# Movie plotholes only losers would pick out **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 16, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747 "2005-07-16T02:04:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/61 "2005-07-17T19:07:42Z")
> [@interface2x](#): > > Not to mention the fact that, in part two, they have a concert out in the desert. In Illinois. Accurate terrain’s never been Hollywood’s strong suit. It’s amazing how similar Walnut Grove, Minnesota (which was a hilly place with scrubs unlike most of Minnesota- and it never snowed) looked to Hazzard County, Georgia (which didn’t seem to have nearly as many pine forests and tiny towns as the rest of Georgia) for instance: both had lots of scrub and hills and it was always sunny. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/62 "2005-07-17T21:49:25Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > I think you’re thinking of _Sum of All Fears_ where a nuclear warhead is detonated in Baltimore during the Super Bowl. The movie comes BEFORE _Patriot Games_ and _Clear and Present Danger_. Where several scenes take place in DC, yet no mention of an American city having a nuke detonated in it. In fact, trailers for _Patriot Games_ (I think it’s that one) say that there’s never been a terrorist attack on US soil. I tend to look at these movies the same way as _Batman Begins_ (2005) and _Batman_ (1989). Though drawn from the same source material, the films represent different interpretations and do _not_ hold continuity with each other. And it’s incorrect to say that prior to _Patriot Games_ (1992) there had never been a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. There may not have been a significant act of foreign-spawned terror before then (even then, it depends on your definition) but the 1963 Alabama church bombing certainly qualifies. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/63 "2005-07-17T22:27:05Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > There may not have been a significant act of foreign-spawned terror before then (even then, it depends on your definition) but the 1963 Alabama church bombing certainly qualifies. As for foreign terrorism, I think the [1975 bombing of the Fraunces Tavern](http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/puertorico/Fraunces-Tavern-communique.jpg) in New York City by Puerto Rican terrorists should qualify. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/64 "2005-07-17T23:37:42Z")
Among the various dino-related goofs in the Jurassic Park series, the one that has bothered me more than most is that the orientation of the predators’ arms is incorrect. This could have easily been corrected in the sequels, but it wasn’t. Looks like the V rex in Peter Jackson’s **King Kong** has the same arm orientation as well…but he has the excuse of 65 additional years of evolution to fall back on. ---
**Author:** ![MadderMitch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e7dd6/32.png) [@MadderMitch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadderMitch)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/65 "2005-07-18T00:23:16Z")
> [@Turing Complete](#): > > I’m actually a high-school dropout. No really, I am. Do you study math in your spare time or something? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/66 "2005-07-18T00:27:10Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > Looks like the V rex in Peter Jackson’s **King Kong** has the same arm orientation as well…but he has the excuse of 65 additional years of evolution to fall back on. Yes, the world of 1940 was a dark and savage time. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/67 "2005-07-18T00:28:15Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Heck, why not ponder why the superhumanly-strong Spider-Man manages to land several punches directly against Octavious’s head, yet never kills or seriously injures him? Actually, I was rather bugged by the fact that Spiderman could stop that train with his feet. Superman, I could buy it. Spiderman, a bit over the top. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/68 "2005-07-18T00:29:37Z")
Or for that matter, the fact Spiderman could fall from a building and not break anything. And don’t get me started on the whole missle plot in Superman: The movie. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/69 "2005-07-18T00:40:21Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Heck, why not ponder why the superhumanly-strong Spider-Man manages to land several punches directly against Octavious’s head, yet never kills or seriously injures him? That’s a constant in superhero-type movies. The punches ought to crush ribs and liquefy organs, but at most they harmlessly bounce people off concrete walls. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/70 "2005-07-18T00:52:26Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Actually, I was rather bugged by the fact that Spiderman could stop that train with his feet. Superman, I could buy it. Spiderman, a bit over the top. Well, he _tried_ but couldn’t pull it off. Of course, what _should_ have happened is the train’s safety systems should have kicked in. And there shouldn’t have been a track that ran all the way to a river and just stopped (was there supposed to be a bridge under construction, or something?) Given the shockingly lax safety standards of New York mass transit, though, a better approach might’ve been to evacaute everyone in the front car to the second car and for Spider-Man to sever the connections between the locomotive and the rest of the train, letting the locomotive fly on ahead to crash empty while the train coasts to a stop. And, of course, when Spider-Man was knocked unconscious, he should have curled up. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/71 "2005-07-18T03:51:21Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > And it’s incorrect to say that prior to _Patriot Games_ (1992) there had never been a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. There may not have been a significant act of foreign-spawned terror before then (even then, it depends on your definition) but the 1963 Alabama church bombing certainly qualifies. Allow me to [quote] ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105112/trivia](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105112/trivia)) IMDB’s trivia page: The line “There’s never been a terrorist attack on American soil” was included in trailers for movie, but was left out of theatrical release because it sounded too much like an invitation or dare. Any error was mine in relaying. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/72 "2005-07-18T03:56:44Z")
Even so, it’s still probably better to think of the Alec Baldwin/Harrison Ford Jack Ryan as a different character than the Ben Affleck Jack Ryan, and not just because Ford and Baldwin are far better actors. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/73 "2005-07-18T03:59:48Z")
> [@nivlac](#): > > The one math goof that always makes me cringe in movies is what the Scarecrow said after he got his “brain” (alright, it was only a diploma) from the wizard in the **Wizard of Oz**. He completely butchered the Pythagorean Theorem. When the geek in me points this out to anyone who’s watching the movie with me, all I get is a “So what?”. Oh well. “The square of the hypotenuse of an Isocoles triangle is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides.” “That’s a _right_ triangle, you idiot.” “D’OH!” ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/74 "2005-07-18T04:18:40Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Even so, it’s still probably better to think of the Alec Baldwin/Harrison Ford Jack Ryan as a different character than the Ben Affleck Jack Ryan, and not just because Ford and Baldwin are far better actors. You’re right. And it may have sounded like nitpicking on my part to prove myself right, but it wasn’t intentional. I was merely providing where I found that info. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/75 "2005-07-18T05:35:53Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Yes, the world of 1940 was a dark and savage time. > 😛 I don’t get it… 😕 ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/76 "2005-07-18T15:16:42Z")
> [@](#): > > A whole bunch of elements are solid and can have crystalline structures at room temperature. Think of carbon, silicon and a whole bunch of metallic elements. But Tritium is water. > [@](#): > > Heck, why not ponder why the superhumanly-strong Spider-Man manages to land several punches directly against Octavious’s head, yet never kills or seriously injures him? It’s just a common comic convention. Sort of like the Tritium, although at least they had some of the idea for the Fusion. I’m honestly not sure what they were thinking at the end when iron starts acelerating the reaction and water douses it. Does that qualify as nitpicking? ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/77 "2005-07-18T18:18:10Z")
In **The Jackal** a significant plot device is that Bruce Willis (The Jackal) will be able to smuggle a large weapon into Chicago on a Yacht by blending in with the other boats during the Mackinac yacht race from Mackinac to Chicago. The problem is that in the race mentioned the boats race FROM Chicago TO Mackinac, NOT the other way around. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/78 "2005-07-18T18:34:34Z")
In ST: The Wrath of Khan, if you time the scene, the Enterprise doesn’t hit warp speed until **after** the four minutes needed for the Genesis device to build up to detonation. Even if you assume that some of the sequences are happening simultainiously, they still don’t hit warp until after the device should have gone off. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/79 "2005-07-18T18:35:09Z")
In **Die Hard 2** , the controllers at the airport are desperate to find a transmitter so they can communicate with the planes waiting to land. They even get ambushed trying to get to the communications center at the new terminal being constructed. Uh, guys, every plane parked on the ground at your airport, from a 747 to a Cessna, has a transmitter on it. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747/80 "2005-07-18T18:38:56Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#): > > But Tritium is water. Unless it means something else in the Marvel universe, tritium is an isotope of hydrogen. (“Tritium water” is water that contains a tritium atom in place of one or both of the normal H atoms.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-plotholes-only-losers-would-pick-out/312747.md?page=5)