# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/161 "2002-04-16T05:15:37Z")
> [@](#): > > “The speed of time”? Exactly how fast is that? One hour per hour? Or faster…one year per year? It is well established in the DC Universe that if one travels at a high enough velocity in the correct direction, one can travel through time (counter-clockwise for backwards, clockwise for forwards). This is what I am referring to as “the speed of time”–fast enough to break the time barrier (think Star Trek 4; it’s the same basic principle, except Supes don’t need to slingshot around no star). ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/162 "2002-04-16T05:25:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by carlotta \* > \*\*But you, the marooned unfortunates, decide not only to let him live, but to release him from his restraints and go free, because why??? > > I think the decision was actually made unilaterally by one guy, but that guy was the bounty hunter. How did it make sense for him to let him go?\*\* Because the bounty hunter was a jerk. He thought _he_ could handle Riddick if he let him go, and he didn’t really care what happened to everyone else (heck, if you’ve got limited resources, it pays to get rid of the competition). If you’ll recall, he even tries to strike up a deal with Riddick to kill one of the group to act as a diversion for the critters. ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/163 "2002-04-16T15:18:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Number Six \* > \*\*“the speed of time”–fast enough to break the time barrier (think Star Trek 4; it’s the same basic principle, except Supes don’t need to slingshot around no star). \*\* While we’re on Star Trek IV, nitpicker Phil Farrand makes this observation, which I’ll repost here: Why does travelling around the sun one way make you go forward in time, and the other way make you go backwards? In addition, Star Trek II, my own musings: The _Enterprise_ fled from Regula at impulse power to the Mutara Nebula. Do nebulae form inside planetary systems? And once the Genesis device was detonated, did it somehow transform the nebula into a planet, or did the wave extend all the way out the Regula planet? ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/164 "2002-04-16T15:58:51Z")
Wow. Other people have heard of Phil Farrand. Cool. In **Superman** I’d be willing to accept that he could travel around the Earth 7+ times per second and go backwards in time. What gets me is that he never actually CHANGED anything. He just went backwards and then forwards again. Cool, superboy, you just wanted to see Lois bite it again? **The Client** , the point of it was that he knew where the body was. If he told that, he wouldn’t need to testify. They find the body, end of story. He needed protection BEFORE he testifies because he’s given up his leverage if he tries to negotiate afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/165 "2002-04-16T21:10:00Z")
**Raiders of the Lost Ark**. I always considered this a rather large plot hole: Nazis board that ship to take the Ark back. They can’t find Indy, and as they leave, a crewman finds him (without looking in that direction, but nevermind) climbing aboard the Nazi sub. He salutes, the theme music proudly plays, and he goes and hides by the gun mount. Then they superimpose some map footage of this sub with its secret cargo traveling all the way to a hidden island. Can someone tell me why that sub never **submerged** while traveling all that way in wartime with its secret cargo? Don’t tell me it did, and that Indy was able to open a hatch, climb inside and hide w/o getting caught. Besides, when it approaches the island it’s on the surface, and Indy jumps off to go hide. God melting faces, I gots no problems, but that sub thing was outrageous. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Maximino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e95f7d/32.png) [@Mighty\_Maximino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Maximino)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/166 "2002-04-16T21:32:50Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Dooku \* > \*\* Can someone tell me why that sub never **submerged** while traveling all that way in wartime with its secret cargo? Don’t tell me it did, and that Indy was able to open a hatch, climb inside and hide w/o getting caught. Besides, when it approaches the island it’s on the surface, and Indy jumps off to go hide._\* Well, it _wasn’t_ wartime. It was sometime in the late 30s, but before the wars began. U-boats could go much faster on the surface than they could submerged; even during the war they typically only submerged when they were attacking or under attack. They could also only submerge for limited times, because their batteries would run out, and running the diesel engine while submerged would make the U-boat run out of oxygen. (The Germans did solve that problem eventually, but not until much later.) So it’s entirely reasonable that they ran on the surface the whole way! ---
**Author:** ![Koffing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@Koffing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koffing)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/167 "2002-04-16T21:39:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by av8rmike \* > \*\* > > While we’re on Star Trek IV, nitpicker Phil Farrand makes this observation, which I’ll repost here: Why does travelling around the sun one way make you go forward in time, and the other way make you go backwards?\*\* Well, there is an asymmetry there in that the sun is rotating. I’m sure that has something to do with it. Obviously, there’s no real scientific theory involved, but it’s not really a loophole. > [@](#): > > \*\* > In addition, Star Trek II, my own musings: The _Enterprise_ fled from Regula at impulse power to the Mutara Nebula. Do nebulae form inside planetary systems? And once the Genesis device was detonated, did it somehow transform the nebula into a planet, or did the wave extend all the way out the Regula planet? \*\* No real reason why it couldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/168 "2002-04-16T22:59:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Well, it wasn’t wartime. It was sometime in the late 30s, but before the wars began. U-boats could go much faster on the surface than they could submerged; even during the war they typically only submerged when they were attacking or under attack. They could also only submerge for limited times, because their batteries would run out, and running the diesel engine while submerged would make the U-boat run out of oxygen. (The Germans did solve that problem eventually, but not until much later.) So it’s entirely reasonable that they ran on the surface the whole way! Meh. I suppose it’s reasonable, but had he found a way inside the sub logically, you **know** they would have shown the nifty footage of a sub going under the water. ---
**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:** [April 17, 2002, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/169 "2002-04-17T00:05:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mandos \* > \*\*2. What’s stopping the machines from monitoring the very thoughts of the humans inside the Matrix? If the machines have such advanced control over the human mind, by now they should be able to interpret it. To me, it would seem that any humans planning anything against the machines could be easily detected based on their thoughts. \*\* Well, MY computer can’t even exit Battlenet properly, to expect computers to moniter billions of humans brains with all the complexity that human brains offer, someone is gonna slip through the cracks. Of course, like you said, that someone will the die because he is too weak physically, (unless he’s busted out by someone, say the A-Team!!) ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/170 "2002-04-17T00:09:17Z")
I always wondered why they didn’t set the level of technology in the world of **The Matrix** to that of say, the Middle Ages. “For sooth, thou art The One! Answer yon ringing tree stump.” ---
**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:** [April 19, 2002, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/171 "2002-04-19T11:11:26Z")
Another Star Wars/Yavin one: Why does the Millenium Falcon go to the rebel base if they know they are being tracked? Can’t they go somewhere and switch ships to throw the empire off their trail? I’m sure Han would have been glad to get everyone out of his hair and could have called in a favor from someone. ---
**Author:** ![funkynige](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@funkynige](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funkynige)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/172 "2002-04-19T12:48:31Z")
Has no-one mentioned in **The Matrix** how the human who’s working with the agents, gets into the matrix to organise his reward without anyone on the ship helping out? It seems that every time someone wants to go in, someone else has to push the buttons while the person going in is strapped down. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/173 "2002-04-19T13:31:02Z")
Okay the plothole from Dogma is piss easy to explain: Bartleby flips out. He basically decides, screw everyone, existance isn’t fair, I’m gonna end it. That’s why he has that big rant at Loki and then starts killing everyone at the church. He’s not trying to get back to heaven, he’s sided with Azrael. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/174 "2002-04-19T14:29:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MGibson \* > **I don’t think that was the case. The United States military wasn’t just defeated lickety split. The nation was divided in half by forces invading from Cuba and Mexico I think. After all the pilot guy didn’t appear in the movie until well after the invasion.** About _Red Dawn_, there is a plot hole in the movie. The pilot mentioned that North America was invaded from the South and from the North, that the Soviets sent 3 Army Groups through Alaska. Now let’s look at the plausability of this feat. A division equals more or less 10 000 men. A corps equals 3 divisions + support troops (let’s say another 10 000 to keep the maths simple), so we’re up to 40 000 men. 3 corps equal an Army (120 000 men + support troops, let’s say an even 150k in toto). 3 Armies equal an Army Group (450k + support troops, let’s assign a them 500k in total). So _ **3** _ Army Groups would be about 1.5 to 2 millions men. Now they want us to believe that you can mount a successful (undetected !) invasion of Alaska in October. Are they mad ? Where’s the infrastructure to support these troops ? Do they think that the build-up in Kamchatka would have been undetected (saying nothing about building up the infrastructure to bring **and** support that many units up there) ? And they were able to pull a blitzkrieg through the Alaskan mountains and the Rockies, so as to be stopped at the Mississippi ? ---
**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:** [April 19, 2002, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/175 "2002-04-19T16:37:08Z")
SW 1. They can’t jump to hyperspace near a strong gravity well - their own notwithstanding. 2. ight have done so, but they most likely never considered it. They didn’t exactly expect to get blown up - and they most likely didn’t know the rebels had the plans inside R2D2. 3. They do have backup hyperspace engines, but these are very slow. Regardless, they may well have taken months to cross the distance. Lucas naver put down the time. Who knows how long Luka was on Dagohbah? ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/176 "2002-04-19T19:40:12Z")
Not really a big one, but this nags at me, because I’m such a fan of the movie. In **Toy Story 2,** Woody the cowboy doll gets toynapped by Al; this crime occurs by having Al break into a _locked moneybox_ and running away before he could get caught. So assuming Andy’s mom has a perfectly fine brain, why does she not act _incredibly_ surprised when Woody is found safe and sound back in her son’s bedroom by the end of the movie? (There’s also the question of why neither Andy nor his mom question where the two new toys – Jessie and Bullseye – come from, but that’s not as big as the one above.) ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/177 "2002-04-20T01:05:28Z")
Speaking of TOY STORY 2, Al has the largest collection of Woody’s Roundup Collectibles in the world, but he is missing one piece. and that is Woody himself? Usally the lead character is the one most likly to be found. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/178 "2002-04-20T02:22:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dooku \* > \*\ ***Raiders of the Lost Ark**. I always considered this a rather large plot hole: Nazis board that ship to take the Ark back. They can’t find Indy, and as they leave, a crewman finds him (without looking in that direction, but nevermind) climbing aboard the Nazi sub. He salutes, the theme music proudly plays, and he goes and hides by the gun mount. Then they superimpose some map footage of this sub with its secret cargo traveling all the way to a hidden island. Can someone tell me why that sub never **submerged** while traveling all that way in wartime with its secret cargo? Don’t tell me it did, and that Indy was able to open a hatch, climb inside and hide w/o getting caught. Besides, when it approaches the island it’s on the surface, and Indy jumps off to go hide. > > God melting faces, I gots no problems, but that sub thing was outrageous. 🙂 \*\* At last! I can help. If you look at the Marvel Comics Official Movie Adaptation (which was done from the original script)(yes, I’m an old geek) you’d see that the sub **did** submerge. But Indy tied himself to the periscope _with his whip._ Handy things, those whips, eh? Just don’t ask me why the sub traversed the Med with its periscope up the entire way. Maybe they were looking for the white whale or something. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/179 "2002-04-20T05:05:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Enderw24 \* > > In **Superman** I’d be willing to accept that he could travel around the Earth 7+ times per second and go backwards in time. What gets me is that he never actually CHANGED anything. He just went backwards and then forwards again. Cool, superboy, you just wanted to see Lois bite it again? He _does_ change something. Though it isn’t shown on-screen, he obviously stopped the missle going towards California. In the original time-line, Lois’s car won’t start, and subsequently falls into a rift opened by the earthquake started by the missle. After Supes goes back in time, we see Lois again trying to start her car with a dead battery (ie, at the same point in time). This time, there is no earthquake, Superman arrives, and Lois bitches at him. Obviously, Superman must have stopped the second missle before going to check on Lois, thus preventing the accident which would have killed her. This does create a time travel paradox, though, but those are inherent to time travel stories, so I consider them to generally be a seperate category to plot holes. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386/180 "2002-04-20T05:57:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Monocracy \* > **SPOILERS BELOW OF COURSE** (just look for the bold titles) > > _Stephen King’s_ **The Stand** - The super-flu kills over 99.9% of the population, sparing only a lucky few who are completely immune to the virus. Immunity has nothing to do with genetics (this is explained better in the book) … in fact, in both the movie and book, i don’t think any 2 people survive that are closely related to one another. But, in the end, Molly Ringwald’s (Frannie’s) baby is born with the super-flu, but somehow overcomes it, because one of her parents was immune to the virus. The doctor even says that once babies are born with both parents being immune, the super-flu will be a thing of the past. It looks like King is subscribing to Lamarks (sp?) theory of evolution here. What killed me about **The Stand** (other than the fool actress who destroyed the character of Nadine Cross) was after the superflu. Stu, Fran, Mother Abagail and the rest are (memory is a bit fuzzy here) on a hill overlooking an empty Boulder. Some words are spoken to the tune of “you and your dreams led us here, Mother Abagail” and, all of a sudden, a freakin’ _parade_ of thousands of people start to pour into town like it’s the opening of the Oklahoma border. What? Did all these people, in ones and twos and small groups, from all across the country, happen to descend upon Boulder at that exact instant? Was there a ribbon blocking the road into Boulder keeping the people out as they waited for Mother Abagail to cut it in an official opening day ceremony? You think you’re going to walk/bike ride from, say Daytona Beach FL to Boulder CO, and then sit outside the city for days until Stu Redman shows up? Oh, and about the flu: it had served Gods purpose, there was no more need for it to kill people. So it didn’t. 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-stupidly-large-plotholes/49386.md?page=10)