You can’t really blame a well-known film or television show for making errors every now and then. Productions can be costly, emotional, and time-consuming shambles, and stuff can slip through the cracks. However, when funny fails occur, there’s no harm in pointing and laughing. How many of these blunders did you pick up on?
Game of Thrones
We’re not blowing anyone’s mind by mentioning this in one of Game Of Thrones‘ final episodes, a mistake that the internet has been quick to point out. However, for a show that makes an average investment of $10 million per episode, you’d think they’d catch this one in a tweet. So, who was the cup’s owner? Although the odds are stacked against Emilia Clarke, she has refuted the allegations, as have the rest of the cast members, who seem to be throwing each other under the bus. One thing is sure: that isn’t a Starbucks coffee shop, but rather a shop close to the set of the show.
Downtown Abbey
As we’ve already stated, there are a slew of fresh and exciting ways to muck up a period piece by using modern props inadvertently. Although this is usually in the form of a newer car or background costume, every now and then, a credit show or film will go above and beyond by adding something even more amusing. You know, like a very visible coffee cup. In the case of Downton Abbey, the show’s creators released promotional images of a prominently positioned plastic water bottle behind actors Hugh Bonneville and Laura Carmichael. This device was invented roughly thirty years before the show’s period. Instead of admitting their mistake and giving the characters Aquafina-branded flapper hats, the studio removed the images after realizing their error.
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
We’ve all seen it: the glorious moment when one of the already-inept stormtroopers leaps head-first into a futuristic trap, almost toppling over in pain or humiliation. It is, without a doubt, a lovely moment in time. What you do not realize, though, is how breathtakingly beautiful this moment is. And it turns out that this extra’s issues were not limited to his upper body. The fact is that the leading cause of the stormtrooper’s unfortunate noggin slam, credits to the stormtrooper himself (actor Laurie Goode), was his day’s distraction from a disturbed stomach. “I had paid three or four trips to the loo,” he says. But the next time you watch it, remember that it’s the cherry on top of a terrible workday.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
On the crew of Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), the famously eccentric pirate captain at the heart of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, it’s challenging to stand out. Sparrow is such a vivid character that it’s almost impossible to miss any of the other pirates working for him — unless you’re obviously part of the daily film crew and wearing a big white cowboy hat, which is arguably the funniest thing to wear while unintentionally in the background of a movie scene. Good for you, cinema’s unsung hero. Credits to Jack Sparrow’s erratic personality, we suspect he hired a real cowboy on one of his many adventures. Maybe it was a case of parallel universes colliding, and a character from Johnny Depp’s The Lone Ranger slipped into Captain Jack’s reality. Perhaps it’s just a cowboy hat-wearing dude who wasn’t supposed to be in the picture.
The Matrix
With its bullet-time effect, the original The Matrix may be one of the last credited films to revolutionize cinematography on par with the Steadicam or digital video. It also spawned a slew of tributes and parodies, as well as a whole new form of action never seen before. In addition, the movie hung a jacket on a camera in the hopes that we wouldn’t notice. The filmmakers needed to shoot a close-up of Neo (Keanu Reeves) opening a reflective door knob without exposing the entire crew in the process, which they did in a brilliant and hilarious move. The answer was to drape a matching coat and tie over the unit, almost completely hiding it from view. We say almost because it resembles a headless ghost dressed in a coat and tie rather than a human.
The Simpsons
It’s not every day that a producer points out a significant flaw in their show on Twitter, but that’s precisely what happened with The Simpsons‘ Matt Selman, who pointed out a substantial mark in the well-known episode, “And Maggie Makes Three.” Viewers can see an image of baby Maggie on the wall in a scene where Marge tells Homer that she is pregnant with Maggie. Since, like most credited animated shows, redrawing a frequently used backdrop from scratch is a pain in the neck that typically serves no function (except for this, obviously).
Friends
Monica (Courtney Cox) keeps morphing into a completely different woman for the shots in which she’s only peripherally present in a credited episode of Friends titled “The One with the Mugging.” The showrunners didn’t think she’d show up in the frame, which made us all wonder what the rando was up to when he barged into their conversation. We have “stand-ins” if the production wants to block a scene or give other actors an eye line because actors can’t be expected to wait around all day. We rarely see these stand-ins for apparent reasons. Even then, when taken out of context, it’s a surreal moment. Friends isn’t the only one who has made mistakes.
The Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang Theory fans have dissected every credit episode to locate every plot flaw and inaccuracy. (And, to be honest, Sheldon and the gang would prefer it.) The show’s reasoning for the continually broken elevator, for example, doesn’t quite add up. The elevator has been mysteriously broken for two years, we discover at the start of the episode. In the Season 1 episode “The Nerdvana Annihilation,” Howard also attempts to repair it but quickly gives up. However, we discover that Leonard inadvertently blew up the elevator with jet fuel seven years ago in the Season 3 flashback episode “The Staircase Implementation.” Howard was present at the explosion and assisted Leonard in mixing the jet fuel, so the timeline doesn’t add up. Why, then, would he forget how the elevator was broken and try to repair it?
Avengers: Infinity War
It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, but it’s still surprising for a big-budget film. Mantis’s jet-black eyes are a standout feature of the Avengers character, and it’s a simple effect to recreate with contact lenses or digital manipulation. That is unless the filmmakers completely forget to do so. It seems to be the case for the Infinity War scene in which Star-Lord and Tony Stark clash over the course of action, credits to a Redditor who pointed it out. Mantis can be seen wearing a pair of unaltered peepers instead of the digital substitute during a cutaway to a bored Drax.
Avengers: Endgame
Fans are already spotting issues with the new Avengers: Endgame, credits to Reddit. This particular error varies from “blink, and you’ll miss it” to “once seen, you can’t unsee,” depending on who you ask. When a CGI warrior goes from berserker to frozen in a matter of seconds — seemingly at the end of an animation loop — it happens in the bottom right corner of the frame. Are they stunned by the carnage around him, or did the VFX team make a mistake and let this one slip? It is a case where the jury is still out.