I analysed over 200,000 errors across 11,842 films released between 1930 and 2025, to understand where and how audiences say movies gets facts, physics, and history wrong.
I think it's fair to say that, across all movies, if a story doesn't work emotionally, it will perform less well than one that feels more coherent. The audience may not be able to state, "I know that story had a flaw because of xyz", but the fact that it didn't connect will still be present. So the conscious feeling might be of it feeling somehow inauthentic, but what's under the hood is a 'story error'.
As for how we tell that a staory is flawed... I'm not sure. "Flaws" ARE often the art. There's so much "wrong" with Dali's understanding of physics and the material nature of reality. So many of Picasso's best creations are not true to life.
People have a huge tolerance for plot holes; examples include Interstellar, Ready Player One, and Knives Out. All three movies are illogical as hell, yet people love them. I always think it's evidence that humans are bad at reasoning and logic. No wonder the most hated curriculum is math.
I've said it before, it is time for the collective consciousness to replace Armageddon with Moonfall as the go-to punching bag for physics breaking fun.
Does the extremely low success rate suggest that story errors may play a larger role than filmmaking errors in determining outcomes?
If that’s the case, could it be that filmmaking errors are simply easier to recognize, while story errors remain more subtle?
Which raises the intriguing question: how might we go about discovering story errors in the first place?
All great thoughts!
I think it's fair to say that, across all movies, if a story doesn't work emotionally, it will perform less well than one that feels more coherent. The audience may not be able to state, "I know that story had a flaw because of xyz", but the fact that it didn't connect will still be present. So the conscious feeling might be of it feeling somehow inauthentic, but what's under the hood is a 'story error'.
As for how we tell that a staory is flawed... I'm not sure. "Flaws" ARE often the art. There's so much "wrong" with Dali's understanding of physics and the material nature of reality. So many of Picasso's best creations are not true to life.
So what even is "wrong"?
People have a huge tolerance for plot holes; examples include Interstellar, Ready Player One, and Knives Out. All three movies are illogical as hell, yet people love them. I always think it's evidence that humans are bad at reasoning and logic. No wonder the most hated curriculum is math.
Great analysis! Thanks for the write up.
I've said it before, it is time for the collective consciousness to replace Armageddon with Moonfall as the go-to punching bag for physics breaking fun.