The Walking Dead: Rick Grimes Pilot Episode Mistake in Tank Caught by Fans
The Walking Dead arrived on the scene in 2011 and took the cable television world by storm, creating a public and fan base that became obsessed with zombie culture. Zombies were literally everywhere and on every platform. The hero of the story, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) became everyone’s hero and would go on to play the role for almost nine seasons.
However, recently a fan caught a glaring mistake in the very first episode (also part of the second episode) that could have changed The Walking Dead forever.
In the episode, Rick is in a tank that is surrounded by a horde of walkers. There is also a deceased military fighter in the tank too. Rick locates a grenade that he uses to help him escape. However, there is something wrong with this grenade.
The grenade that Rick uses is actually a dummy grenade. Check out the image below.
A fan recently pointed out the error. In hindsight, this is most likely an error with the props department and armory who either weren’t aware of the difference between a live and dummy grenade or they just figured most viewers wouldn’t know the difference and used it due to safety.
This scene appeared inescapable. And then, we heard one of the best lines from Glenn, “Hey you, dumb ass! Yeah, you in the tank!” And the rest is history.
The grenade later came into play when Rick and the gang escape from the CDC in episode six, TS-19, before it self-destructs. It shouldn’t have worked!
What other mistakes have you caught on The Walking Dead? Let us know!
Covering superheroes, anything dark, horror, and more! Lead writer for Fan Fest
Um he didn’t use the grenade to escape the tank…
If it was a dummy grenade then everyone is dead. That is the grenade Carol found washing his clothes and later giving it to him to get them out of the CDC.
Also, in Season 1 (I think) when the group are trapped in the Dept Store zombies are trying to break into the store. One of the zombies is using a rock in order to break the glass in the doors.
All I can say about the grenade flub…
Who cares?! Andrew Lincoln should have won an Emmy every season. He’s amazing. I’ve never been so attached to a t.v show before. I don’t like picking a show apart to find the mistakes.
Well the worse one was when they were trapped in the mall right after Glenn saved him. A walker picked up a rock and kept banging on the glass doors. It doesn’t really affect the outcome but it was definitely not something walkers do. For me it’s even worse than the grenade because it’s passable to most viewers “me included” because a prop grenade is not the shows area of expertise, but how a walker behaves! That’s their main job seems to me. Just like the walker girl picking up a teddy bear and the walkers sitting in the bus. Yes walkers go dormant sometimes but it happens wherever they fall setting on the ground or lying on it, but not in a bus chair. But that last one I could give a pass for the first episode and them trying to set the mode. But picking stuff up from the ground that doesn’t make a noise and they can’t eat is very very wrong.
When the Walking Dead comes on It shows a semi truck with no motor in it. The prop department left the chain on it that they pulled it with
That’s actually not a dummy grenade. It’s a practice granade. When the blue and red spring-loaded spoon pops off the grenade, a blasting cap sounds off with a loud “pop”.
There was something else about the tank scene that was a little off. Glenn’s radio, a civilian model, wouldn’t have had the capability to communicate with the tank. And how long could the tank radio have stayed on with no engine running to keep the batteries charged? I don’t have much experience with tanks, but the question is hanging out there. Anybody have a clue?
Mistake number 2 from the episode. The dead soldier should have been a zombie because later we find out that all the dead, except ones shot in the head return to life.
Same episode, when Rick gallops through the city around a corner into a herd of walkers, as he turns and the herd follows, one of the walkers is drinking out of a water bottle
This comment is about the grenade that they say it was almost a big mistake, if a fan caught that mistake how did Amy fans not catch the fact that rick did use that grenade? In the episode where they all escaped the cdc, the lady gives rick the grenade back she says she found it in his clothes that she was washing for him when he first got to their camp, am I wrong on this part?
Yes I just checked, its carol that gives rick the dummy grenade and he uses it to blow up the glass and escape
If I remember right Rick never used the Grenade to get out of the tank it was used at the CDC to blow out the window for them to escape
Rick didn’t use the grenade until the season finale. The were at the CDC, not stuck in the tank. Rick did get the grenade from the dead dude in the tank, but he didn’t use it there.
Well in TWD world where they had never heard of “Zombie’s” I don’t think it would be a far reach to believe that other things are different as well… Maybe in their world the blue on the grenade could mean it’s a live grenade…you know as in it blow your ass “Sky high” i.e. blue on the handle…
Hey, whatda’ want?… It’s the bloody TWD.
This grenade wasn’t used in episode 1. It wasn’t used until the season finale, when it was used to escape the CDC.
They got cheap with fx in the later scenes fighting neagen. The guns no longer cycle and eject spent shells. Just muzzle flash. I figured the digital tiger ate up the fx budget lol.
Season 1 episode 2 when Glenn and Rick was putting walkers guts and blood on them when they got to the fenced-in area shut the fence Warren Walker climb the fence and sit on top of them kind of grinning at them like he knew what he was doing no other Walker climbed a fence
“The Walking Dead” actually premiered on October 31, 2010 (not in 2011).
Ok. So unfortunately I don’t feel like the person that wrote this article did any proper reschedule!!! Us true fans instantly knew, the grande Rick found in the tanker was not used in that scene or even in that episode!! Also, no where in that scene does it show him throw it, or even show an explosion to even suggest that he threw it!! He finds the grande & clips it to his belt & grabs a folding shovel & starts to take off. He takes out the one Walker at the top of the tanker wit the shovel, then starts running & shooting. Then runs into Glenn in the alley & they rush to start up the ladder to the top of the building. We don’t see or hear anything about the grenade til the next episode, but only shows a glimpse! After Rick finds his wife Lori and Carl his son, they reunite.. then it shows Rick sleeping in the next morning & Carol is by the lake washing Rick’s uniform & she picks up the grande out of Rick’s uniform pocket & that’s all we see…. No one talks about it after that… Then many episodes later they are all at the CDC & the scientist has them trapped & the building is getting ready to self destruct. So most everyone takes off to try to escape…. Rick & the guys try braking out wit a chair & a few other things I believe before trying to shoot the glass windows out,… & With no luck, we see Carol pull something out of her pack& hand it to Rick & says something like, “I found this in your clothes when I washed them” & Rick gives her that look like ” thank you, you just saved us”… & That’s when it’s used & they make it out of the CDC by blowing up the glass window!…. & My guess is that they didn’t really care if fans realize it’s a prop, cause due to safety reasons Rick isn’t just gonna play around with a real grenade or even throw a real one.. & he throws the fake one, & with special effects they make an explosion happen to brake the glass…… That’s that….
I mean, he didn’t use the grenade here to escape. Does a blue nade phif out some kinda pressure? Episode six i believe would be the problem if not then.
Rick doesn’t use a grenade to escape from the tank, Glenn tells him to run for it while the main horde is eating the horse, the grenade he found was later used at the CDC for escaping before the building blew up. So the mistake would be at the CDC episode. Rick uses his gun when coming out of the tank to run to Glenn.
Many ‘tank’ errors.
But grenade and floor hatch being most glaring.
Just last night in the scene where father Gabriel runs into the the gal from the kingdom , he has arrows Wrapped in a blanket or something and falls gets up and his backs is toward us he then walks to the window to peer at the hoard, But has nothing in his hands now
Wrong. The Walking Dead arrived on the scene on October 31, 2010.
He didn’t use the grenade to get out of the tank. It was used to escape from the CDC.
The biggest problem the show has that miraculously nobody tends to bring up is what I call the Jaw-Shank Pretension, which is a running continuity error created by the CDC Episode at the end of Season One. In it, we and the group of survivors watch Dr. Edwin Jenner of the CDC show a moving MRI image of what happens to the brain during death and reanimation. He explains, with incontrovertible visual scientific evidence, that the brain dies but the brain stem – and only the brain stem – comes back to life, accounting for the basic animalistic nature of each walker to just want to eat and meander. The patient in the MRI Is killed with a shot to the brain stem.
This is not just one error. This is one master error that has spawned hundreds if not thousands of additional continuity errors in that nearly every zombie kill in all three series and the upcoming movie should not happen as shown. Every time Carol puts her knife upward under the jaw of a zombie (a Jaw-Shank), or Michonne lops of the front of a cranium, or Morgan puts his staff four inches into the eye socket of a walker, each of those walkers *should* keep coming, as the injury missed the brain stem, hitting only dead tissue.
If I was AMC I’d have gotten rid of Darabont simply for that. I don’t care what IMDb says about him, he clearly owns this feeling of deflation I feel for going on ten years now every time I see a zombie kill in his legacy show. But he did get to give France a shoutout while acting clever.
The Walking Dead started in 2010.
Well…….let’s start with season 4….when daryl and michonne and Zach are talking and Zach is trying to figure out what daryl did before the zombie apocalypse, Zach throws that gun around like a toy, pointing at michonne and daryl like for real teach that kids proper fire arm handling…
Yes the grenade is a dummy…of course it’s a tv show…but the hatch that suddenly appeared when he was under the tank and another one I caught was he told Glenn he had a Beretta with one “clip” not mag…but then says 15 rounds when he only shoots 14…