Aquaman: 23 WTF Moments

16. The Pollution All Got Thrown Out

Part of the early narrative establishes that King Orm is really sick of humanity using the oceans of Planet Earth as a toilet and a dumping ground for all of their waste and pollution. He sort of has a point, to be honest, and it's pretty hard to argue with his manifesto to make us all his servants so we stop choking whales with plastic.

To show his displeasure, he dumps all of humanity's pollution out of the sea and back on land using a giant destructive tsunami that almost kills Arthur's father (which is much more concerning to Arthur than the health of the oceans, apparently, but then he is VERY emotional). We know this because it's said in the film: he expelled all of the pollution. It's literally sign-posted as an important plot-point.

But was the pollution all dumped out really? How come in LITERALLY the next shot of Aquaman when Mera leads him to her ship, the ocean floor is still covered in plastic and man-made pollution? How come there's an Annabelle doll sitting there merrily? How come there are shipwrecks? They didn't even follow-through between one scene and the next one.