01 October 2022

Fictional Mistakes (Onscreen and Off)



I watch a lot of movies, thanks to Netflix and Amazon Prime, and mostly from my La-Z-Boy in the den. I usually prefer mysteries, thrillers, westerns, etc., and tend to avoid message-movies, superheroes, and foreign films--but in the right mood I'll give anything a try.

One of the things I find myself looking for in movies are little mistakes in either the plot or the filming that somehow slip through. I don't necessarily mind them, I just seem to notice them more, lately. Worse than film mistakes, I think, are errors in printed fiction; I look for those, too. But I'll get to that in a minute.

Here's a list of movie goofs that come to mind, goofs that I'm sure some of you have noticed yourselves. Some are tiny, some are glaring, and I suspect all are embarrassing to the filmmakers.

Just for fun . . . remember these?


North by Northwest -- In the cafeteria at Mount Rushmore, Eva Marie Saint pulls a gun and shoots Cary Grant--but several seconds beforehand, a young boy in the background (who's looking in the other direction and doesn't even see her) covers his ears in anticipation of the gunshot.

Casablanca -- Dooley Wilson (Sam) didn't know how to play the piano--so his hand movements never match the music.

Shane --  While Alan Ladd is talking to the little boy in the shed, a dark-colored car can be seen through the window in the distance, moving left to right. The movie is set in the 1860s. 

Pulp Fiction -- In one scene a young man comes out of the bathroom and shoots at both John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson (and misses)--but before the bathroom door even opens, several bullet holes are already there in the wall behind Travolta and Jackson.

Gladiator -- A metal gas canister is clearly visible underneath an overturned chariot in one of the battle scenes.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly -- Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach use dynamite to blow up a bridge in the Civil War several years before dynamite was invented.

Gone With the Wind -- More of the same. GWTW featured several scenes using not-yet-invented lamps with cords. In one street sequence in Atlanta, there are lightbulbs in what should've been gas fixtures.

A Streetcar Named Desire -- In a scene with Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter, he's obviously mimicking her lines with his lips while she's speaking them.

Double Indemnity -- Fred MacMurray's character is a bachelor, but his real-life wedding ring is visible on his finger several times during the movie.

Never Been Kissed -- A sign made by the math club that Drew Barrymore joins features an incorrect value for Pi.

Vertigo -- Kim Novak loses a shoe in the water and then has both of them on right after that.

Rear Window -- An injured and stationary Jimmy Stewart, a photographer with an expensive telephoto-lens camera in his lap most of the time, never takes a single photo of the mystery scene or of the neighbor he suspects has committed a crime.

Psycho -- As Janet Leigh lies dead on the floor, her pupils are contracted when they should be dilated. (Afterward, ophthalmologists told Hitchcock there were eyedrops that could achieve that effect, and he used them for corpses in later movies.)

Star Wars -- At one point, a tall stormtrooper bumps his head against the top of a doorway.

Pretty Woman -- At breakfast, Julia Roberts is eating a croissant she's holding in her hand; a few seconds later she's holding and eating a pancake instead.

Ocean's Eleven -- More food problems. The container for Brad Pitt's shrimp cocktail changes from a glass to a plate, and then back to a glass again.

It's a Wonderful Life -- The angel reveals that Jimmy Stewart's brother died at the age of nine, but the birth/death dates on his gravestone say he was eight.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory -- The candy man accidentally whacks a little girl under the chin when he lifts a countertop.

Twister -- Debris from a tornado crashes through the windshield of a vehicle containing stormchasers Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, but moments later the windshield is magically unbroken.

The Wizard of Oz -- When Judy Garland meets the Tin Man, she and the Scarecrow oil his rusty joints for him so he can move--even though tin doesn't rust. In the same movie, after the Scarecrow gets a brain, he states the Pythagorean theorem--incorrectly.

Braveheart -- A white van is visible in the background during a battle scene.

The Star Wars series -- Every single planet has the same gravitational force, which in reality would be almost impossible.

Quantum of Solace -- In one of the dock scenes, an extra with a pushbroom in the background behind Daniel Craig is sweeping the air several inches above the ground.

Titanic -- Leonardo DiCaprio mentions that he once went ice fishing on Lake Wissota, which wasn't formed until 1917. The Titanic sank in 1912.

The Great Gatsby -- DiCaprio enters a house soaked from the rain, but moments later his clothes and hair are completely dry.

The Aviator -- Leo again. As Howard Hughes in 1928, he requests ten chocolate chip cookies while editing his movie Hell's Angels. Chocolate chip cookies weren't around until two years later.

Grease -- A waitress tries to turn off a light switch with her elbow but misses it completely. Seconds later, the lights turn off anyway. 

Hitch -- Will Smith has an allergic reaction that causes the left side of his fact to swell. Later the swelling switches to the right side.

The Karate Kid -- Ralph Macchio wins the final tournament by kicking his opponent in the head, even though such a thing is an illegal move and would be grounds for immediate disqualification.

Mean Girls -- Lindsey Lohan is from Africa in the movie, but there's a picture in her room of her riding an elephant with small ears (Indian) rather than large ears (African).

The Shawshank Redemption -- Tim Robbins's prison escape is via a tunnel covered by the famous movie poster of Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C.--but that movie wasn't released until a year later.

American Sniper -- A fake baby is obviously substituted for a real one.

Spider-Man -- A mannequin is obviously substituted for Tobey Maguire when he rescues Kirsten Dunst and swings her to safety. (Her hair's even blowing in the wrong direction while they're in mid-swing.)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone -- A metal bicycle seat can be seen on Daniel Radcliffe's broomstick during the Quidditch scene. Later, when he's debroomed, the seat's gone.

Back to the Future -- The guitar Michael J. Fox plays onstage in 1955 is a Gibson ES-345 model, with didn't exist until several years later.

Clueless -- Alicia Silverstone crashes into another vehicle during her driving test and knocks her side mirror off--but a few moments later the mirror's replaced.

You've Got Mail -- Tom Hanks puts an olive into his father's martini, the camera cuts to his father and back to Hanks, and he puts the same olive into the same martini.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring -- When Sean Astin and Elijah Wood walk across a field in the Shire, a car is clearly visible in the background.

Raiders of the Lost Ark -- As Harrison Ford sits at an outdoor table in Cairo in 1936, a man in modern clothes (a T-shirt and blue jeans) strolls by in the background. Also in Raiders, later in the movie, you can see the cobra's reflection in the glass that's separating it from Indy.


As silly as most of those are, I think it's even more humiliating to make mistakes in a novel or short story. (Probably because I myself am sometimes the guilty party.) There are many examples of this, but here are a few:


One of the Jesse Stone novels (I forget which one) by Robert B. Parker lapses at one point from third-person into first and back again. My guess is that this happened because all his Spenser novels were first-person.

One of the murders in the novel The Big Sleep was never solved, or even mentioned again. When asked years later about who killed the chauffeur, Raymond Chandler said, "Damned if I know."

In The Tommyknockers, a gun used by Stephen King's protagonist was an automatic at one point and a revolver a few pages later.

The 1631 King James version of the Holy Bible says, in Exodus 20:14, "Thou shalt commit adultery."

In Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein has a character whose name switches back and forth between Agnes and Alice.

In the novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the Common Room is described as circular, but Ron and Lavender wind up in a "prominent corner" of the room.

The Story of Dr. Doolittle places orangutans in Africa, even though they're found only in Borneo and Sumatra.


There are many more of these, but the most painful mistakes for me are the ones I have made in my own writing. Most of them, thank God, I caught before the stories were submitted, but some of them were caught by editors who told me to correct them (embarrassing!), and a few made it all the way through to publication--in one I stupidly identified a horse as a mare and later tied "him" to a fencepost. The only good thing about mistakes that go all the way to print is that if/when you later sell the stories as reprints, you can correct them.


How about your own writing? Have you made any mistakes in grammar, structure, POV, character names, locations, plot, logic, etc., that wound up getting published anyway? Any that were particularly cringeworthy? How about movies you've watched? What are the worst goofs you can remember? Let me know in the comments section.

Meanwhile, if you're one of those folks who look for these kinds of errors . . . good hunting!

If you're one of those who commit them . . . well, go ye and sin no more.




35 comments:

  1. ON the day my novel SUCH A KILLING CRIME was published I proudly showed it to a friend who immediately noted that I said Kitty Genovese was killed in Brooklyn, instead of Queens. I hasten to point out that this was not an important point in the book. As for changing from first to third person, Ed McBain did that in the middle of a Matthew Hope novel and never went back. All the novels that followed were in third.

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    1. Hey Rob. I doubt many readers caught the mistake your friend did, and--as you said--it didn't matter to the rest of the book anyhow. I'm sure it was worrisome to you, though.

      Interesting, about McBain's POV switch--I didn't know about that.

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  3. Nice list, John. I knew a few. Many I didn't. I don't know if it's a mistake, but in Double Indemnity, Walter Neff's apartment door opens OUT into the hallway. Had it opened inward, like every apartment door I've ever seen, Barbara Stanwyck would have had to hide behind it inside the apartment and would have been caught. My favourite book mistake, noted when I was 12, was in Robinson Crusoe. Crusoe takes off all his clothes and swims out to a wrecked ship. He climbs on board and fills his pockets with fruit (I think it's quite a well-known mistake). My favourite one of my own making was in a recent AHMM story (pointed out by Rob). I mentioned a character was a widower on one page, and that he had never married a couple of pages later. I blame an unreliable author.

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    1. Stephen, I never noticed that, in Double Indemnity. I guess that was done, as you noted, to fit the needs of the plot! As for Robinson Crusoe, I remember hearing about that goof.

      Your AHMM mistake sounds like a lot of those I've made. Usually I've been lucky enough to catch them before submitting, but not every time.

      Thank you as always. Take care!

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  4. John, if I didn't know how many stories you've written, I'd say this post proves you have too much time on your hands. ;) I'm oblivious to these bloopers in movies, though in defense of The Wizard of Oz the movie, I can tell you the business of oiling the Tin Woodman's joints came straight from the book. Maybe the bolts were iron?

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    1. Liz, there are plenty of things I could've and should've been doing while I was thinking about this crazy post. I admit I'm fascinated by anything cinematic. As for the Wiz, see Anonymous's comment below, regarding a correction to my too-hasty observation regarding the Tin Man and his joints.

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  5. Loved this post John. In Pretty Woman on the picnic scene, Julia Roberts takes Richard Gere's shoes off, but in the next scene, he's on the phone with his shoes on again.

    I know I've read many errors in books, but can't think of any off the top of my head. Same with movies in TV shows.

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    1. Hi Pat. I didn't remember the goof with the shoes.

      Yep, there are many many many mistakes in books, stories, and TV also. Like you, I couldn't think of many while I was putting this together. Keep watching for 'em!

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  6. "even though tin doesn't rust." "Tin cans" are steel with a tin plating. They definitely will rust. Nothing is constructed from pure tin. The Tin Man would be made like a tin can.

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    1. Ha! Got me there. My apologies to the Tin Man. (Thank goodness Dorothy had some WD-40 with her that day.) Thanks, Anonymous.

      File this under Unfairly Accused Goofs.

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  7. "identified a horse as a mare and later tied "him" to a fencepost." To correct that today you'd just refer to the horse as "They."

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    1. How true! Unfortunately, this happened a few years ago, before I was enlightened.

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  8. Robert Benchley wrote a very funny piece about supposed movie boners. "In Dr. Tanner Can’t Eat there is a scene laid in Budapest. There is no such place as Budapest." When the humor-impaired wrote in to complain that there is indeed such a place he doubled down: "Perhaps you are thinking of Bucharest, and there is no such place as Bucharest, either." https://nebushumor.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/robert-benchley-movie-boners/

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    1. Thanks so much for that information! I'm familiar with Robert Benchley but I've never heard of that piece. I'll check it out!

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  9. Star Trek: The Next Generation had a few musical ones. In 11001001, the man playing the piano in the holodeck is moving his hands in a way that doesn't remotely match the music. I've also heard that whenever Riker plays the trombone, the movements don't necessarily match the music.

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    1. Interesting, Brian!

      I'm reminded of all those old movies (pre-1960s, let's say) where almost anyone playing the guitar is obviously not really playing the guitar. I guess it's not always easy to find actors who are also musically inclined.

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    2. Some are easier to spot than others. The trombone is such an unusual instrument in terms of movements, I don't think anyone would know or care. The piano one was pretty obvious, though.

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    3. So is some of the guitar playing! Guess it gives folks like me something to watch for, in these movies!

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  10. I remember the Robinson Crusoe naked pockets well. Two of my favorite errors, which I have mentioned before:
    (1) In "Female on the Beach", Joan Crawford's character is drunk as a skunk in her kitchen, but she sobers up IMMEDIATELY as soon as Jeff Chandler calls. Yeah, right.
    (2) In "A Simple Plan", Sheriff Carl never calls and checks that the FBI agent is actually an FBI Agent. Yeah, right.

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    1. Eve, as I mentioned, I'd heard of Robinson Crusoe and those Pockets from Nowhere, but I somehow didn't remember it from (long ago) reading the book. It's fun to imagine Daniel Defoe slapping his forehead, afterward.

      I like your two movie goofs. One thing that always amazed me was the willingness of young ladies in horror movies to venture into unknown nooks and crannies all alone. That in itself should probably be considered a goof. I remember that the first time I saw Psycho half the theatre was shouting to Vera Miles "Don't do it--don't go into the root cellar!" Alas, she paid no attention.

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  11. How timely. I'm watching the 7th Harry Potter movie right now. Harry just jumped into a pond to retrieve the sword lying at the bottom. He was wearing his glasses when he went underwater. We saw him wearing them while he was underwater. Yet when he got out of the pond, he wasn't wearing the glasses anymore and had to retrieve them from the ground.

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    1. Harry's pretty clever, Barb--he probably had a spare pair of glasses we didn't know about, in case he lost them while retrieving submerged swords. Seriously, wouldn't you think the moviemakers would watch for this kind of mistake during all the editing they do, and find and correct them before the final cuts?

      Oh well. Enjoy the rest of the movie!

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  12. Great article!

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    1. Thank you--and thanks for stopping in at SleuthSayers!

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  13. My favorite movie goof is from The Goonies, where the kids find the treasure map in the attic under the glass of a broken picture frame. Brand picks up the frame and tosses the glass aside, but then the camera shows a close-up of them carefully taking the map out from under the shards of broken glass. I “discovered” the movie about a decade after it came out and watched it on VHS over and over, and I remember feeling like such a Mensa scholar when I noticed that mistake!

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    1. Another goof I hadn't heard about--and didn't notice, the several times I've watched The Goonies. (Favorite thing about that movie, last time I watched it, was seeing the now-famous Josh Brolin as a kid.) Once again, it seems these mistakes would be so easy to correct before the movies are released. Makes you wonder whether they allow some errors to sneak through on purpose . . .

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  14. John, the immense enjoyment of your post that shines through the comments suggests that we're all secretly or not so secretly like you: we don't really wanna read, we just wanna watch movies!

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    1. Ha! I like both, Liz, but I do love the often time-wasting pastime of movies. I started young with that, and hung with it all through high school and college. God only knows how I managed to graduate, having spent so many nights sitting in the movie theater when I should've been studying. But I do think it helped a little, when it comes to writing fiction. How could it not?

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  15. Great list. I hadn't noticed most of them. The only van I remember in Braveheart is during Murron's funeral service rather than a battle.

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    1. Hey Mike. The one I remembered was a white van (might've been a truck) in the background during a horse charge by the enemy. Sounds like there was more than one vehicle goof in that movie. The car goof I remember the most (because I've seen the move SO many times) was the one I mentioned in Shane. One of our grandsons and I were watching it again awhile back, and I pointed it out to him. (I don't think he was all that impressed by my observation.)

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    2. You derailed his willing suspension of disbelief.

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    3. You're right. Should've kept my mouth shut.

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  16. The elephantine Indian-African mixup is awfully common. Ace Ventura was another. But other animals also get short shrift. Blue Lagoon featured painted lizards… literally lizards with greasepaint.

    I'd vote Django Unchained as movie with most anachronisms. I gave up counting.

    I inadvertently switched a woman's name in my first story, Swamped. Dale Andrews pointed it out to me. I'd like to think he was the only one who caught it, but that's wishful thinking.

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    1. Hi Leigh! Glad you're safe and now have power and computer capabilities (!) after Ian.

      Yep, the elephant-ear thing has confused lots of folks. And I didn't know about the painted lizards!

      Django Unchained. Don't get me started . . .

      Dale's pretty sharp--maybe he WAS the only one to catch that mistake. Just this morning Michael Bracken caught one of my goofs, in an already published EQMM story. Whattayagonnado?

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