Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
Taglines:
The Hardest Part Of Winning Is Choosing Sides. Some games you play. Some games play you.
Mailika: You're a runner, Tom. And I just don't have time for that.
Mailika: What about you? Where does your mind run to? Shep: Nowhere. It's just stuck. It's the rest of me that does the running. Mailika: That's too bad. Folks either move past the things that happen to them, or they stop moving at all. But you're young. You can do anything, except sing. Shep: I can sing a little bit. Mailika: Not even a little bit.
Shep: Excuse me? You think you can just kiss me anytime you feel like it? Mailika: Yeah, that's right. Shep: I guess that answers that.
Synopsis: Controversy surrounds high school basketball coach Ken Carter after he benches his entire team for their breaking their academic contract with him. Runtime: 136 min
Storyline
In 1999, Ken Carter, a successful sporting goods store owner, accepts the job of basketball coach for his old high school in a poor area of Richmond, CA, where he was a champion athlete. As much dismayed by the poor attitudes of his players as well as their dismal play performance, Carter sets about to change both. He immediately imposes a strict regime typified in written contracts that include stipulations for respectful behavior, a dress code and good grades as requisites to being allowed to participate. The initial resistance from the boys is soon dispelled as the team under Carter's tutelage becomes a undefeated competitor in the games. However, when the overconfident team's behavior begins to stray and Carter learns that too many players are doing poorly in class, he takes immediate action. To the outrage of the team, the school and the community, Carter cancels all team activities and locks the court until the team shows acceptable academic improvement.
Timo Cruz: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Kenyon Stone: [running Suicides] Yo, how many we gonna do? Coach Ken Carter: Sir. Kenyon Stone: Yo, sir, how many we gonna do? Coach Ken Carter: Let's see how many you can do in... one hour and seven minutes.
Coach Ken Carter: [to the people in attendance at the board hearing] You really need to consider the message you're sending this boys by ending the lockout. It's the same message that we as a culture send to our professional athletes; and that is that they are above the law. If these boys cannot honor the simple rules of a basketball contract, how long do you think it will be before they're out there breaking the law? I played ball here at Richmond High 30 years ago. It was the same thing then; some of my teammates went to prison, some of them even ended up dead. If you vote to end the lockout, you won't have to terminate me; I'll quit.
Coach Ken Carter: l came to coach basketball players, and you became students. Coach Ken Carter: l came to teach boys, and you became men.
Jason Lyle: You said we're a team. One person struggles, we all struggle. One person triumphs, we all triumph.
Continuity: When Neon was in the classroom playing with the children he was shown picking up a child with a Barry Bonds Jersey on (#25). When Jenny Bell turned to him and said "Neon, please try not to step on the children", he was then holding a different child.
Continuity: During Western's season finale against the Coast, about midway through the game a Coast player goes up for a dunk and in the background a side scoreboard clearly reads 00 as the score for Western.
Factual errors: After the losing season at the start of the movie, Coach Bell travels to see Butch play a high school game. The college season outlasts the high school season by weeks to months. There is no chance that Butch's team is playing a home game after the college's regular season is over. There is a small chance that the coach could have gone to a State Tournament game to see Butch play, but even those tournaments are over before the college season ends. In addition, most high school players have signed a letter of intent early in their senior year making a recruiting trip in the early spring unrealistic. It is understandable from a pacing perspective why the film was shot this way. The coach has another losing season and decides not to let it happen again and goes after the Blue Chip players to be better next year. In the real world, he would have been making the recruiting trips (or his assistant coaches would have) much earlier, during the season and not after it.
Pete Bell: Dwayne, you can get through college half-assed. Richard, you can get through LIFE half-assed. But I'll guarantee you boys one thing: sure as hell, I'll guarantee you this: you cannot *win* half-assed!
At the end both Neon and Butch McRae, played respectively by Shaquille O'Neal and Anfernee 'Penny' Hardaway leave school early to play pro ball. In real life both O'Neal and Hardaway left school early and played pro ball; ironically together early in their careers.
FIND THE BEST BASKETBALL VIDEOS HERE: http://www.basketballvideos.ws/
Iraq. Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.
Taglines: War is a drug. Cut the red wire. You don't have to be a hero to do this job. But it helps. Cut the red one.
Runtime: 131 min
The expression "the hurt locker" is a preexisting slang term for a situation involving trouble or pain, which can be traced back to the Vietnam War. According to the movie's website, it is soldier vernacular in Iraq to speak of explosions as sending you to "the hurt locker".
In this movie, there are no opening credits, not even a title.
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen Mark Boal
Another 73 wins & 47 nominations...
Trivia for The Hurt Locker (2008)
The film was shot on location in Jordan. Jordan is a safe place. So safe that actors didn't want to have bodyguards as was first intended. There was no Jordanian military acting as security for the film. Security- set dressing and onset - was provided by a private company.
Jeremy Renner tripped and fell down some stairs while carrying an Iraqi boy on the film's set. Shooting was stopped for several days while Renner's ankle healed.
The crew members were American, Jordanian, Lebanese, English, Irish, German, Moroccan, Danish, Tunisian, Canadian, South African, Icelandic, Iraqi, Libyan, Circassian, Palestinian, Armenian, Swedish, Australian, Canadian, and New Zealanders.
Third Best Picture winner (along with Crash (2004/I) and Casablanca (1942)) to have originally premiered in the year before it qualified for Academy Awards consideration.
Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Academy Award, the BAFTA, and the DGA for Best Director for her work on this film. This is also the first film to win Best Picture that was directed by a woman.
First dramatic feature film about the Iraq War to win an Academy Award. First war movie about a modern war to win the Best Picture Academy Award where the war featured is not World War I, World War II nor the Vietnam War. First war movie to win the Best Picture Academy Award since The English Patient (1996). First war movie to win a Best Director Academy Award since Roman Polanski's The Pianist (2002).
Goofs for The Hurt Locker (2008)
Continuity Goofs For The Hurt Locker
Continuity: In both the opening scene and the desert scene, the angle of the sun mysteriously changes from north, south, east and west to directly in front, to behind, low on the horizon, then directly overhead and suddenly no shadows at all (a slightly over cast day of shooting that part of the scene perhaps?).
Continuity: When James initially hands Sanborn the Barrett M107 magazine, before Eldridge cleans it off, the rounds in the magazine have no bullets. In the next shot, when Sanborn receives the magazine, the rounds have bullets in them.
Continuity: After James drops off Sanborn at his barracks, he proceeds to drink some liquor from a bottle before placing it on the table. He puts the bomb suit helmet on in a close up and once the camera zooms back out, the bottle is clearly on the floor next to his bed.
Continuity: The last name of the Specialist in the EOD team is "Eldridge," according to his uniform shirt, but in several sequences the name "Eldrich" is clearly visible stitched into the elastic band around the character's Kevlar helmet.
Continuity: When James carries the boy's body out of the building facing the camera, the boy's head is sagging off his arm when he's facing the camera, but resting against his chest when the camera's behind him.
Continuity: In the opening scene, when Sergeant Matt Thompson is approaching the bomb he is walking down the train tracks. When the the camera view is switched to inside his helmet it shows the tracks off to his right and dirt in front of him. When they switch views again he's back walking down the tracks.
Continuity: After James puts out the car fire and gets in the car, there are absolutely no scorch marks on the pavement around it. Furthermore, he would not have been able to touch or enter a car that had been burning so furiously because it would be too hot for quite some time.
Continuity: After Williams puts the car out from being on fire you can see in a close up on his helmet the reflection of the flames still burning.
Continuity: When James is running from the suicide bomber, unable to disarm the explosives, his protective visor is up, when the bomb explodes the visor is down.
Continuity: When James goes to little Beckham's house its the middle of the night, but once inside, sun is shining in through the windows. The only possible reason is if there is daybreak, but once outside, its night again.
Continuity: In the scene with the suicide bomber, Sanborn helps William to suit up into the protective gear. Sanborn attaches the protective gear to the helmet on both sides of the neck and then when William turns to go the suicide bomber, it is clearly seen that the right side portion of the protective gear near the neck is not attached to the helmet. But right in the next scene, you will see that it is attached to the helmet.
Continuity: After Sanborn puts Thompson's dog tags into the box with Thompson's effects, another soldier puts a cover on the box. In the cut immediately following, Sanborn is looking into the box and the cover is not on.
Continuity: The wheeled 6x6 APC appearing right after the Humvee in the opening scenes is not a US Army vehicle, but a South African made Ratel modified in Jordan with a Ukrainian KMDB BAU-23-2 turret.
Anachronisms For The Hurt Locker
Anachronisms: The Army ACU uniforms worn did not come into service until 2005.
Anachronisms: One character says an Iraqi with a video camera is preparing a clip for YouTube. The scene takes place in 2004. YouTube was created in 2005.
Anachronisms: In the movie, all the soldiers are wearing the digital ACU (Army Combat Uniform). While the opening scene takes place in Baghdad in 2004, the first units to be issued the ACU did not receive them until February of 2005. The correct uniform for the time period would have been the three color DCU (Desert Combat Uniform).
Anachronisms: Specialist Eldridge plays Gears of War (2006) (VG) on an Xbox 360 when Colonel Cambridge enters the room to counsel him. The Xbox 360 was first released 2005; Gears of War debuted in November 2006. Yet the setting is Baghdad in 2004.
Anachronisms: The three Ministry songs played in this movie were from the album Rio Grande Blood, which was released in 2006. The movie is set in 2004.
Revealing mistakes for The Hurt Locker
Revealing mistakes: In the opening sequence where a bomb is detonated by a cell phone, a closeup of the phone shows a randomly entered number, and when the actor presses "Send" to detonate the bomb, the phone, almost out of frame, partially reads out "Not allowed" with a stop sign icon.
Revealing mistakes: Several close-up shots of Eldridge with his M4 are flipped. The forward assist is on the left side of the M4 in those shots; in reality, they are on the right side of the receiver.
Revealing mistakes: The ACOG sights mounted on James' and Sanborn's M4s are clearly replicas. ACOGs only have 2 knobs used for windage and elevation, the ACOGs in the movie have three knobs.
Revealing mistakes: The "radio" that SSG (or SFC) James wears on his head is really only ear protection with built-in mics to allow one to hear normal conversation. It has the capability to be connected to a radio, but his isn't.
Revealing mistakes: After the Barret jams and James hands Sandborn the magazine of .50 cal rounds before the blood gets cleaned off there is a scene where the magazine only has empty cartridges in it, without any bullets.
Revealing mistakes: When James shoots the ground near the cab, a camera shot behind the driver shows him flinching towards the bullet. The next round fired is over the driver's right side, he flinches the same way.
Revealing mistakes: James would not have been able to put out the raging car fire with a single medium sized fire extinguisher.
Revealing mistakes: When the Iraqi cab driver runs the line and stops inches from James, James pulls his gun and eventually shoots out the car's windshield. The glass shatters as though constructed of tempered glass. A typical windshield is constructed of laminated glass a would leave a well-defined bullet hole if shot.
Factual Errors for The Hurt Locker
Factual errors:In the opening scene a bomb is detonated by a cell-phone. Every anti-bomb team carries a small device which, when turned on, suppresses all cellular transmissions within several hundred meters around the device, especially to avoid such accidents. Similar devices are also used in theaters to preclude spectators from using cellphones during performance and by car-thieves to suppress GSM-based tracking devices.
Factual errors: The bombs pictured would not have to be "disarmed" as portrayed. The military munitions were fused with primer cord. Simply cutting the primer cord would have isolated the bomb from the electrical cap ignition circuit thereby making it inert. Primercord explodes but with the force of a M-40 firecracker not high explosive force. Prima cord is in fact a high explosive and explodes at a velocity much greater than a firecracker, approx 23,000 fps.
Factual errors: In the scene where Eldridge is observing the goats on the bridge, his Aimpoint CompM2 is shown with zoom capabilities. The real Aimpoint CompM2 is a red dot sight, and has no magnification.
Factual errors: Jeremy Renner is credited as "Staff Sergeant William James," an E-6. But his character wears the rank of an E-7, Sergeant First Class (3 chevrons and 2 rockers).
Factual errors: In the stand off scene in the desert the shelter the insurgents are being protected by would not have been strong enough to stop the bullets from a Barrett M107 anti-material rifle, which is designed to punch through thick armour plating.
Factual errors: When Eldridge uses his CamelBak to clean the Barrett M107 magazine, the hose is coming from the right side of the sack. CamelBak hoses protrude from the left so the wearer can still hold a right handed weapon while drinking from the sack.
Factual errors: The British Special forces/"contractors" frequently use the American term "wrench" rather than the British term "spanner".
Factual errors: At the end of the movie two Ch-47 Chinook Helicopters heavy lift with United States Marine Corps markings/livery are seen approaching a landing zone. In the U.S. Military only the Army operates and flies the Ch-47.
Factual errors: The rank abbreviation shown on Staff Sergeant Thompson's box of personal belongings is "SGT" which is incorrect. The correct abbreviation for Staff Sergeant in the US Army is "SSG".
Factual errors: In the scene where James pulls his side arm on the cab driver. The pistol he holds is not the military issue M-9, or civilian Beretta 92F, but a much older Beretta 92 model that has never been issued by the US Millitary. It looks like its an old model 92 with a round trigger guard and frame mounted safety and deep blued finish. The modern Berettas have combat trigger guards, slide mounted safety/ hammer drops and are a mat finish. The Beretta 92 has been out of production sense the 1970s
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers) in The Hurt Locker
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the scene with the body bomb, the Lieutenant Colonel tells the Iraqis to leave by saying "Ishmee!" The proper term in Iraqi Arabic is "Imshee!"
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): LTC Cambridge wears two U.S. flags on his ACUs. The flag is only worn on the right shoulder. The spot on the left shoulder where he wears the extra flag is reserved for special skill tabs.
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the opening sequence, an Arabic voice can be heard shouting "Youjed hunak qunbilah" - the accent is clearly not Iraqi. There is also a grammatical error, but it is a normal error, given the fact that most Arabs don't usually speak excellent standard Arabic, in addition most of the Iraqis who worked with the American army were not highly educated, not that they cared.
Crew or equipment visible in The Hurt Locker
Crew or equipment visible: In the scene with the man with the suicide vest, what appear to be the outline of knee pads under his pants are visible as he goes to his knees.
Crew or equipment visible: When James passes through the plastic cover in the area with the rotting body, a hand can be seen helping James opening it.
Crew or equipment visible: After the contractor leader is killed, another contractor is telling by radio he is receiving incoming fire, you can see a moving head in the background.
Crew or equipment visible: When Sgt. James is removing the bomb from Beckham's stomach, you can see a crew member in the background behind the curtain, when Sgt. James is supposed to be the only person in the building.
Incorrectly regarded Goofs for The Hurt Locker
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The EOD team usually went out of the wire by themselves. Usually when EOD goes out of the gate they are escorted by a quick reaction force (QRF) of 3 or more Humvees. However since the movie takes place in 2004, during the early part of the war, it is plausible that the EOD team took the initiative to take on missions without support. EOD teams are highly trained professional soldiers, if they get a call, they will not wait around for support. They just go get the job done.
Opening Quote by Chris Hedges: The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.
Guard at Liberty Gate: [after catching James coming back into the camp after having snuck out] What were you doing out there? Staff Sergeant William James: Visiting a whorehouse. Guard at Liberty Gate: Okay. If I let you back in, will you tell me where it is exactly?
Staff Sergeant William James: There's enough bang in there to blow us all to Jesus. If I'm gonna die, I want to die comfortable.
Sergeant JT Sanborn: I'm ready to die, James. Staff Sergeant William James: Well, you're not gonna die out here, bro. Sergeant JT Sanborn: Another two inches, shrapnel zings by; slices my throat- I bleed out like a pig in the sand. Nobody'll give a shit. I mean my parents- they care- but they don't count, man. Who else? I don't even have a son. Staff Sergeant William James: Well, you're gonna have plenty of time for that, amigo. Sergeant JT Sanborn: Naw, man. I'm done. I want a son. I want a little boy, Will. I mean, how do you do it, you know? Take the risk? Staff Sergeant William James: I don't know. I guess I don't think about it. Sergeant JT Sanborn: But you realize every time you suit up, every time we go out, it's life or death. You roll the dice, and you deal with it. You recognize that don't you? Staff Sergeant William James: Yea... Yea, I do. But I don't know why. [sighs] Staff Sergeant William James: I don't know, JT. You know why I'm the way I am? Sergeant JT Sanborn: No, I don't.
Colonel Reed: You the guy in the flaming car, Sergeant James? Staff Sergeant William James: Afternoon, sir. Uh, yes, sir. Colonel Reed: Well, that's just hot shit. You're a wild man, you know that? Staff Sergeant William James: Uh, yes, sir. Colonel Reed: He's a wild man. You know that? I want to shake your hand. Staff Sergeant William James: Thank you, sir. Colonel Reed: Yeah. How many bombs have you disarmed? Staff Sergeant William James: Uh, I'm not quite sure. Colonel Reed: Sergeant? Staff Sergeant William James: Yes, sir. Colonel Reed: I asked you a question. Staff Sergeant William James: Eight hundred seventy-three, sir. Colonel Reed: Eight hundred! And seventy-three. Eight hundred! And seventy-three. That's just hot shit. Eight hundred and seventy-three. Staff Sergeant William James: Counting today, sir, yes. Colonel Reed: That's gotta be a record. What's the best way to... go about disarming one of these things? Staff Sergeant William James: The way you don't die, sir. Colonel Reed: That's a good one. That's spoken like a wild man. That's good.
Spc. Owen Eldridge: Aren't you glad the Army has all these tanks parked here? Just in case the Russians come and we have to have a big tank battle? Sergeant JT Sanborn: I'd rather be on the side with the tanks, just in case, than not have them. Spc. Owen Eldridge: Yeah, but they don't do anything. I mean, anyone comes alongside a Humvee, we're dead. Anybody even looks at you funny, we're dead. Pretty much the bottom line is, if you're in Iraq, you're dead. How's a fucking tank supposed to stop that? Sergeant JT Sanborn: Would you shut the fuck up, Owen? Spc. Owen Eldridge: Sorry. Just tryin' to scare the new guy.
Sergeant JT Sanborn: I can't get it in. Sgt. Matt Thompson: What do you mean you can't get it in? Pretend it's your dick. Sergeant JT Sanborn: How about I pretend it's your dick? Sgt. Matt Thompson: Well in that case you'll never get it in.
Staff Sergeant William James: [Speaking to his son] You love playing with that. You love playing with all your stuffed animals. You love your Mommy, your Daddy. You love your pajamas. You love everything, don't ya? Yea. But you know what, buddy? As you get older... some of the things you love might not seem so special anymore. Like your Jack-in-a-Box. Maybe you'll realize it's just a piece of tin and a stuffed animal. And the older you get, the fewer things you really love. And by the time you get to my age, maybe it's only one or two things. With me, I think it's one.
Sergeant JT Sanborn: [as team mate approaches unexploded bomb] You know, these detonators misfire all the time. Spc. Owen Eldridge: What are you doing? Sergeant JT Sanborn: I'm just saying shit happens, they misfire. Spc. Owen Eldridge: He'd be obliterated to nothing. Sergeant JT Sanborn: His helmet would be left. You could have that. Little specs of hair charred on the inside. Spc. Owen Eldridge: Yeah. There'd be half a helmet somewhere, bits of hair. Sergeant JT Sanborn: Have to ask for a change in technique and protocol, and make sure this type of accident never happen again, you know? You'd have to write the report. Spc. Owen Eldridge: Are you serious? Sergeant JT Sanborn: I can't write it.
Storyline: A film about two homicide detectives' desperate hunt for a serial killer who justifies his crimes as absolution for the world's ignorance of the Seven Deadly Sins. The movie takes us from the tortured remains of one victim to the next as the sociopathic "John Doe" sermonizes to Detectives Sommerset and Mills -- one sin at a time. The sin of Gluttony comes first and the murderer's terrible capacity is graphically demonstrated in the dark and subdued tones characteristic of film noir. The seasoned and cultured Sommerset researches the Seven Deadly Sins in an effort to understand the killer's modus operandi while green Detective Mills scoffs at his efforts to get inside the mind of a killer...
- This was voted the eighth scariest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly..
- Brad Pitt earned $7 million for this film.
- The word "fuck" and its derivatives are said a discernible 74 times throughout the movie, mostly by Brad Pitt.
Taglines:
Long is the way, and hard, that out of hell leads up to light.
Detective Somerset is looking for a way out. Detective David Mills is looking for a way in. Now, they're caught in a game with a price of sin is death.
Earnest Hemingway once wrote, "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I believe the second part.
Genres: Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller
Technical Specs Runtime: 127 min
Crazy Credits The opening credits are done over broken, blurred images of John Doe removing the skin from his fingertips and sewing it into his journals
TRIVIA
All of John Doe's books were real books, written for the film. They took two months to complete and cost $15,000. According to Somerset, two months is also the time it would take the police to read all the books.
While filming the scene where Mills chases John Doe in the rain, Brad Pitt fell and his arm went through a car windscreen, requiring surgery. This accident was worked into the script of the film. Ironically, the original script did call for Pitt's Det. Mills character to be injured during this sequence--but to something other than his hand.
The screenplay had references to a partner Mills had when he still lived in the country, named Parsons. Parsons was shot and killed while on a bust with Mills, and consequently Mills is overprotective of Somerset in some scenes. All references to Parsons were deleted before shooting began.
Mills and William Somerset discuss the book "Of Human Bondage", which was written by W. Somerset Maugham.
All the building numbers in the opening scene start with 7. The climactic delivery was scheduled for 7pm.
At exactly 7 minutes into the film Mills picks up the phone to be called over to the Gluttony scene.
The producers intended that Kevin Spacey should receive top billing at the start of the movie but he insisted that his name not appear in the opening credits, so as to surprise the audience with the identity of the killer. To compensate, he is listed twice in the closing credits: once before the credits start rolling, and once in the rolling credits in order of appearance. Another advantage from Spacey's point of view, as he saw it, was that he was excluded from the film's marketing during its release, meaning he didn't have to make any public appearances or do any interviews.
As preparation for his traumatic scene in the interrogation room, Leland Orser would breathe in and out very rapidly so that his body would be overly saturated with oxygen, giving him the ability to hyperventilate. He also did not sleep for a few days to achieve his character's disoriented look.
Morgan Freeman's son, Alfonso Freeman, played the part of a fingerprint technician.
The box full of photographs at the "Sloth" scene has written on the side "To the World, from Me."
Before Kevin Spacey was set to shoot his first scene, he asked director David Fincher if he should shave his head for the role. David Fincher replied "If you do it, I'll do it." Both Fincher and Spacey were bald for the remainder of the movie production.
Gwyneth Paltrow was David Fincher's first choice for the part of Brad Pitt's wife, having impressed him with her work in Flesh and Bone (1993). Paltrow was initially not interested so Fincher had to ask her then boyfriend - Brad Pitt - to get her to come in and meet with him.
Kevin Spacey was cast two days before filming began.
WARNING: Here Be Spoilers
SPOILER: Even though he's probably one of the most horrifying and sadistic killers in cinematic history, John Doe isn't seen killing anyone on screen.
SPOILER: To appease the producers, who wanted to soften the dramatic ending a bit, an alternate version of the ending was storyboarded, with Somerset saying that he "wants out", and killing John Doe, thereby preventing Doe from winning, and Mills from ending up in jail. In the mean time, the crew shot a test ending, which is basically the theatrical ending without some of the dramatic shots. This finale was so well received in screenings that it convinced the producers to go along with it, and not even film the alternate ending.
SPOILER: It is raining every day in the movie except for the last day. The reason is less about thematic issues and more about continuity. It rained on the first day that Brad Pitt filmed so they kept it going as they were rushing to do all of Pitt's scenes before he left to go make Twelve Monkeys (1995).
SPOILER: Kevin Spacey as the antagonist, John Doe, made his first appearance in the film, as the photographer taking pictures of Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman at the sloth crime scene. If you pause the film at 54:45, when Pitt's character was slapping the camera out of the photographer's hand, you can clearly see that, it is Kevin Spacey.
SPOILER: John Doe only kills one of the "sinners" himself, and even that one is by accident (kicking Gluttony to wake him up, which makes his stomach burst). All of his other victims either kill themselves (Greed & Pride) or are killed by other people (Lust & Envy) or survive (Sloth & Wrath). The only murder John Doe actually commits intentionally by his own hand is Tracy Mills.
GOOFS:
* Revealing mistakes: The dead gluttony victim can be seen breathing.
* Revealing mistakes: Uneven dispersal of rainfall on the windows of the car.
* Revealing mistakes: Doe hits Mills on the top of the head, then leaves him behind, bleeding. If you look carefully, you can see a tube running on top of Mills' head, presumably carrying the fake blood to his forehead.
* Revealing mistakes: When the police are inspecting the body of the "lust" victim, you can see her blinking at the beginning of the scene.
* Revealing mistakes: Freeze-framing the film on the legible portions of John Doe's hand-written journal (while Somerset is turning pages) reveals one page identical to the preceding one.
* Revealing mistakes: When Somerset returns to the Gluttony crime scene, he uses his pocket-knife to cut the police tape which is securing the door. This tape is on the inside of the door, which is pointless (as it is supposed to be seen by people, to warn them away from the crime scene) and impossible, unless the police taped up the door and then climbed out of the windows.
* Revealing mistakes: When we first see the crime scene for lust, the man with the large leather strap-on device has a white sheet draped over him to cover the obviously disturbing contraption. Even though it was recently used to stab the female to death through intercourse and should be covered in blood, there are no soaked through blood stains on the sheet.
* Revealing mistakes: While it is raining on the car, the people on the street are not using umbrellas or other devices to shield themselves from rain.
* Revealing mistakes: At the "Sloth" murder scene, John Doe has amputated the victim's hand in order to leave fingerprints at other murder scenes. When the police examine the victim, tied to his bed, the handless, prosthetic left arm built from the scene is visible, as well as the actor's real (and intact) left arm, strapped to the side of his body.
* Revealing mistakes: As Mills and Somerset leave the Captain's office after submitting the report on their first job together, Somerset walks across the screen to leave the room. In the bottom-left side of the screen, the red marker tape he is standing on is clearly visible in the shot.
* Continuity: Mills gets out of a bed with only a quilted mattress cover. He puts on his shirt and tie and walks back to the bed which now has a sheet on it.
* Continuity: Detective Mills' tucked-in tie when he is looking at the portrait in the greed victim's office.
* Continuity: The amount of the name that is left on the door when the janitor is scraping it off.
* Continuity: The phone on Detective Mills' desk changes several times when he enters his new office.
* Continuity: The layout of John Doe's apartment conflicts with the hallway of the building. In the outside hallway, there is a window looking onto the building next door. Inside the apartment, there are rooms where the window would be.
* Continuity: On the drive back from the Gluttony victim, the car has two different kinds of windshield wiper: one that goes side to side, and one that goes up and down.
* Continuity: When Somerset is in the taxi on the way to the library, he is wearing a striped shirt under his overcoat. When he gets to the library and is chatting with the security guards he is wearing just a solid white shirt.
* Continuity: The level of the wine glasses when Somerset is over for dinner changes. When the camera is on the Mills, Mrs. Mills glass is higher than Somerset's glass. When the camera is on Somerset, the levels are both lower and equal.
* Continuity: The direction of the light varies between shots during the final scene.
* Continuity: When Somerset is in the library making copies, a plan of Dante Alighieri's Purgatory comes out of the copy machine, but the label at the bottom of the page identifies it as Dante's Inferno.
* Continuity: When Somerset is in the greed victim's office dusting the wall for prints behind the painting, he does so with his left hand. However, the close-up shot of the hand doing the dusting is clearly a right hand.
* Crew or equipment visible: At the end of the scene where both witnesses of the "Lust" crime scene are interrogated, there is a slow track from one interrogation room to the other. In the tracking shot, you can see the camera dolly reflection at the bottom of the two-way mirror.
* Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The movie is set in a fictitious city, so the nearby desert is not a geographical error.
* Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Just before the greed scene, several newspaper headlines state that Defense Attorney Eli Gould had been murdered. Hence, Mills and Somerset refer to him as "the biggest defense lawyer in town." (Casual viewers might have misread the headlines.)
* Incorrectly regarded as goofs: There are at least 3 copies of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy which Somerset places on the table. The red-bound copy which is the focus of an earlier shot is seen underneath a copy of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Beneath the red one is a larger printing of the book with a dust-jacket, and at the top of the other pile is a smaller, blue-covered version of the book.
* Factual errors: Somerset states in the film that there are "7 cardinal virtues, and 7 deadly sins". It is generally more accepted, and stated by Thomas Aquinas, that there are only 4 cardinal virtues, the other 3 virtues being theological.
WARNING: Here Be Spoilers
Goofs below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
* Incorrectly regarded as goofs: SPOILER: John Doe kills his victims because they have committed one of the seven deadly sins, but he tells Mills that they were innocent. He was being ironic.
* Continuity: SPOILER: On the way to finding the final two victims, the overhead shots show them to be driving in the desert, while shots from inside the car show grey and green flora outside the windows.
* Continuity: SPOILER: When Mills orders Jon Doe to the ground in the police station, on the stairs behind two police officers are visible. Then there is a cut to a shot from the stairs looking down, and no police officers can be seen. Cut again and they reappear.
* Continuity: SPOILER: In the scene taking place in the car heading out to find the final two victims, the grating in the vehicle changes. It is more curvy when the camera is on John Doe, while it is very straight when the camera is looking at Mills from John Doe's point of view. It also disappears occasionally, such as then the camera is on Somerset or when it is on Mills, but not from John Doe's point of view.
* Continuity: SPOILER: When Mills orders Jon Doe to the ground in the police station, Jon Doe is covered in blood but doesn't leave any blood on the floor, even though the police officer who handcuffs him gets blood on himself.
* Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: John Doe's package, delivered by "Crosstown Express", has UPS International shipping papers attached to it.
John Doe: I visited your home this morning after you'd left. I tried to play husband. I tried to taste the life of a simple man. It didn't work out, so I took a souvenir... her pretty head.
John Doe: What sick ridiculous puppets we are / and what gross little stage we dance on / What fun we have dancing and fucking / Not a care in the world / Not knowing that we are nothing / We are not what was intended.
John Doe: Wanting people to listen, you can't just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer, and then you'll notice you've got their strict attention.
John Doe: Become vengeance, David. Become wrath.
MEMORABLE QUOTES FROM DAVID MILLS
David Mills: I don't think you're quitting because you believe these things you say. I don't. I think you want to believe them, because you're quitting. And you want me to agree with you, and you want me to say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right. It's all fucked up. It's a fucking mess. We should all go live in a fucking log cabin." But I won't. I don't agree with you. I do not. I can't.
David Mills: Fuckin' Dante... poetry-writing faggot! Piece of shit, motherfucker!
David Mills: C'mon, he's insane. Look. Right now he's probably dancing around in his grandma's panties, yeah, rubbing himself in peanut butter.
David Mills: You're no messiah. You're a movie of the week. You're a fucking t-shirt, at best.
David Mills: Who knows. So many freaks out there doin' their little evil deeds they don't wanna do... "The voices made me do it. My dog made me do it. Jodie Foster told me to do it."
David Mills: I've been trying to figure something in my head, and maybe you can help me out, yeah? When a person is insane, as you clearly are, do you know that you're insane? Maybe you're just sitting around, reading "Guns and Ammo", masturbating in your own feces, do you just stop and go, "Wow! It is amazing how fucking crazy I really am!"? Yeah. Do you guys do that?
MEMORABLE QUOTES
John Doe: It's more comfortable for you to label me as insane.
David Mills:It's VERY comfortable.
William Somerset: [to Tracy] Anyone who spends a significant amount of time with me finds me disagreeable. Just ask your husband. David Mills: Very true. Very, very true.
William Somerset: I just don't think I can continue to live in a place that embraces and nurtures apathy as if it was virtue. David Mills: You're no different. You're no better. William Somerset: I didn't say I was different or better. I'm not. Hell, I sympathize; I sympathize completely. Apathy is the solution. I mean, it's easier to lose yourself in drugs than it is to cope with life. It's easier to steal what you want than it is to earn it. It's easier to beat a child than it is to raise it. Hell, love costs: it takes effort and work.
David Mills: Has he tried to speak or communicate in any way? Dr. Beardsley: Even if his brain were not mush, which it is, he chewed off his own tongue long ago. William Somerset: Uh... Doc, is there absolutely no chance that he might survive? Dr. Beardsley: Detective, he'd die of shock right now if you were to shine a flashlight in his eyes. He's experienced about as much pain and suffering as anyone I've encountered, give or take... and he still has hell to look forward to. Good night.
William Somerset: This guy's methodical, exacting, and worst of all, patient. David Mills: He's a nut-bag! Just because the fucker's got a library card doesn't make him Yoda!
[William Somerset looks at an object in the road] David Mills: What do you got? William Somerset: Dead dog. John Doe: I didn't do that.
William Somerset: If John Doe's head splits open and a UFO should fly out, I want you to have expected it.
California: Somebody call somebody.
William Somerset: Did the kid see it? Detective Taylor:What? William Somerset: The kid Detective Taylor: What the fuck sort of question is that? You know, we're all going to be really glad when we get rid of you, Somerset. It's always these questions with you. "Did the kid see it?" Who gives a fuck? He's dead, his wife killed him. Anything else has nothing to do with us.
David Mills: Now, I wasn't standing around guarding the taco-bell, alright? I worked homicide for five years. William Somerset: Not here. David Mills: I understand that. William Somerset: Well, over the next seven days, Detective, you'll do me the favour of remembering that.
David Mills: I seem to remember us knocking on your door. John Doe: Oh, that's right. And I seem to remember breaking your face.
Police Captain: [answering phone that interrupted his conversation] This is not even my desk! [hangs up]
William Somerset: We'll just talk to him. David Mills: Uh huh. Yeah. Excuse me, sir. Are you, by any chance, a serial killer? Okay. William Somerset: You do the talking. Put that silver tongue of yours to work. David Mills: Have you been talking to my wife?
[picks up the phone] David Mills: Hello? John Doe: I admire you. I don't know how you found me, but imagine my surprise. I respect you law enforcement agents more everyday. David Mills: Well, I appreciate that... John. I tell you... John Doe: No, no, you listen, all right? I'll be readjusting my schedule in light of today's little... setback. I just had to call and express my admiration. Sorry I had to hurt... one of you, but I really didn't have a choice, did I? David Mills: Hmm. John Doe: You will accept my apology, won't you? I feel like saying more, but I don't want to ruin the surprise. [hangs up]
David Mills: [greeting his wife after coming home from work] Hey, loser. Tracy Mills: Hi, idiot.
William Somerset: [after finding out that Detective Mills's apartment is close to the railway tracks] Just a soothing, relaxing, vibrating home huh? [chuckles to himself] William Somerset: [recovers] I'm sorry. [laughs hysterically, Tracy joins in]
Storyline: Dr. Jekyll believes good and evil exist in everyone. Experiments reveal his evil side, named Hyde. Experience teaches him how evil Hyde can be: he kills Ivy who earlier expressed interest in Jekyll and Sir Charles, Jekyll's faincee's father.
Genres: Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi
Taglines: A Good Woman! A Bad Woman - who needed the love of both! It CHILLS you! Half-MAN! Half-MONSTER!
Details Country:USA Release Date: September 1941 (USA)
Technical Specs Runtime: 113 min | Germany: 90 min | Germany: 108 min (VHS version)
TRIVIA:
* Spencer Tracy's performance as Hyde was judged by the critics in 1941 to be inadequate, principally because he was not frightening enough. In addition, Tracy was considered "too American" and too "rough" to be believable as an upper-class doctor in Victorian London. He later received an amusing telegram from Fredric March, the star of the 1931 version, who said that his earlier performance as Hyde was always compared favorably with Tracy's. After watching the film, Tracy confided to a friend that he believed his acting career was over.
* The film was a notorious critical and commercial failure when released. Spencer Tracy later said it was by far the least favorite of the films he had starred in, and that his performance was "awful". The New York Times famously described it as "not so much evil incarnate as ham rampant ... more ludicrous than dreadful."
* Spencer Tracy's appearance as Mr Hyde was disguised in cinema trailers for fear that audiences would laugh at it.
* In the original theatrical version, once Dr. Jekyll is first transformed into Mr. Hyde, he walks up to a mirror in his laboratory. As he stares into it he questions his face saying such things as, "It's my face, yet it isn't" This is followed by him exclaiming, "Can this be evil?" In later TV prints, the earlier lines are missing. They're inexplicably missing to this day. Either the negative was damaged or the cuts were made on purpose.
MEMORABLE QUOTES:
* Dr. Henry Jekyll: [as Hyde] When you went to see the good doctor, before you left you said... I almost thought, well what did you think? Maybe that you saw a little bit of ME, Hyde in him?
GOOFS:
* Revealing mistakes: When Jekyll and Lanyon drop off Ivy at her home, a wire is visibly attached to Ivy. It evidently helps her as she falls out of the carriage, and again supports her weight as Jekyll "carries" her inside.
* Revealing mistakes: Spencer Tracy's stunt double is very obvious at various times in the movie.
* Continuity: In the fight with Sir Charles Emery, Hyde loses his hat. In the next instant it's back on.
* Continuity: In the scene where Hyde visits Ivy, he is sitting in a chair eating some grapes. In closeup he can be seen putting the last grape into his mouth with his right hand; but in the next medium shot, showing Hyde in the foreground and Ivy in the background, he is feeding himself with his left hand.
* Continuity: Ivy knocks Mr Hyde's bottle of champagne off the table, but later he lifts it from the table to smash over a man's head.
* Continuity: After attacking Ivy in her room Jekyll runs away from her house. As he approaches a carriage his hat flies off and he keeps running around a corner. In the next shot, from the other end of the corner, his hat is securely on his head.
* Boom mic visible: Right after Marcia and Ivy have been talking about a new theatre production and Hyde enters the room, the shadow of a boom mic is visible throughout much of the remaining scene with Hyde eating the grapes and playing the piano. The mic shadow, visible on the back wall, moves over to the doorway as Hyde enters, interrupting Ivy and Marcia, and follows him around the room. It's quite visible.
Dr. Jekyll faces horrible consequences when he lets his dark side run wild with a potion that changes him into the animalistic Mr. Hyde.
The first horror movie ever to win an Academy Award.
Release Date: 31 December 1931 (USA) Taglines: Put yourself in her place! The dreaded night when her lover became a madman! Genres: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Storyline: Based on the story by Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Henry Jekyll believes that there are two distinct sides to men - a good and an evil side. He believes that by separating the two man can become liberated. He succeeds in his experiments with chemicals to accomplish this and transforms into Hyde to commit horrendous crimes. When he discontinues use of the drug it is already too late...
Technical Specs Runtime: 98 min | 96 min (TCM print)
TRIVIA:
- The nephew of Robert Louis Stevenson appears in a small uncredited role. - John Barrymore, who had made a big comeback in the 1920 silent version, was offered the leading role in this film but turned it down. - The only version where Jekyll's name is pronounced correctly as "Jee-kall". - Mr Hyde's appearance was based on the Neanderthal man. - When Dr. Jekyll comes to Muriel Carew's house for the final time, she is playing "Aufschwung" ("Soaring") from Fantasiestuecke, Op. 12, by Robert Schumann. This is a particularly apposite choice of music for the film, because Schumann had created two alter egos reflecting two different aspects of his personality, the impetuous and passionate "Florestan" and the introverted "Eusebius." Much of his music criticism was written using one or the other as a pseudonym, and the two frequently appear in his music in one guise or another.
GOOFS:
* Crew or equipment visible: At the beginning of the movie, when Jekyll is putting on his cape in the "mirror", the reflection of a crewmember can be seen flitting across his stomach in the glass.
* Continuity: During Hyde's first visit to the Variety Music Hall, he reaches over the railing to trip a waiter with his cane. As he lurches around to grab his cane, he knocks his top hat off the railing and it lands on the floor next to the waiter. In the next shot, Hyde is holding onto the hat as he lashes out with his cane.
* Continuity: When Mr. Hyde and Ivy sit down in front each other in the Variety Music Hall, the objects on the wall behind them change repeatedly between shots.
* Continuity: When Dr. Jekyll is making his first portion of the mixture to transform from Jekyll to Hyde the glass is very dirty and you can't see through the glass, but when he lifts the glass in front of the mirror it's perfectly clean.
* Revealing mistakes: When Dr. Jekyll is first seen in the mirror, looking directly into the camera, the effect was achieved by filming Fredric March through a hole in the wall framed to look like a mirror. But moments earlier, the trick is revealed when the butler walks past the "mirror" but has no reflection.
* Revealing mistakes: In the opening scene, as Jekyll looks into the mirror through the subjective camera, his "reflection" turns away from the mirror before the camera, (supposedly Jekyll's viewpoint) does.
* Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Miriam Hopkin's character is listed as Ivy Pierson in the end credits. However in the movie, it is listed as Ivy Pearson in a newspaper article.
* Audio/visual unsynchronized: After Muriel's father consents for Jekyll & Muriel to be married the next day, Jekyll goes home and plays part of Bach's "Toccata & Fugue in D minor" on the organ. There is a mid-shot with March playing the keyboard, then there is a close-up of the hands on the keyboard. The close-up hands are an obvious double, as they are playing the piece correctly. March's mid-shot has his left hand ascending on the keyboard while the notes of the music playing are descending.
MEMORABLE QUOTES:
Poole: You should go out, sir. London offers many amusements for a gentlemen like you, sir. Dr. Jekyll: Yes, but gentlemen like me daren't take advantage of them, Poole. Gentlemen like me have to be very careful of what we do or say.
Dr. Lanyon: Perhaps you're forgetting, you're engaged to Muriel. Dr. Jekyll: Forgotten it? Can a man dying of thirst forget water? And do you know what would happen to that thirst if it were to be denied water? Dr. Lanyon: If I understand you correctly, you sound almost indecent. Dr. Jekyll: What names you give things!
Mr. Hyde: Perhaps you prefer a gentleman. One of those fine-mannered and honorable gentlemen. Those panting hypocrites who like your legs but talk about your garters.
Dr. Lanyon: You're a rebel, and see what it has done for you. You're in the power of this monster that you have created. Dr. Jekyll: I'll never take that drug again! Dr. Lanyon: Yes, but you told me you became that monster tonight not of your own accord. It will happen again. Dr. Jekyll: It never will. I'm sure of it. I'll conquer it! Dr. Lanyon: Too late. You cannot conquer it. It has conquered you!
Dr. Jekyll: Oh, God. This I did not intend. I saw a light but did not know where it was headed. I have tresspassed on your domain. I've gone further than man should go. Forgive me. Help me!
Dr. Jekyll: I have no soul. I'm beyond the pale. I'm one of the living dead!
Blond-haired student: [joking to another student about Jekyll's lecture on splitting the personality] Why don't you stay at home and send your other self to the lecture?
Mr. Hyde: If you do one thing I don't approve of while I'm gone, the LEAST little thing, mind you... I'll show you what horror means!
Mr. Hyde: [after strangling Ivy] Isn't Hyde a lover after your own heart?
Mr. Hyde: Think before you decide, I tell you! Do you want to be left as you are, or do you want your eyes and your soul to be blasted by a sight that would stagger the devil himself?
"According to Buddy Love, these are the ingredients for an Alaskan Polar Bear Heater: 2 shots vodka, 1 shot rum, 1 shot vermouth, 1 shot brandy, 1 shot gin, 1 shot scotch, a dash of bitters, a smidgen of vinegar, a lemon peel, an orange peel and a cherry. Mix it well and pour it into a tall glass."
PLOT: To improve his social life, a nerdish professor drinks a potion that temporarily turns him into the handsome, but obnoxious, Buddy Love.
At National Film Preservation Board, USA, in 2004 this film won the award "National Film Registry"
Taglines: - What does he become? What kind of monster? - Well, any scientist who makes a girl like this can't be all mad. - Please do not reveal the middle of this picture! Jerry's a mousey chemistry prof who invents the greatest drink since Dracula discovered bloody marys.
Runtime: 107 min.
TRIVIA
- It was widely believed at the time that the Nutty Professor's sleazy alter ego Julius Kelp was a satirical swipe at Jerry Lewis's longtime partner, Dean Martin. - Jerry Lewis wrote seven scripts for the film by himself and two with Bill Richmond.
GOOFS:
* Continuity: When Julius drinks his "potion" and transforms into the Hyde-like creature prior to the appearance of Buddy, Julius' bird alternates between being covered and uncovered several times between shots. This is particularly noticeable when the bird says, "I told you, Julius," and we cut to a long shot where the birdcage is covered.
* Continuity: When Professor Kelp is at his desk writing in his journal, the clock on the wall is not running. When he drinks the formula later that evening, during his transformation into Buddy Love, the clock is running.
* Continuity: When Julius is making the potion in his lab he closes the blinds and it is glaringly bright outside. Then when he drinks the potion the clock reads 9:30 at night.
* Continuity: When Kelp has been jammed into a storage cabinet by a student, we see Stella as seen from his horizontal viewpoint with her head to the left of shot. But he's lying on his left side, so her head should be on the right.
* Continuity: When Kelp is jammed into a storage cabinet by a student, his left knee lies on a big brown bottle. In the following scenes, this bottle has simply vanished.
* Continuity: Before Buddy Love starts playing the piano in his first scene at the Purple Pit, he sets down his cigarette. During his song the cigarette is nearly finished burning, but after the song, he picks it back up and it's nearly whole.
* Continuity: In the last scenes, the Professor has new braces while in the classroom with Stella. But when the two leave the room after his parents enter, he is clearly without any in his mouth.
* Continuity: When Warfield meets with Kelp after the explosion, the fish tank on Warfield's desk keeps changing location.
* Continuity: At the prom, Stella's hand changes position on/off Buddy's shoulder.
* Revealing mistakes: As Julius is creeping behind the grassy knoll, he nudges the grass and the whole knoll rocks back and forth.
QUOTES:
Buddy Love: Hiya, chicky baby. How's it going? Stella Purdy: Fine. Buddy Love: Crazy. I thought I'd visit your little land of learning. Cute. Cute pad. Stella Purdy: What happened to you last night? What'd you run away like that for? I thought you saw a ghost or something. Buddy Love: Oh yeah. How 'bout that? Well, that's why I stopped by. I thought I'd lay it on ya, but this ain't the place to talk. What do you say we meet later at the Purple Pit? We can talk better there. Stella Purdy: Well, I dunno. You're pretty weird, you know, and I don't want... Buddy Love: Chi-chi. Ten o' clock? Stella Purdy: Perfect. Buddy Love: Figures.
----
Buddy Love: I know what you're thinking: Where's he been all my life? Right? Stella Purdy: No, not exactly. Buddy Love: And that you're happy with the way I handled those three goons, right? Well, normally I would've belted them, but I didn't want to muss myself all up and have you dance with a sloppy guy. Dig? Stella Purdy: Well then, you restrained yourself just for little old me. Buddy Love: I knew you'd appreciate it. I do a lot of nice things. Stella Purdy: Well, is that really the case or is this line 27-a for young college girls? Buddy Love: Aww, now you see? You went and done it. For one of the rare times in my life when I dig down into the soul, and you doubt my veracity. Well, that hurts. Stella Purdy: Well, it's not your veracity that I doubt. [pause] Stella Purdy: The music stopped. Buddy Love: Yeah, I heard.
---
Buddy Love: They're nice kids. All nice. All nice kids. They have very, very good taste, I might add. Stella Purdy: I'm glad. It would be a shame to waste the genius of yours on the riff-raff. Buddy Love: Well, honey, I always say, if you're good and you know it, why waste time beating around the bush, true? Stella Purdy: And I always say that to love yourself is the beginning of a life-long romance. And after watching you, I know that you and you will be very happy together. Buddy Love: Just a minute, sweetheart. I don't recall dismissing you. Stella Purdy: You rude, discourteous egomaniac! Buddy Love: You're crazy about me, right? And I can understand it. Only this morning, looking in the mirror before shaving, I enjoyed seeing what I saw so much I couldn't tear myself away. [kisses his hand] Buddy Love: Have some, baby?
---
Purple Pit Bartender: What'll it be? Buddy Love: Aww... That's no way to talk. Tsk, tsk, tsk. "What'll it be?" That's no way to treat a customer. C'mere. Try it like this. Pay attention. You'll feel better and the customers'll be happier. Try this: "What'll it be? Hmmm?" Try that. Come on. We haven't got all night. Try it. Purple Pit Bartender: What'll it be? Hmmm? Buddy Love: Good! That was wonderful. Did anyone ever tell you you couldn't sing?
---
Gym Attendant: Are you hurt? Professor Julius Kelp: Well, if a man with an ulcer and a splinter in his finger and a nail in his foot was then struck by lightning, if you could say that man was not hurt then yes you could say I'm not hurt.
Detective Sherlock Holmes and his stalwart partner Watson engage in a battle of wits and brawn with a nemesis whose plot is a threat to all of England. Tagline: Mark Strong is Blackwood - Nothing Escapes Him - Dangerously Alluring - Depraved Adversary - Holmes for the Holiday. - Robert Downey Jr. is Holmes - Jude Law is Watson - Rachel McAdams is Adler
Runtime: 128 min.
Storyline: Storyline
After finally catching serial killer and occult "sorcerer" Lord Blackwood, legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson can close yet another successful case. But when Blackwood mysteriously returns from the grave and resumes his killing spree, Holmes must take up the hunt once again. Contending with his partner's new fiancée and the dimwitted head of Scotland Yard, the dauntless detective must unravel the clues that will lead him into a twisted web of murder, deceit, and black magic - and the deadly embrace of temptress Irene Adler. Blogalaxia Tags: trailer,cinema,videos,hollywood,films,movies,official+video
GOOFS: Anachronisms:
- In the scene following Holmes' leap from the House of Parliament, a statue of Queen Boudicca can be seen at the end of Westminster Bridge. The statue was erected in 1902, 8 years after the opening of Tower Bridge, which is partially built in the film.
- Characters refer to radio waves. The term "radio" was first used as a noun in 1907.
- One shot of the Clocktower of the Palace of Westminster (commonly known as Big Ben) shows Portcullis House, the UK MP's offices, with its distinctive chimney stacks, to the right. Portcullis House was built in 2001.
- Modern, bright red cranes appear in several background shots.
- Early in the film, Holmes reads a Daily Graphic dated 13 November 1890. The front page features a report of Blackwood's impending execution, accompanied by photographs of Blackwood, Holmes, and Watson. The Daily Graphic was the first newspaper to print a halftone photograph, but it started in 1891.
- In many scenes, Sherlock Holmes wears a shirt with an attached collar. That was introduced by Van Huesen in 1929.
- When Sherlock Holmes is experimenting with the effects of music on flies, he mentions that the flies fly in an organized fashion when he plays "atonal" clusters. "Atonal" music was first written around 1908, by composer Arnold Schönberg.
- Just prior to his hanging, Blackwood is told he has been sentenced to death for "the practice of black magic". British law has not recognized magical acts since the Witchcraft Act of 1735. The only prosecutions have been against those who commit fraud by pretending to cast spells.
- In the beginning, Holmes tests the revolver silencer. His gun is an 1895 Nagant revolver, with the Soviet Tula arsenal mark (hammer inside the star) and 1941 (the year of manufacture) below it.
- Holmes describes his opponent's wild punch in the bare-knuckle fight as a "haymaker." The earliest recorded use of "haymaker" as a fighting term comes from the National Police Gazette in 1906. "One of those ... fellows is going to get the 'haymaker' over on your jaw." (Source: www.phrases.org)
- Holmes describes the devices used to kill one of the villain's opponents and torch the abattoir as "employing a flammable substance." "Flammable" entered the language in the early 20th century, as a disambiguation of "inflammable," which means the same thing, but was mistaken for its antonym, "non-flammable." For safety reasons, it became preferable to use "flammable" when giving warnings about combustibility.
- During Irene's first conversation with Holmes, she says she brought dates from Jordan. The country of Transjordan was established in 1921; the name changed to Jordan in 1949.
- Watson uses a streamlined, mercury-filled sphygmomanometer to take the Colonel's blood pressure. The instrument wasn't widely available, or widely used, until 1901.
- When Holmes and Watson are in jail, close-ups of Jude Law reveal a hearing aid in his left ear.
- SPOILER: Lord Blackwood is on Death Row (and presumably hanged) at H.M.P. Pentonville. London's death row was at H.M.P. Newgate until 1902.
GOOFS: Continuity
- During the bare-knuckle fight scene, Holmes is clearly tanned. When he is shackled to Adler's bedposts, his body is not tanned.
- When Holmes, Watson, and Irene are in the attic and Holmes is explaining the crime, Irene kneels to the ground to put a candle down to flatten out the map. In the next shot, she puts the candle on the map again.
- When Irene is running across the rooftops with the gas tanks, she holds each chamber in different hands. When Lord Blackwood takes the device, both pieces are together, obviously welded.
- When Holmes and Watson are taken to Lord Blackwood's slaughter house, they both jump from the Lucy into the shallow water near shore and make their way to the building. In the very next scene, their clothes are dry.
- During Adler's first fight scene, a handkerchief is on the ledge. Holmes goes to look for the owner, is punched, spins around, and falls to the ground. The handkerchief is missing. When he stands back up, the handkerchief is back.
- During the fight on the bridge, Holmes uses a net to hurl away from Lord Blackwood. In the next shot, the net disappears.
- At the beginning, one establishing shot of London that includes a fully-built Tower Bridge. Later, during the big fight scene, it is only half-built.
- In slow motion, Holmes demonstrates that he will dislocate the large man's jaw with his left elbow. The move is missing during the real-time fight sequence.
- When Holmes performs the magic ritual he cuts his fingers on a sharp knife to drip blood in middle of the circle. The next morning when talking to Watson and Irene, there is no sign of trauma to either of his thumbs.
- In the first overhead shot of street traffic, vehicles are driving on the right. The rest of the traffic shots show them driving on the left.
- During the bare-knuckle fight scene, Holmes gets a cut on his left lower lip. There is blood from it on his shirt when Watson comes to get him to meet Lord Blackwood before the execution. In the next scene, when Holmes and Watson are on their way to the prison, there is no sign of the cut on Holmes lip. Yet it is clearly visible in the prison scene that follows.
- The first few shots of the cemetery, where Blackwood was buried, were shot at a different time than the subsequent shots. Initially, the shadows are almost parallel to the length of the road. In later shots, they're at an acute angle.
- In the slaughterhouse scene as Holmes and Watson free Irene before she is sliced by the band saw, clearly she is shown being saved by Holmes' quick hand. In the very next shot it shows Watson pulling her up and Irene thanks Watson for saving her.
- Continuity: At the end during the fight scene, Lord Blackwood knocks Irene off the platform. There's nothing below her (you can see the water and boats). Later she's shown to be lying on another platform with her legs at odd angles.
- SPOILER: Towards the end of the film when Irene and Sherlock are together on the some sort of platform along the rooftops, there is no visual on the necklace being worn by Irene. Yet on the next shot when Sherlock rips off the necklace, she is suddenly seen wearing the necklace.
GOOFS: Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers):
- Ambassador Standish is referred to as the American ambassador to the United Kingdom and the English Ambassador to America. Based on his accent, he is clearly the former.
- Mary Morstan, Watson's fiancée, says she is a fan of detective novels, including those by Poe. Edgar Allan Poe wrote short detective stories, not novels.
- At the end of the restaurant scene, in which Holmes analyzes Mary, who leaves in disgust, Holmes uses a knife and fork to cut up and eat his meal. He holds the fork vertically between thumb and index finger, American-style.
- Holmes sniffs a bottle of an unknown chemical by sticking his nose in an taking a deep whiff. The safe way to smell chemicals, which has been practiced for over 200 years, is to use the hand to gently waft the fumes towards the nose. As a man with some background in chemistry, Holmes would surely have known that.
- During the opening titles we see the front page of the Illustrated Paper. The sub-heading of the headline story reads
'Sherlock Holmes Aides Police' instead of 'Sherlock Holmes Aids Police'.
- In the first scene, Sherlock Holmes tells Watson "It is ten o'clock." The clock on the wall says eight o'clock.
- When Blackwood talks to Ambassador Standish at the secret society meeting, he says America has been weakened by its recent Civil War. The Civil War ended in 1865, and the Reconstruction was over by 1877, so by 1891 when the film takes place, America was hardly in a weakened state.
- Holmes says Sir Thomas Rotheram is the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. That makes him a peer, so his title would be "Lord", not "Sir", which signifies knighthood.
GOOFS
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In the slaughterhouse, the dead pigs are transported straight from the flaming to the band saw. When the band saw cuts them apart, the pigs are hollow, with no internal organs. However, near the end of the movie during Holmes' elaborate explanation of the conjuring tricks, he explains that the stomachs of the pigs were the experimental subjects of a cyanide poison. It is possible the pigs were cut open or the organs were dissolved in the experiments.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When the camera flips over during the chase of the big man, the modern symbol for 'this way up' appears on a packing crate. Even so, this is clearly a joke by the filmmakers, as the crate is shown to be wrong way up.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In the film, 221b Baker Street has 3 steps to the front door. Modern-day 221b Baker St. has a street-level entrance. In 'Arthur Conan Doyle''s day, the address was fictional, and thus has no "real" representation.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Although Sherlock Holmes refers to the book of Revelation as "Revelations", it is noted by Watson in the 'Arthur Conan Doyle' novel "A Study in Scarlet" that Holmes' knowledge was limited to what he found relevant to his detective work, and in fact that he had very little knowledge of literature or philosophy.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Dredger meets Holmes for the second time, he quips "Tu m'as manqué?", which can mean "I felt your absence" or "you didn't hit me". In this situation, "Tu m'as manqué" is a perfect translation for "you missed me".
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In 1891, the statue of Eros (a.k.a. Anteros) in Piccadilly Circus pointed southwest, towards parliament. It changed direction, pointing toward Shaftesbury Avenue, sometime after 1896.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In Reordan's laboratory, Holmes says he smells candy floss. Candy floss (a.k.a. cotton candy) wasn't available to the general public until 1904, but it was invented in the mid-18th century. Holmes was often employed by wealthy people, so he could've had it before.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: SPOILER: Even though Sherlock Holmes did not witness Standish's murder, he was still able to describe it presumably because Inspector Lestrade, who was both a member of the secret society and also held Holmes in his confidence, related what he had heard of the event through his secret channels.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: SPOILER: Holmes says Blackwood faked his death using an extraction from a flower which is "quite infamous in the region of Turkey bordering the Black Sea for its ability to induce an apparently mortal paralysis." The modern Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923. However, in the 19th century, Westerners commonly called the Ottoman Empire "Turkey" and all of its inhabitants "Turks", even those that weren't ethnic Turks.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: SPOILER: Although it is widely believed that British Peers (such as Lord Blackwood) were hung with silk ropes rather than hemp, this is likely a popular myth. The last Peer to be executed in England was Earl Ferrers in 1760. There is no evidence that he was hung with a silk rope, and nothing in law or practice suggests this would be the case over 150 years later.
Revealing mistakes: When fighting the large man with the hammer at the boat dock, Holmes stumbles over one of the very large dock chains and moves it several inches, revealing it to be made of a lightweight material instead of iron.
Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: Blackwood's dead father blinks his eyes in the bathtub.
Errors in geography: When Irene escapes from the sewers beneath Parliament with the poison, she emerges at Tower Bridge, about two and a half miles away, within 30 seconds.
Errors in geography: A boat slips into the Thames and sinks stern first, with the bow in the air. The Thames is very shallow at that point
Errors in geography: Irene Adler is staying at the Grand Hotel, which is shown as being in Piccadilly Circus. It was actually in Trafalgar Square.
Errors in geography: The wide shot showing the streets of London shows two barouches driving on the right side of the road. In the UK, traffic travels on the left side.
Errors in geography: SPOILER: Lord Blackwood's execution is done American-style. In Britain, the hood placed over the condemned's head was white, not black. The rope was not the coiled noose of western movies; it passed through a simple eyelet.
Crew or equipment visible: Studio lights reflected in some of the cutlery during the restaurant scene.
Factual errors: The date on the newspaper Holmes is holding after he was bailed from jail is Friday, November 19, 1891. November 19th was actually on a Thursday that year.
Factual errors: The scene in the House of Lords shows a very large chamber, with lots of people, many standing behind the Lord Speaker on the Floor of the House, talking to each other until Lord Coward, the Home Secretary calls for their attention. In reality, the Lords' Chamber is fairly small. Peers must sit on their respective benches; they are not allowed to stand on the Floor of the House. The Speaker calls the House to order, not individual peers. In fact, as a government minister, Lord Coward would normally address the Lords from the government dispatch box, which can be seen on the Table of the House. Incidentally, the Table itself is incorrectly placed in front of the Lord Speaker. It should have been placed further down, with the Law Lords sitting between the Lord Speaker and the Table.
Factual errors: The movie continues the common mistake of identifying Holmes' house as 221B Baker St. The house should be 221; "B" refers to the fact that Holmes lives on the upper floor. Mrs. Hudson lives at 221A Baker St.
Plot holes: SPOILER: Lord Blackwood was executed by hanging, yet when Dr. Watson declared Blackwood dead, there were no bruises, ligature marks on the neck, or dislocation of the cervical vertebrae. Absence of these traumas from hanging should have aroused Watson's suspicion.
Robert Maillet accidentally knocked out Robert Downey Jr. while filming a fight scene.
Robert Downey Jr. read many Sherlock Holmes stories and watched "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1984) by Granada Television (starring Jeremy Brett) in order to learn more about the character.
The song that plays from 1:03 to the end on the second trailer is a piece called "Unstoppable" by the group E.S. Posthumus (specifically 1:47 to the end on the track).
The set for Sherlock Holmes's home in this film was previously used as Sirius Black's home in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).
Guy Ritchie's first film not to be Rated R in the US.
Watson's line to Holmes, "You know that what you're drinking is for eye surgery," is an obscure reference to Holmes's cocaine usage. At the time, cocaine was used as a topical anesthetic for eye surgery. In the stories, Holmes injects cocaine.
Although Irene Adler plays a large role in the movie, she only appears in one Sir 'Arthur Conan Doyle' story, "A Scandal in Bohemia", briefly referenced in the movie.
The story The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual mentions that Holmes practiced shooting his pistol by putting VR (Victoria Regina) on his wall with bullet holes. In the movie, Holmes shoots VR in the wall in his room with a gun.
The four symbols referred to in the movie, the Man, the Lion, the Ox and the Eagle, are also attributed to the four Gospels of the Christian Bible: Matthew (Man, the humanity of Christ), Mark (Lion, for courage and for action), Luke (Ox, for strength and perseverance), and John (Eagle, for clarity of sight and for divinity).
Before the scene where Sherlock Holmes reenacts the black magic ceremony, we see a brief shot of an Inn called The Punch Bowl. The Punch Bowl is the name of Guy Ritchie's pub in Mayfair, London.
In the stories, Holmes is described to be an expert in Baritsu. In the film however, the martial art that Holmes used is the Wing-Chun Kung Fu (famously used by Ip Man and Bruce Lee). Robert Downey Jr. is a practitioner of the art in real-life and the fight scene between him and David Garrick at Punchbowl Pit was coordinated with the help of his trainer.
The line "Never theorize before you have data. Invariably, you end up twisting facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." which Holmes delivers to Watson when they are searching for the red-headed midget is a direct reference to the 'Arthur Conan Doyle' short story "A Scandal In Bohemia" , where the quote reads as "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist the facts to suit theories , instead of theories to suit facts." The short story also happens to feature Irene Adler, a character that is included in the movie.
Other quotes that have been taken directly from Conan Doyle stories and placed into the script: "It makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on whom I can thoroughly rely." - The Boscombe Valley Mystery "You have the grand gift of silence , Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion." - The Man With The Twisted Lip "Crime is common. Logic is rare." - The Adventure of The Copper Beeches "Data , data , data. I cannot make bricks without clay." - The Adventure of the Copper Beeches
SPOILER: The three murders of the men and the attempted murder of Parliament coincide with the four Greek elements. The first was a burial crime scene (Earth), second was drowning (water), third was immolation (fire), and fourth was poison gas (air).
SPOILER: Guy Ritchie has stated in interviews that he is a fan of (and a practitioner) Brazilian Jujitsu, made popular in mixed martial arts. Towards the end of the movie Holmes and Watson fight Dredger and finally manage to subdue him with an arm-bar and a modified rear naked choke, both popular Brazilian Jujitsu submissions.
SPOILER: All events take place in the year 1891. After Holmes and Watson are released from custody following the events in the shipyard, Inspector Lestrade hands a newspaper ("The National Police Gazette") over to Holmes. The title on the newspaper is "LONDON IN TERROR", and the date is Friday, November 19, 1891. This sets the story during the period which, in the original Sir 'Arthur Conan Doyle' stories, Holmes was believed dead. According to "The Final Problem," Holmes and Professor Moriarty apparently plunged to their deaths over the Reichenbach Falls in May 1891. Holmes did not reveal he had survived until the spring of 1894, as described in "The Adventure of the Empty House."
Motion Picture Rating (MPAA) Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some startling images and a scene of suggestive material.
