# Plot Hole In Chinatown **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2019, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130 "2019-07-15T15:01:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chris\_Welzenbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5fc32e/32.png) [@Chris\_Welzenbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chris_Welzenbach)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/1 "2019-07-15T15:01:56Z")
There’s a plot hole in the movie Chinatown you could drive a sedan through: Midway through the film, Gittes visits an orange grove where he is shot at, the front left tire of his car is blown out, and the car itself–a sedan–smashes into an orange tree with such force that its radiator is shattered. Gittes’s client, Mrs. Mulwray, rescues him in her cream-colored luxury auto. She drives him to an old folks’ home where Gittes fights a couple heavies. Then they return to Mulwray’s house where Gittes and Mrs. Mulwray make love. Afterwards, Mrs. Mulwray receives a phone call that upsets her. She tells Gittes to remain where he is and rushes off. Gittes, meantime, pulls on his trousers and walks out to the drive way and kicks in one of the rear lights of Mrs. Mulwray’s luxury auto. A black sedan lurks off to one side. Who it belongs to and how it got there are never revealed. Next we see Gittes trailing Mrs. Mulwray’s luxury auto, using the broken tail light as his guide. What car is he driving? Following an interrogation of Mrs. Mulwray, Gittes returns home where,as he prepares for bed, he receives a call from Loach the cop, telling him Ida Sessions wants to see him. The car Gittes drives to the Sessions apartment is identical to the car he smashed into an orange tree less than twelve hours previous. How is this possible? If anyone has any insights, please let me know. - Chris Welzenbach ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/2 "2019-07-15T15:53:12Z")
i don’t recall the specific scene, but you could fill a book with movie goofs relating to car damage that magically disappears- if 12 hour lag time, you could argue the magic auto repair guy all of these old apartment complexes apparently had worked through the night to fix it. ---
**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:** [July 15, 2019, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/3 "2019-07-15T16:34:15Z")
The windshields in _Twister_ are in an extra-special quantum state. They are or are not broken depending on … who knows what. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/4 "2019-07-15T16:36:11Z")
[That’s not a plot hole, it’s a continuity error.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_(fiction)#Continuity_errors) ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/5 "2019-07-15T16:36:37Z")
And IIRC Steve McQueen’s car loses _five_ hubcaps during the big chase scene in Bullitt! ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/6 "2019-07-15T16:53:30Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > And IIRC Steve McQueen’s car loses _five_ hubcaps during the big chase scene … “I know what you’re thinking: ‘Did he lose 5 hubcaps, or only 4?’ Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I kinda lost track myself …” ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/7 "2019-07-15T17:00:57Z")
Maybe he has more than 1 car ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/8 "2019-07-15T17:09:17Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Maybe he has more than 1 car More than one identical car, if the OP is to be believed. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/9 "2019-07-15T17:15:40Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > And IIRC Steve McQueen’s car loses _five_ hubcaps during the big chase scene in Bullitt! Not to mention that no matter how fast Steve drives, that green Volkswagen beetle always gets there before him. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/10 "2019-07-15T17:21:24Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > And IIRC Steve McQueen’s car loses _five_ hubcaps during the big chase scene in Bullitt! SD Pedantry Alert! The Mustang had mag wheels. No hubcaps. The Charger on the other hand did regenerate hubcaps. The car probably reformed itself from the burned out hulk that was towed to the junkyard and even now roams the highways, carrying people who wish to do evil. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/11 "2019-07-15T18:45:25Z")
> [@Chris\_Welzenbach](#): > > If anyone has any insights, please let me know. > > - Chris Welzenbach Forget it, Chris… ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/12 "2019-07-15T19:11:00Z")
I have to admire the persistence of the OP, whose only previous post was over five years ago, and to ask essentially the same question. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/13 "2019-07-15T19:50:39Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I have to admire the persistence of the OP, whose only previous post was over five years ago, and to ask essentially the same question. Chinatown II: This Time Will Be Different ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/14 "2019-07-15T21:12:50Z")
It seems to me that after boning Faye Dunaway, he uses her dead husband’s car to tail her. Don’t know about the rest. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/15 "2019-07-15T21:23:38Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I have to admire the persistence of the OP, whose only previous post was over five years ago, and to ask essentially the same question. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Chinatown II: This Time Will Be Different Wasn’t the movie Chinatown II called “The Two JAQs”…? ---
**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:** [July 15, 2019, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/16 "2019-07-15T21:31:03Z")
Your room. Now. And no dinner, no matter how much you cry to your mother, do you understand me? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/17 "2019-07-16T12:01:20Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Wasn’t the movie Chinatown II called “The Two JAQs”…? _tips cap_ ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/18 "2019-07-17T20:23:22Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > “I know what you’re thinking: ‘Did he lose 5 hubcaps, or only 4?’ Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I kinda lost track myself …” > [@teela\_brown](#): > > Not to mention that no matter how fast Steve drives, that green Volkswagen beetle always gets there before him. Yep. We see that same sequence with the VW at least three times from different points of view. (As you obviously know- I’m talking to all the other kids.) ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/19 "2019-07-18T04:28:00Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > It seems to me that after boning Faye Dunaway, he uses her dead husband’s car to tail her. Exactly. [He tells her, outside the house where the sister/daughter is being hidden, that he’ll bring it back in the morning.](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/fdcc1ce4-7425-409c-87f5-15541ad8d927) It’s the same scene where she slumps forward onto the horn, foreshadowing what we’ll learn in the fateful Chinatown scene just from hearing the horn. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130/20 "2019-07-18T19:54:51Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Forget it, Chris… “I wish somebody would fix that plot hole.” " Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown. " [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-hole-in-chinatown/837130.md?page=2)