Ah, the plot hole. The bane of any fanboy’s existence, the consistently debated and raged over mistake that occurs so regularly in the world of cinema.
The greatest films in history have featured momentarily lapses in concentration by the greatest directors. Making a film takes an incalculable amount of time and dedication to the craft, and it’s not surprising that some fail to keep a grip on every aspect of their creation.
Many plot holes escape the scrutiny of many, falling by the wayside amongst the positive traits of a movie, whilst others are glaring, rotting splinters spoiling what may come close to perfection.
In this article we’ll take a look at films that survive in spite of a plot flaw(or several), flying high with a chain of errors tied to their neck, maintaining a good reputation for its superb elements. Many in the audience do not see what flies in their faces, their eyes glued to the good, but there will always be the more pedantic of film fans spotting even tiny plot flaws.
Here are a few not so tiny ones, that may not have spoiled excellent films, but certainly proved to be a fly in the ointment.
We are currently seeking Film contributors on WhatCulture. To find out more about the perks of being a Film contributor, click here.
9 Comments
Number 7 aren’t plot holes. Just editing for the sake of pacing.
You are really reaching with these. You must spend WAY too much time thinking about these movies. I love most of these movies, and never has something so stupid as, “did the Joker just leave the party?” or “how did Andy get reattach the poster?” ever cross my mind. These are not plot holes, nor are they even remotely unforgivable
Number 7: Simple explanation that’s in the film.
Falcon has a busted hyperdrive. It took Han & Leia a long time to get to Bespin.
So long in fact, that there was enough time for Boba Fett to figure out where they were going, give Vader a call and a Fleet of Star Destroyers to buzz in to Bespin and hide. Still not pushed for time, Vader managed to set up a tantalising deal with Lando in exchange for grassing up his mate.
Don’t pick holes in ESB. It’s not nice
Number 2: Aw c’mon! That’s just petty!
Maybe these blaster bolts cost a lot of ‘credits’. The gunners superior has got a tight budget to manage. The blockade runner is secured, they can mop up any malfunctioning escape pods by sending a detachment to investigate.
If it was a big deal not blowing it up, then Vader isn’t the type of bloke to not punish incompetence. He knows how much those blaster bolts cost too.
Go pick on the prequels
Re: Shawshank
I’m pretty sure that the poster is only attached at the top and hangs down loose like a curtain/catflap.
The BB one is BS. We are never told how the emitter works. Saying that it will vaporize everyone is silly. The amount of energy to separate the molecular bonds holding together the oxygen and hydrogen would have to be emensly focused for several minutes (granted my assumption is also silly since the emitter is fictional); however, causing a stream of water to evaporate is significantly different, as the molecular bonds in a fluid state are losier in nature.
The vast majority of these are actually a stretch in calling them ‘plot holes’ as a scene was probably deleted or shortened for pacing issues.
The Matrix one doesn’t make sense whil watching The Matrix, but in the second two movies we see plenty of times that people can travel around in the destroyed world, and that the machines have a sort of homebase and a defacto leader type situation. Cypher probably just went to the machines and they put him into the Matrix with Smith. Just like Neo did in the third movie.
No. I remember in Shawshank that the poster was only held up by the top two corners. That was a major detail during the montage, not a plot hole at all.
Theres a bigger one in the Back to the Future trilogy. At the end of BTTF 2 Marty gets the letter from Doc telling him he’s back in 1885 and tells Marty where the Delorean is to get Marty back to 1985. However, for the purpose of the sequel Marty goes back to 1885 and screws up the Deloreans gas tank (or something, havent seen it in a while). Anyway, Doc says gas isnt invented for another few years so they have to get it up to 88 MPH some other way. BUT there are now 2 Deloreans in 1885. The one Doc places in the mine for Marty to find in 1955 and thr one Marty brings BACK from 1955 to 1885 to save Doc. Just switch the gas tanks over. Paradox headache.