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Movie & TV Goofs

Postby Fogdude » Aug Sat 27, 2016 10:58 am

I'm pretty casual about minor details in movies & TV episodes, but now & then, I see something that I just can't get out of my head...

Last night, while watching an episode of Castle (2009) Season 3, I saw something that just screamed stupidity.

Kate Beckett enters a crime scene where a body is laying face up on the floor. The ME is standing nearby & a nickel plated 4" barrel Colt Python .357 revolver is on the floor near the corpse.

nickelpython.jpg
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Beckett looks at the scene & says, that gun is too big for the hole in his chest & the ME smiles & says, "He was shot with a 9mm automatic." Presumably, they know this because they dug the slug out of a nearby coffee table.

Now, Beckett clearly identifies the revolver on the floor as a .357 Magnum, which is correct. Kudos to her for knowing the caliber. However, everyone in the room seems to be totally oblivious to the fact that a .357 Magnum & a 9mm automatic bullet are virtually the same size. You can reload a bullet, designed for the 9mm into a .357 Magnum case just fine. The differences in actual diameter of the two bullets are .001", at most. For all intents & purposes, they are identical, yet, a big deal is made of the fact that different guns were used & base this 'fact' on the calibers, which are not significant.

Even digging the slug out of a coffee table, having passed through the victim's chest & stopping in wood, being necessarily mangled beyond normal recognition, doesn't provide definitive evidence it came from an automatic. There was never any mention of a spent case found anywhere. If an automatic had been used, the ejected case would have been on the floor, unless the killer picked it up before departing. This aspect isn't even mentioned. Without a spent case, there's no real evidence that an automatic was used & it certainly doesn't rule out the possibility that the discovered bullet actually came from the Python on the floor.

Now, I can overlook some lapses, but this was just too egregious to ignore. I mean, really!
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Re: Movie & TV Goofs

Postby VincentLupo » Aug Sat 27, 2016 5:25 pm

Great observation Fog.  I never would have caught anything like that.
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Re: Movie & TV Goofs

Postby Fogdude » Aug Sat 27, 2016 6:29 pm

Well, it's guns, so...  :-O

I see stuff like this all the time, though not always this detailed. I'm going to post more as they show up. I've seen so many over the years, like one angle shows someone holding a revolver & the next angle shows them holding an automatic. I mean, so obvious it's painful, yet I doubt most people ever notice. I'll see if I can add video the next time.
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Re: Movie & TV Goofs

Postby Fogdude » Sep Sat 10, 2016 8:02 pm

And they just did it again. Near the end of season 4, Beckett & Castle arrive at a crime scene & the ME tells them the victim was shot once in the shoulder with a .357 Magnum, but the fatal shot was point blank, between the eyes, with a 9mm! Now, this time there's no weapon on the scene & no shell casings or bullets lodged anywhere to be dug out & inspected. How in the world the ME is able to tell a hole from a 9mm from a hole made by a .357 Magnum is beyond me! They're the same size bullet! At most, the difference in diameter might be .001". Can you tell that difference from a hole in flesh?

I know, it seems picky, but fro cryin' out loud, if you're gonna get all technical & specific about such things, at least have enough knowledge about it to get it reasonably right, or find a technical consultant to keep you from writing stuff that makes you look like a complete imbecile.

Otherwise, I still like the series.
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