There are plenty of movies that people love to breathlessly describe as “perfect.” That’s not really accurate, though, because of one simple fact. No matter how great a movie is, mistakes will slip through that should have ended on the cutting-room floor.
We’ve rounded up some of the craziest movie mistakes we’ve noticed, all for your reading pleasure. You should be warned ahead of time, though, that you’ll never be able to look at your favorite films the same way after this.
Still ready to proceed? Keep reading, then, to discover the craziest movie mistakes in Hollywood history!
Star Wars and the clumsy Stormtrooper
For sci-fi fans, the first Star Wars film is nearly perfect. It tells a captivating tale on its own while introducing us to a sprawling galaxy far, far away, one filled with the most daring heroes and the most despicable villains. If you know what to look for, though, it’s also full of some very silly mistakes.
In that first film, the most infamous mistake involves a clumsy Stormtrooper. One scene aboard the Death Star features one of these villains bumping his head on a door frame while trying to walk through it. Fans always delight in pointing this scene out, and it is even homaged in the later film Attack of the Clones when Jango Fett bumps his head when boarding his ship.
Over the years, there has been much speculation about what caused the flub, and the general consensus is that he bumped his head because the helmets are hard to see out of. While the poor visibility likely didn’t help anything, the actor later admitted he was suffering from an upset stomach, distracting him enough that he bumped his head!
Pirates of the Caribbean: baby, light her fire
There are plenty of reasons to enjoy the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It has a hilarious script, of course, and killer performances (especially from Johnny Depp). Additionally, many audiences enjoy the historical aspect of the film, and they use these little details as a way to learn more about the past.
Unfortunately, the movie gets one historical detail insanely wrong. In one early scene, a maid for Kiera Knightley’s character puts some hot coals in a bed warmer and puts the warmer at her mistress’s feet. However, in real life, bed warmers used warm (not red-hot) coals, and they are removed before someone gets into bed. The technique used in the movie almost certainly would have said the bed on fire, but not before burning Knightley’s feet right off!
Titanic: a naughty picture blooper
Titanic is a movie with a bittersweet framing story. We follow the tale of an old woman whose mind is cast into the past thanks to an expedition to the Titanic. And we get to see some of what sends her down memory lane, including a hand-drawn image of herself as a young woman.
Later, we see how that image was created…namely, when Leonardo DiCaprio’s character does a steamy drawing of Kate Winslet. What most fans never notice, though, is that the image we see his character drawing isn’t the same as the one we see earlier in the movie. Look closely at Winslet’s eyes, face, hands, and lips and you’ll see minor differences in the images.
Director James Cameron counted on fans to overlook this film flub. Here’s another thing most fans never noticed: the famous sketch in the movie was drawn by Cameron himself, who is a very decent artist in his own right!
Jurassic Park and the wayward tail
It’s an unfortunate reality that our mainstream movies these days are filled with CGI, and some of it is pretty clunky. This has caused countless movie lovers to retroactively praise the first Jurassic Park film. It was one of the earliest blockbusters to use CGI, and its effects look better than many movies made decades later.
The real reason for this is that the movie blended CGI with practical effects. But the practical effects led to some impractical problems that made it into the finished movie. Case in point: when the two young children are hiding from dinos in the kitchen, the velociraptors are actually men in suits rather than computer effects. Look closely after they enter the kitchen and you will notice that a crewman has to reach out and hold the first raptor’s tale once he enters the room!
Harry Potter and the magical movie mistakes
For Harry Potter and his friends, magic is just a way of life. In addition to knowing plenty of powerful spells, Harry has a cloak that can make him invisible. Sadly, the director of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a Muggle and wasn’t able to make one very embarrassing mistake disappear.
After Harry confronts Seamus, he is seen wearing a short-sleeved, crew neck t-shirt to go to bed. When a spooky vision of Voldemort wakes him up, though, we see him bolt awake while wearing a buttoned Henley t-shirt.
It seems like when it comes to film flubs, this is one Harry Potter movie that can’t say “mischief managed,” leaving behind an embarrassing mistake for movie buffa to discover.