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Let’s face it - sometimes history can get in the way of a good movie. And while we don’t fault these films for playing it loose with the facts, sometimes those overlooked details have major historical implications.
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Let's face it, sometimes history can get in the way of a good movie
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And while we don't fault these films for playing it loose with the facts, sometimes those overlooked details have major historical implications
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So, today, we're throwing popcorn at some popular movies with major historical plot holes
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For now, the following is based on a true story. Mostly. In 2000, Universal Pictures released U-571, a fictional film about an American submarine named S-33
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that was based on the true story of the capture of U-110
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Not since Star Wars have so many plot points been identified only by letters and numbers
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Set in 1942, S-33 and its motley crew featuring Matthew McConaughey, Harvey Keitel
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and improbably John Bon Jovi embark on a perilous mission to intercept a German U-boat
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The goal is to capture the Enigma machine, a device imperative to cracking German codes
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An exciting and star-studded romp, to say the least. There's just one small problem. It never happened
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A story with all the same ingredients did take place, but it was the British who recovered the Enigma machine, not the Americans
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In fact, the British completed the quest in 1941. before the U.S. even entered World War II
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Predictably, U-571 was sunk by British critics and commentators, calling it an affront to the brave British sailors who really lost their lives
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If you're looking for a 100% historically accurate 13th century account of the First War of Scottish Independence, Braveheart ain't the way to go
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The film is rife with historical inaccuracies, missing characters, and costume errors
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and we're pretty sure we saw a guy wearing a wristwatch during a big battle scene
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One of the most glaring discrepancies is the relationship between Mel Gibson's William Wallace
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and Sophie Marceau's Isabella of France, the eventual Queen of England. In the film, Isabella is sent by her father-in-law, Edward Longshanks
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to negotiate with Wallace, knowing full well she'll be the foil that weakens the Scottish rebel
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Isabella ends up siding with Wallace anyway, and the two begin an affair
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The film even implies her unborn child, spoiler alert, the future King Edward III, may be the dashing Scotsman's
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Yell freedom, roll credits. Great story. Except, during the events of this movie in 1305, Isabella of France would have only been about 13 years old
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didn't marry Edward II until he was already king, and didn't give birth to Edward III until seven years after Wallace's execution
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So it's unlikely that the real story happened the way the movie portrayed it
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Zack Snyder epic 300 shows a highly stylized version of what happens when 300 of King Leonidas best soldiers go head against a vast Persian force at Thermopylae in an all slobberknocker match
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This battle really happened, but the film may have fancified the story a bit
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We know. You're shocked. The most significant change the movie made was to not emphasize the role of the Greek soldiers
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who fought alongside the Spartans. They get a mention here and there, but Leonidas essentially badmouthed them the whole time in favor of his professional army
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And yet, history should remind us that the Greeks brought in a good 6,000 to 7,000 soldiers from many different factions
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While most of the army split before the final deadly engagement, it should be noted that a group of about 700 thespians very willingly fought alongside the Spartans to the very end
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Also, monsters, hulks, and magicians are not mentioned in any historical record
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Release the history cut, you cowards! Indiana Jones spends a good chunk of Raiders of the Lost Ark in Cairo
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trying to discover the location of the mythical Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis
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who seemed to run the whole place, intimidating anyone in their path. But in real life, Indy might have had an easier time
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Egypt was an independent kingdom in 1936. when the movie takes place
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If anyone was occupying Egypt at the time, it was the British hanging out after decades of colonial rule
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But 1936's Anglo-Egyptian treaty kept their relationship close and formal until the Suez Crisis of 1956
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Germany wasn't exactly the most popular country in the mid-1930s, and the British would have been keeping a close eye
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on any Third Reich soldiers hanging around, especially if they were causing trouble like in the film
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Instead of dealing with one low-key espionage plot, a Britain-German confrontation would have likely caused an international incident
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and tacked another hour onto raiders at least. While we're picking on Indy, let's take a look at the time he and Elsa Schneider
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played by Alison Doody, traveled to Venice to find the Holy Grail in the Last Crusade
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At one point, they head underground to explore a series of catacombs
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before stumbling into the tomb of a knight who found the grail during the crusades
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After some exciting hijinks, including a fireball and a bunch of rats
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Indy exits through a manhole in the middle of a Venetian street
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It's an exciting sequence that only works because of all those catacombs Venice has
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Except Venice does not have a catacomb system. It only has a few church basements for the storing of deceased loved ones
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Aside from that, Venice's underground simply doesn't have the catacomb infrastructure. The Ninja Turtles would have to call their realtor
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The thrilling conclusion to The Sound of Music shows the von Trapp family stealthily leaving Salzburg Austria and scaling the Alps to live free in Switzerland
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Maybe not as exciting as Avengers Endgame, but still a harrowing journey for the couple and young children
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That is, it would be if it ever happened. The escape scene in the film is both geographically and historically inaccurate
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even though the songs are straight fire. For starters, the Swiss border is about 200 miles away from Salzburg
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And with the comfortable durability of Crocs, still several decades from being founded
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it's doubtful the Von Trapps were able to make such a journey on foot
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But that long trek would have been wholly unnecessary, since the Von Trapps lived right by a railroad station
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Their action-packed escape from the Nazis was, in actuality, just a matter of hopping the next train to Italy
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Now that's more exciting than the Avengers. Molto bene! Now we're not saying it was a stress-free situation
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especially since the Austrian border closed the day after they escaped. But the family likely had their feet up in a train cabin rather than on the ground scaling the Alps
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Probably singing the whole time though. Gladiator is the ultimate revenge movie
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General Maximus, played by Russell Crowe, gladiates his way to the top of the fighting world for a chance to defeat evil emperor Commodus
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played by a pre-Joker Joaquin Phoenix. Though to be honest, he's pretty Joker-coated in this one
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When a conspiracy of senators led by Gracchus offers to help Maximus in his quest
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this finally brings about a new order and a new day for Rome. Maximus may be dead
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but a hopeful Rome will live on to have a prosperous future. Ah, not so much. In real life
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Commodus was strangled to death in a bathtub, and it wasn't a terribly great turn of events for Rome
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either. After the assassination, a period called the Year of the Five Emperors saw a brutal power
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struggle, where several men vied for supreme power. Three decades later, the empire would almost fall
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apart due to the crisis of the third century and wouldn't be reforged until the reign of Diocletian
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though Rome would never retrieve its former glory again. I guess they weren't entertained
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Wonder Woman has battled many villains in her time, including a cheetah woman, giant demons
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and perhaps most dastardly of all, General Eirich Ludendorff, a human man. Ludendorff wants to turn
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the tide of World War I by using new and deadlier forms of chemical warfare, but he's foiled by
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Wonder Woman's sword in his chest on her way to fight the god of war, Ares. Well, this superhuman
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version of Erich Ludendorff is powerful enough to do battle with an Amazonian, the real Erich
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Ludendorff was a supreme commander of German forces near the end of the First World War
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IRL Ludendorff was the mastermind of a huge yet ill offensive in 1918 that hoped to retake the initiative from the Allies That ultimately did not work out for him After the war ended Ludendorff mainly became
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a mouthpiece for the conspiracy that suggested the armistice only happened due to a German traitor
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in their ranks. He was not, in fact, stabbed by an Amazonian goddess, although we admit that's a
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little nitpicky. Ludendorff lent his support to any far-right cause in Germany that would have him
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and even hung out with Adolf Hitler in 1923. Yeah, remember that guy
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Really, you don't. That's weird. Some even suggested there would be no Third Reich without Ludendorff
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making him even more of an evil character than the film would have you believe
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So, there were no cameras around in 10,000 BC, and since we can't actually know what was going on back then
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it's unlikely anyone went into theaters expecting 100% historical accuracy. But what we got was still pretty silly
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The story revolves around hunter-gatherer hero Delec, who has his world turned upside down when slavers kidnap his loved ones
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While tracking them across the desert, Delec comes upon an advanced city
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where gigantic pyramids are under construction. While they're not explicitly called the Great Pyramids of Egypt
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probably because none of those words would exist for several millennia, it's difficult to imagine what else they would be building
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But the thing about the pyramids is we know they're dated as being constructed around 2780 BCE, roughly 7,000 years after the events of the film
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Egypt came into existence around 2900 BCE and doesn't mention any pre-existing pyramids that have been hanging around for thousands of years
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In other words, if there were gigantic skyscraping pyramids in 10,000 BCE, we probably would have found the remains by now
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Good thing Roland Emmerich never made a historically inaccurate film again. Right
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A sinister cult of Indian killers known as the Thugs have found themselves the villains in two major Hollywood motion pictures
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1939's Gunga Din and 1984's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
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The Thugs supposedly operated from the medieval period through the 19th century
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and were notorious for strangling anyone they could get their hands on
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All of these horrific acts were done to appease the bloodlust of the Hindu goddess Kali
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making scenes of human sacrifice and yanking a still-beating heart out of a chest commonplace
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But what were the thugs? Did they even exist? And if so, is the narrative about their viciousness warranted
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While some argue that the thugs are a tall tale used to justify British colonialism
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many others believe they were real, but were more like a gang that killed for profit
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rather than a cult with a twisted devotion to any kind of deity
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Still, that heart scene is pretty cool