While the It movies are absolutely frightening, they’re also filled with a number of errors
that are hard to ignore. So what exactly did the filmmakers get wrong? Try to avoid the
deadlights as we look for all the big mistakes in the It movies.
The first installment of Andy Muschietti's It adaptation includes a number of Stephen
King multiverse Easter eggs, one of them a bright green Lego turtle handled by young
Bill Denbrough, played by Jaeden Martell, which shatters when he drops it on the floor.
In King's novel, the turtle Maturin is the creator of the known universe and the spiritual
foil of Pennywise the Clown. The turtle helps the novel's central group of protagonists,
who call themselves the Losers.
"Hanging out with us makes you a Loser too."
"I can take that."
But in 1989, when It Chapter One takes place, not all of those green Lego shades were commercially
available. The dark green bricks that make up most of the turtle's body weren't on the
market until around 1996, and the lime green bricks used as accents weren't available until
the early 2000s.
There are a number of errors in both It movies that shatter the illusion we're in Derry,
Maine. Instead, we often get a Canadian vibe, which is understandable, since the movies
were primarily shot in Canada. Still, there are some parts where the production team overlooked
crucial details that gave away that the characters were not in New England, and were, in fact,
a bit further north.
For example, the Derry town square features a huge war memorial. There are, of course,
war memorials all over the United States, but we know this one's Canadian because part
of the inscription honors the men who died "for King and Country" in the Great War. Considering
that America was founded in rebellion of the British monarchy and has never had a king,
American war memorabilia wouldn't have that particular phrase anywhere.
Another clue that we're not where the movie claims to be involves the police cars that
appear in the films. While audiences unfamiliar with Maine may not see anything amiss about
the flashing red and blue lights of the police cars, those familiar with the region would
know that Maine law enforcement vehicles only have blue lights, making the red a dead giveaway
that we're in a different place than we think.
Then at the end of It Chapter Two, when all is set right by the adult Losers, the camera
pans over the town of Derry, which is back to its idyllic Maine setting and free of the
threat of child-eating monsters. However, there's still one problem. A sign for the
exclusively Canadian real estate company Royal LePage is visible on one of the buildings,
which gives away the fact that this isn't Maine at all, or even the United States.
The character of Stanley Uris, played by Wyatt Oleff, is the son of the town rabbi, who we
meet in IT Chapter One preparing Stan for his upcoming bar mitzvah. In one scene, after
a frustrated Stan finishes reading from the Torah, he shuts the book and walks off. But
when he closes the book, we can see that it is upside down. Whoever placed the book in
front of Stan on the set either didn't know or forgot that Hebrew is read from right to
left, not left to right like English, which means that the letters on the cover should've
been to Stan's right, not his left. At least when Stan later returns the book to the shelf
in his father's office, he corrects this error and places it on the shelf right-side up.
When young Beverly, played by Sophia Lillis, runs into the rest of the Losers' Club in
the pharmacy in IT Chapter One, she's trying to figure out which tampons to buy, while
the boys are gathering first aid supplies in order to treat Ben's injuries after his
run-in with Henry Bowers.
"Holy s--- what happened to you?"
Everyone is incredibly awkward with each other, especially Beverly, since she wants to keep
her period a secret from the boys. During this scene, we see a number of Olay skin care
products on a shelf near the kids. The only problem is, in 1989, the brand was called
Oil of Olay. It didn't get rebranded into Olay until 1999. You can also see Dial and
Ivory Soap sporting their modern-day packaging in the pharmacy scenes, along with Covidien
Curity bandages, which didn't go by that name until 2007.
In It Chapter One, Eddie's mother Sonia, played by Molly Atkinson, is an enthusiastic consumer
of the snack sweets brand Mrs. Freshley's Delicious Deals. From Oatmeal Creme Pie Cookies
to Iced Honey Buns, these treats dominate Eddie's pantry, and when the Losers are over
at Eddie's house, he tells them to leave those alone.
"Take everything but the Delicious Deals, guys. My mom loves them."
The only problem is, the Mrs. Freshley's brand wasn't established until 1994, a good four
years after It Chapter One takes place. In addition, the packaging on Sonia's snacks
is the same design you can find in stores today.
When we meet Beverly Marsh in It Chapter One, the poor girl is getting bullied from all
sides. Her father is abusive, and the girls at school torment her mercilessly, shaming
her because she kissed a boy in the school play, and teasing her because she's poor.
Eventually, Beverly tries to hide from the mean girls in the bathroom, but her plan backfires.
When the girls find her, they dump a bunch of wet garbage into her toilet stall. Fortunately,
Beverly has her backpack, which she uses to block most of the gunk raining down on her.
But just moments later when she runs into Ben outside, her backpack is totally clean
and totally dry.
The Losers' Club aren't only battling a vicious clown creature. They also have a group of
human enemies in the form of sadistic bully Henry Bowers, played by Nicholas Hamilton,
and his gang. One day, Bowers and his crew of goons chase homeschooled orphan Mike Hanlon,
played by Chosen Jacobs, into the Barrens where the Losers hang out, and a rock fight
ensues.
"ROCK WAR!"
This is the first time the rest of the Losers meet Mike, who makes their lucky number seven.
But an unfortunate continuity error occurs when Henry's friend Belch begins bleeding
before Beverly's rock actually makes contact with his head. What's more, the rock catches
him on the side of his baseball cap, not across the bridge of his nose, where the injury mysteriously
appears.
Richie "Trashmouth" Tozier, played by Finn Wolfhard, is a kid who's constantly making
snarky quips, and his friends are constantly asking him to shut his pie hole throughout
both It movies. Many of Richie's comments come in the form of pointed insults, such
as the rock fight between the Losers and Henry Bowers' gang, when Richie yells,
"Go b--- your dad, you mullet-wearing a--hole."
But while the term "mullet" was first coined in 1967's Cool Hand Luke, it didn't actually
enter popular usage until after the 1994 Beastie Boys song "Mullet Head." Since the first installment
of It takes place in 1989, Richie's comment has no context for that time period, even
though it does for modern-day viewers.
After the Losers' Club think they've defeated Pennywise at the end of It Chapter One, Bill
still isn't 100 percent convinced that the ordeal is over. He asks everyone to swear
that if Pennywise is still alive, they'll all return to Derry to help him defeat It.
"If It isn't dead, if it ever comes back, we'll come back too."
To seal their vow to one another, Bill uses a broken piece of glass to cut everyone's
palms so they can make a blood oath, promising that they'll all come together again if they
need to. While this is a powerful and somber moment, symbolizing the transition of the
Losers from childhood to adulthood, it is slightly marred by another continuity error.
Although the shard of glass Bill uses to cut the Losers' hands has blood on it after the
first few cuts, the blood miraculously disappears after he cuts Mike's hand, and stays strangely
clean for the rest of the ritual.
Although It Chapter One takes place entirely in 1989, Chapter Two flips between 1989 and
2019 as the Losers' Club returns to Derry to end the battle between the town and Pennywise
once and for all. One of the flashbacks to 1989 features a key scene at the video game
arcade between Richie Tozier and another boy, which suggests Richie might be gay. This scene
turns out to be doubly important when, years later, a video game token ends up being the
talisman the adult Richie, played by Bill Hader, uses for the Ritual of Chüd, which
aims to destroy Pennywise. Unfortunately, there's a huge gaffe to go along with these
important events. In the background of the arcade, we can see the games Mortal Kombat
and Mortal Kombat II. However, the Mortal Kombat games were released in 1992 and 1993,
respectively, making it impossible for them to have been in an arcade in 1989.
In It Chapter One, Pennywise kidnaps young Beverly and hypnotizes her with deadlights,
storing her in a kind of stasis in the sewer, along with all the other dead and missing
children of Derry. The rest of the Losers' Club go to rescue her, using the entrance
in the haunted house on Neibolt Street. While we never see how the Losers get from the sewers
to the field where they seal their blood oath in Chapter One, a flashback in It Chapter
Two shows Beverly pushing her bike through Derry alongside the rest of the Losers immediately
after the showdown, before any of them go home. However, since she was kidnapped, she
shouldn't have had a bike at all. It's possible she could have borrowed one after leaving
Neibolt Street, but in that case, one of the other Losers should've been missing a bike,
instead of each of them having their own.
Just because the Losers' Club grew up, that doesn't mean their childhood bullies didn't
follow them into adulthood. In It Chapter Two, the adult Henry Bowers, played by Teach
Grant, escapes from the institution for the criminally insane where he's been living since
taking the fall for all of Pennywise's murders back in 1989. On the clown's orders, Henry
goes after the surviving Losers, stabbing Eddie, played by James Ransone, straight through
the cheek. Knowing that they can't halt the mission, Eddie and Beverly, played as an adult
by Jessica Chastain, patch his face up, then proceed down into the sewers to finish Pennywise.
But the emotional tension is interrupted when Eddie's bandage briefly flips from one side
of his face to the other. This can happen when a negative gets reversed, but it should've
been an easy thing to catch and fix.
For the adult Losers to vanquish Pennywise, Mike, played by Isaiah Mustafa, determines
that they need to perform the Ritual of Chüd down in Pennywise's feeding lair. But in order
to fully complete the ritual, each Loser must bring a token that was significant to them
during the summer when they faced the monster as children in 1989. Eddie's token is his
asthma inhaler. Richie's is a video game token. Ben's is the page of his yearbook that only
Beverly signed. Bev's is the postcard poem that Ben wrote her. And Bill's is the paper
boat that he made for his little brother. But somehow, even after the Losers get fully
immersed in the murky sewer water, the paper tokens belonging to Bev, Ben, and Bill are
still completely dry when they toss them into the fire. The paper boat may still have been
safe due to the wax coating Bill applied to it for Georgie at the beginning of the first
film, but the postcard and the yearbook page should've been sopping wet.
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