# Movies with stupidly large plotholes... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 10, 2001, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386 "2001-01-10T19:35:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/241 "2013-06-18T09:11:51Z")
While I agree with everyone that the thing with Cypher meeting the agents was a plothole in _The Matrix_, I think I’ve come up with a fanwank (an explanation that wasn’t in the film but should have been). First off, we know that Cypher is so skilled that he doesn’t even see the code when he looks at the screen. In fact, he is so good that he was a candidate to be “the One.” It makes sense that he was able to rig up an automated system of some type. So why not use this all the time? I think it’s reasonable to think that human intervention was necessary to make sure the Agents weren’t watching when they came in. This would have been unnecessary if the Agents knew you were coming. As for leaving, ordinarily you wouldn’t know the exact time and place that you’d leave, as the Agents may interfere, but, in this case, everything was planned. Obviously Cypher had to have contacted them ahead of time. It’s also quite possible that the automated programs weren’t completely safe as they hadn’t been tested. But someone dissatisfied with life and risking as much as Cypher did probably didn’t care about the risk. BTW, I think the Agents were lying. They do not show themselves having the ability to make people forget things or remember things that are false. That would have been very, very useful in tracking down Morpheus–convert Neo into some sort of human agent that thinks that Morpheus is a criminal. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/242 "2013-06-18T10:42:43Z")
> [@Jet\_Jaguar](#): > > I think I can answer this one. Remember the scene with the elevator in that office(?) building? “Inside” the elevator were actors standing around behind the set, definitely out of character. I think the actors were only in character when Truman was present. Wasn’t there a scene in the movie where someone who broke character was whisked off set pretty quickly? And why would it be illegal? how was Truman being detained? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/243 "2013-06-20T01:48:31Z")
> [@PatrickM](#): > > The plot hole in Silence of the Lambs that always bugged me was that the FBI does not send assign rookie agents to solely handle any cases, let alone cases involving dangerous serial killers. > > But then Hannibal’s terrorizing of Agent Starling wouldn’t have happened. On top of that, she wasn’t even a rookie agent…she was a trainee. ‘OK, let’s send out a trainee, but, to keep her safe, let’s make sure she has a gun!’ ---
**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:** [June 20, 2013, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/244 "2013-06-20T05:47:33Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > People acting stupidly in a movie is NOT a plot hole! There’s stupid, and then there’s suicidal. In _Moonraker_, there must have been hundreds of people involved in Drax’s plot to wipe out all human life, and they weren’t all going to be on the space station when it happened. Maybe most of the ground technicians didn’t know all the details, but someone did. There are the scientists in Venice who are processing the nerve gas and building the globes that will dispense it in the atmosphere. When the vial breaks, it’s clear they know what’s about to happen, and try to escape. But if the plan had gone forward, they were going to die anyway. Hope the boss is paying you well; you’ve got about three days to spend it. That’s a plot hole. Similarly, _The Living Daylights_ starts with a Soviet general (I think he was a general) defecting to the west. A sniper is positioned in the window to kill him, and Bond shoots the rifle out of the sniper’s hands. But it’s a fake! The general got his girlfriend, a cellist, to aim the rifle out the window to make the defection look real. Except it turns out that she wasn’t really in on all the details of his plan. What did she think was going on; what do you tell a cellist to get her to aim a sniper rifle out the window of a theater during intermission? I just don’t see any combination of motivation or stupidity under which her behavior makes sense. > [@septimus](#): > > I like that kind of movie _even when I can’t figure out the twists_ – I appreciate good puzzles even when I can’t solve them. _But the twists in Basic contradict each other_. I won’t summarize the plot: I don’t want to “spoil” the movie and, anyway, it’s too confusing and nonsensical to summarize. But eventually we learn that two of the main characters were play-acting the whole time _even though many of the scenes of their play-acting were two-person scenes with no witnesses._ :smack: There’s another sort of plot hole that I sometimes notice, when characters within a movie are seeing images that they shouldn’t have any access to. Consider _Rollerball_ (the original). When we’re sitting in our living rooms, watching a movie, there seems to be an unspoken rule that the camera can be anywhere it needs to be. If the POV puts us on the Rollerball track, seeing and hearing the characters as they play the game, that’s fine. But there are scenes in the movie where the characters are watching Rollerball matches on TV, and they’re watching the same sorts of close-up shots. In order for that to be possible, there would have to be cameras on the track, in the middle of the action. The same thing happens in a lot of sci-fi movies. Characters will be looking at a screen which shows an external view of a spaceship, or station, or something. But a view like that requires a camera, oftentimes in a place where there couldn’t actually be one. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/245 "2013-06-20T09:18:34Z")
Cars 2 has a villain who must just be insane or bored because his nefarious plot makes no sense, not a bit. He “invents” something, which is a fraud. Then sells it, then sets up a giant scheme to discredit his fraudulent invention. 😕 Why didn’t he just not “invent” it? ---
**Author:** ![simply\_cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@simply\_cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simply_cats)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/246 "2013-06-21T01:33:34Z")
> [@ThisYearsGirl](#): > > This is so dumb, but one thing about that terrible movie "Keeping the Faith bugged me. Or maybe I’m just missing something. When Ed Norton can’t sleep, he calls Dharma, and you see her and Ben Stiller in bed, and they don’t hear the answering machine. So Ed didn’t call her cell phone (clearly, because she says on the message "Only three people know this number. . . " and a lot of people know her cell phone number). But then, the next morning, Dharma is leaving Ben’s apartment! What the hell!? I was under the impression Ed called her house. Why would he call Ben’s house, when he was unaware of his relationship with Dharma? I’m not going through the whole thread, so pardon me if this is addressed later… but I think (and it has been a long time since I watched this)… he was specifically trying to reach Ben Stiller; then trying the Jenna Elfman… not trying to reach Jenna both times. I could be way wrong, but that seems to by my memory of it. ---
**Author:** ![Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speak_to_me_Maddie)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/247 "2013-06-21T02:55:48Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Cars 2 has a villain who must just be insane or bored because his nefarious plot makes no sense, not a bit. > > He “invents” something, which is a fraud. Then sells it, then sets up a giant scheme to discredit his fraudulent invention. 😕 Why didn’t he just not “invent” it? It is established that the villain owns the largest untapped oil reserve on earth. The purpose of the scheme is to scare the public from any interest in using or researching bio-fuel. If they see how deadly bio-fuel is they won’t use it. Even if demonstrated safe by another competitor in the future (like Fillmore), the public will always associate bio-fuel with the very public deaths in the races. Actually a pretty smart plan. Not the first [business kingpin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topsy_(elephant)) to try it. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/248 "2013-06-21T20:24:41Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > … _But the twists in Basic contradict each other_. …eventually we learn that two of the main characters were play-acting the whole time _even though many of the scenes of their play-acting were two-person scenes with no witnesses._ :smack: This same thing happens in the 2009 thriller _A Perfect Getaway_. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/249 "2013-06-21T23:58:33Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Cars 2 has a villain who must just be insane or bored because his nefarious plot makes no sense, not a bit. > > He “invents” something, which is a fraud. Then sells it, then sets up a giant scheme to discredit his fraudulent invention. 😕 Why didn’t he just not “invent” it? The invention lowers the value of oil, allowing him to buy oilfields cheaply. Then by discrediting it, the value of oil rises again. It is a fairly stupid plot, but having seen it 8 million times with kids, I’m quite sure that bit’s pretty well spelled out. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/250 "2013-06-22T00:56:53Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > _But the twists in Basic contradict each other_. I won’t summarize the plot: I don’t want to “spoil” the movie and, anyway, it’s too confusing and nonsensical to summarize. But eventually we learn that two of the main characters were play-acting the whole time _even though many of the scenes of their play-acting were two-person scenes with no witnesses._ :smack: Just to be clear: you mean they were play-acting in cooperation with each other even in scenes when no one else was around? (“Play-acting” could mean that each was trying to fool the other, but that’s not what you mean, right?) ---
**Author:** ![jepflast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@jepflast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jepflast)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/251 "2013-06-22T09:43:56Z")
Here’s a good one. In Disney’s animated film Aladdin, the titular character wishes to become a prince, but apparently the genie only makes him look like a prince. In fact the movie makes a big deal about him not “really” being a prince. Why didn’t that particular wish come true? The whole thing falls apart around this point. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/252 "2013-06-22T10:05:43Z")
I think that we’re being a little harsh on Alien here. Its not a designated exploration/warship with a trained crew of killer Alien seekers, its the equivalent of a bulk ore carrier with a merchant navy crew that seek to adapt their experience to an unknown highly lethal, hazard. Being unknown and being somewhat tense, to say the least, they do make mistakes. Reference Saving Private Ryan (From the Zombie part of the thread), yes most people would on being faced by heavy odds with only light weapons blow up the bridge without further ado. But most people aren’t Paratroopers who have been given a vital task to do, and if the allies could easily replace the bridge then they wouldn’t have given them the mission in the first place . It does in fact replicate the real mission orders, except that in real life it wasn’t a river, but terrain flooded by the Germans. But I do have a Plothole. Jaws. Huge killer shark in the area ? Take a fishery sonar equipped boat out to find it, and then drop some explosives into the sea. End of Great White Shark, though also the end of any hope of box office profits . ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/253 "2013-06-22T13:50:28Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > There’s stupid, and then there’s suicidal. In _Moonraker_, there must have been hundreds of people involved in Drax’s plot to wipe out all human life, and they weren’t all going to be on the space station when it happened. Maybe most of the ground technicians didn’t know all the details, but someone did. There are the scientists in Venice who are processing the nerve gas and building the globes that will dispense it in the atmosphere. When the vial breaks, it’s clear they know what’s about to happen, and try to escape. But if the plan had gone forward, they were going to die anyway. Hope the boss is paying you well; you’ve got about three days to spend it. That’s a plot hole. The scientists could have thought Drax was only going to use the nerve gas as part of some ransom scheme, or whatever. In real life, people have designed and manufactured massive amounts of nuclear weapons knowing that they could easily wipe out all life on earth. They just hope they will never be used for that, just like the rest of us. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386.md?page=12)