Your most pointless TV/movie/book nitpicks

[JEB]

In the book/movie World War Z, the soldiers call the zombies "Zack." I guess it was supposed to be like Vietnam era soldiers calling the enemy "Charlie." Sure, soldiers in a zombie apocalypse would come up with a nickname for zombies - but that is objectively the wrong one.

The nickname "Charlie" for the Vietcong comes from the Army phonetic alphabet. In the phonetic alphabet the letter V is read "victor" and C as "charlie" (to avoid miscommunications over poor quality radio transmissions). Vietcong got abbreviated as "V.C" which then expanded to "Victor Charlie" or just "Charlie." In the Army phonetic alphabet Z is not "Zack" it is "Zulu." So in an actual zombie apocalypse the army nickname for zombies would obviously be "Zulus." Zack is just stupid and not something any soldier would have come up with.

It's possible the author was well aware that "Zulus" would have been correct for the Army phonetic alphabet, but also realized that could have been perceived as a rather problematic name to use...

Oh, and Stranger Things:

1) That’s not a 1970’s-80’s Millennium Falcon in Stranger Things. The engine stickers are wrong.

And,

2) The Bangles’ Hazy Shade of Winter was 1987, and also had no business closing an episode set in 1983.

Great song, and great show though.

Dustin's collection of Transformers in one episode also includes toys a year earlier than they actually appeared. Suspect there's lots of little issues like that. There's also the whole implication that the "Upside-Down" was official D&D lore...

 

[trappedslider]

It's possible the author was well aware that "Zulus" would have been correct for the Army phonetic alphabet, but also realized that could have been perceived as a rather problematic name to use...

Considering he's actually talked to them in doing research for both WWZ and his zombie survival guide( He was surprised that they have actual plans for zombies), I'm guessing he went with Zacks because it honestly sounds better. If you want to get REALLY nitpicky "Tangos" would have worked too.

 

[Imaculata]

In Jurassic Park, when Dennis Nedry steals the embryos from cold storage, it always annoys me that they misspelled Stegosaurus. They also misspelled Tyrannosaurus Rex.

 

[General_Tangent]

That episode of NCIS that has Abby and McGee partner up on the same keyboard to stop a hacker.

 

[trappedslider]

That episode of NCIS that has Abby and McGee partner up on the same keyboard to stop a hacker.

that ALWAYS bugged me

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That may be true, but the film made the Nautilus huge in some scenes and very small in others (it can cruise the very narrow, relatively shallow, canals of Venice). THAT is my nitpick. It's just one of many absolutely absurd things in the film.

Sure, I was just extending your nitpick to the original novel. But not even a tiny, book-accurate Nautilus would be able to sail up a Venetian canal.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There's also the whole implication that the "Upside-Down" was official D&D lore...

They used the term "Shadowfell" which was not in use at the time. Terminology at the time was "the Demi-Plane of Shadow". The Upside-Down actually appears to be based on the NWN2: Masks of the Betrayer version of the Shadowfell (2007). I expect the Duffer brothers played Masks of the Betrayer and nelsonmandelaed it back to the 1980s.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Any time an army in a fantasy movie or medieval movie fires their bows, and they yell "FIRE!".

Any time they also conveniently light their arrows, so their opponents can see them more easily in the dark.

Any time a fantasy or medieval movie has lit torches on walls everywhere, even during the day. Who keeps those torches lit? How do they not burn through hundreds of torches every day?

Any time those torches have blue fire, painfully reminding the audience it is a modern gas light.

You missed the worst one with archery, which they do absolutely constantly in like, 8/10 fantasy or medieval shows, which is archers draw their bows, and then just hold them fully drawn for like, often 20+ seconds, sometimes minutes!

The other 2/10 don't have people hold at full draw for more than a few seconds, but rather people move to partially drawn or not drawn, which is more plausible. And some shows are inconsistent, which suggests some of the directors/fight directors avoid this and others do not.

Dustin's collection of Transformers in one episode also includes toys a year earlier than they actually appeared. Suspect there's lots of little issues like that.

Appeared in Japan or appeared in the US? I only ask because I had a friend whose mum worked in Japan, and she regularly brought him back Transformers which were not yet available (and in some cases, never available at the time) in the West, she even gave me a couple. That said that is an actual reason and Dustin doesn't seem to have any such connections.

 

[MGibster]

That episode of NCIS that has Abby and McGee partner up on the same keyboard to stop a hacker.

There's pointless nitpicks like the computer beeping at you whenever you type or the screen projecting code on your face, and then there's righteous fury directed at a scene so stupid the writers must have deliberately made an effort to insult the audience's intelligence.

 

[Ryujin]

You missed the worst one with archery, which they do absolutely constantly in like, 8/10 fantasy or medieval shows, which is archers draw their bows, and then just hold them fully drawn for like, often 20+ seconds, sometimes minutes!

The other 2/10 don't have people hold at full draw for more than a few seconds, but rather people move to partially drawn or not drawn, which is more plausible. And some shows are inconsistent, which suggests some of the directors/fight directors avoid this and others do not.

How about how virtually every woman fighter in a movie seems to be an archer, because of course archery doesn't take any upper body strength? It's not at all like the skeletons of medieval archers showed pronounced lopsided development due to the strain of drawing a 100# plus bow, or anything.