* DeathOfTheAuthor: Later in life, Bradbury [[http://www.laweekly.com/2007-05-31/news/ray-bradbury-fahrenheit-451-misinterpreted/ claimed]] that the book is really about how much [[NewMediaAreEvil television sucks]]. Shallow television programs, used to placate the masses in the absence of deeper reading material, is certainly an element of the story, but the more popular reading is to view it as one facet in a larger critique on censorship. At one college Bradbury visited, the students attending the reading outright told him his interpretation was ''wrong''.
** But then, it cuts both ways. "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them," as Mark Twain said it, which presumably includes the man who ''won't''.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Clarisse enjoyed a similar fate to Franchise/SherlockHolmes', as her popularity among readers and their interest in her ambiguous fate in the novel prompted Bradbury to follow the film's example and [[spoiler:reveal she's still alive]] at the end of the stage play.
* FanDumb: Some people thought it was unfortunate that Bradbury gave his blessing to the book being released for electronic book readers such as the Kindle, missing that the point of the book is about the act of reading, not about the alleged value of bound volumes of paper and ink.
* NightmareFuel:
** The Mechanical Hound.
** Clarisse's getting run down by rowdy teenagers.
** The Book Lady's death. [[spoiler: Beatty's death.]]
** [[spoiler: Faber's HeroicSacrifice against said hound.]]
** Montag coming home to find Mildred unconscious from a drug overdose (and the uncaring doctors coming in to pump her stomach).
** Heck, the entire premise counts.
** From the movie (during the scene of the old lady burning her own house so the firemen can't arrest her): "Nine elevenths are ninety-nine, nine twelfths are a hundred and eight, nine thirteens are a hundred and seventeen, nine fourteenths are a hundred and twenty-six..."
* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Bradbury green-lit (and helped write) a text-adventure "sequel" to the book of dubious canonical status. It was VERY unwieldy to play, as a lot of plot advancement involved having to type literary quotations verbatim...with a [[YouCantGetYeFlask mediocre parser system]]. It [[TheManyDeathsOfYou had a lot of pointless ways to die]] for something as simple as ''crossing the street'' during certain times of day, and ended with Montag [[spoiler: and Clarisse]] as {{Doomed Moral Victor}}s if you managed to ''win.''
* SpecialEffectFailure: The "jetpacks" in the film are very shoddy. Apparently they couldn't afford real helicopters.
* {{Squick}}: Besides the FamilyUnfriendlyDeath, there's also the scene in the novel in which [[spoiler:Millie gets her stomach pumped after an apparent suicide attempt]]. This one is specifically ''called'' disgusting by the narrator.