Movie/TV show prop gaffes.

[XOIIO]

So, I was watching a sci fi show, and in this scene they needed to disable the weapons targeting system.

Now, this is a show which is probably watched by plenty of geeks, or people who are at least somewhat tech savvy, so it was a bit of a laugh when I say that the time traveling spaceship from the future had a USB port inside of it's high tech control panel (and in fact, removing this slightly modified thumb drive is what did the trick)




I'd love to see some other prop blunders like this that you guys have noticed. (like the very obvious nerf guns in that one series with dinosaurs, never watched it so can't recall the name)

[AntiProtonBoy]

well, if you time travel, you might hack shit together from different eras, wouldn't you?

[warp_foo]

So, I was watching a sci fi show, and in this scene they needed to disable the weapons targeting system.

Now, this is a show which is probably watched by plenty of geeks, or people who are at least somewhat tech savvy, so it was a bit of a laugh when I say that the time traveling spaceship from the future had a USB port inside of it's high tech control panel (and in fact, removing this slightly modified thumb drive is what did the trick)




I'd love to see some other prop blunders like this that you guys have noticed. (like the very obvious nerf guns in that one series with dinosaurs, never watched it so can't recall the name)

Rip Hunter disapproves of this thread. 

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[Shadetreeprops]

For someone that builds props for more of a hobby right now. I can out right tell you we hack crap together. Look at my post earlier, Its a broken stapler, and a metal tube, with some wire covers, and more hack stuff to be added to it for effect purpose only. All fiction, no fact, and to the untrained eye ultra cool sci-fi prop gear.

the com qui gon gin spoke into when on tattooine, was a womens leg razor, paited silver and a few buttons glued on it...and the blade taken off... one of the star trek away shuttels were made of disposable razors.

I have a super sweet prop ship i made...out of a computer mouse, and its engins..they are the wheels off the mouse. my brother loved it so its now sitting on his shelf, if things i gift him.

[elgonzo]

LOL, if a meager USB port used in a prop gets your 'blood boiling' , then you probably should not look at the following picture (or at least avoid looking at the right side of it).

[RobertoLG]

you mean that iron for clothes? LOL

[Cubdriver]

Well, it is the UNIVERSAL serial bus...   

-Pat

[vk6zgo]

I remember seeing "The Doctor" messing with a gadget which had knobs all over it,& really looked like the Props Dept had spent a lot of time & money on it.

Many years later,I came across the very thing at a TV Studio.
The camera Techs said it was a Philips extended control which was meant to be fitted to the handle of a camera so the Operator didn't have to mess with anything on the camera itself.
The "Ops" didn't like 'em,so they were left in the cupboard,or in Dr Who's case used as props.

Not a prop,but in the famous chase scene from "Bullitt",they passed the very same VW beetle three times,in supposedly different places along the route of the chase.

Or another antique one,in a Japanese series about a modern day Ninja,when the baddies driving a Toyota Crown went over a cliff,the car magically transformed into a 1930s Willys!

[Dataforensics]

Its going back a fair way, but I liked the old moving coil multi-meters that adorned the original Thunderbirds ships.

[vk6zgo]

Another one was when cartoons showed a NASA or similar launch control room,they painstakingly animated blanking bars rolling up monitor screens,copying live film where there was a difference in fps between the cameras & monitors.

[Gyro]

Its going back a fair way, but I liked the old moving coil multi-meters that adorned the original Thunderbirds ships.

Haha, I remember those, movement removed and replaced by a metal grill if I remember correctly. I had one of those meters at the time.

[Seekonk]

There is a recent submarine movie that was fairly decent in plot, but it was ruined for me when they had to replace the shaft from the electric motor to the prop and it was a crankshaft from an inline six.

[continuo]

LOL, if a meager USB port used in a prop gets your 'blood boiling' , then you probably should not look at the following picture (or at least avoid looking at the right side of it).

Aaaaah, the sixties... 

I still think the bridge in that old "Raumpatroullie Orion" flick looks way more cool and futuristic than in Enterprise TOS 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftDXbIDfce8&feature=youtu.be&t=1m03s

[TimFox]

A few years ago, Lyric Opera of Chicago had a wonderful production of a modern opera by John Adams, "Dr Atomic", about Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project.  The prop for "The Gadget" was perfect:  directly based on the photographs and loaded with "MS" connectors.
However, when the meteorologist was contacting his observers, the walkie-talkie looked like 1978-vintage Radio Shack, instead of the rectangular box units (e.g., SCR-536 "handie talkie") we see in all the war movies.

[Brumby]

This is a classic scene from Lost In Space.  Judy is trapped in a ring of 'Space Mines', as the hapless Dr Smith panics...



I cracked up when I first saw it as a kid ... and it still has me shaking my head whenever I think about it........



The poor beach balls never knew what hit them.  Not to mention the reflections of the studio lights.

[XOIIO]

This is a classic scene from Lost In Space.  Judy is trapped in a ring of 'Space Mines', as the hapless Dr Smith panics...



I cracked up when I first saw it as a kid ... and it still has me shaking my head whenever I think about it........



The poor beach balls never knew what hit them.

Oh my god that is amazing.

Please tell me this scene is somewhere on youtube, I need this in my life.

[Brumby]

Season 2 Episode 15 - The Golden Man

This is the best I found at short notice.... start from the 17 minute mark for the Space Mines....

[XOIIO]

Oh man it's even better than I could have imagined.

[German_EE]

For years there's been something that's bugged me about science fiction when it comes to control panels, lots of blinking lights and switches but nothing is labelled. Star Trek TOS, Dr Who, Stargate SG-1, UFO and the other Gerry Anderson productions, all of them have these complex panels with no indication of function. Space 1999 made an effort but they used some weird non-latin symbols where nobody knew what anything meant.

My favorite though is the launch bay for Thunderbird One where there is a grapefruit juicer stuck to the wall 

[Brumby]

Oh man it's even better than I could have imagined.

Glad to have put a little joy into your life....

[Brumby]

I remember working at a Tandy store years ago when a props person came looking for some 'instrument looking' items to put into a space ship control panel.  The boss took them through a couple of things - and they walked out with an armful of these:
 

Never did find out what piece of video magic benefited from them.

[elgonzo]

This is a classic scene from Lost In Space.  Judy is trapped in a ring of 'Space Mines', as the hapless Dr Smith panics...



I cracked up when I first saw it as a kid ... and it still has me shaking my head whenever I think about it........



The poor beach balls never knew what hit them.  Not to mention the reflections of the studio lights.

Haha, lost on a beach... space...
Brilliant, i never knew what i have missed... until now...

[Alex Eisenhut]

Dunno if that's considered a prop or makeup, but even as a kid I recognized scummy old TV parts and wondered how the lips worked with just a speaker behind them.

[Shadetreeprops]

The worst one i ever saw that made no sense. cellophane S from superman2. Not techy, but what the fork was that..

[SkyMaster]

Is this from The Six Million Dollar Man?

Dunno if that's considered a prop or makeup, but even as a kid I recognized scummy old TV parts and wondered how the lips worked with just a speaker behind them.