# 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:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**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:** [March 16, 2002, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/101 "2002-03-16T01:40:03Z")
More of a nitpick, since I otherwise consider this one of my favorite sci-fi movies, but the ending of _Predator_ has a glitch. (spoilers follow). . . . . . . . . . . . After the Predator goes boom, you see the helicopter on the periphery of the explosion, the same helicopter that was sent to extract the commandoes. The female guerrila is riding in the chopper. Seems to me that if I was in a gunship waiting around on the border of a hot zone to extract a commando team and some bimbo came crashing out the woods screaming about the Devil That Makes Trophies Of Men, I’d blow her away on the spot. ---
**Author:** ![Funky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Funky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Funky)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2002, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/102 "2002-03-16T02:15:36Z")
In reply to the query as to why the AI’s ddn’t just give the agents huge indestructible bodies is because they had human form so that they could interact with people in the matrix without being too conspicuous. If they stood out like that they would have been to easy to avoid. Why didn’t they just blow up where the Oracle lived??? Well because they couldn’t find out where it was. I agree that the first person out of the Matrix joined up with the “freeborns” in Zion. :wally ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2002, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/103 "2002-03-16T02:20:09Z")
I’m not sure if this is a hole of just a nitpick but it ruined Primal Fear for me. The killer is described as an altar boy at the cathedral for the bishop. As if it’s some sort of job that he applied for and received. And how old is he – at least 17 or 18? Altar boys (and girls), in my experience, are usually middle-school age kids. And it something they do in service of the Mass, not some hourly wage job, as the movie makes it appear. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2002, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/104 "2002-03-16T02:26:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by OrcaChow \* > \*\*Cervaise, > > I chalked up the Death Star’s ability to do hyperspace (but not as quickly as the M.F.) and its painfully slow move around Yavin this way: > > An oil tanker can move at a decent clip in the open ocean, but takes a while to build up speed, and once in tight quarters it moves very cautiously like a pickup in low-gear. (Unless your Death Star is named “Exxon Valdez.”) \*\* But you have to keep in mind that hyperspace jumps are very complicated-and microjumps are extremely dangerous. You can often end up landing right in the middle of a planet and killing yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2002, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/105 "2002-03-16T04:04:20Z")
The _Star Wars_ books cover hyperspace travel pretty well. You cannot enter hyperspace if you are too close to a large source of gravity, such as a planet or star. Also, hyperspace apparently does not allow you to pass through solid objects. Remember, Han Solo’s lines in the first movie: “Without precise calculations, we could fly right through a star, or bounce too close to a supernova, and that would injure something real quick.” IOW, trying to fly through the planet Yavin is a Very Bad Idea, even when travelling in hyperspace. One question that I wonder about is: why the heck didn’t Leah and the others get off of the planet before the Death Star came? They could still launch the attack to destroy the Death Star, but why have your top commanders sit around defenseless? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2002, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/106 "2002-03-16T05:02:41Z")
Moving this to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2002, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/107 "2002-03-16T07:38:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by HelloKitty \* > \*\* > > Yeah, I think they guys on **Law and Order** could have figured this one out by the end of the first half hour, but the FBI agents in the movie couldn’t. \*\* And the mistake with that is…? 😃 😉 Ranchoth (“Don’t call me sir, I work for a living.”) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2002, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/108 "2002-03-16T09:02:47Z")
…but bear with me: In _Sleeping Beauty_, Princess Aurora (aka Briar Rose) is lured up into the tower by Maleficent’s will-o’-the-wisp. Then she sees the spinning wheel. Maleficent’s voice says “Touch the spindle. **Touch it!** ” And then Aurora touches the spindle, and falls asleep, yadda, yadda, you know the drill. But since King Stefan had burned all of the spinning wheels in the kingdom when Aurora was a tiny baby, this had to be the first spinniing wheel she’d ever seen. So how did she know what part was the spindle? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2002, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/109 "2002-03-16T22:47:43Z")
Dogma: Bartleby (sp?) and Loki are going to destroy existence (and really mess up Jay’s blunt business) by walking thru the church door, get their sins forgiven, die without sin, and go to heaven, contradicting God/Alanis Morisette/Bud Cort. Presumably after walking thru the church door they are still intent on destroying the universe. Which strikes me as a pretty big sin. (And Christianity treats intentions the same as actions.) Ergo, not going to Heaven, existence is saved and Kevin Smith should stick to simpler stuff. And Hollow Man is the worst invisible man movie ever. ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2002, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/110 "2002-03-16T23:02:14Z")
In Dogma, at first they didn’t know they were going to destroy the universe, but after they find out, Bartelby decides to go with it. He would have a clean slate when he comes out, including all intention to destroy the universe. He would then be immediatly shot dead by cops, without time to think about destroying the universe. Therefore, the universe is destroyed, and we never here God sing about women going down on a dude in a movie theater. ---
**Author:** ![borschevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@borschevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/borschevsky)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2002, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/111 "2002-03-17T00:04:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AWB \* > \*\* > > Even though the “Back to the Future” movies are amongst my favorites, the plot holes can be irritating. > > Now, they did provide an explanation to the paradox you stated. Doc Brown said that there was a ripple effect, so that changes made by someone from the future wouldn’t directly affect him until a while later. That’s why Marty and his siblings disappeared one by one from his photo instead of instantaneously. (There wouldn’t’ve been much of a movie if Marty had disappeared as soon as he’d shoved George out of his grandfather’s car’s path.) > > Unstated in this was that if the time traveller went back to the future right away, he’d push the ripple with him to the future, so that the future _would_ be changed when he got back. This is how old Biff from 2015 changed teen Biff’s future (by giving him the almanac), didn’t disappear, but upon returning to 2015 immediately started feeling the pangs of being erased from time (when he staggered from the Delorean). His actual fading was filmed but edited out of the movie (for some reason). > > So, OK, I bought the ripple theory as the plot device for these movies. But then, in BTTF3, the photo of Doc Brown’s tombstone (that was photographed in 1955) instantaneously changes from Doc’s, to empty, to Eastwood’s. It too should have only changed once the ripple effect from 1885 had reached 1955. This also goes for the 1985 newspapers that Doc and Marty had with them when they went to get the sports almanac from young Biff. Once Marty burned the almanac, the headlines changed instantly. \*\* Well, I think the way the photos work is consistent. In BTTF 1, Marty’s siblings fade out oldest to youngest, which I guess is being caused by the ripple moving forward in time to their births. So the contents of the photo are being changed, not the photo itself. So the ripple takes a little while to get to Marty’s brother, who fades out of the picture, then Marty’s sister, etc. In BTTF 3, the engraving of the tombstone only happens a few days after the events that are changing it, so the ripple effects should reach it very quickly. So the photos at least are consistent, but I agree the newspapers (and that “you’re fired!” FAX from 2015) seem to act differently. ---
**Author:** ![KillerHamster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/41988e/32.png) [@KillerHamster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KillerHamster)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2002, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/112 "2002-03-17T01:12:25Z")
DIE HARD 2: The BIGGEST plot hole in the movie (and I don’t think anyone mentioned this) is that you don’t need a stupid control tower to talk to the airplanes!!! Remember how big of a deal this was? The pilots on the airplanes had no idea what was going on because the people on the ground couldn’t communicate with them because the outbound communications had been disabled by the bad guys. But then there was a big scene where they tried to get over to another communications center so that they could broadcast a signal to the airplanes to tell them what was going on, and then that failed. You can broadcast a signal from anywhere!! You can get in a plane sitting on the ground that has a radio and talk to all the other planes on the frequency. You can even walk into Radio Shack and buy a transciever to broadcast to all the planes! You don’t need a damn control tower. All you need is a pocket radio! The bad guys shutting down the communications systems would have had no effect whatsoever in the real world. And the planes were in the holding pattern from 1.5 to 2 hours! If right at the beginning of the movie someone pulled a radio out of their pocket and told all the planes to land at some other airport, the planes could have at LEAST and hour’s worth of fuel left to go elsewhere. An HOUR–they could have flown to dozens of major airports with perfect weather in that time period. Thus, the whole “radio problem” in the movie is the biggest plot hole, because without it, the movie would be over. The bad guys would have hijacked a useless airport and would have nothing to “hold hostage”, since all the planes would have flown elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Diff\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@Diff\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diff_T)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2002, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/113 "2002-03-17T02:29:33Z")
The Truman Show was my Fav. Movie of all Time… They could not possibly answer EVERY SINGLE QUESTION in the movie. However Peter Weir once said the he spent a year rationalizing the concept in his head and there were few questions you could ask him that he wouldn’t have an answer to. I read the screenplay that answers a few question in bonus areas of the book. It is, to me, sort of ridiculous that you bring all this up… Truman Show is more of a FANTASY than it is SCI-FI. But over all it’s a great picture that sparked my imagination ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2002, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/114 "2002-03-17T02:50:30Z")
_ **Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan** _, okay the _Enterprise_ is the only ship in the quadrant (Which causes further problems when you think about the _Voyager_ series since they somehow ended up in another quadrant, and then again with _DS9_ with its quadrant, apparently the mapping descriptions of the Federation are a little different than the ones we’re using.), and it’s filled with trainees. So, do they order _Enterprise_ go check out Regula One and tell them to immediately withdraw and await re-enforcements if they encounter any hostile activity? No. Then, of course, there’s the whole bit with the Genesis device after Khan triggers it. If they can’t beam aboard and stop it, why not just blow the _Reliant_ up? Its not like it _isn’t_ going to happen anyway, and Spock wouldn’t have to race down to the engine room, grab the radioactive stuff and die. The remake of _ **Planet of the Apes** _. Why is the US government spending zillions of dollars to breed and train genetically engineered monkeys on a space station orbiting Saturn so they can fly them into strange time vortexes, when it would be cheaper and easier to send automated probes in? ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2002, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/115 "2002-03-17T03:04:33Z")
What the hell do you expect from The Truman Show!? It would take 6 hours to answer every question you could think of, and there were questions from the film that were answered in rare mock “documentary” shown in the first trailer of the movie. I’m willing to bet it will be on a future DVD of the film (it’s already on DVD). If not they probably scraped it because it was boring. I agree that some movie require answers to almost ever question you can throw at it… but those are more science fiction type of films. Truman you have to assume that there’s a reason for everything and ENJOY it. It’s a GREAT movie, and most critics loved it. ---
**Author:** ![Protesilaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Protesilaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Protesilaus)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2002, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/116 "2002-03-17T05:36:02Z")
In _Antitrust_, Ryan Phillippe and Rachel Leigh Cook work for this company that’s like Microsoft, except they kill people and steal their work. They team up to expose their Bill Gates-like boss. Rachel’s job is to take the incriminating stuff Ryan found and make a easy to follow multimedia presentation, and Ryan’s job is to hack into the systems needed to broadcast the presentation to the world. Here’s the problem - Rachel’s been in league with Evil Bill the whole time, but she still makes the presentation! It’s not like she ever shows it to Ryan beforehand, so she could have made something that had nothing to do with the company, like a bunch of nature footage, or even have made nothing at all, and Ryan’s eventual success in broadcasting it wouldn’t have mattered. There’s no reason for her to make a real presentation. ---
**Author:** ![Diff\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@Diff\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diff_T)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2002, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/117 "2002-03-17T06:10:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by borschevsky \* > \*\* > > Well, I think the way the photos work is consistent. In BTTF 1, Marty’s siblings fade out oldest to youngest, which I guess is being caused by the ripple moving forward in time to their births. So the contents of the photo are being changed, not the photo itself. So the ripple takes a little while to get to Marty’s brother, who fades out of the picture, then Marty’s sister, etc. In BTTF 3, the engraving of the tombstone only happens a few days after the events that are changing it, so the ripple effects should reach it very quickly. > > So the photos at least are consistent, but I agree the newspapers (and that “you’re fired!” FAX from 2015) seem to act differently. \*\* The thing is though, I doubt Marty and his siblings would be born at all… or at least would heighten the possibility that another sperm reached the egg. Every little thing you do in the past can have domino effect in the future. Example: A kid is at the library reading a book, his eye get tired and move up, where the sun outside at that precise time is illuminating (and making more visible) off a speck of dust. The kid follows the speck of dust with his eyes, at that precise time a draft of wind makes the dust float to his left, where he sees the women he will talk to and eventually marry… but if you took the dust, sun, or wind out of the equation… he would never have met her. So don’t you think the Mother and Father’s schedule will be forever altered… Maybe different offspring… (they would most likely have the same names)? ---
**Author:** ![diku](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@diku](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diku)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2002, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/118 "2002-03-17T06:39:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by archmichael \* > \*\*My favorite movie to mine plotholes is Independence Day. Let take a look at all the lessons learned. > > 1. Alien computers are Mac compatible. > 2. Alien ships, spanning several miles in diameter and weighing an unknown number of tons, can be severely damaged by air-to-air missiles. > 3. Never fire the main alien gun, because of a design flaw that will destroy the ship itself. > 4. Alien numerical fighter superiority means nothing against the skill of our flyboys. > 5. Alien ships once destroyed will always crash away from the population centers they were hovering over. > 6. And so on… > 7. and so forth… \*\* My favorite from ID4 is: Early in the movie, they state that the mothership is roughly 1/4 the size of the moon. The mothership then parks itself in near Earth orbit. Wouldn’t the gravity generated by something that large that close to the Earth play hell with the planet? This thing was close, yet no tide changes, no earthquakes, nothing… And the smaller ships, you would think when they crashed, they’d cause a rather large explosion…Luckily, they fall harmlessly to the ground. ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2002, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/119 "2002-03-17T06:52:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tuckerfan \* > \*\*_ **Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan** _, okay the _Enterprise_ is the only ship in the quadrant (Which causes further problems when you think about the _Voyager_ series since they somehow ended up in another quadrant, and then again with _DS9_ with its quadrant, apparently the mapping descriptions of the Federation are a little different than the ones we’re using.), and it’s filled with trainees. So, do they order _Enterprise_ go check out Regula One and tell them to immediately withdraw and await re-enforcements if they encounter any hostile activity? No. > \*\* Where’ve you been? The Enterprise is ALWAYS the only ship in the quadrent! Star Trek TMP, Star Trek 2, Star Trek 4, there was 2 ships at earth, the Excelsior and some Oberth class ship, no ships at earth in the Next Gen episode best of both worlds, and the DS9 episode where the Admirals tried to do a coup on earth, the USS Lakota was the only ship at Earth (The Capital of the Federation, for crying out loud, and they have ONE ship at a time of arms build up!) The only time you see giant fleets was on DS9, but then most of those ships got offed and only the Defiant saved the day. Odd, the rant seemed to lose my point, but it’s in there somewhere! ---
**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:** [March 17, 2002, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/120 "2002-03-17T08:27:39Z")
I just watched _Dirty Harry_ on PBS and despite the fact that the .44 Magnum is the most powerful handgun in the world, no-one’s head actually gets blown clean off. What a gyp! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386.md?page=7)