What are your favorite plot holes in movies?

[Valiss]

In one of the newer Batman movies, they steal a device that vaporises all water in the area. Even if its underground. Humans are made of a lot of water, and yet the water in the human body was not vaporised.

And speaking of water, Signs. Why the hell would aliens that violently react to water land on a planet that's covered in it? Answer: they wouldn't. Or at the very least they would have worn suits.

What are your favorite movie plot holes?

[William_MacKean]

The super weapon in the pyramids in Transformers 2.  Like the hundreds of scans and excavations would not have revealed a metal infrastructure.

[Becky10]

I've had the signs discussion more times than I can count lol.
I used to love pointing out plot holes to my director who has to edit plays.

In Donnie Darko he has a plane engine thing fall onto his bed but when they gurney him out there is a very body shaped body on it and I just keep thinking he would be one crispy pulp stuck to that thing.

Also in Edward Scissor hands when hes making the ice sculptures, in like socal no one thought it was odd an abandoned house ordered large blocks of ice

[chainshot]

Good Topic.

In Indiana Jones and the last Crusade, when Indy is stepping on the letters at the lost tomb in the Canyon of the Crescent Moon (which by the way the film makers used a real place Petra), trying to spell out God's name on the floor, he falls through when he steps on J, instead of I. However, he grabs onto other letters around him so as not to fall down. The letters he grabs onto and pulls himself up are an L and a Y, which are not in the word Iehovah, so they should have collapsed too.


In Episode II Attack of the Clones, When Padme and a clone trooper gets blown out of the gunship chasing Count Dooku, she tells the clone trooper that they should go to the hangar to help Obi-Wan and Anakin. How did she know about the secret hangar, having fell off the ship before it arrived at the final destination?

[Valiss]

Oh yeah that reminds me of another one. In the last Star Wars movie Palpatine uses lightening on Luke, which barely burns him a bit. But in the new Star Wars movie, Palpatine is hit by his own reflected lightening, which horribly disfigured him.

[chainshot]

Another one that always bothered me was in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where The Nazis stop the cargo ship that Indy and Marion was on, and take the Ark and Marion to their submarine. After a crewman tells the Nazi colonel that he couldn't find Indy and they all leave, you see Indy already on the sub and climbing up onto the conning tower, and then the movie cuts to the scene showing a red line moving across the map. So how exactly does Indy survive this journey?  He has no special equipment, he can't get into the sub (the hatches have already been closed, since they're about to get underway), and it's about to go under the water. Now, I remember reading once that according to the original script there was supposed to be a scene where Indy ties himself to the periscope with his whip. If this is the case, it would be ridiculous, since it requires that the sub go no lower than periscope depth on the whole trip and, even if that happened, he'd still probably die.


And finally, another scene that bothers me whenever I watch the movie is Independence Day, where there's a computer virus that Jeff Goldblum uploads into the alien mothership, which is ultimately what allows the humans to defeat the invaders. Ask any software developer or programmer, and they will tell you that it is incredibly hard to write a virus on a PC that works on a Mac, or vice-versa, and even then, those are two computer systems that were designed and built by human beings. The likelihood of being able to successfully write a virus on a human-built computer of any sort that would affect a computer built by telepathic aliens from another world is astronomical.

[dbaldock]

Here's a pretty good Pot Hole Movie.         

[Toarmod]

And finally, another scene that bothers me whenever I watch the movie is Independence Day, where there's a computer virus that Jeff Goldblum uploads into the alien mothership, which is ultimately what allows the humans to defeat the invaders. Ask any software developer or programmer, and they will tell you that it is incredibly hard to write a virus on a PC that works on a Mac, or vice-versa, and even then, those are two computer systems that were designed and built by human beings. The likelihood of being able to successfully write a virus on a human-built computer of any sort that would affect a computer built by telepathic aliens from another world is astronomical.

Ahh yes, but they had the alien ship in the hanger to test it on first.

[Zardoz]

Another one that always bothered me was in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where The Nazis stop the cargo ship that Indy and Marion was on, and take the Ark and Marion to their submarine. After a crewman tells the Nazi colonel that he couldn't find Indy and they all leave, you see Indy already on the sub and climbing up onto the conning tower, and then the movie cuts to the scene showing a red line moving across the map. So how exactly does Indy survive this journey?  He has no special equipment, he can't get into the sub (the hatches have already been closed, since they're about to get underway), and it's about to go under the water. Now, I remember reading once that according to the original script there was supposed to be a scene where Indy ties himself to the periscope with his whip. If this is the case, it would be ridiculous, since it requires that the sub go no lower than periscope depth on the whole trip and, even if that happened, he'd still probably die.

My usual reply to this sort of thing is "it's just a movie!", but on the Indy on the  submarine thing, that movie takes place in 1936, the Germans were not at war anywhere, so there was no reason for the sub to run underwater.  Those diesel -electric subs were faster on the surface, and they could keep the hatces open for air circulation etc... If you want to pick nits though,  the whole sub is incorrect for 1936, the Type 7C model came into service in the war. Most of the firearms and aircraft in the film are also models that would not be around for a few more years.

[Noble Dreg]

My favorite movie...Jurassic Park.  The power is out all over the island so they have to eat all the ice cream before it melts.  I think the reason the ice cream was melting so fast is because the ceiling fans where spinning!

Star Trek, The Undiscovered Country...My favorite "old" Trek movie.  The film opens with Sulu's ship the Excelsior scanning for gaseous anomalies (their mission, not the Enterprises).  Later Uhura suggests searching for the Klingon Bird of Prey by saying something like "Well what about all that equipment we have on board for finding gaseous anomalies".  Wrong ship!

[Morgan Dreadlocke]

Day After Tommorrow-  At the end of the film the survivors are walking out into frozen New York harbor. Where are they going?

Armageddon- People all over the world watch the meteor explode in the daytime. It had to be night at 50% of those locations.

The Time Machine (early 60's Rod Taylor version) He's sitting in the machine traveling slowly forward, watching the sun traverse the sky. Then from the same window, the stars spin around the North Star. Think about it- The Sun NEVER crosses the sky in that area.

[Elennare]

Not really my favorite, but I just saw the movie so it's fresh in my head.

Back to the Future III - right at the end, when Doc shows up in the time machine train, why do the gates for the railroad crossing go down before his train shows up?  The not-yet-in-this-time-period train managed to trip the crossing sensors?

[Rowan MacD]

  I noticed that too.  I remark on it every time I see that movie, it cracks me up.
It think there are other bloopers involving the DeLorean too.  The Rubber tires-rims (on the railroad tracks) then the tires miraculously reappear..stuff like that.

[DonaCatalina]

There are even more problems with that. In the area of country pictured the tracks were mostly narrow gauge until nearly 1900. That means 3 feet wide as opposed to the Delorean's wheel track of 5.216 feet wide. The car would have straddled the track by about a foot on each side.
Then when the rebuilt steam engine came to the future, its 3 foot wide wheel set would have ground into the ties of a modern standard gauge track that was 4 feet, 8.5 inches wide.
Even if you argue that the original track was standard gauge 4.708 feet wide, you still have the Delorean at 5.216 feet wide.

[Lady Kett]

I may just need to watch one more time and really pay attention. I do have a serious case of wandering attention when something is on the television. However...

I have watched Season 1 of The Tudors on DVD 4 freakin' times and I cannot connect the dots on Buckingham being arrested for treason. I know he has a plot. I know he talks about it and plans it and there are all sorts of people who could turn the tables on him. I know he's in the situation where he envisions he'll do it, but doesn't. Then I get distracted by something shiny and they're arresting him.

I cannot get from A to B with what is shown. And it's driving me bonkers. This has nothing to do with any real or imagined history, it's what is shown during the season, period. And if you know which episode or where it happens, for the love of God tell me so I can rein in my ADD and quit going stark, raving mad!