# Top Five Brutally Bad Plotholes in Quality Movies: Let's Compile a List **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 8, 2008, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548 "2008-05-08T11:29:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/21 "2008-05-08T15:31:58Z")
Any movie with ghosts that walk through walls but stand squarely on the floor or ground. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/22 "2008-05-08T15:34:25Z")
The first Matrix movie had a huge plothole in it that I found really irksome. Cypher was secretly meeting with the Agents to betray humanity. To get in, and definitely to get out of the Matrix, you needed to call the “Operator” who brings you back. So, to go and have a steak dinner with the Agents, how did he get there and back without anyone helping him? ---
**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:** [May 8, 2008, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/23 "2008-05-08T15:36:22Z")
**Die Hard 4** while being full of implausibles really went over the edge when they somehow decided that by messing with the controls at a natural gas plant you could divert all the gas flow back to the plant and make it explode when it got there. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/24 "2008-05-08T15:37:32Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] I haven’t seen the French thriller _High Tension_, but Ebert’s review said “It creates a plot hole big enough to drive a truck through – and then literally _drives a truck through it._” That’s why it’s on my Netflix queue. [/QUOTE] Since you haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil it for you. But I came in to mention that movie. Trust me when I say you will want your 2 hours and your monthly Netflix subscription fee back for having sat through it. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/25 "2008-05-08T15:38:09Z")
[QUOTE=Swallowed My Cellphone] The first Matrix movie had a huge plothole in it that I found really irksome. Cypher was secretly meeting with the Agents to betray humanity. To get in, and definitely to get out of the Matrix, you needed to call the “Operator” who brings you back. So, to go and have a steak dinner with the Agents, how did he get there and back without anyone helping him? [/QUOTE] He could have just lied about where/why he was going. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/26 "2008-05-08T15:43:21Z")
I was going to say _High Tension_ too – and Ebert’s line is one of the wittiest and most apt pieces of movie criticism I’ve ever read. ---
**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:** [May 8, 2008, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/27 "2008-05-08T15:45:30Z")
[QUOTE=Robot Arm] That’s not a hole. Hell, that’s one of the things that makes it a great movie. [/QUOTE] I agree. It’s not a hole because it’s absolutely irrelevant to the movie, which was more about mood and dialog than plot. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/28 "2008-05-08T15:45:39Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] I guess my favorite plot hole is in _The Big Sleep_. If I recall, there’s really no explanation for the murder of the chauffeur. Actually, I never completely followed who-all was doing what in that movie, but I watch it for Bogart and Bacall. [/QUOTE] Don’t be a schmuck; that clearly doesn’t meet the OP’s requirement of a plot hole that makes it impossible to enjoy an otherwise good movie. Just shut up. ETA: However, it is, in fact, a plot hole. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/29 "2008-05-08T15:46:23Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] He could have just lied about where/why he was going. [/QUOTE] Ummm…but they _watch_ them on the little Matrix print out. In _Silence of the Lambs_, there is NO FREAKIN’ WAY that trained paramedics could be fooled into thinking that the face Hannibal Lector is wearing is his own. It could never happen like that. Ever. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/30 "2008-05-08T15:46:38Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] He could have just lied about where/why he was going. [/QUOTE] Nah, I don’t buy it. It’s established as a very dangerous place and I just don’t see anyone going in without a specific mission that the team knows about. Plus, the Operators seem to be able to track you well enough onscreen, like “Quick, around the corner there’s a pay phone!”, so I have a hard time believing he could do what he did without a co-conspirator. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/31 "2008-05-08T15:48:17Z")
[QUOTE=Swallowed My Cellphone] The first Matrix movie had a huge plothole in it that I found really irksome. Cypher was secretly meeting with the Agents to betray humanity. To get in, and definitely to get out of the Matrix, you needed to call the “Operator” who brings you back. So, to go and have a steak dinner with the Agents, how did he get there and back without anyone helping him? [/QUOTE] The robots had a presence in the real world. Why did he have to go into the matrix to make a deal with them? My contribution is for 12 angry men. One of the major premises of the movie was that all 12 jurors had to agree that he was either guilty or not guilty, and if they could not all agree, the defendent would just be tried again and the second jury would SURELY find the kid guilty. Erm…no. What kind of crazy ass legal system do they have in Chicago, that violates the Constitution? ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/32 "2008-05-08T15:56:35Z")
[QUOTE=Mosier] The robots had a presence in the real world. Why did he have to go into the matrix to make a deal with them? My contribution is for 12 angry men. One of the major premises of the movie was that all 12 jurors had to agree that he was either guilty or not guilty, and if they could not all agree, the defendent would just be tried again and the second jury would SURELY find the kid guilty. Erm…no. What kind of crazy ass legal system do they have in Chicago, that violates the Constitution? [/QUOTE] I’m not sure I understand what you’re getting at. If you’re talking about double jeopardy, it doesn’t apply. If there is not consensus then the result is a hung jury which means a mistrial. That gives the chance to do a retrial. Double jeopardy would only apply as stated in Ashe v. Swenson, 397 US 436 (1970), “when an issue of ultimate fact has once been determined by a valid and final judgment, that issue cannot again be litigated between the same parties in any future lawsuit.” ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/33 "2008-05-08T16:01:31Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01] I’m not sure I understand what you’re getting at. If you’re talking about double jeopardy, it doesn’t apply. If there is not consensus then the result is a hung jury which means a mistrial. That gives the chance to do a retrial. Double jeopardy would only apply as stated in Ashe v. Swenson, 397 US 436 (1970), “when an issue of ultimate fact has once been determined by a valid and final judgment, that issue cannot again be litigated between the same parties in any future lawsuit.” [/QUOTE] Well I’ll be damned. The movie was almost unwatchable for me because of that, and now I feel silly. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/34 "2008-05-08T16:02:11Z")
[QUOTE=Mosier] Erm…no. What kind of crazy ass legal system do they have in Chicago, that violates the Constitution? [/QUOTE] 😕 They re-try people after mistrials all the time. Just not after ‘not guilty’ verdicts. (On preview–what **Antinor01** said.) ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/35 "2008-05-08T16:02:22Z")
There’s a continuity error that bugs me every time I watch _Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country._ I don’t know if you call it a script error or a plot hole or whathaveyou. Sulu is captain of the Excalibur, and they’ve been on a mission to catalog gaseous anomalies when Praxus explodes. On Enterprise, the crew is trying to track the Klingon ship that can fire torpedoes while cloaked. Uhura pipes up with a suggestion that they use the equipment that was used to track the gaseous anomalies. After all, “The thing has to have a tailpipe.” Wrong ship! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/36 "2008-05-08T16:04:14Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] I guess my favorite plot hole is in _The Big Sleep_. If I recall, there’s really no explanation for the murder of the chauffeur. Actually, I never completely followed who-all was doing what in that movie, but I watch it for Bogart and Bacall. [/QUOTE] Apparently, **nobody** involved in making [that movie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Sleep_%281946_film%29) understood the plot. It’s a Hollywood legend in that regard. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/37 "2008-05-08T16:14:50Z")
In the first Godfather movie (as in the book), I have always found the abrupt character change that Michael Corleone goes through (from a war hero who doesn’t want to have anything to do with the family business to someone intent on destroying Sollozo the Turk and McWhatshisface and taking charge in the family business) not very believable. It’s not really a plothole, I guess, but still something that strikes me as odd every time I see that movie. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/38 "2008-05-08T16:54:11Z")
[QUOTE=Slithy Tove] Watching “The Great Escape,” it occurred to me that Steve McQueen might have reached Switzerland if he’d just gotten off the motorcycle and climbed over the barricades. [/QUOTE] But that was an awesome bike, man! He couldn’t leave it behind! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/39 "2008-05-08T16:58:13Z")
[QUOTE=Morbo] Like my next example. The Ashley Judd movie **Double Jeopardy**. Where the whole plot revolves around the fact that Ashley Judd can legally kill her husband b/c he jailed her for killing him - you know - Double Jeopardy" - She can kill him now. (I’ll let that softball hanging for an attorney). [/QUOTE] I suspect this film (unseen by me) has always been unfairly maligned. After all, Ashley Judd isn’t a lawyer arguing the dubious DJ position in a courtroom. She’s a convict who takes her legal advice from another convict! Just because she misunderstands the legal nuances of DJ doesn’t mean the movie does, too. Is there a lawyer in the movie who actually agrees with this interpretation? I doubt it. It’s just her thinking she has a loophole to get sanctioned revenge on her husband/lover/ex-whatever (like I said, I haven’t seen the film). I absolutely love **Dirty, Pretty Things** –the way it’s written & acted, and the way it burrows into issues of race and class in the underground world of refugees working in the dregs of London society. So it’s always a little painful that the entire plot hinges on the dubious urban legend of illegal trafficking of human organs. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548/40 "2008-05-08T17:00:56Z")
[QUOTE=Švejk] In the first Godfather movie (as in the book), I have always found the abrupt character change that Michael Corleone goes through (from a war hero who doesn’t want to have anything to do with the family business to someone intent on destroying Sollozo the Turk and McWhatshisface and taking charge in the family business) not very believable. It’s not really a plothole, I guess, but still something that strikes me as odd every time I see that movie. [/QUOTE] But even as a war hero, at his sister’s wedding, you can see how much he relishes telling Kay the Luca Brazzi story. His transformation is wholly in character because he may be a “War Hero”, but he’s still a Corleone, and his claim that that’s his family but “not him” is transparently false, even early on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-brutally-bad-plotholes-in-quality-movies-lets-compile-a-list/448548.md?page=3)