Historical Inaccuracies in Film and Television That Broke the Suspension of Disbelief

When viewers sit down to watch a film, they expect to be completely immersed in the time period and get an accurate view of how life was lived before modern times.

But sometimes, the cast and crew of these films don’t do enough research about the era beforehand, leading to some hilarious historical blunders and a serious muck up of historical events.

The amazing thing about television shows and films is that they have the power to give us a glimpse into different time periods. On the other hand, they don’t always provide us with an accurate detail of historical events.

To that end, here are some examples of historical inaccuracies in film and television that broke the suspension of disbelief.

The Gas Cylinder in “Gladiator”

In the 2000 film “Gladiator,” a chariot was overturned during a battle scene in the Colosseum in ancient Rome.

Unfortunately, when this happened, it revealed a metal gas cylinder which clearly didn’t exist thousands of years ago and was definitely too complex of a piece of machinery for the era.

The Woolly Mammoths in “10,000 B.C.”

In the 2008 film, “10,000 B.C.,” viewers saw woolly mammoths walking around Egypt and helping the Egyptians build pyramids, which is historically inaccurate. Also, we see that the bad guys had ships and used steel, which is far less likely in the year when the film took place.

Plastic Water Bottles on “Game of Thrones”

During the series finale of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” fans noticed a water bottle behind actor John Bradley’s foot. There was also another water bottle near actor Liam Cunningham’s foot.

But plastic water bottles obviously didn’t exist in the time period portrayed by the show, so this really broke the fourth wall for some viewers.

Hugh Glass in “The Revenant”

In the 2015 film “The Revenant,” Leonardo DiCaprio plays the character Hugh Glass flawlessly. But while Glass did exist in real life, he never had a wife and kid like is portrayed in the film. And he didn’t exact revenge on the men who left him behind, he actually forgave them.