There’s no better hero to love than a superpowered one, so it makes sense that every year sees more comic book blockbusters hit the screen. But no matter how successful or flawed they may be on a large scale, the amount of details and sequences that leave the door open for errors is unparalleled. The superhero trend is only getting stronger, which means fans have more and more hilarious mistakes to watch out for.
Here are Screen Rant’s 10 Biggest Mistakes in Superhero Movies.
Guardians of the Galaxy
The tears started flowing when Star Lord (Chris Pratt) finally got around to reading the last letter left to him by his mother before he left Earth behind. To help the emotion of the scene, director James Gunn actually played a recording of actress Laura Haddock reading the note. It clearly worked, but Gunn actually had to record the audio that day, in a car. The prop had clearly already been made, so when the some changes were made to the script, it meant the goodbye note and the voiceover didn’t quite match up - a big mistake any fast-reading fan is sure to catch.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Once the movie’s villain finally reveals himself during an intense firefight, things spin out of control fast. If it weren’t bad enough that Cap is sent flying off of the expressway into traffic below, the city bus he slams into then veers into an intersection, and is flipped onto its side when it makes contact with a large truck. It’s an impressive stunt, but when you take a closer look at the massive crash, and the lack of any actual damage or force, it actually becomes one of the movie’s funniest moments, sending the bus energetically flipping, but barely even denting the metal.
The directors waste no time in showing how effective Cap had become in the modern era, taking down a ship full of enemies almost singlehandedly. Even if he’s able to jump from an airplane into the ocean without injury, the fact that he emerges completely dry is going a bit too far. Considering how grounded the rest of the movie is, it’s a ridiculous oversight.
Man of Steel
Actor Henry Cavill packed on a ton of muscle for the role, but it’s really just Superman’s superhuman strength and density that makes him impossible to beat… or, when he’s dealing with a rowdy bar patron, impossible to even move. Watching the customer try to violently shove Clark only to be pushed back himself, and leave the alien untouched is one of the film’s most understated gags, but it causes a serious continuity error. When Clark was almost ‘killed’ aboard a fishing vessel earlier in the film, one of his shipmates ‘rescues’ him by shoving him out of the way of a falling cage, just like he was any other human. Maybe the other sailor was an alien and didn’t even know it? No, Clark probably would have commented on his strength if this was anything but a mistake.
The Dark Knight Rises
When you’re making a movie about the final chapter of Batman’s crimefighting career, not to mention introducing the cat burglar who will help him live happily ever after, who has time to worry about traffic lights cooperating with filming? Fans could probably buy the idea that a thief like Catwoman would speed through a set of red traffic lights without batting an eye - especially when she’s behind the wheel of Bruce Wayne’s Lamborghini - but it’s a little harder to swallow that everyone else in the city is driving just as recklessly. In the end, the amount of cars doesn’t so much distract as highlight the production oversight.
It’s the Gotham Police Department that really takes the spotlight as the heroes of the story, surviving for weeks, months underground before finally being freed, and lining up to make a suicide run at Bane’s forces. The entire sequence, including Batman’s flyby in supprt, is hard to forget, but the standoff is made even more memorable by the crew member coming out of a subway station (left of the screen) before realizing he’s just walked into the shot. Luckily, he’s missing from the next one. Either that, or Christopher Nolan was trying to tell a story of the most shocking day in one Gothamite’s life.
Ant-Man
If you had a hard time grasping the science behind Marvel’s Ant-Man, you’re not alone. And you’re not wrong, either. The superhero is made possible by Pym Particles, allowing a person or object to shrink, but keep the same amount of mass and energy - only shrinking the spaces between its atoms. It makes enough sense, and the comic book adds a wrinkle to cover the obvious plot hole, claiming that the extra mass can be taken or given to another dimension.
In the film, there’s no such distinction (as evidenced by Scott shattering bathroom tiles when he lands on them while shrunk. When you consider Hank Pym has been walking around with a full size tank in his pocket, and Darren Cross lifts a lamb with only two fingers, the science doesn’t add up.
Deadpool
When Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is enduring days of torture at the hands of his captors, he finds his escape using not muscles, but brain power. By snagging one of Angel Dust’s (Gina Carano) matchsticks out of her lips, he waits until the coast is clear, lights the match, and flicks it toward the pipe pumping in concentrated oxygen. Once the air kicks in, the oxygen causes a massive explosion, detonating the nearby oxygen tanks, and burning the facility to the ground. But there’s one problem: oxygen itself isn’t actually flammable. In fact, oxygen only makes other substances burn faster, so even if seeing the match burn a bit brighter would have been scientifically accurate, it doesn’t have quite the same impact.
Iron Man
Since it launched Marvel’s shared movie universe, the post-credits scene from the first Iron Man will probably be the most famous of all time. Which means the hilarious mistake in it isn’t going anywhere either. Look closely: it isn’t just Nick Fury waiting to surprise Tony Stark at the end of the movie, but the crew member clearly reflected in the picture frames on the wall. Once you see it, you’ll wonder how you ever missed it.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
When the Avengers are rescuing innocent civilians from Ultron throughout Sokovia, Thor and Cap team up to violently throw one woman to safety (we’re not going to focus on the fact that the action would clearly horribly injure the woman, since… well, it’s too sad). But Cap’s powers are even better than fans realized, since he appears to grab the woman with both arms - and still manages to keep them hanging onto the bridge the entire time. He’s been holding out on us (pun intended).
Conclusion
Those are some of the most amazing mistakes and goofs in our favorite superhero movies, but which ones have we missed? Let us know in the comments, and remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos like this one!
