tonight on "nightline," security holes. billions of dollars spent on airport security, but ten years after 9/11, is it really any safer to fly? brian ross investigates. extreme cheesecake. we go inside the billion dollar cheesecake factory restaurant empire. but it's not all sugar and spice. just how many calories are in those massive portions? and movie mistakes.

hey, that guy's not a pirate. that definitely does not belong on a chariot. hilarious big screen bloopers are tonight's "sign of the times." >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and b bl weir in new york city, this is "nightline," august 31st, 2011. >> good evening, i'm terry moran. well, the results are finally in tonight on just how good airport security is, ten years after the attacks of september 11th, 2001. billions have been spent on securing our skies and countless passengersinconvenienced. and some attempted attacks have been stopped, no question. but is the fact no american flights have been hijacked or bombed since 9/11 a matter of good security or just good luck? tonight, abc's brian ross investigates. >> reporter: terry, ten years later, 9/11 commission report card out today produced by the

bipartisan policy center includes what its co-chairman calls very few as, lots of cs and incompletes and at least two significant fs, failures. in other words, safer from terrorist attack, but not yet safe. >> united 93, cleveland. united 93, cleveland. do you still hear the center? united 93. >> reporter: could it happen again, ten years later. >> this is the captain. i would like you to remain seated. there is a bomb aboard. >> reporter: billions of dollars have been spent to protect the united states. >> the other tower just collapsed. major collapse. >> reporter: yet, ten years later, many the urgent security improvements prprosed by the 9/11 commission set up to make sure this never happened again have yet to be implemented. >> i think we haven't maybe got the same sense of urgency and in this one, we've got to have it, because there are still people out there that want to kill americans and they're trying to find different ways of

accomplishing their end. >> reporter: ten years ago, there was no tsa. and airport security was run by the airline chose screeners allowed the 1919 hijackers to board that september morning carrying box cutters and knives. >> in 2001, security was illusory. the airlines pretended to deliver security and the government pretended to find it okay. >> reporter: two of the hijackers were even on a border watch list, but they were still able to board their flights. a former tsa administrator says that could not happen today and their plot would be stopped. > the 9/11 plolo as it was designed then would be highly unlikely. if they were on the no-fly list, if those two, today, tried to buy tickets and fly, they would not do it. >> reporter: that has changed. >> that has changed. >> reporter: still, the report card out today on the 9/11 commission recommendations concluded not enough has

changed. we are still highly vulnerable to aviation security threats, the report says. >> not got it right yet. >eporter: in particular, the ability to detect explosives that could bring down an airplane, despite a huge investment in expensive screening machines. >> spending all this money in doing it and making the public go through all this stuff, we ought to get it right. >> reporter: the failure came into sharp focus when a passenger r this jet bound for detroit was able to get pastt security with a bomb in his underpants. and even before that, when surveillance of a london-based al qaeda group revealed they were developing a bomb formula using hydrogen peroxide that could not be detected. >> this particular formula was way more powerful than what our bomb community thought was possible. >> reporter: was it a surprise to you that they outsmarted you? >> no, no. we know that they're always thinking of ways to change what

they're doing. >> reporter: so, they're not dummies? >> no, they're not. absolutely not. >> reporter: the tsa acknowledges there is still no silver bullet, or perfect technology to detect explosives. but former administrator holley says by inspecting passenger shoes and restricting the amount of liquid brought on board, the goal is to make sure no potential bomb even with the new formula is large enough to bring down a plane. a liquid bomb would get on board. just not a big one. >> and yes, you don't want a bomb going off and injuring people on a plane. but you do not want to let them bring a bomb that will catastrophically destroy the plane. >> reporter: and the strategy of u.s. security officials to prevent another 9/11 seems to be based heavily on what's diffffent now on the planes themselves. heavily reinforced cockpit doors. plus passengers, pilots and federal air marshals ready to fight back. >> passengers aren't going to stand for it. the pilots aren't going to stand for it. there are thousands of armed

pilots. there are thousands of armed law enforcement officers who fly every day. and then as you know, there are air marshals on the flights. so, it's -- trying to hijack a plane from back of the cockpit door is, i think, very, very small. very small odds. >> reporter: the report card does praise the fbi and the cia for finally working together. and credits them with disrupting many plots and bringing to justice many terrorist operatives. the most recent example? the killing earlier this month of al qaeda's number two man in pakistan, who abc news has learned was the main contact between osama bin laden and the al qaeda network. terry? >> still, a lot of work to do. thank you, brian, for that report. well, just ahead, we'll turn to lighter fare. what would you say is the number one dessert in american restaurants? we're going to go to the source. [ man ] behind every business is a "what if."

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with terry moran. >> just in case there was new doigt as if we americans love our cheesecake, consider this fact. 1.6 billion. that's the annual sales figure for the cheesecake factory national restaurant chain. though, the fact alone thaha america has national cheesecake restaurant chain may be all that needs be said about that. here's abc's david wright, who took a trip to cheesecake heaven. >> reporter: if willy wonka made cheesecakes, and only cheesecakes, this might be his factory. the cheesecake factory, in

calabasas, california. more of an assembly line than a bakery. churning out the cheesecakes for every cheesecake factory restaurant in america. >> we make 300 different kinds of cake. our business as a whole will go through about 14 million pounds of cream cheese a year. >> reporter: 14 million pounds of cream cheese a year. the e give length of 1,000 full-grown elephants. plus 5 million pounds of sugar a year. the equivalent of 1,000 white rhinos. the oxygen alone here is almost enough to clog your arteries. >> a total of about 75 people have worked on this cake to get it to this point. >> reporter: it takes a lot of oompa loompas to fill the appetite here for cheesecake. >> rich, creamy comfort food that, you know, when it goes down, it's luxurious.

>> reporter: is it your favorite food? >> no. >> reporter: no? david overton, chief executive of this family-owned restaurant chain,n,wes much of his success to one simple fact. >> restaurants, cheesecake is the number one dessert. more than ice cream, more than chocolate cake. >> reporter: so, he makes cheesecakes in every flavor imaginable. how many calories per spoonful? >> probably, what, 50. >> reporter: 50. okay. so, that's -- good 20 minutes on the treadmill right there. >> i think this one's pretty special. >> reporter: some how, the treadmill never tasted so good. pretty good. you're onto something here. >> i think so. you'll do well. >> thank you. >> reporter: the cheesecake factory does very well. 153 restaurants nationwide. annual sales? $1.6 billion. and cheesecake is only a small part of what they do. the full menu is 21 pages long. >> you want chinese tonight,

asian, american, mexican food. we can do all of that right here. >> reporter: but people also love to hate the cheesecake factory. at this year's extreme heating awards, honoring the biggest belt busters, the cheesecake factory was the only restaurant to take home two prizes. for the farmhouse burger, topped with bacon, mayo and a fried egg -- >> it's equivalent to four quarter pounders with cheese at mcdonald's. >> reporter: and for the red velvet cheesecake. >> like eating one pizza hut personal pan pizza plus two quarter pounders with cheese except the cheesecake has an extra day's saturated fat. >> have a bite of this one, too. >> reporter: david overton is unpay poll jettic. >> people want to eat low cal at home. when they go out to dine, they want every calorieie they're paying for because it's a celebration. >> reporter: are not swayed by the jamie oliver's of this world

that say america has an eating problem? an obesity problem. >> reporter: i hear you. we do have items that are low cal. in fact, these small plates, half of them are under 300 calories. >> reporter: the factory recently announced plans for a new skinny menu. "usa today""alled it the cosmic equivalent of chuck e. cheese adding a quiet zone. overton knows full well what the critics say. kind of look down their noses. >> they do. >> reporter: sticks and stones, says overton, whose kitchens burst with activity. >> last year, 75 million people came through our doors. >> reporter: we sat down with him over launch at the company's restaurant in cherman oaks. he suggested a mixed salad. then miso-glazed salmon. >> this is the lunch portion. our dinner portion is about a third bigger than that. >> reporter: inspired by a dish at the upscale restaurant nobu. >> we have a lighter miso and we

don't marinate it. >> reporter: you cheesecakize it. >> everything. >> reporter: and what does it mean to cheesecakize it? >> to make it bigger, first of all. and to come up with our own twist on the classic flavor. and really, it's what america wants to eat. >> reporter: overton says it all started when his mom got a cheesecake recipe out of a newspaper. >> everyone loved that cheesecake. as soon as they tasted it, they wanted to buy it. >> reporter: he convinced his parents to move out to california and try selling cheesecakes for real. they opened their first restaurant ineverly hills in 1978. >> we built from just my mother and father, who washed dishes, had an oven that baked four cheesecakes at a time, to making tens of thousands of cheesecakes and having over 30,000 staff members. so, it's been quite a business of love. >> reporter: and, he says, the cheesecake factory's success speaks for itself. i'm david wright for "nightline"

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movies cost many millions of dollars to make and can take years to edit and you'd think with all that time and money you'd get perfection. well, think again. in fact, there's an entire website devoted to ferreting out the flaws in flicks.

here's nick watt with an encore presentation. tonight's "sign of the times." >> reporter: just a couple of knuckleheads watching a movie. oh, no. that dude on the right is a professional geek. and i say that with awe. rewind? we're watching "ironman." >> no license plate on the front of his car. suddenly, there's a plate on the front of the car. >> reporter: john is a professional spotter and compiling of movie mistakes. here's "gladiator." >> in the back of the chariot, there's a gas canister, i think it's full of compressed air to flip it on its side. >> reporter: oh, yep, yep, yep. john makes a good living from this. it all started when he spotted this, his first mistake in "jurassic park." now the sign is pointing the other way. movie mistakes.com now gets 25,000 hits a day. what sort of feeling do you get when you spot a really tough one?

>> it's -- it's hard to say without sounding like too much of a geek, which, ultimately, i am. it's sort of a sense of pride. >> reporter: there are 88,000 mistakes listed on the site from more than 5,000 movies. some of john's favorites in "mission impossible," one second he's on slick, the next, his tires are knobbly. "top gun." man hug. shades appear. "apocalypse now" has the most mistakes. 390. look closely and the tape isn't actu actually going over the hes. more recently, "avatar." jake pushes grace. and pushes her again. but it's "pirates of the

caribbean" that holds the best mistake title. >> on deck! >> reporter: notice anything? here it is again. >> on deck! >> there. there's a crew pen who thought he was out of shot wearing a cowboy hat, sun glass, white t-shirt. not your typical pirate attire. >> repororr: it seems the birth of the dvd was the birth off serious movie mistake spotting. >> you have a flawless freeze frame. you can go frame by prime and makes it easier to catch things you would have missed on video. >> reporter: but movie makers have been messing it up for years. "the african queen." hepburn skinny dipping. >> close your eyes. >> reporter: then, straps were there where none before. angela allen was the script super visor on that movie in charge of continuity. >> bread and butter? >> eating and drinking scenes

are probably the worst. >> reporter: she's worked with conry, gable, wayne and de niro. >> in today'y' world, when you o point it out, it's, oh, you're such a bore. nobody's going to notice. >> reporter: but guys like john sanders do notice. watch this scene from "a man with a golden gun." the angle shifts and then you see the director and camera man and lighting equipment all reflected. now that you have a taste, let me tell you, we included two mistakes of own our i i this report. if you were geek enough to care, you can find out what they are on our website. mistakes are forgivable. >> yeah. >> reporter: why? >> major film has hundreds, thousands of people involved in making it who are all human becomes. they're going to make mistakes. >> s s doesn't like little green worms. >> reporter: you'll find every movie has one if you look closely enough. "the wizard of