There's a rich tradition of cinematic misinterpretations where the automobile is concerned. Some of the classics include Tom Cruise downshifting to win the race in Days of Thunder. Or in Back to the Future where the entire plot revolves around a DeLoreon getting to 88 mph under its own power. As Garfield would say, "Fat chance." Our own Frank Williams just caught an excellent one, "A few weeks ago on CSI Miami, they tracked down a hit and run driver by the impression of a partial license plate in the victim's briefcase (stamped there by the impact) and the diesel fuel the vehicle leaked. When they tracked down the vehicle, it was a Dodge Charger and they CSI guys still referred to it as a diesel." Not in Miami, Mr. Caruso. You seen any good ones?
72 Comments on “QOTD: What’s Your Favorite Movie/TV Automotive Flub?...”
Back to TopLeave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You can also login using Facebook Connect.
Does the green VW Beetle in the chase in Bullitt that shows up in every single frame count? (the chase still kick ass in any event)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: In all the driving scenes at the beginning of the movie, the Chevrolet convertible is clearly in park (the column shifter is all the way up in the top position). Obviously the car was being pulled/trailered for while they were doing the filming.
All time best – the magically regenerating hubcaps in Bullitt.
When Brian Spilner shifts his eclipse into the 8th gear in F&F1
Bullitt’s Mustang being able to keep up with the Charger.Didn’t anybody go to drag races back then?
The entire final sequence in Bad Boys was full of engine revving and down-shifting when the chase was pretty much in an open lot, and the cars ran in a straight line. Typical Michael Bay..
I get the feeling that we’re going to have a lot of references to actors having a magic 9 spd transmission shifting and downshifting 17 times.
Andy:
You could probably write a book about flubs in the F&F series. My favorites:
When they pop the hood on the beat-up Supra and gasp in amazement at the fact that it’s a 2JZ (they all were).
The entire 3rd movie where people race while drifting.
Blowing the welds on the intake manifold (?), and the floorboard falling out of the car (?).
I also want to add every scene in every movie and show where a car jumps more than 2 feet into the air and is somehow still driveable after impact.
At the local film festival last fall, there was a documentary about a Swarthmore College on-campus murder that occurred in early 1955. Trouble is, in a grainy black-and-white flashback showing the attacker leaving his mother’s home to do the deed, he drives off in a 1956 Chevy!
My all-time favorite car movie “American Graffiti” has the race scene betwen John Milner’s car and the bad-ass ‘55 Chevy. When the Chevy rolls, there is a piece of sheet metal to conceal the lack of an engine. When the car catches fire the flames illuminate the empty engine compartment.
The gearshift lever in Park is way, way too frequent. If the director doesn’t pick up on it from the day’s rushes, one might think that the actor “pretending” to be driving would…sheesh!
Yes, counting the loose Charger hubcaps in “Bullitt” is always fun. My personal fave is the James Bond “Goldfinger” Lincoln crusher scene. The 64 is replaced by a 63 before being lifted to the compactor, and one without an engine at that. When the “cube” is driven away on the bed of a Falcon Ranchero it looks cute, but one wonders how a 1/2 ton pickup is supposed to manage 5300+ lbs of Lincoln, gold bullion and dead gangster.
I second steronz‘ s nomination of every scene where a car jumps more than 2 feet into the air and is somehow still driveable after impact.
I dont’ recall the number from the Dukes of Hazzard movie, but more than a handful of Chargers were “sacrificed” for the various jumps.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I also recall, that in the original series, there is something on the order of magnitude of some 200+ cars that were trashed during all the filmings.
Okay, here’s another:
Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond who drove the shit out of a BMW 7-series through a tight indoor parking garage… crouching in the back seat, using a hand-held controller.
Some of the engine notes in Ronan. I can’t recall exactly, but I think there was an S8 that sounded distinctly not.
All of the Mini Cooper antics in The Italian Job. No amount of suspension tweaks will prevent the unibody from crumbling under that much weight. I’ve watched a Ferrari door stop a car that was accidentally started in reverse and it certainly didn’t shut straight after. A motorcycle at speed is going to rip that door right off.
In the b-movie Terror Squad (filmed in Kokomo, In), a full sized school bus hits a bump and goes air borne, but the slow motion shot of the bus in the air is a short bus. Abosolutely hilarious. The movie should be shown in movie production college classes as an example of the WORST MOVIE in history.
Another one from The Fast and the Furious: when Vin Diesel’s character mocks Spilner for “granny-shifting, not double-clutching like you should.” Now correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t double-clutching upshifts in a drag race be the slowest thing in the world?
The one that gets me most is the scene in Transformers where Megan Fox pops the hood on Bumblebee and rambles on about a double pumping carb, but when they show the engine it is obviously fuel injected.
You beat me to it Jonny. I read the headline and started to think about Days Of Thunder reference to write about, then I got to the second sentence and you stole my thunder.
Double-clutching upshifts — sometimes necessary for a 1-2 shift in an early Jags with the parade-slow/stump-puller, unsynchromesh 1st gear. Really slowed you at stoplight drags, or made nasty grinding noises hitting 2nd at the 30 mph limit of 1st gear in a 3.4/3.8 saloon.
How about the jump scene in the original “Gone in 60 Seconds”.
When Eleanor hits the ground during the slow motion not only the front end is totally shaken to bits but you can see the car obviously spins out; but when the action cuts to regular speed the car successfully makes the jump with no error.
and oh yeah the reappearing hubcaps in Bullitt are another of my favorites :)
One of my faves is in the otherwise perfect Big Lebowski
Tara Reid is driving a red Jaguar XJS convertible. To show that she still has all 10 toes, they cut to her feet. She’s pumping a clutch.
Now, some of you out there might be saying, “But Jonny — Jag imported a few XJs in 1994 with a 5-speed!”
Yes they did. About 9, total.
So………
“The Mod Squad” had a good one. The girl character steals her boss’s Cadillac STS(4-door). A few scenes later she is shown blowing it up after it has turned into an Eldorado(2-door)!
Really, pretty much all of the 1st Fast and the Furious movie counts, but I especially love:
1. The semi-trailers that magically change height so that the Civics can run under them. You can clearly see that the trucks getting loaded are normal-height.
2. The YELLOW helmet on the stunt driver in the scene where Vin Diesel rolls his dad’s Dodge! Odd, Vin wasn’t wearing a helmet during the race.
3. The roll cage that magically appeared in the rolled civic. Until one rolled and was shown upside-down, none of them had cages!
Mine is another Bond one, in Diamonds are Forever, where he drives a Mustang into a narrow alleyway on two wheels (left side down), and drives out on the other two (right side down)!
You just know that they realized they screwed it up during editing, so they put in this little scene in the middle with the car switching sides in the middle.
If it could do that, why wouldn’t 007 have driven through normally?
I also want to add every scene in every movie and show where a car jumps more than 2 feet into the air and is somehow still driveable after impact.
Unless, of course, the vehicle in question is a Suzuki Sidekick….
In many chase scenes, a car runs into the back of another vehicle and suddenly becomes airborne. I really liked watching Chips because you could usually see the ramp attached to the back of the car being hit.
I was watching CSI:NY the other day and Detective Taylor’s vehicle (an Avalanche, I think) was show in several scenes to clearly be a 2007 or 2008 model with the current front end. While driving down the street, the moving shots were clearly of the previous generation front end. Even my wife noticed that one.
How is it possible that the chimp in the old Speed Racer comics knew so much about cars?
The rest of it was so realistic.
How about the 2nd Matrix movie where the Cadillac CTS is repeatedly shot with automatic weapons, is riddled with holes, none of the occupants are injured, the tires are miraculously missed, and the car still drives fine…truly GM has remarkable engineering!
Not quite of the 4-wheel variety, but what about the Mission Impossible 2 motorcycle chase scene when the bike goes from having road tires to off-road tires back to road tires? I remember a view of the bike from behind in the dirt where the knobby rear tire practically filled the whole screen.
Another Bullit mention…
Both vehicles seem to be equipped with the rare eight speed transmission option. This is especially noticeable once they get on to the highway.
Once you notice it the first time, every future viewing is spent counting the gear changes. Sorry everyone.
The entirety of the new Knight Rider series.
I just recalled what has to be one of the most ridiculous vehicle flubs to have been featured in a major motion picture.
License to Kill.
Timothy Dalton revs the semi he just captured from the drug cartel and then pops the clutch causing the semi to ‘pop a wheelie’ through a wall of flame. The pursuing vehicles, fortunately, could not replicate the semi’s acrobatics and exploded saving Bond for another day (but not for Dalton).
The end of Vanishing Point when an exploding ‘68 Camaro has obviously been substituted for a Dodge Challenger.
BTW, the biggest errors in Bullitt are a lot easier to explain when one understands that the cars really only went down the big hill once, but it was shot from at least three different camera angles. The Charger only loses its hubcaps once, but we get to see it from three different points of view.
But, as someone else pointed out, the whole idea of a 390 Mustang (one of the slowest big-block musclecars of the era, even with a cam and open exhaust) being able to keep up with a 440 Charger is pretty laughable. They even put smaller tires on the Charger in an effort to slow it down – that’s why it’s seen sliding all over the place.
I can’t believe nobody has said anything about the Dukes of Hazzard, although the automotive antics of that production bordered on comically ridiculous. I think they went through 300 some General Lee’s and who knows how many Plymouth cop cars.
Sylvester Stallone in “Driven”. Pick any scene. I’m still waiting for my refund.
The Bus Jump in the first “Speed” movie.
–chuck
In “The Road Warrior” there’s originally some sort of white Dodge Dart (or whatever the Aussies called it) in front of the gate to the good guys fort. Shortly after that the Dart disappears and the vehicle is a black Falcon almost identical to the one Max is driving. It actually looks like a stunt car wrecked for the movie.
That movie has several great “flubs”.
andyinsdca :
April 28th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Does the green VW Beetle in the chase in Bullitt that shows up in every single frame count? (the chase still kick ass in any event)
Try counting the number of hubcaps lost during the chase scene. Still one of the best chase scenes, as it was the birth of the modern chase scene. I also like the quote attributed to the Director regarding the lack of a musical score during the chase scene, that the music from the car’s engines was the perfect score for that scene.
In TERMINATOR 2, T1000 is in a semi truck chasing Arnold, who is on a motorcycle. T1000 jumps the semi off of a bridge, totally destroying his windshield in the process. After the windshield is obliterated, T1000 pushes the windshield out to clear it out of his way. Next scene? Windshield back in place in perfect condition.
In THE ROCK, Nicholas Cage is speeding through San Francisco in a
stolenborrowed yellow F355 (my favorite Ferrari). He then smashes through a series of parking meters, which destroys the windshield of the Ferrari (and brings tears to my eyes every time I watch the scene). Next scene? Windshield fixed!T1000 and Nicholas Cage sure have some speedy windshield repair guys working for them. :)
I have to second the bus jump from “Speed.” I remember watching that on video with another engineering buddy in college (to make things even better he drove semi’s in the summer to pay for college). We were both laughing about the specially equipped busses down in LA. In general, Hollywood is populated by people who don’t know the first thing about cars or science (I’m not allowed to watch CSI because I ruin it with my coments about the “science” in her favorite show). Yet, we-well, a lot of people-still listen to these actors when it comes to scientific issues, cars, etc? Why? Because they’re famous and we trust them?
Great QOTD, getting several chuckles out of this one. I’m wondering how everyone is remembering all these flubs. I have a terrible memory for that kind of thing.
Chuckgoolsbee: why let a pesky thing like gravity get in the way?
Re: Days of Thunder. This isn’t the only race-oriented movie where a downshift and a floored accelerator on the backstraight wins the race. As if everyone is holding that last gear and inch of pedal travel in reserve!
There was an episode of CSI:Miami where the street racer gang had dug down the a fuel pipeline that delivered fuel to the airport so they could steal jet fuel for their cars. Jet fuel is a very close relative to diesel fuel and would not run it gas engine. BTW AV gas, they stuff they use small piston planes cannot be shipped in pipelines because it is leaded and would contaminate the other fuels pumped through the pipeline. It is only shipped in tankers.
All the movies and tv-shows with cars exploding with enormous fireballs, secondary explosions and … wait for it … tertiary explosions. What’s doing all the exploding?
This is as big a cliché as the “being jerked off your feet by a bullet hitting you” dime-a-dozen that no film can be without.
And – all the movies and tv-shows that have tires squealing, on gravel, grass, sand and wet road surfaces.
Another goof on that particular episode of CSI Miami (the one with the bio-diesel Charger)…Florida doesn’t have front license plates. They’ve done this a few times.
Really, pretty much all of the 1st Fast and the Furious movie counts, but I especially love:
1. The semi-trailers that magically change height so that the Civics can run under them. You can clearly see that the trucks getting loaded are normal-height.
2. The YELLOW helmet on the stunt driver in the scene where Vin Diesel rolls his dad’s Dodge! Odd, Vin wasn’t wearing a helmet during the race.
3. The roll cage that magically appeared in the rolled civic. Until one rolled and was shown upside-down, none of them had cages!
But there’s more if you have a discerning eye!
1. Brian Spilner’s “ten-second” Eclipse was actually the non-turbo version that uses a completely different engine.
2. While rival racer Johnny Tran assaults a shop owner, he speculates on the street value of Spoon SR20 engines. Problem is that the SR20 engine is manufactured by Nissan, and Spoon racing is an aftermarket tuner who works exclusively on Hondas.
3. After Spilner blows up his engine in the opening race, his Eclipse easily fires up when the police show up to bust the raid.
4. When Dominic Turetto (Diesel) catches a ride in Spilner’s Eclipse, his feet aren’t poking through the now missing floorboard.
5. Nitrous oxide (not nosss) is neither flammable nor explosive. Therefore, it would’ve been impossible for Spilner’s Eclipse to explode by simply shooting at it. You also don’t shoot flames out the exhaust when you hit the trigger.
Ah, this is painfully enlightening me out of my blissful denial. I mostly now better, but cars are my higher powers (by ignorant choice), I want to think grandiose of them.
Kitt from Knight Rider was one big fantasy addiction growing up.
I hate FandF1, I though 2 was better because cars were not the main subject at least. Part 3 I thought had a lot of BS also, my favorite though.
Anyhow, one of the things about movies that bothers me most is when cars are really driven very slowly and depicted as going very fast. It gets me F-ing Angry. I wanna F-ing scream. Kitt was a big liar.
Also how did most Autobots become GM vehicles when GM’s market share is around 25%?
(1) No rear view mirrors.
I’ve noticed that lately film makers are leaving them in. But as a rule, most cars don’t have them.
(2) Sloppy Steering.
I crack up when I see the actor constantly turning the wheel 20 degrees or more left and right like they are doing a slalom course.
Payback
Braveheart and companion are in a 70’s muscle car racing head first through a narrow alley into a mid-80’s Sedan deVille filled with Chinese gangsters.
They hit in head-on collsion.
The Chinese gangsters die or are dying from the impact.
Mel Gibson’s character (and crony who betrays him) walk out of wrecked muscle car because, unlike the Chinese gangsters, they wore seat belts.
Seriously.
Otherwise though, one of my top 10 movies.
How about Back To The Future I? The Delorean must have 12 forward gears! Also, in the quest to “see if those bast**rds can do 90″, the odometer mileage actually drops as the chase with the VW goes on.
No one mentioned the 13 speed tranny in the Trans-Am Burt Reynolds drove in Smokey and the Bandit. Also, (realizing it’s a comedy/musical/fanasy) let’s talk about the Bluesmobile in The Blues Brothers….amazing cornering ability and brakes. Not to mention still being able to pull 6000rpm with a “thrown rod”…
I can’t believe with all the FF references, nobody mentioned the relativistic effects that take place when your car exceeds 140 mph. There must have been a major speedo error on all the cars that I’ve been in above that magical speed because I never saw the lights shift like I was going into hyperspace in Star Wars. It seems like relativity should have been discovered a lot longer ago if it is observable at 2.25 x10-7 C.