# Point out logic/plausibility flaws in classic movies and TV shows **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 27, 2014, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855 "2014-01-27T16:44:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [January 28, 2014, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/21 "2014-01-28T07:56:58Z")
In _The Blues Brothers_, why are the Good Old Boys so pissed at Jake and Elwood? They didn’t even show up at Bob’s Country Bunker until after it was closed. Bob’s the one who got stiffed for the bar tab. Maybe you’d be a little annoyed that someone went on in your place and pretended to be you, but mad enough to go chasing after them in a pickup and firing a shotgun? I don’t buy it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/22 "2014-01-28T12:38:46Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > In _ **Where Eagles Dare** _, Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton creep through a German castle, with Burton popping sentries left and right with a silenced pistol. Finally they reach the communications room, and Eastwood tries to sneak up with a knife on _the one German in the entire castle sitting right next to an alarm button_. > > Fine, you think: Burton’s run out of ammunition, so it’s up to Clint to silence the Kraut the old-fashioned way. > > Eastwood, of course, steps on a loose board and alerts the guy, who of course jumps out of his chair and slaps the button, alerting the whole castle that something’s wrong … > > And as the first _Ah-OOOOOOO-ga! Ah-OOOOOOO-ga!_ sounds, Burton shoots him in the back with the silenced pistol anyway! > > **WTF?!?** **Where Eagles Dare** is a collection of gross improbabilities (the entire plan, when you get to the end, as revealed is absolutely and completely ludicrous – even more than it appears during the execution of it), but this detail that you describe is the one that struck Pepper Mill most forcefully when we saw it on Retro recently. Please note that when Gregory Peck had to go into the Nazi Control Room Where the Guy Who Could Press the Alarm Button was listening to Classical Music and Disable the Guy (in the Movie Derived from an Alastair MacLean Novel) (in the first of them, **the Guns of Navarone** ), he succeeded. He shot the guy. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/23 "2014-01-28T12:44:03Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > In Titanic, the characters don’t really seem to show much discomfiture as they’re splashing around in the cabins, even though the water would have been near freezing. Adrenalin would only go so far. > > Speaking of the Godfather: why the hell would the guys watching Frankie allow him to have a visit from Tom, the consigliere of the very guy who wants to kill him? > > In King Kong, wouldn’t taking a genuine dinosaur back to New York be more impressive than an ape, no matter how big he is? Excellent point! I love this film and have seen it many times. I especially love Naomi Watts. I think she was amazing in this movie when she danced for Kong. Yet it never occurred to me that it would have been so much easier to transport one of the smaller dinosaurs back to NYC than it would have been to transport Kong. So much less dangerous too. People would have wanted to have seen a dinosaur so much more so than an ape. They would have paid much more to have seen one, too! Bringing back that ape was just a terribly dangerous thing to do. And … what an expense to tie him up and bring him all the way back. Then, they could have brought back many, many diff dinosaurs and milked that for millions over many many years. There was only one ape there but a multitude of dinos. A most excellent point. I wonder why it never occurred to anyone else. I never imagined that I was that thick. Good for you! ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/24 "2014-01-28T12:47:46Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > There’s the whole Amidala issue. First she’s the Queen of Naboo - okay, we can accept that. But then Lucas suddenly decides he doesn’t want a hereditary monarchy so he declares she was elected queen and has her leaving office when her term is done. > > So we’re now supposed to accept that a fourteen year old decided to run for the office of Queen? And the voters of Naboo decided she was the best candidate for the job and elected her? Can you imagine how bad the guy who ran against her must have been? I don’t know how much power the Queen of Naboo actually has in Star Wars canon. I guess I assumed it was a figurehead job and the people of Naboo liked electing attractive teenagers. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/25 "2014-01-28T12:52:28Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > I want to know why the natives built the giant walls to keep Kong out and then built a Kong-sized gate. ROFL! That is hilarious! Surely they would have been better off to just kill him if they could. Why keep him alive and feed him for all those years? If they were gonna build a fence, why not build it to keep him out and let him starve instead of keeping him in? That truly was a glaring logic problem. Again, that never dawned on me. I must be a real dummy. I am such a fan of this movie. I guess I was just blinded by the wonderful performance of Naomi Watts. What a babe she is! ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/26 "2014-01-28T12:57:45Z")
Another film that I truly love is, The Eagle Has Landed (1976). I would very much like to hear what people think about some of the logic problems in that movie. For example, Himmler forged Hitler’s name on a letter giving huge power to the character portrayed by Robert Duvall. It seems to me that was just incredibly far fetched. If doing that was feasible, wouldn’t we have heard of many other cases where 2nd tier officers in other armies forged their superior’s signature to try and get away with all kinds of irregularities? I guess it would have been easier to make that work in the Nazi army than most other armies. But, still, it seems incredulous to me that anyone would have ever tried to get away with such a thing. Absolutely incredulous! ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/27 "2014-01-28T13:12:58Z")
Speaking of letters and signatures, in _Casablanca_, I doubt the Nazis would really have cared about Letters of Transit signed by Charles de Gaulle. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/28 "2014-01-28T13:26:29Z")
> [@Lazlo Hapsburg](#): > > ROFL! That is hilarious! > > Surely they would have been better off to just kill him if they could. Why keep him alive and feed him for all those years? > > If they were gonna build a fence, why not build it to keep him out and let him starve instead of keeping him in? > > That truly was a glaring logic problem. > > Again, that never dawned on me. I must be a real dummy. I am such a fan of this movie. I guess I was just blinded by the wonderful performance of Naomi Watts. What a babe she is! This is a put-on, right? Jackson’s 2005 **king Kong** 9the only one so far to star Naomi watts) didn’t have a giant gate that swung open – she was lowered on a crudely-constructed wooden ramp. When Kong came for her at the end, he broke through the very much closed gate (and apparently immobile), although he coulda simply climbed over the top. \* It was in the 1933 version and the awful 1976 remake that there were operable Kong-sized doors in the wall. \*Apparently Kong didn’t like over-the-top performances. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/29 "2014-01-28T13:36:46Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > This is a put-on, right? > Jackson’s 2005 **king Kong** 9the only one so far to star Naomi watts) didn’t have a giant gate that swung open – she was lowered on a crudely-constructed wooden ramp. When Kong came for her at the end, he broke through the very much closed gate (and apparently immobile), although he coulda simply climbed over the top. \* > > It was in the 1933 version and the awful 1976 remake that there were operable Kong-sized doors in the wall. > \*Apparently Kong didn’t like over-the-top performances. I suppose I may have misunderstood another post that implied there was a gigantic fence and a giant gate. Most of the time, my focus was on Naomi whereever possible. Sorry. ---
**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:** [January 28, 2014, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/30 "2014-01-28T14:01:07Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > Speaking of letters and signatures, in _Casablanca_, I doubt the Nazis would really have cared about Letters of Transit signed by Charles de Gaulle. Some [people](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_(film)#Errors_and_inaccuracies) hear “[Weygand](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxime_Weygand)”, who had been a general assigned to North Africa up to a month before the time of the film. OTOH, no such letters existed nor would they have mattered at all to the local Vichy police under German control. Laszlo would have been arrested the second he showed up. ---
**Author:** ![Hermione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cdc98d/32.png) [@Hermione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/31 "2014-01-28T14:02:21Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > There’s the whole Amidala issue. First she’s the Queen of Naboo - okay, we can accept that. But then Lucas suddenly decides he doesn’t want a hereditary monarchy so he declares she was elected queen and has her leaving office when her term is done. > > So we’re now supposed to accept that a fourteen year old decided to run for the office of Queen? And the voters of Naboo decided she was the best candidate for the job and elected her? Can you imagine how bad the guy who ran against her must have been? My theory is that Lucas was trying to play both ends against the middle. He wanted to make it fairy-tale-like, so he had a monarch, because kings and queens are an essential element of fairy tales. But he also wanted to portray the Republic as a golden age, and for many, that means a democracy, not a monarchy. (He might also have been listening to some critics who accused him of glamorizing monarchies in the previous films.) So he jammed the two together–rather unsuccessfully. If I’d been him, I would have gone ahead with the hereditary monarchy. It would have explained why such a young girl became queen. It also could have created a romantic obstacle without that Jedi marriage ban that I was never crazy about…a queen couldn’t get away with marrying a former slave. (I’d also have made Anakin older in the first movie, but I’m not alone there.) ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/32 "2014-01-28T14:28:06Z")
Ooh, ooh,let’s do Iron Man! Are we to believe he flew the suit from California to Afganistan (or whatever that country was) nonstop to fight those rebels? How much gas did that thing hold anyway? And what’s the properties of the suit that allows it to rip a wing off an aircraft in a midair collision without traumatizing the person wearing it? It didn’t even put a dent in it. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/33 "2014-01-28T14:32:28Z")
My favorite plot hole in Star Wars is that Tarkin orders Leia’ terminated _immediately_, and then she’s alive however long it is later when he wants her around. It makes me wonder about the conversation in the termination squad locker room: “Tarkin wants the girl taken out.” “Yeah, yeah. Remember last time? ‘What do you mean, she’s already dead? I still had questions for her!’ Let’s give it until Thursday.” ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/34 "2014-01-28T14:36:32Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > Speaking of letters and signatures, in _Casablanca_, I doubt the Nazis would really have cared about Letters of Transit signed by Charles de Gaulle. The screenwriters themselves acknowledged that there was no such thing as “letters of transit” anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/35 "2014-01-28T14:41:52Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Ooh, ooh,let’s do Iron Man! > Are we to believe he flew the suit from California to Afganistan (or whatever that country was) nonstop to fight those rebels? How much gas did that thing hold anyway? Well, the point of the arc reactor (in his chest) was that it could provide an essentially unending source of energy. Not unlimited since it could be tapped beyond its ability to produce but, for something like flying, it could keep going for as long as you wanted it to. That’s why he wanted to get the large version online that had eluded him for so long: peaceful clean energy for everyone. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/36 "2014-01-28T14:47:33Z")
> [@Lazlo Hapsburg](#): > > I suppose I may have misunderstood another post that implied there was a gigantic fence and a giant gate. Most of the time, my focus was on Naomi whereever possible. > > Sorry. [Here’s a shot](http://www.retroweb.com/40acres/king_kong_gate.jpg) from the 1933 film (on set). ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/37 "2014-01-28T14:56:46Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > The Day the Earth Stood Still- an alien from a peaceful collection of sophisticated planets shows up and tells us they’ve all created an intergalactic police force to regulate them. This democratically created police force suddenly applies to humans whether we like it or not and we’re too violent, if we don’t knock it off he’ll blow us up. It’s been awhile, but I thought the reasoning was that the humans were now able to take their violence into space. They didn’t care if we killed each other in horrible ways, but once we advanced to their turf, they were laying down their rules. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/38 "2014-01-28T15:06:52Z")
_ **Aliens** _ (1986): The Weyland-Yutani board meeting with Ripley disbelieves her story ( that her crew was killed by an alien lifeform that they were instructed to retrieve from the planet) when they really don’t have much of a choice. To state that you disbelieve Ripley is to believe that:[ol] [li]She somehow murdered her entire crew[/li][li]She blew up the ship on which they were traveling and the refinery it was towing[/li][li]She then abandoned the vessel in the lifeboat to save herself[/li][li]She was able to tell a coherent story after being in stasis for 58 years[/li][/ol] Either things happened roughly as she said that they did or she’s a psychopathic mass murder. There really isn’t any middle ground. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/39 "2014-01-28T15:16:06Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > Speaking of letters and signatures, in _Casablanca_, I doubt the Nazis would really have cared about Letters of Transit signed by Charles de Gaulle. Not that there were ever any Nazi officers or troops in Casablanca anyway. The British were having a rough time of things after France threw in the towel in 1940, but they definitely would have had “issues” with the _ **Wehrmacht** _ flanking their major naval base in Gibraltar by placing troops in Morocco ( right next door) ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855/40 "2014-01-28T15:19:47Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Ooh, ooh,let’s do Iron Man! > Are we to believe he flew the suit from California to Afganistan (or whatever that country was) nonstop to fight those rebels? How much gas did that thing hold anyway? And what’s the properties of the suit that allows it to rip a wing off an aircraft in a midair collision without traumatizing the person wearing it? It didn’t even put a dent in it. Unless he used a hyperbolic trajectory, it would have taken him endless hours to fly there. It’s boring enough flying from New York to LA. The film completely ignores the length of time it would take for Iron Man (and later Iron Patriot/War Machine) to fly from the US mainland to Southwest Asia. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/point-out-logic-plausibility-flaws-in-classic-movies-and-tv-shows/679855.md?page=3)