of the film can see that there was a deleted scene which was originally intended to go in here where she unzips her tunic to distract the aliens.

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Beneath the Planet of the Apes picture

Deliberate mistake: There are no lights ever to be found in the underground world and the ceiling is literally the surface's ground, but there is still a perfect level of lighting regardless.

Casual Person

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Ghostbusters: Afterlife picture

Deliberate mistake: When the kids are about to jump start the trap Phoebe hides behind the school bus door. Half a second later, when the trap opens, she's nowhere to be seen, not even jumping or stepping inside the bus. Then half a second later she has managed to get inside, turn around and protect her head while the bus windows burst. It all happens in real time for their hairs are still fluttering. It sure paces up the scene, but it's really awkward.

Sacha

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Who Am I? picture

Deliberate mistake: At the end of the movie when everyone is on the bridge, the one female cop roundhouses the bad guy, who is clearly a white male in his 50's, but his stunt double is an Asian man (with different colored hair). They use the same stunt man a few other times for people he doesn't even look like.

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The Martian picture

Deliberate mistake: The atmosphere on Mars is only 1% as dense of that as Earth, so 175kph windstorms would feel like a light breeze. They would have very little effect on the astronauts or MAV. The writers of the book and the film were aware of this, it was a small cheat to let the rest of the story unfold.

Grumpy Scot

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The Maze Runner picture

Deliberate mistake: Despite taking place for at least three years (prior to the arrival of Thomas) in an isolated post-apocalyptic setting, the boys in the Glade have professional looking hairstyles, not the least of which are Minho and Gally, who both have short hairstyles that look evenly cut and professionally maintained.

Phaneron

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X-Men 2 picture X-Men 2 mistake picture

Deliberate mistake: Almost trivia, but not quite. When Mystique's looking through the guard files to find a suitable candidate, lots of photos flash up very quickly before she finds the guy she uses. Of note is that Bryan Singer pops up in guard uniform (with his own name), and so does someone called "Donner, L". This is most likely referring to Lauren Shuler Donner, one of the producers, and sex is specified as "F", but the photo is of a stubble-coated man. (00:23:10)

Jon Sandys

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Inception picture

Deliberate mistake: During the mob scene outside Saito's love nest, the same black Saab is seen getting firebombed twice. It was shot from two different angles, with the two shots played about a minute apart to give the impression of two cars getting bombed. Also, in the first angle it is clear the car has no engine.

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Alien picture

Deliberate mistake: After Ash's body is incinerated, the interior walls of the Nostromo appear more metallic and grey than they were before. According to Ridley Scott, this was done deliberately to make the alien's presence appear more menacing.

THGhost

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Star Wars picture

Deliberate mistake: After the Tusken Raider has attacked Luke, he raises his stick over his head and shouts. The movement of his clothing is extremely unnatural. During the editing, they put the same footage forward, then backward many times, to add emphasis to his movements, but it looks decidedly odd. (00:29:02)

Dr Wilson

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Star Trek: Generations picture

Deliberate mistake: After the trilithium missile hits the sun, it is shown going out in real time from Veridian III. As the planet is relatively earth-like, it is several light-minutes away from the sun. The filmmakers wanted it to be obvious that the missile was successful, so they ignored the speed of light. (01:20:35)

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