20 Movies Destroyed By Their Plot Holes
8. Double Jeopardy - The Misunderstanding Of Law
Double Jeopardy is a perfectly fine legal thriller that happens to have one of the most flagrantly inaccurate premises in Hollywood history - at least, in the context of movies that are set in a realistic world.
In this one, Libby (Ashley Judd) is sent to prison for killing her husband Nick (Bruce Greenwood) during a boat trip, and while locked up, she discovers the horrifying truth: Nick is very much alive. He faked his death and framed her for murder in order to collect some insurance money.
One day, Libby hears from a fellow inmate that there's a way she can get revenge without being convicted. There's the double jeopardy law, which means that no person can be tried for the same crime twice. She could shoot Nick in the middle of Times Square, and they couldn't even touch her. Err... no. Not at all.
This movie completely misunderstands Double Jeopardy. What it actually means is that an accused person can't be tried again for the same charge unless serious new evidence comes to light. So, she wouldn't be tried again for the murder she was wrongly convicted of but if she just went and killed Nick then, of course, she'd be tried for this new crime.
When Libby does kill Nick, it is self-defence, so she's fine anyhow, but her quest throughout much of the story was preposterous in the extreme. This goes a long way towards explaining why so many viewers struggled to engage with it.