Biggest plot holes

[Pinkamena]

I've seen many plot holes in my travels, both big and small, or tight and slick. Not to say I don't enjoy plot holes, though!

Fucking knew you were gonna make a post in this thread. Was not disappointed!

 

[Calibanbutcher]

Have you seen the ending of the Lord of the Rings?
Then clearly you have seen Sauron's tower crumbling immediately after the ring was thrown into the flames?
Which, incidentally, happened before the eagles dared cross the border.
Just saying...

And we all saw what good Gandalfs magic was against the Nazgul and their screeching lizards.
The screeching got to him as well and he couldn't protect the soldiers around him.
Then he faced on of the Nazguls head on:
His staff exploded and he was thrown around the place like a ragdoll for a bit before the Nazgul said "screw this Im goin home"

Plus, I never said that the Nazgul were the only problem.
They are the second worst problem I dare say, but let's not forget that Mordor is swarming with orcs and, as far as I know, eagles aren't really known for being arrow proof.
Or rock proof for that matter.

You show me an orc that can fire an arrow or throw a rock hundreds of feet into the air, accurately, and then you have a point.

Here's the thing: the eagles were a significant plot hole in both the films AND the novels.

Don't get me wrong. I thoroughly love the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. They are among the few master-works of sword-and-sorcery fantasy.

Even so, they are not free of plot-holes and plot contrivances.

Just give all the Orcs bows and arrows and you don't need accuracy anymore.
And flying in the shade really isn't an option for the eagles, since they can't shield themselves from black wind.
And the rocks would probably be fired by the catapults we know the orcs are capable of using.
Still, the biggest problem would still be Sauron himself. Apparently being looked at by him will incapacitate you, so he looking at the group would down the eagles, which would then give 10.000.000 orcs the chance to introduce themselves to the fellowship.

 

[RubyT]

I'm not an expert on LotR, but as far as I've been told, the Eagles are old and powerful creatures, not just giant animals. They are neither best buddies with Gandalf nor are they a fast-travel system in Middle-Earth. As such, they are not plot holes, they are big ass DEUS EX MACHINAS. They only appear in grave situations the author wrote his protagonists into without a clue of how to get them out. It was the one thing that annoyed me a little bit watching the Hobbit yesterday. Apart from that and a nonsensical battle of 13 dwarves and 1 wizard against 10.000 useless Orcs the film was just perfect.

When I think of plot holes, I think Star Trek: Voyager. There was one episode where a "wave" was coming at them, that was too wide to go around, so they had to go though. It wasn't too HIGH though, but they never grasped the concept of 3D in Star Trek very well.
Or there was an episode where a 28th century ship crashed on Earth and some human salvaged it and reproduced its technology. I got so mad at that episode. Later that guy downloaded information from the Voyager's computer - through the transporter beam.
Voyager also had a habit of having them invent gadgets/technology and only use it in that one episode, not in any of the subsequent ones. Or they would try something out and it wasn't perfect, but instead of trying to refine it, they just abandoned the project.
Man, this show was so bad...

How is it that in Terminator 2 the T-1000 is able to travel back in time, when Kyle Reese specifically stated that only living tissue, or something surrounded by living tissue, can go through the portal? Seeing as the T-1000 is pure metal.

No, the plot hole here is: why would a time machine only work with living tissue?

Once you accept that the T-1000 is liquid metal and can take any and all shape or form except complex chemicals (i.e. a bomb), you can accept that he mimicks living tissue well enough to fool that racist time machine.

 

[AntiChri5]

There's a certain theme they wanted to get across with The Dark Knight Rises and certain plot points were required to bring it about... certainly it could all have been avoided if the characters had made better decisions but that kind of complaint can be made of any story, the protagonist could nearly always have made a better decision.

Personally the story and moral in the Dark Knight rises was strong enough for me to ignore the inconsistances in its plot since the strength in the characters is what ultimately made it worthwhile to me.


OT: Why did Batman go out of his way to save the Joker in order to prove his point about not killing and then kill Harvey Dent anyway?

Batman is obsessed with not killing in the same way the Joker is obsessed with killing. Just as crazy, but in a different direction.

Batman went out of his way to save the Joker because it was humanly possible to do so. But with Dent? Batman wasn't trying to kill him, and would have worked very hard to prevent his death, but look at the situation. Dent has a gun pointed at a child's head, and there is a 50% chance that he will fire in about a second. So Bats tackles him, not having time to do much else. Batman landed better then Dent, and survived the same fall. Batman didn't shoot him in a face with a shotgun, there was no clear choice to kill Dent. He decided to place Dent's life at great risk, to prevent Dent from placing a child at great risk.

Things didn't work out well for Dent.

 

[Gizmo1990]

Snip

The eagles were created by Manwë, lord of the Valar, as his messengers and spies. Manwë is also one of Gandalfs mentors and his boss, the one who convinced Gandalf to go to middle earth in the first place. Basicaly they both have the same boss, and both have the same purpose, fight the bad guys. In the books Gandalf and Gwaihir, lord of the Eagles, are Bffs.

 

[Redd the Sock]

The Majority of Luke Skywalker's Jedi training taking place over the same period of time Han and Leia went on the run from Vader. Either they were in that asteroid field a long time or it's easier to become a skilled Jedi that a yoga instructor.

And less plot holes than moments in dumbassery (based solely on A new hope with no EU additions):

Stormtroopers not thinking of Droids being carriers for stolen plans.

Stormtroopers SOP for retreiving stolen property involves killing the holers.

Human sized garbage chutes in the prison area = asking for escapes. (okay the Death star's known for one glaring design flaw so what's one more, but still. PS who threw out a tenticle monster anyway.)

We know we're being tracked, so let's go right home to our secret base.

A small droid and a smuggler's ship have fairly detailed holograms, while the visuals for the military breifing were shitty even by our compter stadards at the time.

Death Star getting into firing range, let's just stand around the control room instead of evacing. (EU bonus points for noting Yavin is a Gas Giant. they could have just shot through it.

 

[DoPo]

But a plothole in The Sixth Sense that bothered me was how Bruce Willis? character somehow didn?t realize he was dead the entire time. I mean, seriously, he?s been dead for, what, a month? Two months? And he doesn?t think anything of the fact that no-one but a strange boy with psychological issues has spoken to him since then?

How would he even manage his life like that, if he was somehow just floating through day-to-day without ever having to converse with another human being? And, plus, how did he get to talk to this boy in the first place? He?s dead?he can?t just suddenly be assigned this patient, without any parental permission. Did the boy contact him first? Or did he just turn up, assume that he had some problems, and say, ?I?m going to help you?? Is this how he conducts all his meetings with his child patients? Doesn?t that sound a bit dodgy?

Well, the kid did mention that a lot of the ghosts don't even know they are dead. Pretty common with ghosts in the stories - some of the recently departed could be drones - they just continue "living" like before unaware of being, you know, dead. They keep to their normal way of living, too, they might even just repeat the same set of actions over and over again - be they literally just set of action (walking back and forth) or just their daily routine (wake up, brush teeth, go to work, go back home, etc). Usually those would be either their normal routine, or maybe the last day/hour/minutes of their lives. They just blank out what seems inconsistent (people, even friends, not noticing them, for example) and/or may make minor adjustments if the context changes (say, a ghost usually walks down some path but if there is something in their way, they'll go around it) and may even (very probably) forget everything and "reset" to go through their schedule again. Well, until you shake them up by trying to break the routine or maybe presenting some evidence they aren't among the living.

So yeah, it's a pretty common trope in ghost stories. Sixth Sense plays it out perfectly, as you noticed. Bruce Willis did just float day to day. Heck, he may have even just forgot each day until the boy noticed him, which gave him enough self awareness to remember stuff.

Also, we do first see Bruce Willis sitting with the mother and it seems like they just finished talking (well, they didn't but the scene made it look that way), so he might have thought he had permission from the mother.

 

[Warachia]

That aside, how exactly was Harry Potter allowed to come back in the Deathly Hallows? Everything I've seen on it says "just because".

It's not "just because" it's "because magic!"

I didn't say it was, it could be any "just because", maybe it's just because he's the hero, or just because of magic, or just because the villain needs to lose, or anything.

Mmmm....no, not really. In most cases, even with todays best crossbows, the maximum effective "kill range" is roughly 40 yards, give or take.

Firing up into the air, that distance would be drastically shortened, due to gravity. So, if the eagles were to fly above three hundred feet, they'd be unreachable.

As for the pollution, that didn't stop the eagles from flying to the top of mount doom, even as it was erupting. So that point doesn't make much sense.

Ballistas, while providing the range needed, would be hard to move and aim quickly and accurately. Ballistas were used as siege weapons, not fast-acting anti-air weapons.

I'll explain more below:

Not sure about the bows but they for the rocks they had catapults, hell for throwing rocks they had trolls.

I'm not sure how they are a plot hole exactly, could you explain?

Because, at worst, using the eagles to fly to Mount Doom presented the same amount of risk as sending in two small hobbits....on foot and by themselves....into Mordor.

At best, it could cut the travel time down to days, even hours, and circumvent almost the entire orc army.

The point is, if the council at Rivendell had wanted to take the best, least-likely-to-fail course of action, they would have sent their best people with the eagles. (though, that would have made for a much less dramatic, less compelling story, so...)

Again, it's a plot-hole that's been present since the first printing of the novels. It doesn't necessarily detract from the story, but it is still a curiosity. People can admit to plot-holes and contrivances in their favorite stories without losing their love of the material.

Even with realizing some of the failings in the plot, The Lord of the Rings trilogy remains one of my favorite stories.

There are certainly problems in Lord of the Rings (and really big plot contrivances) but the eagles are not one of them.

If the eagles flew 300 feet up the ballistas could still get them and so could the fellbeasts, that doesn't make them safe, I've already explained why they can't fly over the mountain, so please tell me what they do when they get to the door and found thousands upon thousands of orcs and the nine Nazgul guarding the doorway, ask them nicely to step aside? There's only one entrance into the mountain, and you think they could just waltz in there without a problem while there is an army living below?

They were several thousand feet BELOW the top of the mountain, (outside the doorway) and it would be extremely easy for the fellbeasts to just gang up on the ring bearing eagle (or any others) and drive it lower.

Sending eagles with people on them is far more riskier than 2 hobbits for several reasons:
A) The eagles would be seen by every single on of Saruman's scouts, they wouldn't even get close to Rohan before the Crebain or Saruman brought them down.
B) The Nazgul would see them, report it, and fellbeasts would immediately be sent after them.
C) The entrance to mount doom would be guarded by as many orcs as could possibly fit in it (not to mention the Nazgul), it would be so clogged you would not even have a prayer of getting the ring into the volcano.
D) The eagles would definitely be corrupted by the ring, being incredibly proud, they wouldn't stand a chance against its influence, not to mention the hobbits are stealthy and can sneak by unnoticed, whereas eagles are incredibly un-stealthy, riding them would almost certainly tell Sauron where you are several days before you got anywhere near Mordor.

 

[Aeshi]

Very minor one:

Why is it that R2-D2 (a Mechanic/Repair Droid) has a Hologram projector capable of playing pre-recorded messages/displaying video calls, while C3-P0 (A Messenger and Translator) doesn't?

 

[ph3195k9]

That aside, how exactly was Harry Potter allowed to come back in the Deathly Hallows? Everything I've seen on it says "just because".

It's not "just because" it's "because magic!"

I didn't say it was, it could be any "just because", maybe it's just because he's the hero, or just because of magic, or just because the villain needs to lose, or anything.

I thought it was because he had the three mcguffins and thus was a "master of death" but of course I could be remembering things wrong since I havent touched the series in ages.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Lord Denethor was also ensnared by Sauron using a palantir, and went completely mad and devoid of hope as a result.

Wait, I thought with Denethor it was because he saw in the Palantir that Frodo was caught by orcs after being comatosed by Shelob, knowing that Frodo was the ring bearer, and realizing then that Sauron would soon have the Ring. Eventhough all the while Sam had the Ring.

It's been a long time since I read the books.

 

[Gabanuka]

Sonic '06. How was the city NOT on fire after it was clearly shown to be on fire in the opening sequence after Robotnik attacked?

Even more, how does a little girl NOT CRY her entire life until Sonic, a hedgehog she barely knows, is killed.

It's Sonic 06. Trying to understand it is the gaming equivalent staring at Cthulhu; you aint coming out sane.


(you have no idea how proud of the I am)

 

[Mojo]

-snip-

Great read! Agree with the whole Griffons thing not working, bugged me ever since I saw it on "How it should have ended" the first time. You just put it in words better then me.
Never noticed the plot hole you mentioned though, I just assumed Sauron thought Aragon had the ring, like in the book. (witch I read before I saw the moves, mind you.) But now that you mention it, Souron really should have known Frodo hat the ring.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

The only one I can think of at the moment, although it's not really a plot hole, is the end of Independence Day where the crop duster pilot flies into the ship's doom ray causing it to explode. Baring in mind this thing has shown it can shoot through ENTIRE SKYSCRAPERS, how exactly does a relatively small aircraft in the path of the beam cause a catastrophic backfire? It could be that he just flew into it, but he seemed to slow down just short of the beam.

 

[Hazy]

A bunch of you people have no idea what a plot hole is...

Yeah, no kidding.

A plot hole is information that contradicts what has been previously established, guys. It isn't something that has been "left out". That's just being vague.

OT: Fredo killing the assassins in The Godfather Part II. For those of you who haven't seen this movie (all three of you,) Fredo's character is a weak, cowardly little weasel who is double dealing against the family. We're supposed to believe that he overpowered several armed gunmen in the span of a few seconds. To quote Robin Warder from Cracked:

"This is not a man who suddenly overpowers two assassins in the middle of the night and slits both of their throats. This is a man who hides in the closet during thunderstorms."

 

[Calibanbutcher]

-snip-

Great read! Agree with the whole Griffons thing not working, bugged me ever since I saw it on "How it should have ended" the first time. You just put it in words better then me.
Never noticed the plot hole you mentioned though, I just assumed Sauron thought Aragon had the ring, like in the book. (witch I read before I saw the moves, mind you.) But now that you mention it, Souron really should have known Frodo hat the ring.

Yeah, the "here, take this thing you crave more than anything else" plot hole IS a plot hole, though a movie specific one.
(Am I correct in assuming that the Nazgul possess telepathic abilities?)

ultra snip

Well, despite having ninja'd you, you still get this one.
That was a great and very funny read, so you can have this one.