The Black Hole Movie Goofs

This is a list of **goofs** from the film, taken from the IMDB entry. Plausible explanations for errors will be labelled in **bold**.

## Character error

* When Kate McCrae identifies the USS Cygnus in the hologram at the beginning of the movie, she says its mission was to find "habitable life" when she meant "habitable planets."
* V.I.N.CENT mentions the quote "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead", which was coined by Admiral David Farragut during the American Civil War. B.O.B. responds, "He also said something about going in harm's way." This quote was not coined by Farragut, but by Capt. John Paul Jones during the American Revolution.
* V.I.N.CENT. says "To quote Cicero... discretion is the better part of valor." He is actually quoting William Shakespeare (Henry IV, Part One).

## Continuity

* Despite the fact that throughout the dining room scene characters come and go through an interior door, as is clearly shown in later exterior shots, the dining room is set apart from the body of the Cygnus atop a scaffold-like tower with no elevator, walkway, ladder or any means to enter or exit.
* After Reinhardt tells Booth about what would have happened if Columbus had been recalled just before he discovered the new world, and that he (Booth) would not even exist, Reinhardt stands and points at Booth with his right hand. In the next shot, a different camera angle, he is pointing at Booth with his left hand.
* After Reinhart orders the Cygnus to fire it's thrusters, the ship is seen closer to the black hole, with the center now a glowing bright red. However, when Harry tries to escape by himself on the Palomino, then shot down, the Cygnus appears to be the same distance away from the black hole as it previously was, and the black hole is no longer red.
* Just before Maximilian, Holland, Charlie Pizer, and Vincent enter the corridor to parts storage we see a group of sentry robots enter the same corridor. When the camera shot switches, the sentry robots are nowhere to be seen.
* During the shootout at the greenhouse in the third act, B.O.B. rises from behind cover, spins, and cuts down a palm tree via laser. To match up with the counterclockwise laser sweep in the next shot, though, the body shot's frame had to be flipped. In consequence, B.O.B.'s head is suddenly caved in on the wrong side, and his left leg is missing rather than his right.
* When the crew first open the Palomino airlock after docking with the Cygnus, Vincent is waiting for them with both his weapons and his head turned towards the Palomino crew. In the following wide shot, his head is facing the crew but his weapons are facing the Cygnus. When the shot switches back to the crew, he is back in his original orientation.
* When traveling through the black hole, one of the echoing voices is Reinhardt calling "Help Me!" to Maximillian. The Palimino crew wasn't present on the bridge to hear him say that.

## Crew or equipment visible

* At the very start of the movie, when Vincent announces, "The largest black hole I have ever seen, Mr. Pizer," and Pizer replies, "Hmm. Let's look at it on the holograph," the viewer can see someone's hand turning Vincent by his left foot. The hand stays there for a moment before pulling back off-camera.
* When Booth is taking off in the spaceship before it explodes, the wire holding him is visible.
* In the first few minutes of the film, when Pizer says "Activate the sensors, Charlie", then floats over the latter's head and sits down, the wire is visible.
* Around 1:05, after Dr. Durant removes the Humanoid's face shield to reveal a human face, the camera pans up to Maximilan hovering above. A wire is visible coming from his shoulder.

## Factual errors

* When the Palomino crew are trying to escape to the probe ship, they clearly go outside the structure and internal atmosphere of the Cygnus into space, as evidenced when Charlie starts to float away. As such, they should die within a minute from asphyxia, but they are able to move around outside for several minutes then clamber into the probe ship, alive. **See explanation for the meteor crash error below.**STRUCK
* Near the end of the movie when the Cygnus is struck by a passing meteor, V.I.N.CENT states that "A Meteorite struck the ship!" In fact, unless it enters the Earth's atmosphere, it isn't called a meteorite. Instead, it is simply called a Meteor.
* Once the meteorite crashes into the Cygnus, the Palomino crew should have been killed within seconds due to loss of oxygen. However, they survive for several minutes and are even seen scrambling out into the vacuum of space to board the probe ship without any protective suits. **The null-G field could by preventing the loss of atmosphere.**
* When the Palamino crew are in the transport tube during the meteor shower, the shuttle they're sitting in, is smoothly sliding around as if the tube was perfectly circular. The shuttle sits in a recessed track so it wouldn't be able to do that. If so, It would have been a very bumpy ride.
* When the "Palomino" is climbing up toward "Cygnus" from the near vicinity of the black hole, it is not in free fall. Therefore, Mr. Pizer would not float up out of his seat when he attempts to go after V.I.N.CENT. **Actually, he is pushing himself out of his seat - it just *looks* as if he is floating up.**
* While disregarding the fact that sounds are not heard in space, ie lasers firing from the Cygnus, the Palomino exploding when it hits the Cygnus, etc, the movie would be quite boring without those sounds. However, when the Palomino flies over the Cygnus, Holland orders the lights to be turned on to get a better view. When the light comes on, it makes this loud buzzing sound, which would not be possible at all, in space, or on Earth. **The buzz could be due to a fault.**
* V.I.N.CENT reads out the day as "5-4-7" and before stating the year as 2130. The day or date format is unclear. Since it is an American crew, it should be MM-DD-YY. If it is 7, it does not correspond with the year he read out first. **It possible that the entry is being recorded on the 547th day of the mission and 2130 is 21:30 hours.**

## Miscellaneous

* When the huge heavy screen is crushing Reinhardt, one can see it is moving by his breathing. That's impossible, as this screen should weight hundred of pounds. **Depends on what it is made from.**
* When Reinhardt sits at the Cygnus control panel, many numerals in a line are displayed. However, each numeral simply counts down in each respective box (each with a different countdown speed).
* When B.O.B. goes against S.T.A.R. in the shooting gallery, V.I.N.Cent says "Good shooting, B.O.B.!" But, B.O.B. doesn't introduce himself to V.I.N.Cent until later on in the film. **He spotted B.O.B.'s ID markings as he when he first spotted him.**
* The Palomino has little if no gravity inside, which is why the crew float in there. Once they dock on the Cygnus, which has normal gravity, the Palomino crew should be finding it difficult to walk as it takes astronauts weeks or even months to acclimate themselves to full gravity after being in a low gravity environment for so long. However, the sharp change in gravity doesn't affect them in the slightest. **Maybe they have ways to simulate gravity for short periods.**
* Reinhardt knows that VINCENT and McCrae can communicate with ESP from the dialog on the Cygnus bridge earlier. Yet Reinhardt later tells the remaining crew that McCrae and Durant (now dead) want to stay on board and travel to the Black hole. McCrae then uses ESP to tell the truth to VINCENT and thus the rest of the crew to the lie. Reinhardt should have predicted this outcome and the upcoming rescue attempt. **He's too arrogant to consider this.**
* Near the start, as the ship first approaches the titular black hole, they are told gravity is now kicking in, Harry duly drops into his chair and looks like he's experiencing uncomfortable G forces, Kate apparently didn't get the memo and floats by him still in zero G.

## Revealing mistakes

* During the robot funeral, only the floor and far wall were built as a physical set. The sloping side walls were a matte painting. At the beginning of the scene, the robot's head at the far lower left disappears under the matte painting. At the end of the scene, when they are filing out of the room, the robot's head at the lower right bobs behind and under the matte several times.
* When Pizer floats away from the rest of the crew toward the black hole, two suspension wires can clearly be seen holding him up.
* The damage done to the Cygnus during the meteor storm, based upon the film's visuals, would not have allowed any crew or passengers to survive for seconds, let alone minutes. Catastrophic decompression would have occurred after the first meteor striking the Cygnus' conning tower; the huge meteor which is famously seen to travel along the ship's long axis would have destroyed any remaining auxiliary compartments. Only the robots could have survived in space after the ship's bombardment.
* When the sentry robot pounces on the Captain during the fight to save Kate, the robot does not have his metallic exoskeleton on over his legs (he's merely wearing red leggings). In the next shot, his regular robot shell is visible over his legs again.
* During the dinner sequence after Reinhardt excuses himself to meet up with the probe ship, the film runs in reverse on an exterior shot of the dining room. You can clearly see Captain Holland walk backwards around the room and sit down.
* As the large screen that pins Reinhardt is swinging wildly immediately before it falls, the message it's displaying is not moving with it.
* When Maximillian breaks through the wall to chase Vincent the wires that are holding him up are clearly visible.
* When the meteor rolls down the gallery of the Cygnus it tears out every rafter beam for hundreds of feet, but not one structural element drops in between the meteor and the camera.
* When the Palamino crew gets on the track car that takes them to the bridge of the ship, Vincent floats ahead of the car, but just as the car starts to move, you can see a metal bar connecting the car to Vincent's back that isn't visible in other shots.
* A closeup during the robot shooting gallery scene sees the camera pan to the left, however the keyed-in background does not.
* The eyes of the actor playing the black sentry robot that is defeated by V.I.N.CENT in the shooting gallery can be seen inside the robot suit before it short-circuits.
* On the bridge of the Cygnus just after Dr. Reinhardt orders Maximilian to stand down, the movie cuts to the seated Dr. Reinhardt. Just after that when Dr. Reinhardt says "Miss McCrae, you may come closer" you can see part of the star field inside his hair just above the hairline.
* When VINCENT goes up against STAR in the shooting gallery, there are several shots where it appears that STAR's right shoulder is dislocated from his torso. This may have been deliberate to allow the actor a wider range of motion, or it could have been caused by the actor flexing the suit beyond its normal range of motion.
* Wires are visible on V.I.N.CENT and BOB, and on members of the crew floating around the "Palomino" throughout the film.
* When Vincent first head butts into Maximillian's torso, you see visible scratches in the maroon paint revealing the fiberglass beneath. In the following shots the scratches are gone.
* When Maximilian is leading Holland, Pizer and V.I.N.CENT to parts storage, we see the camera change to a wide shot of the center of the Cygnus and the walkway. As the characters pass over the walkway their bodies are semi-transparent and you can see Maximilian's head go underneath a matte painting before the shot changes again.
* When the crew flees Reinhardt and his drones during the meteor shower, their open-air 4-seat shuttle is forced to stop as it reaches a ruined segment of track. But the car goes a little farther than it should have and the front of it disappears under the matte painting of the ruined segment.