Plot holes matter, and no amount of the inevitable fanboy frustration that greets this kind of article can change that. You see, it’s very simple: every brush stroke made by an artist makes a difference to the final painting – every mark is a decision in the story of the image, and it is the same for films. Every single thing we see on film, from hairstyles to camera angles to the way the light hits a particular vase in the background has been meticulously chosen by the film-makers – there are very few creative accidents. And yet as soon as a plot hole appears, too many people are too willing to shrug and simple say it doesn’t matter – someone dropped the ball somewhere, but it makes no difference.
Of course it makes a difference, and for some fans the presence of too many major plot holes can make a break the reputation of a particular film-maker. Whole online communities react in disgust and anger and threaten to topple the world off its axis because M16′s entire plan in Casino Royale relies on James Bond pulling a last minute straight flush out of the bag to beat the villain’s already extremely impressive full house.
But then conversely, sometimes it seems that plot holes don’t actually matter as much as we might have initially suspected: great films can feature gaping holes and cracks right through them that we are willing to simply ignore in the interest of entertainment. Perhaps those venomous fanboys were right – perhaps we should all just stop using our brains and enjoy the pretty pictures on screen without analysing the stories.
Or perhaps not – these plot holes still count, and we still talk about them. It’s just that their respective films are so good in every other department that we can accept the problems as an exception to the overall quality. They didn’t go away, they just didn’t quite have the same derailing effect at the time; but had we been looking hard enough, or analysing cynically enough, these plot holes could well have compromised our enjoyment of the films. Sometimes, it seems, we’re just more tolerant of mistakes than at other times.
So we’re not talking plot holes from awful sci-fis that are terrible anyway, or the mistakes made by Michael Bay, whose films are also terrible anyway. Just Class A movies all the way, and ones that were not spoiled despite these glaring mistakes that you probably missed…
10. Star Wars: Episodes IV-VI
- The Hole: Stormtrooper Armour Is Basically Pointless
Since the world has gone crazy in the past couple of days for new Star Wars news in the wake of Disney’s big money acquisition of Lucasfilm, what better place to start this list than a look back at a gaping plot hole that should have made more of a difference to fans of the original trilogy. Considering how notoriously irate they got at every problem with the Prequel trilogy, it’s surprising that fans didn’t make more of a deal of the fact that the heavy-duty looking armour worn by the Empire’s army of Stormtroopers might as well have been made of cheap, chafing plastic.
We marvelled at the films, heralding George Lucas’ creation as the best sci-fi opera ever brought to screen, ignoring the fact that the armour left the troopers exposed to every level of weaponry from blaster fire to Ewok-thrown rocks. So what exactly was the point in wearing it? Were those military uniforms merely an expression of fashion? Were the troopers playing dress-up simply to make Darth Vader feel better about being the only one who had to wear a galactic gimp-suit? Either way, it seems like a monumental waste of Imperial resources to clothe an entire army in outfits unfit for service – but then who cares when there’s bigger fish to fry like Jar-Jar Binks.
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198 Comments
They explained the matrix one. Without the ability to choose the people inside just died. “Whole crops were lost”-Smith
True. But the next question on that one made sense. Why wouldn’t they have started this fictional world for the humans in a primitive era? And then just reboot it whenever they started making technological leaps in the matrix that would allow them to find each other and get out?
Maybe because humans were already too advanced and their brains just couldn’t revert that far back. A little imagination is all you need answer some of these plot holes.
I think it’s a matter of the population. More humans = more energy for the machines. At the time of the films, there was about 6 billion people on the planet; compare to the year 1800 when the population was only 1 billion. And smaller again the earlier / more primitive you go.
who says they didn’t do you really think they went through 100 years of the 1990′s and no one noticed?
Think of the believable mortality rates.
In older times, you would have <50% living up to 60 years old. The machines would have none of that.
They explained this as well, that time frame was the happiest window of time in human history. Life was hard in the 1800s.
maybe they had to have the Matrix at a more technologically advanced stage because it was the only way for the machine agents to access it
Agent explains this very thing in the movie. They made several versions of the Matrix at first (an example is the one of a world without suffering), but none of them worked because the human condition is inherently made to suffer and this is the only true natural state of humans and the human mind. As for them using a different time frame, Agent Smith explains the human mind worked optimally -thus sustaining all of those lovely human body batteries- during the time just before the war with the machines. Thus the world of the Matrix is actually perpetually ‘trapped’ forever within the world of around their version of the year 1999.
The human mind needs to believe it is in control, which is why so few are able to ‘wake up’ from the Matrix. A great symbolism of the Matrix is that Religion is our Matrix and only when you realize there is no God do you begin to fully comprehend that the true possibilities of life are meaningless and unlimited at the same time.
Amount of energy gained from a human <<<< Amount of energy needed to keep human alive
Explain please.
Joe,
I’m sure I’m not the only one, but I’d really like to be able to look at the comments on a website without coming across an athiest comment like that. Also, forgive me if you are not athiest, but since you preached on here I’ll preach a little too. If you truly are an athiest, than heed this passage: “If you deny me here on earth, then I will deny you in front of my father’s gates in Heaven”. This was spoken by Jesus (Some of the wording may be off, though). If you know the Lord, and deny him, then when the time comes, he will deny you.
To the others on this site, don’t bother to criticize this comment, for I am only attempting to do my job as a Christian and guide those who do not know the Lord.
There’s an even bigger plot hole with the matrix. By feeding the liquified remains of the dead people to the newborns, this system would eventually run out of energy due to the 2nd law of thermodynamics–entropy. Unless there is some other source of energy which there clearly is not.
They never said that they were *just* feeding the people in the pods with the liquefied remains of the dead. This was just a good way to dispose of all those dead bodies.
So your saying that a person who has an exclusively cannibal diet will lose some calories in the process of being fed to another cannibal, and so on to the point where people will no longer be able to eat each other? I’m not sure that’s how entropy works.
Well, its NOT entropy, all this relies on is the fact that digestion is not 100% efficient
So far as the Matrix goes, I would presume they used humans (rather than, say, cows) because, in addition to the electricity (which should be relatively trivial compared with fusion, geothermal, and even hydroelectric power) what they were REALLY after was the computing power of billions of human brains networked together and running on organic goo. That this meant they had to be intelligent beings to get the most bang for the buck was just an undesired consequence.
The best one in JP is 1) how the Trex snuck up on the raptors at the end when usually we hear them coming from a mile away and 2) how did it even get in the building. The doors are doubles at best. But honestly who cares, the end of JP is good enough to let it go.
There’s a huge hole in the building behind the T-Rex when he appears at the end. That’s how he got in. I don’t know why people keep pointing that out as a mistake or plot hole while it’s so obvious.
http://www.jplegacy.org/jurassicpark/ffissue2/8.JPG
That gaping hole? Just a painting.
Well it’s not a “real” hole, but it’s obviously meant to appear as the T-Rex’s entryway. I think the plot hole mentioned in this article is flawed too. Why would the Rex need to scale that wall? The guest tour clearly began at the “guest center” where the Rex appears later. It could have just simply walked down the paved tour roadway to get essentially anywhere on the island.
One that always bothered me was in Jaws. How did the shark kill Ben Gardner and then leave his body in the boat to pop out for Richard Dreyfus?
Ha, yeah Orin, that one’s brilliant. Like the T-Rex in Jurassic Park, I’m pretty sure Bruce the Shark was a devious ninja.
“Beauty and the Beast” (Disney).
This film is basically, one huge plot-hole:
Philipe the horse abandons Maurice some time before he even finds the castle yet later he is able to take Belle back to the castle despite the fact that he’s never been there before prior to that. Maurice is sent back to the village and when he decides to go back alone he gets lost on the way there even though he HAS being there before. And when the villagers are told of the Beast and the castle, they just start walking and have no trouble getting to it even though they have never been there before (although Gaston did have the magic mirror). But the biggest error of them all is the fact that they have never even heard of this so-called “Hidden” Castle, which sits on a bluff atop a mountain overlooking the village.
What always bothered me about that scene was not the body but the fact that there is a huge hole in the boat under the water and the boat is still floating perfectly on top of the water. With nothing else that it could be stuck on top of.
My question re: Ben Gardner has always been – Why is his body (whatever the shark left of it anyway) never recovered and used as further evidence that there’s a shark menace? In the next scene, all Brody and Hooper are using as an argument to the Mayor is the lost tooth. Guys, what about the shredded remains of ol’ Ben?
Regarding Doc Brown’s Magical Steam Powered Time Locomotive: Doc specifically said in the first film when asked if the DeLorean was nuclear; “No, no, this sucker is ELECTRICAL. I just need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity it needs.” So, although still a bit of a stretch, I guess it is possible for the Doc to have figured out a design for an advanced steam powered turbine design with enough electrical output to power a flux capacitor. Along with redesigning the flux capacitor itself so that it could be built out of materials available in the late 1800′s. Which opens up it’s own little can of worms; namely, if Doc could make a steam powered turbine capable of generating that much electricity, why didn’t he just go that route in the first place, instead of subjecting himself to the dangers of handling radioactive material and risking being killed in obtaining it.
Doc did have the components of the hoverboard back in 1885…
Radiation had been discovered prior to 1885, Doc could have easily built a Geiger counter and located uranium(he would also probably have a good Idea of where the uranium mines would be in the future) With some time and technical knowledge (both of which he had) he could use a centerfuge and reactor to refine to plutonium.
This is actually a pretty easy one. At the outset of the movie, he had the necessary plutonium to power the flux capacitors. What he did not have was the petrol needed to get up to 85 MPH (hence having to do the whole train stunt). All that he had to do was over time, create a train that could go 85 (steam powered, on a track). From there it was a trip to the future to get the components to convert to the flying train, then he went back to visit Marty. And he had children that were as old as 8 at this point I believe, so he was developing this machinery for years!
Just as a note to SJ (dunno why you can’d nest comments deep enough here)…88 mph, not 85. :-)
He had that Mr. Fusion from the future that ran the Delorean on garbage. He probably put one in the locomotive.
1.21 GIGAWATTS!!!!!!!!!!??????????
Or he could have just used some good old fashioned lightning like in the first movie. Granted he didn’t have the foreknowledge in the third movie, but I’m sure the guy who invented time travel could figure something out. Once he gets to the future, he picks up another Mr. Fusion and installs it and the hover conversion and then goes back to visit Marty.
As for the flux capacitor, well the Doc mentioned he was a blacksmith for a reason. So he could build things. I’m sure given enough time he could have made a new one or an equivalent piece of technology. It had to have been at least a few years as his kids weren’t babies.
One of the most ridiculous is Star Trek: Generations. The Nexus is an energy ribbon actually, physically moving through space. Picard decides he wants to leave the Nexus and recruits Kirk to help him stop Soren back on Veridian 3. Ok. So what?? That was just a fantasy!! Just because Picard wants to leave the Nexus means Soren has to as well? It makes no sense!! you can do anything or be anywhere in the Nexus. Soren could just be off doing his own thing. As a result, I maintain that Picard and Soran are STILL in the Nexus, and Picard is just living out a version of his life inside the Nexus.
Picard chose to leave the Nexus and return to Veridian 3 at the point in time just before the Nexus hit. At that point in time, Soren was on the planet and NOT in the Nexus.
Dogone, how’d you get confused on that one? You can exit the Nexus at any point in time.
Heh. I always liked the fan-edit where Picard popped out of the Nexus even earlier, and prevented all of the events from happening in the first place. Isn’t non-linear causality *fun*? :-)
The author has no idea what a plot hole is. What he’s mentioned are NOT plot holes at all. A waste of an article.
A lot of these aren’t major ‘plot holes’ but slight continuity issues.
It’s an inconsistency that contradicts the flow of logic established by the plot, or constitutes a glaring omission of relevant plot information. How’s that suit you?
That’s beautiful – perhaps include a disclaimer next time…
this is a terrible list. jp is easy there isa bit where they lower the goat which is the same level as the ground the jeeps are on other wise you couldnt see the t rex and that be a park hole not a plot hole. most of the others are even explained in the movie, and not even a “plot” hole it stupid list
Here’s a ‘plot-hole’….how can the machines exist in Terminator at all? Cyberdyne and Skynet were based on the discovery of the first movie machine, then developed to eventually create both the technology and artificial intelligence to destroy the world. If the first machine wasn’t sent back in time there would be no Cyberdyne, no Skynet, no Judgement Day and no machines.
It’s called predestination paradox.
Stable time loop…actually, the laws of physics say this kind of thing is possible.
^Racheliciously
How can you call it a stable time loop when the machine is programmed to wipe out the existence of John Connor and therefore if it succeeded, there would be no reason to send the machine back in the first place and therefore no skynet later on?
The kill john connor part is definitely not a paradox, because say they are successful, the terminator has no way of returning to the future and thus lies in wait until or maybe helps in the creation of skynet and reports in on the john connor situation, so skynet whips up a time machine and sends a terminator back in time to keep its time change accurate.
This one is actually somewhat explained, especially if you include all three movies. Despite what Sarah thinks, Skynet’s existance is inevitable–the only things that actually change are the details of exactly when it happens, and how effective the human resistance is against it.
Granted, there is the point that Skynet was flat out *stupid* in that it’s efforts ended up making the resistance stronger rather than weaker (case in point, the whole reason John Connor *became* the leader he did was because of the first Termie…)
I could have sworn it was stated somewhere in T2 that the machine found merely accelerated their progress in robotics, so the original organization that creates it still existed to kick things off, but the time-traveling terminator’s remains helped speed up the process. I think they also implied this accelerated timeline in T3 as Connor expected them to have more time.
BatmanBegins isn’t a plot hole. While it is true the human body is primarily water, the molecular bonds holding it together are stronger than water as a fluid. Without knowing the properties of the microwave emitter, you cannot say whether or not the logic of it evaporating people is true. Maybe the emitter is just focused on the water line. Secondly, TDKR’s isn’t a plot hole either. Bruce Wayne doesn’t escape the pit one day prior tithe bomb going off, he has several weeks. Nolan just doesn’t provide a lengthy and unnecessary 15 travel montage. This argument is like saying showing Michael Corleone injured in the exploding car in The Godfather, but not the process of his return to NY is a plot hole. Lastly, a plot hole is something where something onscreen disregards prior logic, which most of these aren’t.
Hello. Microwaves??? Place a human in a microwave oven and his blood will boil away. Same concept.
Or maybe it did. So what? The desired outcome was for people to inhale the vaporized toxin, which didn’t require them to be directly exposed to the microwaves. For the people who were directly exposed, they died. So say they killed 10,000 people in order to infect the other few million citizens of Gotham. What is the problem here for the villains? And the whole point of the scheme was to destroy the city so it would be even better if it killed everyone instead of just infecting them.
10. That’s not a plot hole.
9. The architect or Morpheus or someone explains that in order for the Matrix to work, its inhabitants have to be allowed a certain level of choice.
8. Never seen any Ghostbusters film.
7. So he found a different technology. It’s not like any of it is real, so why can’t they just make up more BS if the plot needs it?
6. Maybe he can telepathically control how someone forgets. Anyway, who else works out his identity that he’d want to kiss?
5. That’s Hollywood Science, not a plot hole. The entire emitter idea is bunk anyway.
4. Ock’s insane.
3. We don’t know that about the Berserker. Anyway, wasn’t Legolas busy killing orcs immediately around him (I can’t remember)?
2. I always assumed there was an incline somewhere the T-Rex could scale with its legs or just jump. But yeah, come to think of it…
1. Apple’s OS will rule the universe, eventually.
incorrect about the emitter, those already are in operation.
“1. Apple’s OS will rule the universe, eventually.”
A COLD day in Hell.
Ha! Try living in Alaska. Everyday is a cold day in Hell. And we love Apple!!!!
Alien 3… Starts out with alien egg “hatching” … Where the hell did the egg come from the queen alien went immediately into attack mode… It chases newt… And then ripely fights it with the power loader… When was there a spare moment for that thing to place an egg… Also… Pretend that works out somehow… Those eggs don’t just hatch and start searching for someone… The host has to be right there… I am calling b.s. on this …
The queen laid the egg on the dropship on the journey from LV-426 to the sulaco…
Ok, so lets say that’s what happened… The ovipositor was detached and left on lv426, secondly, if the egg came along somehow, those eggs don’t open and the face huggers go walking around looking for a host…. Just saying I see a hole here
Also, Ripley survives/fights unprotected IN SPACE.
Why are you saying they would have to “search” for someone?? There were THREE “someone’s” right beneath it. Oh, they were sealed in Hypersleep chambers you say? So what?? We have no idea of the sensing capabilities (I would posit they are extremely sensitive) of the Facehuggers.
The area in which the T-Rex pops out of is level with the road. Remember when they show the goat? It’s right in the eyeline of the kids. I don’t think at any point during that scene do they try to say that the T-Rex is down below. However, that cliff the car falls off is rather random, and more of a continuity problem instead of a plot hole, in my opinion. I suppose it’s possible the cliff is directly next to where the T-Rex escaped from and we just didn’t see that area and the car was only pushed a bit further over.
In regard to the Star Wars prequels. I never understood how in “A New Hope” everybody acts like the Jedi’s as peacekeepers in the galaxy are something of centuries ago. Many people seem to remember them only vaguely. How is that possible? There can only be like a mere twenty years between “Revenge Of The Sith” and “A New Hope”. I mean this is a galaxy where some species live several hundred years.
I know, that bugged me too! How did everyone suddenly get amnesia? Maybe it was the emperor or Darth Vader using evil mind wiping powers?
In all honesty theres the story of Vader, but parallell, you have the story of Palpatine.
He engineered the war through Ep 1 by using the Trade Federation on his side and building trust.
Then in Ep 2, he used this trust to create a movement of separatists, rebelling against the Republic, and being lucky with having Anakin and Obi Wan captured as well as Padme, who the trade federation held a grudge against. The icing on the cake was the Jedi led the assault to save them and the first battle of the war.
And finally in Ep 3, he worked on gaining Anakin to his trust more and more and veering him toward the dark side, but primarily, he gave himself more powers and more reasons for the Jedi to be angry with him, and finally attempt to arrest him. After he survived the arrest, and gained Anakin, he painted the picture of the Jedi being behind a plot to take over, already angered by the war, the Republic joined him in agreement of the Empire, and he started the purge, Order 66.
…
Didn’t mean to go on, but im guessing by the time A New Hope is around, the citizens are pretty pissed off at the Empire, but because of the power and might of the Empire, they probably don’t even dare mention Jedi as much as they can, in fear of being accused of assisting them. And probably half of them still didn’t like the Jedi much and so just chose to forget them, remembering them only as a politcal threat, and blaming them for the Empire in which they now live in. I mean, Tatooine would be the perfect place to talk about Jedi, as its mostly run by the Hutts, and don’t bother much about the Empire, which is why Luke speaks about it and trains in the midst of Solo.
…
As I said, sorry for going on, but looking at the overall plotline, they were probably views as evil in A New Hope, as evil as the Empire.
Where did it occur that people only vaguely remembered the Jedi?
Han Solo in ANH, most notably..which is *especially* odd, given that his partner was directly involved with *Yoda*, of all people. Though it is interesting that the two characters who know the most about what really happened are also the the two main characters who don’t speak ‘Galactic Standard’. (For those who don’t get it–C3PO got a memory-wipe between the trilogies…but R2 *didn’t*.)
“…that it would invariably lead to multiple people commenting that “he’s Batman, deal with it” or something equally as asinine.”
Yes, assuming a super hero could complete super hero feats is “asinine.” Come on! Let’s not be so pretentious about film and just enjoy it!
Except that Batman isn’t actually a super hero. He’s good at martial arts, rich, and smart. He has no super powers. To try and claim he’s something he’s not is rather asinine.
Your asanine
Being able to travel isn’t a superpower. Saying that Batman getting back to Gotham from The Pit in the Middle-East offscreen is a plothole only works if you’ve NEVER WATCHED A MOVIE. EVER. Nearly every movie has some kind of offscreen action. If they had to show Bruce Wayne getting back to Gotham, why not show Bane using the bathroom? It’s absurd.
the point of that plot hole is that he had absolutely no resources at this point in the story nor did he have Alfred to help him out.
In reply to Space, what they can use is something called a match-on-action which is where the editor, director and screenwriter create a montage, showing the character moving from one location to the next. For TDKR, they could have shown him (in order), walking through the desert (montage for a few seconds), hiding in a village, rummaging through bins to eat, persuading someone to let them use their phone, (or using a public phone, or stealing one), contacting Alfred or anyone useful, getting money by selling stuff or something like that, cleaning up in the airport toilet and getting on a plane bound for Gotham or any airport near, they could have then shown him somehow making his way into Gotham (I don’t know how he could do this, but given more time I could figure a way out). That could have taken 5-8/9 minutes to do, it may have costed more, but it would be paltry compared to making it a better movie.
Seriously? To both you and the writer? First yeah like Space said if you think this a plot hole than you really haven’t ever watched a movie or tv show. Try watching the show 24, though a brilliant show pretty much every episode Jack Bauer makes it across LA many miles without any traffic whatsoever! Plus don’t u know that time works differently for tv characters? They travel by commercial or map which is an alternate universe where a few minutes to us is could be hours or even years to them! Sorry for the sarcasm I’m not trying to be an ass, oh as for the Batman thing, yeah Bruce was in a prison who the hell knows where, but this is Bruce Friggin Wayne! All I’m saying if I was a billionaire superhero, or even just a billionaire I would have funds and set ups all around the world in case of emergencies or I am running from the authorities! Lol I mean Tony Stark has more than one suit. So we know that Bruce gets back,I will admit one of the faults of TDKR was the time lapses, being that the majority of it was during the day. However even if they didn’t have the epic climb escape happen the way it did showing a scene or montage of him getting home would add nothing to the movie,I fact it would take away the hero arrives in the nick of time scenes which are always more exciting
Reply to Fargus and the author. Did you see Batman Begins? Bruce travels the world and survives for 7 YEARS without resources. Before he leaves he even makes sure of it by burning his wallet and valuables. This is even before he has Ninja training and years of crime-fighting experience. There’s no reason to suppose Bruce couldn’t do it again.
As far as getting into Gotham, if some special forces guys can smuggle themselves in, I’d have to assume a crime-fighting ninja could as well.
The part I don’t get with Batman Begins is that the baddies have been infecting the water supply for weeks. In one scene it’s explicitly stated that the reason no one has felt the affects of the drug is because the affects only show when the water is inhaled as a vapor and not when it is drank. So what about when people take a shower? Or a bath? Possibly even when they’re having a cup of tea or coffee. I would have been fine with it if they hadn’t of bothered to come up with a terrible reason.
Keep an eye on things.
Minority Report. The character played by Tom Cruise, Chief John Anderton, gets an eye transplant procedure so he doesn’t get nabbed by the omnipresent cameras in the city but keeps his eyes. Why? So he can give them to his girl so she can go back to the security firm he worked for to go get the psychic kids and some data. Well… if it’s a security firm that can predict crime, if you had one of your agent flagged as a criminal, wouldn’t you prevent his access to the building by rendering his retinal scan void, or wouldn’t it trigger an alarm? Retinal scan confirmed, it’s Chief John Anderton. By all means, let him in!
In Jurassic Park
Was there some giant door when the T-Rex entered the hall to save the day? He would have needed to crush the wall somewhere huh?
Wouldnt we have heard the loud stomps of him coming like in the 1st scenes we saw it.
Oh yeah, and people are such good multi-taskers. Do you seriously think a group of people running for their lives from velociraptors while screaming and yelling are suddenly going to tune in to the low-pitched thud sounds made from a tyrannosaurus walking?
How about the fact the in the Matrix somehow Cyrus is inside the Matrix talking to Agent Smith while everyone else is in bed? That means either he has figured out a way to jack himself in AND out alone or someone was helping him. Perhaps Cyrus shoulda been “The ONE”?
Ya that would be Cypher not Cyrus lol wtf….
I tot that one was pretty obvious
he just had to plug himself IN, the machines could plug him OUT from their end.
Then he regains full consciousness, wakes up on his seat and removes the jack himself.
U can find plot holes & continuity errors in just about any movie.
find me on in fringe..o.0
A bigger plot problem with The Matrix is why the machines are keeping human beings alive. As batteries? Seriously? All energy stored on planet Earth is as a direct result of the Sun and the creation of our solar system. The amount of energy to maintain a life would have to be more than that which could be harvested and would eventually be depleted, recycling or not. And in the last episode (I apologize for mentioning it, but it is part of the canon) Neo and Trinity rise briefly above the smog to see… the Sun. With enough power to run whatever was needed for aeons. So why didn’t the machines just clean up the atmosphere and erect solar panels? Daft, I calls it.
In The Matrix, Morpheus explains this already…
“We don’t know who struck first, them or us, but we do know, it was us who scorched the sky. At the time they were dependant on solar energy from the sun, and so by taking out this source it was believed the machines would simply die out.”
Basically, they couldn’t get to the sun anymore. Humans hard scorched and electrified the skies, and so the machines could not do anything about it. So what did they do? they adapted and decided to use the energy from humans, and then started to grow and harvest humans, which Morpheus refers to, as in talking about, “fields, where humans are not born, we are grown.” And thats how they get the energy, because the humans took out the sun.
I guess some would say they could have cleaned it up, but I mean, wouldn’t the humans have messed it up so they wouldn’t know how to clean it up?
Not to forget the human body is no perpetuum mobile. To get energy out of it you have too feed it more energy before.
The whole System of the matrix and keeping all these humans alive, would consume thousands of times more energy than you get back via body heat. And if it would work, they had better used cows. Theve also got warm bodys and are easier to control.
The sad thing is that it would be relatively easy to plug this hole. The machines are keeping the humans in the matrix because the humans went into it out of their free will and ordered the machines to tend to their bodys and to keep them safe. And how to keep the humans safe better than stopping them to leave the matrix and fight rogue humans outside who might cause harm to those inside.
It’s all a lie. The matrix is really just a breeding program to create a species that can exist in both the computer world and the outside world. That is why the machines win, but the free humans and farmed humans are allowed to breed their numbers up again. They are seed stock that has gotten closer to the desired trait and been replanted. Why? Why not. Hybrids are usually more robust than the parent species.
That was studio meddling. Originally the humans in the matrix were supposed to constitute a giant neural net, but the studio feared audiences would not understand that, so they made the Wachowskis change the idea.
Here’s to answer some Matrix questions.
1) Operation Dark Storm – Humans covered the sky with nanites (basically nanomachines), obviously humans have to use something that the machines can’t clean up otherwise the plan is useless and for more than 600 years (since it’s 2699 during the 3 movies) the machines couldn’t do anything about it. Also in the 3rd movie, it shows that the nanites emitt EMP which disabled the Logos.
2) Without the sun as the infinite source of energy, they used the currents a human brain can produce as their source of energy. However to harness that power, the humans must have something to trigger emotion, hence the Matrix was created to give humans the illusion of a “choice” even though everything is really predetermined.
i never understood the planet of the apes- if it all started with one monkey that was sent to space, then how come there are gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees?
and in zombie movies when it all starts with a virus that animals can carry as well as humans. the virus is always contained to a certain area and there is a whole world out there that is unaffected. what about the birds?
Independence day has the best cock ups in movie history. My personal favourite, is when all the countries are celebrating at the end, it’s daylight in every single one.
I thought the computer virus was pretty lame as well, but one that was not mentioned was the damned tactical nuclear weapon that destroy a spaceship a quarter the mass of the moon. It was another example of stupid screenwriters with the opinion that any nuke is a doomsday weapon that just destroys anything. I compare a tactical nuke on that massive mother ship like setting off a hand grenade in the mess deck of a battleship, bad for those who happen to be near, but the rest of the ship might not even know it had been set off. I mean, they could have put something in the plot like setting it off near the antimatter supply for the entire ship (and I guess if the aliens were stupid enough to have a microsoft operating system without virus protection running their computer, they might have put all the antimatter one unshielded, unarmored section of the ship.
I think the bigger one from the same Superman film is that Superman took Lois up to the North Pole, and there shed himself of his super powers. She was in a freakin’ nightgown, but somehow they still got back to Metropolis, sans-transportation, sans-superpowers.
I think Stormtrooper armor predates blasters. So it would stop most things (shotguns, uzis, pistols) etc, but blasters came after and trumped them.
That’s at last according to the Star Wars RPG I played in high school.
Now I understand why Wizards of the Coast bit the dust.
Wizards of the Coast is still up and running.
You are assuming that every single blaster type weapon in the galaxy could penetrate stormtrooper armor. We have military that wear body armor and that armor is very good at stopping 9mm and .357 magnum bullets. It is not so good at armor piercing 7.62 mm ak-47 rounds. So do our enemies bring 9mm pistols? no! They bring weapons capable of defeating the armor. Therefore it is possible that because the rebels want to kill stormtroopers they bring the equivalent.
Same for the Ewoks and their armour-piercing arrows.
I still find it funny that they crushed a tank with a couple of logs!
I thought it was more funny that the AT-AT Walkers thick armors somehow vanishes if you trip the legs of the Walker. Before on it’s feet nothing could penetrate it’s armor. But when on the ground, just one hit makes them explode.
I imagine the AT-ATs were “armored” with some kind of electronic shielding technology, besides the sheer thickness of the armor. Once it crashed to the ground, all kinds of circuits would be destroyed, rendering the shielding useless and possibly starting small electrical fires and fuel leaks inside that would make it even easier to blow up.
As for the stormtroopers, they’re all clones, right (that’s why Luke is “a little short for a stormtrooper”—he’s a little shorter than Jango Fett)? I think their “armor” is actually a lot like Vader’s—it serves largely as life-support for second- or third-generation clones whose brains and bodies beginning to degrade. The Emperor probably prefers this to getting some fresh DNA; the less “human” a clone is, the easier it is both to convince to do really evil things and to remote-control with the Force. The trade-off is that they don’t run too well and you really have to keep those fluids topped off.
. . . unless I’m just plain ignorant; my understanding of cloning is mongrelized from different strains of science fiction and very, very little actual science.
Negative, in the prequels, the clones wore the same type armor and they had blasters. They were able to kill Jedi’s with them per Order 66, remember? Heck, even Obi Won McGregor used a blaster to kill Grievous and called it uncivilized. Blasters were even around in Part 1 on Naboo.
The Jurassic Park one isn’t a plot hole, it’s just a confusing scene. Look it up at imdb.com, there’s a link to a site with an explanation of the scene.
And to all the people who don’t know how the T. Rex got in at the end: The building is under construction and you can see a big hole in the wall behind her.
And I think we can’t hear the T. Rex, because, after all, she’s a predator and capable of stalking her prey.
In regards to the Batman Begins one, the microwave emitter only vaporizes water in liquid form I believe – therefore it wouldn’t boil anyone. It turns the water in liquid form around the emitter into gas as you know. Also, true 70% of the human body is water, but that doesn’t mean we now have the properties of water. If we stand in a fire we don’t evaporate, we burn to death, due to this little thing called skin thats around your body. I think you’ve come up with a nit-picky excuse that doesn’t work, and found a non-existent ‘plot hole’ that has no basis and nobody cares about.
BUT! I do agree with you about how the hell Batman got back to Gotham in time in The Dark Knight Rises, that was ridiculous. Also how come there is no repercussions from the nuclear blast at the end? Now thats a better plot hole.
Because just like several months can pass in a two hour movie, time in a movie is dependent on the narrative? Between the scene where Bruce escapes from the Pit and the scene where he arrives back in Gotham, it doesn’t say how much time has passed. Why does it matter? How he travels from point A to point B is totally inconsequential to the plot. And to assume that a man who traveled around the world flat-ass broke in Batman Begins and trained as a ninja can’t find his way back into a city makes no sense. It’s like people who say this is a plot hole have never seen a movie before.
Oh, and the bomb in the movie is a neutron bomb that uses nuclear fusion instead of fission. No fall out (or negligible fallout). And even if it was a fission bomb, it exploded over the bay. Nuclear tests were observed by people a few miles away with little contamination. And even if there was radiation contamination, an aside at the end of the film stating that would not be plot-conducive. It would be kind of pointless.
I’m surprised that no-one ever mentions A New Hope’s biggest plot-hole…
At the end of the movie the Death Star has to skirt round Yavin to reach the moon on which the rebel base is located. This gives time for the rebels to assault the Death Star…
Wait a minute?! The Death Star DESTROYS PLANETS! Why doesn’t it shoot the planet out the way, then smash the moon up immediately after?!
Still one of my fav movies ever, after-all : it’s not real ;-)
Well, you have no idea how long it takes for the Death Star to power up that shot. I don’t think it can just on it on a whim.
Well if you just blew up the parent planet, you wouldn’t actually need to blow up the moon, too. The debris and shock would be enough to level everything on the moon!
I always assumed it was because the host planet was a gas giant and the Death Star can’t destroy a planet that large. It’s designed to destroy smaller, rocky worlds. You’d need a lot more power to destroy Jupiter than the Earth, for example.
All you would need to do is shoot the very tiny solid compressed core of the gas giant.
First, were would the movies have gone if that did happen? ;)
Second, I don’t think they could have done two shots so close together: Yavin and then its moon. It would probably have taken even longer to power up that shot, although I think even a partially powered shot would have been disastrous.
The Death Star takes a day to recharge, unlike the Death Star II.
In regards to the Two Towers, Legolas hit a running human size target from hundred of yards away in a sea of thousands of other targets… TWICE. Both times in lethal areas, but not immediately lethal.
Firing at a Mumakil in the spinal column would instantly halt motor actions, whereas the vitals puncturing shots that hit the Berserker would not have been immediate, and to show that the Berserker knew he was in trouble and fatally wounded, he leaped into the causeway. That shows he was aware he was about to die and made a last ditch effort to carry out his task. No plot hole with the loose sense applied in this article.
An arrow to the knee would of stopped that ork
The Two Towers one is not a plothole- the picture you provide should be able to answer your concern- The orc is wearing a helmet that protects his head and neck, Legolas is above and to the side of him- effectively meaning that where he hit the orc is the only open target.
I noticed a plot hole in your article… you called Independence Day a “great” film. It’s actually a terrible film.
Yes, this. I noticed that too.
My plot hole would be in the Star Wars prequels. If the Jedi can “sense disturbances” in the force, or sense evil, or whatever, why couldn’t they sense that evil was standing right in front of them? Anakin, Palpatine…they let a lot of bad guys slip past them.
@ plynck!!!!!
Are you daft?
AI has a prime directive not to hurt humans. All humans are given a life inside the matrix that:
a) Allows them to live their life as if it were real life
b) Solved the problem of overpopulation caused by “Billions of people” (Agent Smith). The exact number is never given, but considering the technological variance between the worlds inside/outside the matrix, one can assume that the Earth had been in some future, with the Matrix being set back years to allow adequate time for the world to heal from the real damage done by humans (explained later).
c) Allows the machines a constant source of energy that caused no harm to people in order to do all the work needed for mankind to return. They can “shape” to some extent what that Matrix’s reality is; i.e., eventually, after said time passed, the human existence would be shaped to live in a world outside the matrix again once the machines were done repairing it.
That all being said anyone who escaped the Matrix had to be aware and more intelligent (outside the box thinker) than the Matrix’s parameters at the current time period of human existence. Meaning that these “geniuses” just woke up with zero prior knowledge of what happened and even Morpheus says “we don’t know who struck first” got spooked by robots attacking them and cried victim, painting the machines built years ago to ensure humanity’s existence as the enemy.
AI will attack humans only if they are a threat to other humans:
So it’s more possible that the people who built the machines, planned ahead for human rebellion to the idea. The first humans to become aware and escape were attacked on sight for being threats to ending all of humanity by existing outside the Matrix before the programmed time of release; the rebels always tried to make the Matrix the enemy. This is proven by past humans, who rebelled against the Matrix and scorched the sky, forcing humanity to remain in the Matrix longer than it should have during the sixth cycle.
It is more likely that this is the writer’s perspective/satire of a perceived need to keep intellectual thought controlled. Get too smart? You don’t fit into the world. Get (mis)led and let emotions rule you (Neo) and you try to destroy it. Neo is the “anti-Christ”, the deceived “false messiah” with the desire to win the fight against the evil Machines, dooming the majority of humanity. Smith, while in the Matrix, is perceived as evil by Neo. Smith is the “second coming” for the Machines and allowed to harm the Matrix for the greater good, to stop Neo from possibly ending it all.
The architect is “God,” the oracle is “Satan”. The first matrix was a utopia (Eden) but the refusal of .1 percent of humans to accept it, caused many human lives to be lost. The remainder of the .1 percent was “doomed” to Zion, a Hell outside of the Matrix Earth, to live a tortured existence. After six cycles of “the Prophecy” (hint hint), Neo is the final “one” and intends on ending the Matrix (humanity) to save Zion (a stab at Judaism somehow…) and his lover (That Bible idea of women being seductresses?). Of course this is all the process of the Architect’s purpose, he himself and the Matrix being designed as such, to play a “dangerous” game with humanity. Neo’s decision to actually end it all, forces the AI god to allow Zion to exist, to prevent the Apocalypse and the destruction of human life. The humans are, for now, no longer programmed as threats to Machines, and the Architect knows that Neo was sent too soon. The scorched sky by rebels past caused the sixth cycle to be too early for the re-inhabitation of the real Earth. So he honors the fact that he is a god designed by man, for man’s purpose. The actuality is that the perceived “anti-Christ”, is actually the real “one” after all, and in terms of the idea behind the movie, a man who simply changed the perspective of the Matrix world, and allowed human existence outside “the Machine”. Neo was sent too soon in this fictional actualization of human existence in a “programmed” Religious world. End all? Religion is fake, a manmade conception, and ultimately bows to the will of humanity. “The Matrix” is battle of Divinity vs. Free Will, and in this telling, Free Will won. Humans are too uncontrollable, unpredictable, and (potentially) intelligent creatures to be locked down by a false existence. One can only hope the genius of this movie is truly seen and spreads throughout our own real Matrix. Please, please, please, let humans learn the truth, someday.
Sorry for the length, but hey it’s all for your interpretation. Feel free to discuss any holes you may have with that, feel even freer to fill them. I tried to be as concise and general as possible but the movie is not the real story. It is the art behind the art that is most relevant. Religion is man-made; therefore, it is inheritably fallible and immoral, and will one day be seen as unnecessary to human existence.
I think Yoda mentions at some point (in episode 2, I think) that the Jedi’s ability to use the Force was becoming clouded, and they had to make sure the Senate didn’t find out, lest their enemies close in on them. But yeah, that still bothers me.
Thats explained not in the movies, but in the background lore.
Palpatine/Sidious was one of the, if not the, greatest force users of all times and had mastered force stealth.
he was able not just to conceal his dark presence to others, but also cloud the jedi’s vision making it exceedingly difficult to predict future events.
Anakin OTOH wasnt anywhere close to others when he fully turned to the dark side, and once he did he didnt even bother to hide it.
Sorry for re-posting, this is re-write and much shorter/relevant and I didn’t see that the first two posted until just now:
Neo becomes aware, enlightened, or intelligent. He exits a false reality and witnesses the comical battle of men vs. their own creation. The machines were created by somebody (Illuminati?) to enslave the lives of man and project upon them this fake world of purely perceptive subjectivity.
The architect is “God,” the oracle is “Satan”. The first matrix was a utopia (Eden) but the refusal of .1 percent of humans (geniuses) to accept it, caused many human lives to be lost. This is a stab at intellectual thought living in the existence of a Religion-dominated world. The remainder of the .1 percent was “doomed” to Zion, a Hell outside of the Matrix Earth, to live a tortured existence. After the Matrix’s first five cycles (The Torah) of “the Prophecy” (hint hint), Neo is the final “one” and intends on ending the Matrix (humanity) to save Zion (Jews don’t believe in the New Testament) and his lover (Bible’s idea of women being seductresses), Trinity (yet another stab at Christian Dogma). Of course this is all the process of the Architect’s purpose, he himself and the Matrix being designed as such, to play a “dangerous” game with humanity. Neo’s decision to actually end it all makes the AI god allow Zion to exist, to prevent the Apocalypse and the destruction of human life. The humans are, for now, no longer programmed as threats to Machines, but the Architect knows that Neo was sent too soon (the scorched sky; intellectual discovery harmful to ‘the Machine’ caused the sixth cycle to be too early), so he honors the fact that he is a god designed by man, for man’s purpose. The actuality is that the perceived “anti-Christ”, is actually the real “one” after all. In terms of the idea behind the movie, Neo simply changed the perspective of the Matrix world, and allowed human existence (intelligence) outside “the Machine” (a false reality). Neo was sent too soon in this fictional actualization of human existence in a “programmed” religious world. End all? Religion is fake, a manmade conception, and ultimately bows to the will of humanity. “The Matrix” is battle of created Divinity (enslaved/manipulated/fabricated life) vs. Free Will, and in this telling, Free Will won. Humans are too uncontrollable, unpredictable, and (potentially) intelligent creatures to be locked down by a false existence. One can only hope the genius of this movie is truly seen and spreads throughout our own real Matrix. Please, please, please, let humans learn the truth, someday.
I tried to be as concise and general as possible, but the movie is not the real story. It is the art behind the art that is most relevant. Religion is man-made; therefore, it is inheritably fallible and immoral, however most humans (sheep) need it and don’t seem aware of its control.
In short, to the writer of this “plot-hole” stupidity, you, sir, are a moron, free will needs to exist in the Matrix (yes, to keep people alive, dualism, such and such) because the story is about more than what your slow brain saw. Go smoke more pot, and pretend you’re intelligent and deep.
Uh-huh, that’s nice and all, but plynck’s point has nothing to do with the religious attitudes, and everything to do with the fact that it IS a major plot hole – why bother using humanity when other animals would be better, IF the machines controlling the Matrix are “evil”.
Still, terms such as “good” and “evil” are perfectly subjective and completely up for debate by everyone, so it’s not like you can super-impose a definition and not expect people to say that isn’t what said concept is.
I do like the idea that the original humans entered of their own free will, and the machines either agreed to look after them or alternatively are the creations of humanity after they defeated the machine uprising which happened in the Animatrix, but without being expressively told that, everything said is mere speculation, so the massive amount of religious diarrhea above is perfectly speculative and not at all conclusive.
The Superman 2 issue was discussed on one of the special features included in “Superman 2: The Richard Donner Cut”.
Donner had originally written the script for Superman (which was the first two movie combined into one), however he and the producers had creative disputes, and parted ways halfway through production, so the original ending to Superman 2 (Supes flying around the world and reversing time) was used to end the first movie, and Richard Lester suggested the “magic kiss” as a late-night ‘hail mary’ in order to finish production in time for the movie to make it to theaters.
Mel Gibson’s “Signs” (2002), which grossed $408 million, is full of plot holes:
a)The aliens are so intelligent, and have powerful ships that can travel from another galaxy, but they can’t open any of the flimsy wooden doors in Mel Gibson’s house. Look at the weak paneling in the doors; do the screen writers mean to suggest that the aliens can’t break through a ¼ inch piece of wood?
b)Central to the film’s trick ending is that aliens are susceptible to water–that water acts like acid on alien’s skin, killing them. If so, how could the alien come near humans, who breathe out water vapor? Further, the atmosphere is full of water vapor. And what about rain? Except in deserts, rain falls on a regular basis.
c)My favorite plot hole is the conceit that the aliens need ‘crop circles’ as guides to navigate to Earth. So the screenwriters mean to suggest that these super-intelligent aliens, who can travel across galaxies, and have presumably mastered faster-than-light travel, have such limited electronic knowledge that they need their scouts to lay down visual tracking beacons??
Regarding the Matrix:
part of the body’s electricity comes from the neural system. Additionally, as Morpheus puts it, “the body cannot live without the mind”. It’s perfectly conceivable that the machines wanted to encourage free thought as a source of constantly generating power. Like rats running a wheel and generating energy by just doing something that seems normal to them.
Spiderman 1: After the Green Goblin nearly murders Harry while destroying the Osborne Condo in New York and wiping out Osborne shareholders, Harry pays his father a visit. Ignoring the creepy laughter he hears emanating from the mansion, Harry neglects to mention the incident in New York, instead complaining to his dad that he thinks MJ is seeing someone else.
“It’s vision is based on movement, any movement.” This cannot be ascertained by palaeontology. When did Dr Grant study live specimens of T-Rex before he got dizzy seeing a brachiosaur at Jurassic Park?
Totally agree. It was a major dilution from the book made for the sake of convenience and should’ve been dropped in subsequent films and had a major role in ruining the recent videogame.
In the original book Grant comes to the conclusion when the T-rex comes back after munching Ed Regis (not Gennaro who actually survives a raptor attack if memory serves correct. Grants conclusion is proved inaccurate in the second book ‘the lost world’ by Levine who suggested that, as the t-Rex had just had 2 meals it was not hungry and instead was just curious and was toying with Grant.
As much as i love batman, if you are taking notice of these things there is so much that doesnt make sense. 1) what are the chances that batman can have his back broken so he cant move then, without any medical attention, regain his movement well enough to climb out of a giant pit and then defeat bane. 2)it would have taken ages for his back to heal and for him to get back to gotham.. so bane and that were just chilling for about a year or so? and then weren’t alerted to the fact that batman had escaped? 3) commissioner Gordon on the ice. they have been sent out there to die because the ice is so thin, however, apparently the fragile ice is no longer a problem when batman shows up and sets the thin ice on fire.. they are totally cool just to stand there then walk back off the ice.
One technical mistake overlooked in “Batman Begins” is the climactic train run. Batman uses his grappling hook to latch on the train and get pulled along until he can climb aboard.
But the train runs along a suspended track held up by towering girders. Batman would have been pulled through the first girder and scraped off very quickly. That he passed magically through several of them, including rail changes is something that most folks never noticed. It’s not even mentioned in the IMDb goofs section. Once I saw it, I cannot un-see now….
As for “DK Rises” I figured since Bruce Wayne climbed out of the pit, he simply climbed over the debris of the East Tunnel….
Dude. I just burst into laughter from the time i clicked next and saw this. Im glad that i wasnt the only one to witness this tragic event. The day that a T-Rex grew wings. Even as a young child at that time i asked me mother “How did he get up there?”, and she just replied “He apparently climbed the tree tops”. Fortunately for him, the scene was so epic at the time that it was looked pass, but come on buddy, how could you send this out of the studio and not think that we would notice this. Anyways, i love the “The Mountaineering Ninja T-Rex” comment. You just made my night.
I know you said you weren’t touching The Dark Knight Rises because of it was not executed well. But the hole in that film that bothers me most is why would Jim Gordon send the ENTIRE police force underground to find Bane’s army? Did he not think that the rest of the great gotham would be vulnerable to any crime during the raid? Did he simply ask all of Gotham’s citizens to play nice for a while because every cop in town would be busy? Thats the most messed up thing to me about the whole movie. There are a few other puzzling moments, but i will keep it at that.
There was a huge decrease in crime in Gotham at the time – that was mentioned early on in the film & was attributed to the ‘Dent Act’ being so successful.
You’re missing 10. NONE of these are plot holes.
So, you called ID4 a great film, rendering all the venom you sling toward Chris Nolan’s Batman trilogy pretty null and void.
I have another for Spiderman 2. Doc Oc is obviously pretty formidable, but he’s still just a man minus his arms of death so why can spider man deal him full punches, throw insanely heavy money bags, tables, and electrocute him, and he’s still fine?
You claim “Nolan’s Bat-trilogy is surprisingly full of mistakes”, though you never mention Prometheus in your article ? Come on !
As some stated, neither of those two points in BB and TDKR are real plot-holes. A little stretch of the mind easily allows to solve them.
In the Lord of the Rings movies and in the Hobbit, the Eagles come to save our heroes at crucial points in the story. So if you have Eagle flying capapbility whey the hell cant they take you all the way to where you’re going in the first place?!? As a matter of fact why not just give the dame ring to an Eagle and have it drop it into the volcano of Mount Doom? End of story! Unless Gandalf was worried that the Eagle might become a big flying evil Eagle corrupted by the dark power of the ring… But thats another story.
In the books, it’s explained that the Eagles are willing to help Gandalf out once in awhile but they don’t want to take sides in the war. I wonder why the films never explained that.
Because secrecy was needed. A few people on the ground walking through trees is alot harder to see than a bunch of eagles flying toward Mordor. I’m so sure Sauron wouldn’t be suspicious if a bunch of his enemies were flying right toward him right after they found the ring.
I had to watch Pleasantville for a school assignment and I swear the whole thing is just littered with plot holes. It made it extremely hard to write a film essay on.
Alien 3-the egg is a plot hole, but it’s more extensive than that.
There would have to be three eggs: one with a facehugger that
impregnates Ripley, one with a facehugger that impregnates the
dog (they established multiple times that a facehugger impregnates
once and then dies, so one facehugger could not have impregnated
both Ripley and the dog), and a third one that presumably dies
trying to get at Newt. The acid had to come from an injury on the
facehugger. It couldn’t have been from either of the impregnating
ones since the acid bleeding from it would have burned or killed
Ripley or the dog. So, going back to the end of Aliens, the only
way it makes sense, the Dropship lands back on the Sulaco. There
is about a minute of dialogue between Ripley and Bishop before they
disembark, the Alien comes out from hiding amongst one of the
landing gears and attacks, that means, while they were talking for
that minute on the Dropship, the Queen, came out from her hiding spot,
stuck the three eggs somewhere on the ship, hidden pretty well, since
they (and the ship’s sensors) never find them before going back into
cryo-sleep, then goes back and hides herself back into the Dropship to
then just pop back out a second later. Riiiiight. That’s why the only two
Alien movies in my opinion are the first two. The story ends there. Alien 3
is just too ridiculous.
Or She just layed the egs then and there – indside the dropship itself. I mean No one even saw her while flying to the Sulaco – so it is concievable that they didnt notice the eggs afterword, All being in shock and Bishop bearly funcional.
BACK TO THE FUTURE – Plot hole that in reality makes the whole franchise absolete. It isn’t even a hole it is a black hole. yet from my experence rearly anybody notices.
Bear with me.
in the second instalment of the series Biff steals the Delorean and goes back in time. He effectively changes the future yet somehow he manages to get back to the future and leave the delorean for Marty and Doc to find. Couple of minutes later dock shows Marty a graph explaining that sucha thing is imposible, because a time traveler woud not come back to the same future but to another future. Future already changed by the traveler. Meaning when Biff would be able to return the delorean to our protagonists.
Yet the movie was so well written, we all loved the characters so much that noone even noticed that. thats the genius of goog direction. And now take prometheus, if we liked the character and if the was actiually directed by someone, noone woud even see the plot holes in that excuse for a movie.
What’s bothered me for years about Back to the Future II is that when Marty and his gf, Jennifer, leave for the future at the end of the first film, they take themselves out of the timeline and thus there would be no Marty and Jennifer to grow up/marry/have kids etc.
But as they are time travellers they can return to the exact point in time, from which they left from. That’s kind of the point of a time travel movie! So as far as everyone else is concerned they never left..
One plot hole that really bothers me is the one in Skyfall. People agree that Skyfall takes place after all the other films right? There is the car reference to From Russia With Love and everything. So then why, if we assume that 007 is the same person throughout the movies, does Moneypenny get introduced in Skyfall if she’s been there forever. That usually only happens in remakes, AUs, or revivals like at the end of Batman Dark Knight Rises where Robin is introduced. But since the 007 films are consecutive, how is the meeting of Moneypenny again possible?
The Daniel Craig films take place in a rebooted timeline. This is quite well known to everyone who isn’t living under a rock.
Robby, you must’ve missed the part of Casino Royale where it’s clear that Daniel Craig’s Bond has just become 007. Also, it is obvious that Skyfall happens in the present time, while From Russia With Love happens in a time long before that. Clearly this is an alternate timeline. When you watch Casino Royale, Quantom of Solace and Skyfall, forget all the other movies.
Interesting read Simon but you’ve missed out one of surely the most obvious movie errors of all time that somehow managed to go seemingly unnoticed in a franchise that included four movies and its own spin-off series. Any guesses……Terminator of course, which is built on the foundation of a huge and impractical metaphysical paradox.
Think about it, Sarah Connor preaches about “no fate” in Judgement Day, but in that very movie what is revealed as the stimulus for the Cyberdyne Systems (and subsequently Skynet)research that developed the Terminator technology (which as we all know, ended the world) was based on the shattered remains and computer chip of the Terminator from the first movie. Ergo, if the first Terminator wasn’t sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor, the human race would never have found the technology to develop Skynet, therefore averting Judgement Day.
Hi All,
One more thing about “Independence Day” the crop-duster Russell Casse has the only missle left on his jet fighter to try to take out the alien giant flying saucers in the sky which is about to zap Area 51,
He tries to fire the missle at the huge beam weapon that is powering up to zap area 51, and the missle locking champs jam!
So he tell’s his son and the others over the radio that the missle can’t fire so he shouts out at the alien ship “Hi boys I am back” and points his jet fighter at the almost fully powered up huge beam weapon flys at full speed towards it to destroy it!
But why in stead of killing himself like that, just point the fighter at the beam weapon and at the right moment fire the ejector seat handle and he would have been fired out away from the jet and ship by the rocket seat at if timed right he would still detroyed the ships weapon and saved himself as the paracute system would have carried him away from the first main blast and the other blasts as the alien ship startedto blow up would easy blow him away to a safe distance?
why kill himself for nothing?
the jet fighter would still had the power and speed to hit that beam unit.
Regarding the Jurassic Park T-rex “hole”, the land on the left of the road, where the electric fences are, is level with, or nearly level with, the road itself, hence the need for the fence. If it wasn’t at that level, they wouldn’t have been able to see the goat from the cars. The T-rex breaks through the fence on the left side of the road, then proceeds toward the cars, which are stopped on the right side of the road. There are no fences on the right side, due to the 50-foot drop. Yes, it would have been safer to house the T-rex behind a drop rather than a fence, but it’s a moot point.
I believe with the Matrix world they had to stick as close to the “real” world that existed for most humans so they didn’t sense something wasn’t right. That’s probably why they couldn’t make too many major changes and when they did it created glitches like deja vu. Even still some of the smarter humans like Trinity and Neo sensed something was not quite right with the reality inside the Matrix which is part of how they escaped in the first place. It’s also the metaphor for most people being like sheep and going along with the 9-5 existence most people live in instead of breaking out and making your own path. I think ultimately the Matrix had to stick as close to the reality humans experienced with very little if any change. The only change was they didn’t let the humans see the bad that came from technology and how it took over the world.
In fight club,
at the beginning the narrator and Tyler fight each other. Other men join them and that’s how the fight club starts, but Tyler isn’t real so the men see a man hitting himself and decide to fight him and follow him, which is weird…
In ALIEN, the creature is born popping out of John Hurt’s chest, and it’s a cute little thing. Next time we see it, it’s full size and much more deadly. But what did it consume (i.e., eat) to grow so much? Seems like a hole to me.
It’s been years since I watched Jurassic Park (though I watched it a TON back then – I was in 6th grade), but as I recall, the goat was on the right side of the road, behind the fence, and the cliff was on the left side of the road, with no fence at all.
Here’s one that was missed, Teminator 2! The whole Terminator series is based off of a linear view of time, change the past to effect the future! So then, if they stopped Skynet from existing then the the resistance never happens, the first Terminator and John’s father are never sent back in time, hence once they destroyed the chip (another paradox) John should have disappeared, Sarah should have jumped into a time where she never went crazy and things should have gone back to normal.
Also they never addressed the issue, I mean they know they’re trying to stop judgement day but never discuss if that would make John obsolete. I hate the way time travel was handled in Terminator.
There was a massive plot hole in Casino Royale that really ruined the film for me. After he lost the poker game, Le Chiffre needs Vesper and Bond alive to get the money, so kidnaps Vesper in order to lure Bond into his trap: leave Vesper in the middle of the road where Bond will either run her over or crash his car to evade her… that’s a completely bonkers plan! What if Bond couldn’t brake in time and killed Vesper, what if his car spun out of control and hit a tree killing him?
I know Le Chiffre was desperate to get the money, but was this really the best plan he could come up with: risk the life of his prisoner for a slight chance that he could capture Bond alive?
The flooding of the Venetian house that didn’t attract a single soul, not even the Emergency services, didn’t help either to make me enjoy this movie.
Handily, what happened to the Ghostbusters is handily explained at the start of Ghostbusters 2.
They were sued by the City of New York for the clean up after the Stay Puft incident. They went bankrupt. Spengler returned to academia, Stanz and Zeddemore earn money doing kids parties, and Venkman is a cable talk show host.
The Ghostbusters are remembered as the guys who almost blew up Manhattan and got sued, and have a court order against them meaning they can’t be Ghostbusters anymore, hence having to pretend to be workmen.
Never mind the eyes in Minority Report, the huge plot hole that bugged me from the moment I saw it was this: Anderton sees the vision of himself committing the murder and uses the visual clues to find the hotel where it will take place. There, he finds (doctored) evidence that Crow killed Anderton’s son. Now, how did Burgess set this up exactly? He paid Crow (to take the blame and die) and faked the photos and left them in the hotel room. But he left no clues for Anderton. He relied on Anderton seeing the vision — something he had no control over. He couldn’t have known what was going to be in the vision even if he planned on Anderton being the one to see it (without anyone else doing so as well). Even the interpretation that says the precog chose what to show Anderton in order to lead him there doesn’t mean Burgess could control what the precogs showed Precrime — if he could, he could have blanked out his own Minority Report and wouldn’t have had to frame Anderton. I prefer the version that says Anderton killed Crow and everything else — the big denoument with surprise, surprise the boss is the bad guy — is Anderton’s fantasy as he’s frozen, as Gideon mentions happens when one is frozen.
If Superman returns was supposed to be sequel to Superman 2 , forget the fact that Lois is shocked that she realizes her kid is Superman baby what about the thought that tht she has about when did Superman rape her due to that memory loss kiss
The Hobbit:
Why didnt Gandalf just call up the birds and fly them to the Dwarf Tower thing from the beginning thus saving the massive journey? Or when they do use the giant birds why do they drop them off well short of the dwarf kingdom?
Good film though.
In the book the Eagles say that they won’t go any closer to human dwellings (or something similar). Not really explained in the film very well though!
There’s a difference between a plot hole and an error in continuity. A plot hole implies an aspect of the plot or storyline that doesn’t make sense, isn’t explained satisfactorily or contradicts itself within the context of the film. A continuity error is simply a filmic oversight that doesn’t affect the story. I think most of these examples are not plot holes and certainly not ‘major.’
You are SO righ! The author is as clueless as the idiots hanging round the IMDB forums saying the same type of things.
Haven’t read enough comments to see if this has been addressed yet, but with regards to the Batman Begins plothole, the Wayne Enterprises guy explains to Rutger Hauer’s character earlier in the film that the weapon uses “FOCUSED microwaves to vaporize the enemy’s water supply”, meaning they were probably somehow only effective on the Gotham water mains. By the way, you’re right about TDKR having a lot of plotholes. Even a Nolan fan like myself has to admit it was the worst of the trilogy.
Nice list. The Batman Begins one makes me scratch my head every time I watch it. Such an awesome movie, but that part just makes no sense.
I would have added X-Men: First Class to the list as well. Sebastian Shaw plans to start a nuclear war between the US and the USSR because that will wipe out the humans…but apparently mutants are immune to radiation? And the bomb blasts? A good chunk of the world’s infrastructure will be destroyed as well. It also doesn’t account for the fact that once the war is over, even assuming mutants are immune to radiation, all the other plants and animals are kind of…not. Shaw’s plan to eliminate the human race means that at best, the mutant race have a post-apocalyptic wasteland to live in.
If the plot were used by Apocalypse, then yeah, that’d be perfectly in line with his Darwinist thinking. But with Shaw, who’s typically portrayed as an opportunist, it just doesn’t work.
The one that always killed me (and my best friend, Danny), was from Star Wars, where they had some kind of weird, glyph-based written language, but then called their spacecraft “X-, Y-, A-,” and eventually “B-Wing” fighters.
For ‘Back to the Future’, know that there are two theories of time:
1. Each time you go back to the past, or forward to the future; you are in a different instance of the universe. You exist in your old universe, but you don’t exist in your new one. Simply put, you can go back to your birthdate and ‘see yourself’ being born.
2. You can only go as far back as you were born. By then you’d start off as a baby again. If you go back any further, you’d end up in pre-birth; or ‘death’. Rather than witnessing your birth, you are being born again. You would have forgotten everything in the future and everything will continue as it did the first time around.
Personally, I believe the second notion is true just because we are witnessing it today. It’s impossible to exist in two places at once, and as time continues, so does your age. I don’t think I can ‘pause’ my age but still allow time to continue.
I’m not sure if this counts because this is a gaping plot hole in what could never be an awesome film because the entire premise of the film is predicated on said gaping plot hole (or, rather, logical implausibility). I’m referring to the film version of Stargate. I set the scene. A mysterious ring is discovered way back at the beginning of the 20th century. For the rest of the century, government scientists, archeologists etc (inc. the little girl who discovered it in the first place!)secretly try to uncover it’s purpose. Miraculously, at the exact moment said purpose is discovered, a maverick soldier just happens to be present. And without any further ado, he decides, without any intervention from anybody, to take his trusty men and go to the other side of the universe. C’mon! AS IF, the US govt and military, or at least the govt and military as they are portrayed in film, wouldn’t automatically swoop in, close the whole thing off, swear everybody present to secrecy or kill them and then sit on it for the next hundred years! Not in this AU folks. Kurt and his men aren’t only allowed to proceed on this unlikely mission, but when a random civilian puts his hand up to go along for the ride, he’s allowed to come as well! Once again, AS IF!! By this stage of the film I was convinced I was watching a farce and was never once dissuaded from this opinion. Add the final insult to this cinematic injury. At the films end, James Spader is torn between the woman that he “loves” (who he’s known approximately a nanosecond, who doesn’t speak his language and WHO LIVES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FREAKING UNIVERSE) and the only opportunity he has to return to earth. Of course, he decides to stay with the girl. AS IF!!!!!!!
If we’re talking biggest mistakes in biggest movies, you missed the biggest. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, after Marion has been captured and tied up in a basket, Indy chases her captors all over town until he watches the truck holding her basket explode, killing her. Later, when he finds her and can’t understand how she’s alive, she explains, “I don’t know, they must have switched baskets!” And that’s it, case solved.
What?! First off, how and why would they have done that? Second, even if they did, how did Marion know what Indy thought he saw? An incredibly absurd moment in an otherwise amazing film.
But not a plot hole.
Microwave emitter in batman begins isn’t exactly a plot hole in the sense that you are trying to convey. Not that I say it is definitely not. Water in human body isn’t in the form of water contained within a certain vessel. These water are in the form of water within muscle and cells. That being said, microwave emitter pulse does causes some harm on this cells and muscle as well. I, for one could not postulate to what extent this harm may be, however considering the water explodes almost instantaneously I would say it is certainly a very highly powerful emitter.
A microwave oven produces 2.5 GHz frequency microwave which causes cell penetration less than an inch, 17 mm to be precise. This however is not an ‘instant boil’ frequency .Suppose a device with higher frequency to be used, say at around 100 GHz, the wavelength would no longer be in microwave range but rather milimeter wavelength with its penetration range further reduced. An Active Denial System Weapon developed by US Military only has a penetration depth of 0.4 mm. This however causes superficial first degree burn. Suppose such weapon is employed at higher intensity, I suppose water could be boiled almost instantaneously. This however also meant that the citizen of Gotham might suffer from serious skin burn and boils…but not death
P/S: Milimeter wave does not effect electronic component, however a microwave might…
The Star Wars “plot hole” is ridiculous. It’s like saying that football pads are useless because players still get hurt. The armor can reduce or blunt impact, but not eliminate any harm to the wearer. Also, I’m pretty sure it allowed the storm troopers to withstand different weather extremes in various planetary environments.
There are just way too many explanations to begin to call that a gaping plot hole.
Ditto for the Matrix. Other have explained the free will issue already. As for using a modern world, it makes sense that the machines would recreate a world for which they had sufficient data. It seems that recreating a functional world before the computer age would be a more difficult task for the machines in terms of programming and monitoring because the machines would not have as much data available to understand the functioning of that world.
MATRIX: biggest plot hole is that humans are used for … ENERGY!?!?! Seriously? Someone needs to learn about thermodynamics. You’d get more energy just from burning their food, bodies etc. It just doesn’t make sense!
Passion of Christ: Plot Hole
In Independence Day, why do the seats inside the alien ship just happen to be designed for humans to sit in? Will and Jeff fly that thing while sitting in man shaped bucket seats…those aliens would not fit in those seats.
There is a much, MUCH bigger plot hole in LOTR other than the one listed. In Return of the King, Froto and Sam are rescued by those giant eagle things. This begs the question: if Gandolf has those giant eagle things at his disposal, why the hell did he not just fly Froto to Mt.Doom on one and toss the ring in and that would have been the end of it?
Cause the entire population of Mordor would see you coming a mile off?
Does anyone ever pay any attention to plots?
The biggest plot hole for me on ID4 is the fact that Smith and Goldblum were able to fly back to Earth. They said in Area 51 that the mother ship is the power source for all of the other ships, and they really only started gaining a majority of their information on the ship in the last several hours because the mothership turned everything on. Well how did Smith and Goldblum make it back when they destroyed the mother ship (and their power source)?
While it was a good point with Doc Oct. I think a bigger plot hole would be how Doc Oct who still has a perfectly normal human head can still take like fifty punches to the face, during the train fight, from a man who has the strength to stop said train.
When it comes to Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson failed the Battle at Helm’s Deep with them blowing up the wall in that fashion. Had he stayed true to the book they didn’t broadcast the explosives and the fire weilder like he did. They created a distraction and like a magician had you looking at the left hand when you should be looking at the right hand. Aside from the battle at Gondor the Helm’s Deep battle was the best in the book and was really disappointed on how he portrayed it.
Can’t believe i’m about to do this, but each of the Transformers movies is counterproductive to each other, and begs the question, what exactly to the decepticons want?
Trans1 – Megatron wants to obtain the cube (which, for some reason, only turns technology decepticons) in order to Hijack our technology to Destroy us.
EXCEPT… We find out in Trans2, that Megatron knew of ‘The Fallens’ plan to Blow up our sun in order for their hatchlings to survive on their planet. So why try to take over our planet, if it is only going to have its sun taken away from it later? Oh and nevermind the fact that all of Trans1 they wanted to cube so badly, and what do the decepticons get a hold of in Trans2? some of the cube. So why didn’t they go back to plan a? Because it made no sense at this time compared to what, 1 year ago when Megatron had the same knowledge know as before?
Oh but wait… THERE’S MORE!
In Trans3 they wanted… No… NEEDED the human civilization in order to build Their planet. Oh, and by the way, this plan was hatched out by Sentinel prime and Megatron LONG before TRans1 and 2.
So, if they Needed us to rebulid their planet, why was SO much effort spent in eradicating us in the first two films? Wouldn’t that kinda, ruin your supposed end goal?
Again, I ask, WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US DECEPTICONS!
The Jurassic Park plot hole assumes that the entire length of the fence for the T-Rex paddock is either level with the cars or has a 50-foot drop, as opposed to perhaps having only a portion (where the goat is) that is level to the cars and the rest with a drop. It’s a long stretch of fencing. Where the car drops is not exactly where the T-Rex escapes. And note that we see mostly the TOPS of trees on the inside of the fence. So… there is an elevated portion that is specifically designed for the T-Rex to climb so it can reach the T-Rex climbs to get to the goat when it’s fed.
Good read. The thing with Doc Oc though, is that thinking like a Villain, he doesn’t care about if Parker was hurt or dies. Just doing so, if Parker is somehow connected to Spiderman in anyway, then Spiderman will come to him. I think that’s why he made it in a very public and violent way. At least thats what I’ve learned from watching a ton of Wrestling in the past 15 years… And as we all know, its THE place for heroes and villains!
We played a Star Wars rpg in college (I designed most of it myself because this was before there was the commercially sold version) and yes, explaining the white armor was a major problem because it had to be addressed for a game. What I came up with is that it is mostly effective (against energy weapons) but the problem being that people fighting storm troopers know this. So they crank up the settings on their blasters, the equivalent of overclocking them. Thus, instead of getting, say, a thousand shots per power pack they might only get something on the order of, say, fifty. Additionally, this shortens the operational life of the future and can occasionally lead to out right failure (embarrassing in a firefight). Blasters being what they are, once the armor is penetrated most wounds are going to be fatal or debilitating. It’s the best we could think of and, thirty years later, that’s still the best unless the armor is a hopelessly obsolete technology but the troopers are still forced to wear it because, ya know, military tradition. Kind of like how officers in many countries still carried swords long after the gunfight at the OK Corral.
The real hole in back to the future, the one that is really difficult to explain away, is: How come future Biff was able to change the past and then return to the same timeline he had just eliminated? They did it in the movie because Doc and Marty needed the car back yet they were never able to change the past without overwriting the present and the future.
In Batman Begins, it displayed that Bruce learned to get around under the radar. People seemed to forget about that when Bruce appeared back in Gotham during The Dark Knight Rises. That is not a plot hole.
this is not a plot hole as its explained in the trilogy the one thing the matrix cant control is choice and to make a choice is at the core of free thinking.
Go to jplegacy.org where it is explained in detail exactly why you are wrong about jurassic park,there is a moat/pipeline system that runs on the far right side of the rex pen with a drop off,they have the details and the actual design of the pen there,so it can be explained better than i did here lol
The Matrix …. you just don’t get it. Please watch it 3-4 more times and come back.
Velociraptors were only about 2 feet tall.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: they turn monsters to stone in the middle of public buildings
At the end of “Rain Man”, Raymond rides a train by himself. This would be problematic, to say the least.
Who hears Charles Foster Kane say “Rosebud” before he dies?
The butler, he mentions to the reporter heard him say it twice, after his wife left him and on his death bed.
I used to wonder about that too, until I watched it again recently and the butler mentions that he was in the room at the time.
Independence Day is the motherlode of plot holes. I wouldn’t know where to begin, it’s one of the dumbest sci-fi films ever made. How was it that Will Smith’s character was able to knock out an alien (in a bio-armored suit no less) with just one punch? After the helos were destroyed, wouldn’t it be smart to start evacuating immediatley instead of waiting for some geek to get to the White House to show off his nice new shiney laptop?
The biggest hole in the Matrix by far is if you lived your entire life in a pod by age 20 (I guess that is Neo’s age) your muscles have atrophied so much you wouldn’t be able to walk (even astronauts or cosmonauts who have been in space mere months have trouble walking). Not a problem when jacked in, but….
It is like religion follow me or die.