# Plot holes that ruin movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 15, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304 "2009-12-15T03:01:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/21 "2009-12-15T18:49:35Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Sometimes it’s funny how even in the stupidest, most ridiculously implausible of films, something will stick out that you just can’t get past. > > I’m talking about _Ace Ventura: Pet Detective_, and the fact that in order for Ace to solve the case, every football player who was on a team that won an AFC championship game must _constantly_ wear his championship ring everywhere he goes. _Even_ the one who changed his name and masquerades as a woman to hide his identity.Yeah, I know. What the hell is _wrong_ with me? . . . that and the guy/girl was the placekicker at a university (Stetson University) that hasn’t had a football team since 1957. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/22 "2009-12-15T18:51:46Z")
I didn’t realize this until just now, but [imdb.com has a whole list of “2012” goofs](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190080/goofs). My favorite one is that assuming nutrinos superheated the earth’s core, wouldn’t they have cooked the earth’s surface - and all us on it - first, since the nutrinos would pass through the surface to get to the core? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/23 "2009-12-15T18:52:05Z")
> [@Nathan\_S](#): > > Speaking of Indiana Jones, there’s that scene in the 1st movie where he clambers on top of a submarine and then, somehow, manages to survive the trip to the enemy shipyard. > > I mean, c’mon, suspension of disbelief is well and good, but that just goes too far. Not sure what bothers you abou that sequence. Diesel/electric subs run on the surface except when engaged in active attack/defense. A run from one port to another might never require a submersion, if they do not happen to encounter an enemy vessel or aircraft. ---
**Author:** ![Nathan\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/47e85d/32.png) [@Nathan\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nathan_S)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/24 "2009-12-15T18:53:48Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Not sure what bothers you abou that sequence. Diesel/electric subs run on the surface except when engaged in active attack/defense. > > A run from one port to another **might** never require a submersion, if they do not happen to encounter an enemy vessel or aircraft. Sure. But the operative word here is “might”. Would you count on a submarine not submerging at any time while it makes its run to port? Didn’t think so. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/25 "2009-12-15T18:59:34Z")
Except WWII had not yet started when the U-Boat was transporting the Ark. So it could have travelled alongside a Royal Navy warship completely safely. BUT Indie riding the sub is still ludicrous because there would have been crew topside. Not just in the tower, but all over the top taking care of business. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/26 "2009-12-15T18:59:59Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > I can’t believe I’m about to defend the plot logic of Ace Ventura, but, unless I’m misremembering: > > it’s not necessary for everybody to wear the ring at all, it’s just that the criminal DID and the ring was final evidence. And the fact that the kicker was obsessed with the way his career ended makes it a little more plausible that he WOULD wear his ring as a constant reminder. > > Not really any more implausible than your usual Holmesian “small bit of evidence with only one possible explanation” scenario. In the movie, Ace tracked down everyone from the team and examined their rings. True, all we saw were humorous scenes of him examining rings while people were wearing them, but it’s possible there were some boring B&E jobs to look at rings being stored in dressers and the like. > [@DrFidelius](#): > > Not sure what bothers you abou that sequence. Diesel/electric subs run on the surface except when engaged in active attack/defense. > > A run from one port to another might never require a submersion, if they do not happen to encounter an enemy vessel or aircraft. True, but when they did run above the surface, they had several people on the conning tower as lookouts, conning the boat, etc. It’s unlikely no one would notice a non-sailor tied to the railing. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/27 "2009-12-15T19:00:57Z")
> [@Nathan\_S](#): > > Sure. > > But the operative word here is “might”. > > Would you count on a submarine not submerging at any time while it makes its run to port? > > Didn’t think so. 🙂 Me? No, of course not. But I am a coward, and not a swashbuckling archeologist. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/28 "2009-12-15T19:29:43Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > \*\*\* Spoilers for 2012 below \*\*\* > > Is there a website that tracks major plot holes for movies? I saw 2012 this week, and I liked it for about 3 days, and then my brain, working against me, figured out a gigantic plot hole that I can’t get past. This happens to me from time to time, and I’m just curious if anyone out there reviews movies from a Gigantic Plot Hole perspective. > > I found a site called [moviemistakes.com](http://moviemistakes.com) that points out crap like this: > > After the survivors escape from Las Vegas in the Antonov they are obviously worried about fuel and making it all the way to China. As any fool knows, lightening a plane increases range and yet, oddly, it never seems to occur to them to ditch all the heavy and now useless automobiles into the ocean. Luckily, the cars come in handy to manufacture an exciting exit from the plane at the end of the flight. > > That’s not the sort of thing I’m talking about. I can suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy some mindless entertainment. What I can’t get past is stuff like this: > > The big plot twist in the movie is that the “ships” are boats (submarines), not spaceships. Maybe it was just me, but I was thinking spaceships the whole time, and I felt that the “They’re not spaceships” line was the “a-ha” moment. All well and good, until I realized that the boats weren’t entirely stout. Well, they were, but that’s because they were built in the mountains. If they had been built in a dry dock like everything else, they could have just sent them out to sea and not worried about smashing into Everest. So we have not-so-stout boats that don’t even really need to be stout floating around for less than a month before the end of the world is over and civilization can begin again. So I wonder… couldn’t pretty much any submarine have been just as effective? Or a hot air balloon with 30 days of fuel? Or a blimp? Or a kayak and a shitload of chutzpah? I mean, at the “a-ha” moment, the game changes from “the world is ending, get off the planet” to “there’s going to be a lot of earthquakes and floods, figure out how to float around for a month.” And it seems to me that if you made a public announcement on day 1 and gave people 3 years, lots of these boats/submarines/blimps could be produced, savings millions if not billions of people. Instead, they keep their small-scale “save humanity” plan secret and only manage to save 400k. Seems like all the world governments should be tried for murder, if you ask me. > > So, first of, for those who have seen the movie, am I right? And if so, am I right to let that ruin the movie for me? > > Also, is there a website where people have aggregated major plot holes like this? Secrecy was a big part of the project, telling the world would have resulted in complete anarchy and chaos. Sure, some people would have survived in blimps or subs but there would have been ZERO chance at building anything resembling the arks. That’s also why they were built inside mountains and not on a drydock somewhere. Personally what really really bugged me was the death of the hot blonde russian. Really what the hell is the point of those self shutting doors if water can still get through and the room has a mesh ceiling? and just how the hell did her room get filled first when she was in the middle room? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/29 "2009-12-15T19:38:17Z")
It’s interesting that no one has actually mentioned a plot hole yet. It’s just been a listing of things that the poster decided was implausible. Sometimes it was, other times it wasn’t, but some of these things were just dramatic license used to make the film interesting. A work of fiction is about the story, not the accuracy. As for an actual plot hole, how about **Alien** , when no one considered just opening the doors and giving the alien a taste of explosive decompression? A good plot would have made it clear that this wasn’t an option. **Alien** pretended that no one would notice. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/30 "2009-12-15T19:52:42Z")
**Batman Begins** I was able to get over it and still enjoy the movie but I will agree that the “turns water to steam” microwave weapon that somehow spares humans was a rather stupid thing to try to pass off on the audience. ---
**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:** [December 15, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/31 "2009-12-15T19:55:12Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Thus, I present **Die Hard 2: Die Harder**. This movies has a LOT going for it… some terrific suspense and action scenes, some good performances, a really good plot twist part way through that I did not see coming. But it’s largely ruined by the baffling and obviously nonsensical idea that there’s no way for the people on the ground to contact the people in the airplanes, which a moment’s thought indicates is just ridiculous. Also, although less crucially, the bad guys’ plan makes very little sense. Even assuming that Ollie North hyper-patriotic types would be willing to kill hundreds of innocent Americans for what they thought was the greater good, all they’re doing is ending up on a slow plane flying out of the country. Why, what FORCE could possibly intercept them in the AIR and in any way interfere with that brilliant escape? The airliners in holding patterns over the airport were still in danger even after Col. Stuart and his men had left their hideout. The air traffic equipment at the airport was still not working, and the duplicates in the church were booby trapped. I think the idea was that once Stuart was safely away, he’d give them a code to disarm the explosives and allow the planes to land. When McClain lit the trail of jet fuel, it not only wiped out Stuart’s plane, but provided light for the circling planes to land. Which brings up a bunch more potential plot holes. Where was Stuart planning to fly to? Would he consider himself safe in international airspace off the east coast? If not, would any of the circling airliners still have any fuel by the time he got where he was going? And when did the weather clear up enough to land by lights alone? And, yeah, the idea of looking for a transmitter was ridiculous. Every plane at the airport has a transmitter on it. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/32 "2009-12-15T20:08:22Z")
High Tension. As the review said, it had plot holes not only big enough to drive a truck through, but in fact did drive a truck through them. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/33 "2009-12-15T20:21:46Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > The airliners in holding patterns over the airport were still in danger even after Col. Stuart and his men had left their hideout. The air traffic equipment at the airport was still not working, and the duplicates in the church were booby trapped. I think the idea was that once Stuart was safely away, he’d give them a code to disarm the explosives and allow the planes to land. When McClain lit the trail of jet fuel, it not only wiped out Stuart’s plane, but provided light for the circling planes to land. > > Which brings up a bunch more potential plot holes. Where was Stuart planning to fly to? Would he consider himself safe in international airspace off the east coast? If not, would any of the circling airliners still have any fuel by the time he got where he was going? And when did the weather clear up enough to land by lights alone? > > And, yeah, the idea of looking for a transmitter was ridiculous. Every plane at the airport has a transmitter on it. Plus the fact that there’s dozens of airports within spitting distance of Dulles. None of the planes running low on fuel thought to divert to BWI, or Philly, or anywhere else? ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/34 "2009-12-15T20:34:05Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Plus the fact that there’s dozens of airports within spitting distance of Dulles. None of the planes running low on fuel thought to divert to BWI, or Philly, or anywhere else? Yeah but they were all busy because of Christmas. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/35 "2009-12-15T20:40:00Z")
In Tears of the Sun a highly trained and motivated SEAL team led by a respected veteran is inserted into the Nigerian jungle for a covert op to extract Dr. Lena Fiore Kendricks with a secondary mission to extract a missioner priest and two nuns. Once there the doctor refuses to leave without hundreds of villagers that will surly perish at the hands of a enemy death squad. She shouts and cries a little so the Lieutenant disregards his orders and puts his entire team and mission at risk to drag the refuges through the jungle. If I led that SEAL team and she refused to go she’d get a rifle butt to the face and slung over my shoulder. Done. ---
**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:** [December 15, 2009, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/36 "2009-12-15T20:41:27Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Plus the fact that there’s dozens of airports within spitting distance of Dulles. None of the planes running low on fuel thought to divert to BWI, or Philly, or anywhere else? The planes didn’t divert to their alternates because the pilots didn’t know anything was wrong. The Dulles controllers (actually Col. Stuart’s men, but they didn’t know that) were telling them to hold. They probably told them that conditions were as bad, or worse, at the nearby alternates. In those cases where the real controllers were able to contact the planes (there’s a line where they mention reaching some of them on the Airfones), they did divert. That movie has some big plot holes, to be sure, I just don’t think that’s one of them. ---
**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:** [December 15, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/37 "2009-12-15T20:44:31Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > **Batman Begins** > I was able to get over it and still enjoy the movie but I will agree that the “turns water to steam” microwave weapon that somehow spares humans was a rather stupid thing to try to pass off on the audience. I just pretend the weapon is focused and aimable. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/38 "2009-12-15T21:07:56Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > As for an actual plot hole, how about **Alien** , when no one considered just opening the doors and giving the alien a taste of explosive decompression? A good plot would have made it clear that this wasn’t an option. **Alien** pretended that no one would notice. Alien doesn’t stand up too great to close examination. A friend of mine loves to compare the plot of that movie to a tiger getting loose aboard a modern submarine and _almost winning_. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/39 "2009-12-15T21:22:52Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > As for an actual plot hole, how about **Alien** , when no one considered just opening the doors and giving the alien a taste of explosive decompression? A good plot would have made it clear that this wasn’t an option. **Alien** pretended that no one would notice. Not quite. In fact, that was _precisely_ what the crew were attempting to do AFTER they had hunted the creature down. In the scene just following the chest-bursting scene, when the crew still think they’re hunting a small creature, they are planning their strategy for hunting it, Parker specifically states “once we get it in a net, we take it to the nearest airlock and flush it out into space.” Simply putting on life-support suits, opening all the airlocks and waiting for it to eventually flush out of the ship wouldn’t work at all. Given how vast the ship was (and how narrow a lot of the hallways were) it probably would have taken weeks for all the air to get sucked out, and by that time the creature would have sensed something was up and hunkered down in a cocoon. (Given the fossilized state of the “Giger” ship they found the creature on, it is clear that the creature could survive a looooooooooooooong time in hostile environments.) Opening up the airlock would only work in a small, centralized enclosed ship the size of the escape shuttle. Also factor in the acidic blood. A tiny droplet of it ate through several floors of hard steel. Even if the crew could engineer an atmospheric decompression that would be sudden enough to make the creature explode, that’s an awful lot of acid flying in every direction. How much damage would that have done? I kind of imagine Harry Dean Stanton’s character suggesting trying something like that, and everyone else turning to look at him, rolling their eyes, and saying “go look for the cat…ALONE!” ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304/40 "2009-12-15T21:37:01Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > Also factor in the acidic blood. A tiny droplet of it ate through several floors of hard steel. Even if the crew could engineer an atmospheric decompression that would be sudden enough to make the creature explode, that’s an awful lot of acid flying in every direction. How much damage would that have done? None, as no decompression I have ever heard of would make someone explode, Outland notwithstanding. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-that-ruin-movies/521304.md?page=3)