Sloppy Mistakes in 28 of America’s Most Famous Movies

The movie is supposed to take place in and around New York City. During a car chase in which Jolie’s and Pitt’s characters are fighting off three BMWs, a shot shows a street sign reading “Los Angeles.”

While con man Frank W. Abagnale Jr. is being led away by FBI agents, he sees New York’s LaGuardia Airport and says, “There it is, LaGuardia Airport, runway 44.” Runway numbers extend only up to 36, as they correspond to points on a compass with the last number cut.

In one scene, John Wick is gassing up his car at a filling station in New Jersey. New Jersey does not have self-service gas stations.

When the astronaut Dave gets his supper, the order of food from right to left is yellow, light brown, light brown, dark brown. Later when he’s eating, the order is yellow, orange brown, dark brown, light brown.

The lake that Jack told Rose he went ice fishing on when she was threatening to jump is Lake Wissota, a man-made lake in Wisconsin near Chippewa Falls, where Jack grew up. The lake was filled with water in 1918 when a power company built a dam on the Chippewa River, six years after the Titanic sank.

Many Scots are shown wearing kilts in the movie set in the 12th century. In fact, before battle, they lift their kilts up and expose their backsides. But kilts were not common fashion in Scotland until the 17th century. “Braveheart” is notorious for many historical inaccuracies.

The film takes place in a private boarding school in the 1950s. Astute filmgoers will note that one of the students is studying from a chemistry textbook from the 1980s. The spine of one book shows HBJ as the publisher. The J stands for Jovanovich, which was not added to Harcourt Brace until the 1970s.

In the “Battle of Carthage” at the Roman Colosseum, one of the chariots is turned over. After the dust passes, a gas cylinder can be seen in the back of the vehicle.

As Bruce Wayne is gathering information on a jewel thief, the word “Heist” is spelled “Hiest” in a newspaper headline.

The current of the river that the main character Will Schofield falls into on his way to telling the British to call off an assault against the Germans during World War I carries him to a waterfall. There is not a river of that kind in Flanders Fields, let alone a waterfall. The geography of the region is flat.

In the scene in which Ashley is brought back wounded from the raid where Scarlett’s husband was killed, Melanie grabs an oil lamp to follow the men carrying her husband Ashley to the bedroom. You can see an electrical cord hanging down from it. Electricity in the home was still decades off.

When Hooker comes out of a diner there is a billboard advertisement for Ezra Brooks bourbon. That brand wasn’t created until 1957. “The Sting” takes place in the 1930s.

When private detective Jake Gittes visits an orange grove and crashes into a tree, a steel plate can be seen placed around the tree to protect it.

The left side of the folder containing Walt’s medical records lists his address as “Detroit, CA.” It’s correctly rendered as “Detroit, MI” on the right side.

During Ford executive Lee Iacocca’s slide presentation to Henry Ford II in 1963, there are two slides that reference James Bond. One shows him standing next to the Aston Martin DB5, made famous in the Bond film “Goldfinger” in 1964, and another displays a still image from “Thunderball,” released in 1965.

After ascending the Egyptian throne, the pharaoh Rameses accepts tribute from many nations. One of the visiting dignitaries is announced as “King Priam of Troy.” Priam died at the end of the Trojan War, circa 1184 B.C.; Rameses ascended the throne of Egypt circa.1290 B.C.

During the chariot race, where the riders are approaching the screen, tire tracks from the camera vehicle are seen imprinted in the sand.

In the shooting scene in the Mount Rushmore café involving the characters played by Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant, a boy in the background puts his fingers in his ears in anticipation of the gunshot.

During the scene where Mozart is being wheeled away in his coffin by horse and cart, a large overhead power line is visible to the left of the screen. The movie is set in the 18th century.

This movie states that it is during the year 1973 when events took place, yet when the eventual victims are driving in the van they are listening to “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, which was not released publicly until a year later.

After he climbs out of the air duct, John McClane’s shirt goes from white to green.

There’s a scene during which Phyllis hides behind an open door to avoid being seen by Barton Keyes leaving Walter Neff`s apartment. The apartment door opens into the hallway – something apartment doors don’t do in real life.

In this beloved holiday classic, the train that transports the Haynes sisters and Wallace and Davis to Vermont from Florida is shown as the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in one sequence and the Southern Pacific Railroad in another. Neither railway ran on the East Coast.

“Barry Lyndon” is set in the 18th century and is about an Irish opportunist trying to climb the social ladder. In one scene, there is a drawing of a steam train on a period map. Trains didn’t appear until the 19th century.

In this time-travel film, the crew of a U.S. aircraft carrier is listening to a live radio broadcast of a boxing match involving heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis – supposedly taking place on Dec. 6, 1941, the day before the Pearl Harbor attack. Louis’s last fight of 1941 was in September.

Before arriving at Brod station the train goes through high mountains. Between Belgrade (Serbia) and Brod (Bosnia and Herzegovina) there are no mountains.

In the scenes where Gardner is messaging his Earth-based female friend Tulsa from his Mars home, their communication is shown as being in real time. In actuality, there would be at least a four-minute delay between transmissions.

A recreated newsreel of a trip to Japan by catcher and U.S. spy Moe Berg before the Pearl Harbor attack shows a copyright date of MCMXLIV (1944) in the lower left corner, three years after the attack. Berg in fact visited Japan with a group of American baseball players in 1934, which in Roman numerals is MCMXXXIV.