stevewaclo

26th Jul 2023

Avatar (2009)

Question: In the many shots of the sky above Pandora, we see a variety of seemingly nearby moons around the planet. I'm no astrophysicist, but it seems to me that many orbiting objects would result in a chaotically unstable situation which could not be expected to long endure. Any astrophysicists out there?

stevewaclo

Answer: My bad on the planet/moon thing. You make excellent points, but again, those other moons in Pandora's sky are huge and appear very close. Gravity effects would have to be substantial and disruptive on the entire moon system. Thanks for correcting me.

stevewaclo

Answer: Not an astrophysicist, but to be clear, Pandora is not a planet. It's one of 14 moons orbiting a gas giant (Polyphemus). Thus, it would be the planet and the sun's gravitational pull that would most affect Pandora, in terms of tides. Since the other moons aren't in orbit of Pandora, their pull would be significantly less and would have minimal effect, but would presumably cause more eclipses than what we have on Earth. Pandora also has an atmosphere, which helps provide stability and allowed for life to develop. There are moons in our solar system with atmospheres and bodies of water, which in theory could support life. But it's unlikely that the reason life hasn't developed on these moons is because of some chaotically unstable situation.

Bishop73

28th Dec 2022

6 Underground (2019)

Other mistake: Near the end of the movie, the bad guy's yacht is tied up to a pier. Conveniently, the anchor is also deployed (why?) giving one of our heroes an opportunity to climb aboard via the chain.

stevewaclo

14th Jul 2020

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Other mistake: During the missile attack on the bomber, the radar operator is calling out closing distances to the approaching weapon and they are consistent with the 10 mile calibration rings on his scope. As the missile gets around the 20 mile range, the distances he reports are no longer consistent with the scope.

stevewaclo

Continuity mistake: When Stark is separated from the group and is attacked by the tiny dinos, his last desperate attempt at escape shows him going down a small stream, then over a log, where he falls and is killed. In the next shot, we are looking at the same log from the other side and bloody water is moving down stream with Stark's body on the other side. He can't be on both sides of the log at the same time.

stevewaclo

7th May 2020

Patriot Games (1992)

Other mistake: When Sean and the two surviving terrorists are on the cliff, looking down at the two boats below, Sean fires a burst at the boats but there are no splashes anywhere to be seen.

stevewaclo

28th May 2019

Star Trek (1966)

Arena - S1-E19

Revealing mistake: As Kirk and the Gorn battle, they briefly confront each other from opposite sides of a dead tree which has truncated limbs. One of the larger tree limbs on this supposedly uninhabited, tiny world has obviously been cut off with a chain saw or similar cutting instrument.

stevewaclo

22nd Nov 2018

The Longest Day (1962)

Continuity mistake: On Omaha Beach, the engineers are able to use Bangalore Torpedoes to create large openings under a massive concrete barrier at the end of a sandy ravine. They then pack the holes with high explosives and after the dust clears, the barrier is about half as high as before, with two large sections remaining in the breach. In an immediately following scene, as troops advance through the breach, it is shown from the opposite side as a wide, flat opening, nothing like the view from the beach side.

stevewaclo

22nd Nov 2018

The Longest Day (1962)

Other mistake: During the scene depicting the (only) two German aircraft which participated in defense of the beaches, they are shown strafing advancing Allied soldiers. However, other than a few random explosions on the ground, there is no indication of their machine guns kicking up any sand. In a later scene, fighters strafe a German column with expected results on the ground.

stevewaclo

31st Oct 2018

Psycho (1998)

Factual error: At the end of the shower murder, the camera pans back from Marion's eye, one of the most iconic scenes in cinema. If we are to presume she is now dead however, the nature of muscles surrounding her pupil would cause them to relax and her pupil would dilate, not go to a pinpoint as depicted.

stevewaclo

Continuity mistake: Near the end of the movie, Spock, with a phaser in his right hand, is chasing Kahn across the urban landscape. Kahn jumps onto a departing garbage scow and with a mighty leap, Spock jumps towards the bottom of the scow and is then shown holding on with two (empty) hands. A moment later, he is shown climbing onto the deck of the vessel, with the phaser back in his hand. Kahn kicks the phaser away and it disappears once again, this time over the side.

stevewaclo

20th Feb 2018

The Peacemaker (1997)

Factual error: Near the end of the movie, when the heroine is attempting to disable the nuclear aspect of the bomb, she spends a lot of time trying to remove one of the high explosive segments form the core, when simply cutting as many of the detonator wires as possible would seem to have accomplished the same thing. A nuclear detonation requires simultaneous detonation of all the explosive segments to cause the core to go critical. Even a small delay, caused by one or more segment not going off at precisely the right time would have resulted in only a non-nuclear explosion, which is what happened.

stevewaclo

23rd Mar 2017

Homeland (2011)

Casus Belli - S6-E5

Plot hole: Later in the evening, after NYPD takes Quinn into custody, Carrie finds his cell phone, with pictures showing their home had been spied upon from across the street, as well as other evidence of a conspiracy. He had tried to hand her the phone right after the police broke in, but it was knocked from his hand and she discovered it under the smashed door. In the real world, Carrie's home would have been considered a crime scene and the police would have searched it thoroughly, top to bottom, undoubtedly finding the phone themselves, but are shown driving away after the confrontation.

stevewaclo

8th Mar 2017

Hidden Figures (2016)

Factual error: During this era (I was there), nearly everyone (myself excluded) smoked like chimneys, and engineers in the office scene were no exception. All depictions of them laboring over their slide rules should have, realistically, been seen through a thick haze of cigarette smoke.

stevewaclo

23rd Jan 2017

American Graffiti (1973)

Other mistake: When Carol leaves her car full of girlfriends to get into John Milner's yellow coupe, she does not reach for his obvious door handle, but instead puts her hand through the open window and uses the inside release. She could not possibly know the outside handle would not work. In another scene, Carol uses the outside door handle.

stevewaclo

29th Sep 2016

Speed (1994)

Factual error: Near the end of the movie, the villain shoots the operator of the subway car. In all rail transportation situations I am aware of, an operator falling from his seat would immediately cause the train to slow to a controlled stop. It's called the "dead man's switch." Obviously does not happen in this movie.

stevewaclo

28th Sep 2016

American Sniper (2014)

Revealing mistake: When Chris and a companion are on a rooftop in the midst of clothes lines with sheets hanging to dry, all the sheets have creases indicating they had been recently unfolded or removed from original packaging before being hung on the lines.

stevewaclo

24th Apr 2016

The Jungle Book (2016)

Other mistake: In the opening sequence, Mowgli is running at full speed through the jungle, accompanied by Bagheera the black panther, who is mostly unseen until Mowgli finally collapses, exhausted onto the jungle floor. Mowgli lies on his back, talking to Bagheera, and neither are breathing heavily or showing any sign of exertion following their lengthy run.

stevewaclo

11th Jan 2016

The Revenant (2015)

Factual error: While arguable that Glass could have survived the numerous attacks upon his person (a momma grizzly, cold, hunger, starvation, etc.), his lengthy immersion in an icy river and subsequent grounding and re-warming boggles belief. While hypothermia is considered to be the cause of death in such instances, the fact is that within minutes in extremely cold water, a person becomes unable to perform the simplest of motions as the extremities shut down...and they drown. In addition, Glass hauls himself from the river and shortly thereafter is seen in his warm, dry outfit, heading out for new forms of physical and emotional abuse.

stevewaclo

Continuity mistake: While John Connor is above the small lake in a helicopter searching for Marcus, he and his crew are attacked by snake-like robotic arms that rise up from the water. The arms partially penetrate the cockpit but in brief, subsequent shots of chopper, the arms, which should be extending from the exterior, are nowhere to be seen.

stevewaclo

13th Dec 2015

Goldeneye (1995)

Factual error: In the cemetery, Bond encounters Alex Trevelyan, whom he thought had been killed in the chemical plant explosion. One of Treyelvan's henchmen shoots Bond in the right side of his neck with a dart but in the very next scene, and for the remainder of the movie, Bond's neck shows no sign of having been punctured. (01:08:10)

stevewaclo

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