Easily solved Plotholes that annoy the hell out of you

[deth2munkies]

Every single romantic movie every that inevitably involves some misunderstanding that could be explained in a few words, but the characters are too fucking stupid to say them until 30 minutes later.

 

[Product Placement]

Spoiler: Amazing Spiderman 1

Amazing Spiderman 1:

It's the classic Hollywood-mandated villain STUPIDITY that upsets me in this. Our hero's nemesis/teacher, Prof. Lizard is just about to unleash his final plan. All it requires is for him to reach the top of the building across town and set off the device. Cue the entire city being transformed into an army of super lizards and victory is assured.

So...why...why on EARTH does he decide to rampage through the city, trying to convert individual people into lizards with gas grenades? This is surely the kid of shit an underling would be shot for pulling:

a) You've just confirmed you have a weaponised lizard-making gas, so everyone better wear masks or evacuate
b) You've exposed yourself to Spiderman/soldiers/Police/Vigilantes/you name it...Now everyone will be closing on your location and will be trying to kill you.

We've established already that Curt Connors is intelligent, driven and - most important of all - has a bloody good knowledge of the sewer systems! I appreciate that it would destroy the drama, but surely he would have just strolled nonchalantly through the tunnels to the deployment zone, then climbed up and fired the device? Chalk one up for the villains with little effort

Surely it would not have been hard to include some simple plot device that drove him out of the sewers? For example after his plan is discovered (because all villains leave their ultimate plot as a slideshow-screensaver when they're away from their desks) Parker could somehow flood/block the sewers, thereby forcing Connors to cover the last 200 yards above ground.

There you go, Hollywood! Plenty more ideas where that came from. Where's my job offer...?

Executive Hole Closer.
(I'd like a high billing on the credits, please....)

Spoiler: You wanna know something that's even more stupid?

Gwen Stacy's dad is dying on the rooftop and nobody realizes that they have hands on access to a gas, that could turn him into a man-lizard, with the ability to regenerate his wounds and then use the cure on him afterwards.

 

[Autumnflame]

Final Fantasy X: How do blitzball players hold their breath for so long playing pretty much underwater hockey?
How To Explain It: Breather masks.

Mass Effect 3: Why doesn't Mordin just run for the elevator after he fixes the Shroud, potentially surviving?
How To Explain It: He tries to, but gets KO'd by an explosion.

My guess was he was tired and ready to die to help the krogan live.
Plus he was really old for a Salarian and we dont know if he would have survived the tower destruction

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

While it might not be quite what the OP had in mind, the ending of Angel Beats was plot hole central. The reason why it's like that is that the series was originally planned to have twice the number of episodes than it ended up with; the studio cut it down from 26 episodes to 13. From the way things works out, it looks like the decision was made partway through the series, since it's obvious where the series is going to go from in and around the 3rd or 4th episode, and they start to follow through with it at a decent pace... until everything started wrapping up, and a whole bunch of stuff was left out in order to expedite the ending. I don't know why they cut it, but it was probably for budget or ratings reasons.

The reason why I think this would have been easily solved, and why it annoys the hell out of me, is for the sheer fact that these plot holes exist because the series got screwed. If it went along as planned, it would have been amazing; the only flaw with the series is the pacing near the end, and the writers behind it have an amazing track record, since they wrote other great series, including but not limited to Clannad and Little Busters. It's not the fault of the writers, but rather the fact that they had to compress the entire part after the 10th or 11th episodes into the span of 2 or 3 episodes.

Thankfully, Key, the guys behind Angel Beats, as well as Clannad and Little Busters, is developing a series of visual novels on Angel Beats. I hope that it clears up all of the questions that the anime leaves unanswered.

 

[Emanuele Ciriachi]

A large number of ships and a means to track when they are approaching the planet or attempting to leave the planet?

It would require an impossibly large quantity of ships to cover the whole airspace of a planet, especially considering how easily it is for a single ship to escape despite literally passing near them.

Presumably they'd be trying to get lower or nonexistent taxes on trade routes. As for the second question, the answer is simple: They'd get away with it the same whay they did in the actual events of the film. They blockade and straight up invade Naboo, and while they didn't succeed in doing so, they attempted to kill the jedi, and in the end Sidious/Palpatine's influence manages to get them off as we see in AOTC.

The problem is precisely this - that you have to presume it, and the movie doesn't bother giving a clear explanation and motivation for the actions of the villains, or how Palpatine would benefit from the situation.

Also it is not clear how Palpatine "gets them off" without publicly siding with them - after all the whole point is that they don't know that their "friend" with the cloak is the Senator himself.

 

[Akiraking]

It may be sloppy but what are the plot holes in the finale to The Dark Knight Rises?

Spoiler

Bruce Wayne magically getting back into a completely sealed off Gotham from the middle of the desert with a battered body and no resources. Magically setting up a random Bat Signal on a building when he gets back (WITHOUT ever being noticed by anyone) instead of... you know... helping people. Talia al-Ghul and all that involves her character. Magically surviving a gigantic nuclear bomb sized explosion without anyone noticing him ejecting or ANY indication of that happening at all to begin with. Those are the ones that come to mind right away, but I have a feeling that there are others I just am not remembering.

To be fair, he is Batman, I don't mean that in a stupid way, I mean as in the signal can be explained as a fear tactic, if he can scare the enemy then he has a better chance at winning. Also it would be a way of uniting the few good people like the commissioner left in Gotham. As to how he gets from point a to point b and the end of the movie he has plot Armour. He knows how to deal with pretty much any situation. I won't go into more detail because I agree they needed to explain it but at the same time I never questioned it because it is Batman.

 

[Yopaz]

Harry Potter 7: Part 1.

Hey we just teleported to this random Muggle cafe. OH SHIT WE GOT FOUND BY DEATH EATERS WITHIN MINUTES?!? HOW?!? Well I guess we need to constantly be on the move, don't put up our tent in one place for more than a day or two in case the Death Eaters manage to track us down again. Oh look Ron got pissy and left, and Hermionie is upset because she knows he'll never be able to find them again when they teleport away.

Wait, how did the Death Eaters track them down in a random Muggle cafe like that? I mean it's only the entire reason they're on the move constantly throughout the film. If only there was 2 or 3 lines of dialogue from the book they could use to explain it.

Nah, lets just hope no one notices.

I actually missed this one since I knew it after reading the books, but now that I think about it this is an excellent point. It's just a matter of a minute of explanation to fill the plot hole.

 

[Sutter Cane]

A large number of ships and a means to track when they are approaching the planet or attempting to leave the planet?

It would require an impossibly large quantity of ships to cover the whole airspace of a planet, especially considering how easily it is for a single ship to escape despite literally passing near them.

Presumably they'd be trying to get lower or nonexistent taxes on trade routes. As for the second question, the answer is simple: They'd get away with it the same whay they did in the actual events of the film. They blockade and straight up invade Naboo, and while they didn't succeed in doing so, they attempted to kill the jedi, and in the end Sidious/Palpatine's influence manages to get them off as we see in AOTC.

The problem is precisely this - that you have to presume it, and the movie doesn't bother giving a clear explanation and motivation for the actions of the villains.
Also it is not clear how Palpatine "gets them off" without publicly siding with them - after all the whole point is that they don't know that their "friend" with the cloak is the Senator himself.

Well actually we do see that in TPM the senate is clearly corrupt enough to side with the trade federation as seen when Padme tries to convince the senate to act on the invasion of naboo. Also, while they don't know Sidious they clearly know he has influence over the senate in some way (hence the "I will make it legal" line). Also, I'd argue that we have no way of knowing how many ships would be needed for a blockade, since we don't really know how fast the ships can travel outside of hyperspace, nor do we know how effectively they can trap ships attempting to land on or leave the planet. We do know that ships have run the blockade, but historically ships could often do that too against real life blockades.

I mean it's not like i'm blind to the flaws of the prequels either, I just feel that they're more in the way of charracterization (ie how relatively flat most of the characters come of as in tmp, and the way lucas directed Anakin in the early scenes of AotC)

 

[Something Amyss]

If you think about the time needed to move that entire rebel base from their base on Yavin 4 to Hoth it's quite probable that that's the first opportunity Han's had to bail.

The very line used to justify this implies they've had other adventures.

I'd also note that Lucas' inclusion of the scene with Jabba in the special editions would indicate this wasn't the case. And, I mean, this was a scene they went so far as to film with a dummy actor, so it was the original plan.

From context it seems like sending bounty hunters out to comb the galaxy over a shipment ditched to avoid customs is basically a huge over-reaction on Jabba's part and not one Han seriously expected, like if your boss pulled a gun on you after you broke a few plates at a cafe, you'd maybe expect to be told off or fired but not to be attacked.

Not getting that, either. Just because a bounty hunter caught up with Solo doesn't mean they were combing the galaxy for him. HEll, it didn't seem to really get real until Vader was involved.

Yes, Leia directly says "they're tracking us". Han doesn't believe her, but it still doesn't make much sense for leia to guide them directly back to the secret base when she knows they're being tracked

The word you're looking for is not "knows," but rather "assumes."

Something she "knows" so fervently she gave up after one line.

I know it's not really a big deal, but I still don't think it makes much sense. You kind of have this giant, not particularly mobile creature just kind of sitting in a cave on an asteroid without easy access to food. I'd say that if criticism of the geology of naboo is valid, this should be too.

I'm more interested in the musicians who can play without obvious air holes.

Lucas changed many things over the years, and while certain things from his original plan did end up in the prequels (the republic falling to politics and corruption rather than some sort of outside threat), many other things did not. On top of that, one of the things I actually agree with RLM on, is that you can't really bring in knowledge of the EU into discussions of the movies, because those things aren't in the film.

Even if we don't buy into the EU or the upcoming films, one would have to believe that all the evil in the galaxy just fell off the map. That would seem to create a bigger hole than you're trying to fix.

We also know that prior to the sale of disney there weren't any intentions to make more star wars films after episode 3, so to me it seems a bit odd to be bringing in hypothetical films into this discussion.

Just like there were "no plans" for the prequels.

Even if the new movies have dark side force users in them (which they very probably will), the story just becomes that the prophecy was wrong, rather than the prophecy talking about anakin equalizing the number of light side and dark side force users,as by the end of the OT there is 1 Jedi and there are no Sith.

Okay, wait a second.

Why is it acceptable to assume they will hand-wave it when it's for some reason not okay to discuss the upcoming movies? That's pretty presumptuous. They actually have no reason to address it onscreen except if they decide to explicitly retcon it. BVut even then, there's no guarantee they retcon it the way you want. And if we're that far into speculation, it's ridiculous to discount the movies in the first place. Hell, at this point, it's ridiculous to dismiss the EU.

 

[Nimzabaat]

snip

While the game has a lot of plot holes there is actually an explanation for the one you pointed out. Elizabeth doesn't actually transport you to another dimension. Instead what she does is she takes the other dimension and melds it with the current one, think of putting all the files in one folder into another, hitting "replace" on any inconsistencies. So with most people, they just suddenly do and are what they were in the dimension she grabbed. But since they were alive in the dimension she pulled, and dead in this one when the overlap happened something went with their minds, one mind is working fine, but the other is dead so the overlap doesn't work out like it does for two alive minds.

As for booker not ever remembering through all those deaths. It's because the lutece twins are "taking" booker from a dimension and putting him into another, not layering him. Their tech can't overlap worlds like elizabeths alteration powers.

It's stated very clearly in the game that Elizabeth does transport them to other dimension. Each time she does it she says she can't get them back to the dimension they are currently in and asks Booker if he's sure. There's also a part in the game where they are walking between the different lighthouses where she talks about that.

This was one of my biggest complaints about the story because you have Booker A who has to rescue/capture Elizabeth A and return her to some people in Dimension A. Then Elizabeth drags him into Dimension B and he can't turn in the quest any more. So why does Booker keep going like he can finish the mission? Why doesn't he just take her to Paris? Why does Songbird keep finding them? The Songbird of whichever dimension should be looking for its own Elizabeth who may or may not still be in the tower. Sigh. A pretty game, but an awful story.

 

[Sutter Cane]

If you think about the time needed to move that entire rebel base from their base on Yavin 4 to Hoth it's quite probable that that's the first opportunity Han's had to bail.

The very line used to justify this implies they've had other adventures.

I'd also note that Lucas' inclusion of the scene with Jabba in the special editions would indicate this wasn't the case. And, I mean, this was a scene they went so far as to film with a dummy actor, so it was the original plan.

From context it seems like sending bounty hunters out to comb the galaxy over a shipment ditched to avoid customs is basically a huge over-reaction on Jabba's part and not one Han seriously expected, like if your boss pulled a gun on you after you broke a few plates at a cafe, you'd maybe expect to be told off or fired but not to be attacked.

Not getting that, either. Just because a bounty hunter caught up with Solo doesn't mean they were combing the galaxy for him. HEll, it didn't seem to really get real until Vader was involved.

Yes, Leia directly says "they're tracking us". Han doesn't believe her, but it still doesn't make much sense for leia to guide them directly back to the secret base when she knows they're being tracked

The word you're looking for is not "knows," but rather "assumes."

Something she "knows" so fervently she gave up after one line.

I know it's not really a big deal, but I still don't think it makes much sense. You kind of have this giant, not particularly mobile creature just kind of sitting in a cave on an asteroid without easy access to food. I'd say that if criticism of the geology of naboo is valid, this should be too.

I'm more interested in the musicians who can play without obvious air holes.

Lucas changed many things over the years, and while certain things from his original plan did end up in the prequels (the republic falling to politics and corruption rather than some sort of outside threat), many other things did not. On top of that, one of the things I actually agree with RLM on, is that you can't really bring in knowledge of the EU into discussions of the movies, because those things aren't in the film.

Even if we don't buy into the EU or the upcoming films, one would have to believe that all the evil in the galaxy just fell off the map. That would seem to create a bigger hole than you're trying to fix.

We also know that prior to the sale of disney there weren't any intentions to make more star wars films after episode 3, so to me it seems a bit odd to be bringing in hypothetical films into this discussion.

Just like there were "no plans" for the prequels.

Even if the new movies have dark side force users in them (which they very probably will), the story just becomes that the prophecy was wrong, rather than the prophecy talking about anakin equalizing the number of light side and dark side force users,as by the end of the OT there is 1 Jedi and there are no Sith.

Okay, wait a second.

Why is it acceptable to assume they will hand-wave it when it's for some reason not okay to discuss the upcoming movies? That's pretty presumptuous. They actually have no reason to address it onscreen except if they decide to explicitly retcon it. BVut even then, there's no guarantee they retcon it the way you want. And if we're that far into speculation, it's ridiculous to discount the movies in the first place. Hell, at this point, it's ridiculous to dismiss the EU.

I guess what I'm saying is that it'd be unfair to judge things in the prequels, or that the prequels imply about the OT based on a set of movies that weren't planned and didn't exist at the time, just as it would be unfair to judge the original cut of the OT negatively based on things that happened in the prequels. Also while all the evil people in the galaxy aren't gone, all the sith certainly are,meaning all those who draw on the dark side of the force for power are. Even if I concede your point though, it still doesn't mean that the prophecy meant Anakin was destined to even up the numbers of light side and dark side users, as that still wouldn't really describe what we see on the screen since at the end of the six film saga we have one jedi and no sith, which would mean that the whole prophecy was just a bunch of nonsense anyway.

 

[Dalisclock]

3. Why does the empire re-build a battle station that is shown can be destroyed by a single well-placed photon torpedo by a medium sized fighter?

Well, the station was still under construction, so when it was done there wouldn't have been as single exhaust port a torpedo could fly down.

But that begs the question why did the Empire bait a trap for the Rebels before at least making the new Death Star's reactor secure? It's claimed to be fully operational, yet they leave a giant superstructure weakness, exposing the reactor core (or whatever it is the Falcon shoots to kill it). Why not wait a month, and make sure the rebels can't pull off a last second explosion, because your reactor is no longer accessible form the outside?

Well, there was a massive energy shield protecting it so it shouldn't have mattered.

And that's why I think the much bigger flaw in the movie is: Why are the imperials so incompetent that they are unable to guard a door for an hour?

 

[Lawbringer]

Spoiler: Amazing Spiderman 1

Amazing Spiderman 1:

It's the classic Hollywood-mandated villain STUPIDITY that upsets me in this. Our hero's nemesis/teacher, Prof. Lizard is just about to unleash his final plan. All it requires is for him to reach the top of the building across town and set off the device. Cue the entire city being transformed into an army of super lizards and victory is assured.

So...why...why on EARTH does he decide to rampage through the city, trying to convert individual people into lizards with gas grenades? This is surely the kid of shit an underling would be shot for pulling:

a) You've just confirmed you have a weaponised lizard-making gas, so everyone better wear masks or evacuate
b) You've exposed yourself to Spiderman/soldiers/Police/Vigilantes/you name it...Now everyone will be closing on your location and will be trying to kill you.

We've established already that Curt Connors is intelligent, driven and - most important of all - has a bloody good knowledge of the sewer systems! I appreciate that it would destroy the drama, but surely he would have just strolled nonchalantly through the tunnels to the deployment zone, then climbed up and fired the device? Chalk one up for the villains with little effort

Surely it would not have been hard to include some simple plot device that drove him out of the sewers? For example after his plan is discovered (because all villains leave their ultimate plot as a slideshow-screensaver when they're away from their desks) Parker could somehow flood/block the sewers, thereby forcing Connors to cover the last 200 yards above ground.

There you go, Hollywood! Plenty more ideas where that came from. Where's my job offer...?

Executive Hole Closer.
(I'd like a high billing on the credits, please....)

Spoiler: You wanna know something that's even more stupid?

Gwen Stacy's dad is dying on the rooftop and nobody realizes that they have hands on access to a gas, that could turn him into a man-lizard, with the ability to regenerate his wounds and then use the cure on him afterwards.

Most of my post-cinema comments after that film began with the words "Why the hell....?"

 

[Anachronism]

The episode from the first season of Heroes where Hiro and Ando travel five years into the future.

For the life of me, I can't figure out how that episode makes any kind of sense. Future Hiro straight-up tells us that he stabbed Sylar five years ago, but he regenerated - therefore, Sylar must have Claire's power. He'd need it to survive the explosion as well. Everyone believes Claire's dead, but then, for no reason, she turns out to have been alive the whole time, and Sylar takes her power later in the episode.

It doesn't make sense. It's a plot hole you can drive a truck through, and it's so easily solved: if Sylar actually did kill Claire at Homecoming, it all makes sense. As it is, saving the cheerleader has no impact on saving the world, because in the alternate timeline New York explodes whatever happens.

 

[Frank Reading]

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, actually.

Overall I absolutely adored the movie. It worked for me on pretty much every possible level and I was fully expecting to dislike it based on the (possibly irrational and insane) level of fanatical devotion I have for the human race.

One thing bugged the crap out of me and that was the unlimited magazines on the ape weapons. Yeah, I know, Hollywood has had an absurd number of rounds come out of magazines since the dawn of action, but it would have been so simple. Have a 30 second scene just before they attack the humans where Koba shows the others how a gun works. Aim, trigger, reload. So simple. Then just throw in a couple seconds of the apes swapping mags.

Oh my god, that whole pivotal part in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes where

Spoiler

Koba invades the human stronghold with an armed ape army (say that 15 times as fast as you can). You could clearly see the humans had every tactical advantage. A decent amount of warning, a big ass wall with guns mounted on it, petrol tanks rigged to blow, armoured vehicles. I couldn't believe a ragtag militia could ever storm a base like that with such ease, especially a monkey militia. You could see wave after wave of ape get mowed down, grenaded and burnt. It was clearly a rout, yet somehow they just kept marching forward despite having no cover, no strategy, and no ability to aim. In a real scenario like that, the humans would have kept reinforcing the wall and defending. There was no reason for them to become overwhelmed like they did. Oh, and I don't believe there is a horse in the world that would ever gallop straight into an inferno.

 

[Naeras]

Catherine: Vincent gets involved in the plot by virtue of drunkenly cheating on Katherine with Catherine. He then neglects to tell Catherine he's basically in the process of getting engaged with his long-time girlfriend until after the point where she's become emotionally attached to him, causing them both grief. This is after him saying, shortly after their first encounter, that she'd tell her as soon as possible. Could really easily be solved by him trying to bring it up and Catherine going as psycho as she is prone to do on him about something else, dissuading him.

This isn't really a plot hole. This is precisely how an indecisive and emotionally confused coward would react in that situation. It makes perfect sense in my eyes, even though it doesn't paint Vincent in the most favorable light portrays Vincent as quite an asshole.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, actually.

Overall I absolutely adored the movie. It worked for me on pretty much every possible level and I was fully expecting to dislike it based on the (possibly irrational and insane) level of fanatical devotion I have for the human race.

One thing bugged the crap out of me and that was the unlimited magazines on the ape weapons. Yeah, I know, Hollywood has had an absurd number of rounds come out of magazines since the dawn of action, but it would have been so simple. Have a 30 second scene just before they attack the humans where Koba shows the others how a gun works. Aim, trigger, reload. So simple. Then just throw in a couple seconds of the apes swapping mags.

Oh my god, that whole pivotal part in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes where

Spoiler

Koba invades the human stronghold with an armed ape army (say that 15 times as fast as you can). You could clearly see the humans had every tactical advantage. A decent amount of warning, a big ass wall with guns mounted on it, petrol tanks rigged to blow, armoured vehicles. I couldn't believe a ragtag militia could ever storm a base like that with such ease, especially a monkey militia. You could see wave after wave of ape get mowed down, grenaded and burnt. It was clearly a rout, yet somehow they just kept marching forward despite having no cover, no strategy, and no ability to aim. In a real scenario like that, the humans would have kept reinforcing the wall and defending. There was no reason for them to become overwhelmed like they did. Oh, and I don't believe there is a horse in the world that would ever gallop straight into an inferno.

See, I had no problem with that for a few reasons.

The first being that the every ape was armed and the second being that there were so goddamn many of them. The sheer weight of firepower kept the human's heads down quite a bit.

In addition, the humans were neither trained nor especially skilled. They had survived the end of the world, granted, but that didn't mean they were ready for large scale combat against an enemy they had never seen. They also didn't exactly have a lot to reinforce with since the only other people were women, children and the old. Compounding that issue is that they lost the armory, meaning they probably had a relatively small number of weapons.

As for the apes lack of fear, I think it's debatable. They had just seen their city nearly destroyed and their leader killed, so they were pretty damn hungry for blood. They also knew that they had numbers on their side, so even with all the death their will was pretty strong.

The horse I'll give you. Movie horses are always weirdly brave.

 

[Hades]

The final meeting with the illusive man in ME3 where he proudly shows off the power of indoctrination he gained from the reapers to turn Shepherd into a meat puppet and forces him to shoot Anderson.

Except....that isn't how indoctrination works. The first game goes to great lengths to make clear indoctrination is so terrifying precisely because it does NOT force its victim to do anything they don't want to. The reaper indoctrination subtly influence's one's mind until they become willing allies who have no idea the thought's that enter their mind are no longer their own. Benezia, Saren and Tim were all acting with the genuine and rationalized beliefs that their actions were for the best but it were the reapers who influence their minds enough for them believe those things in the first place.

Tim on the other hand was clearly physically forcing the struggling Shepherd to shoot right there. No altering of the mind, no willing actions but just puppetry. Reapers did show they were capable of outright controlling others but so far only when their victims had been reduced to shallow husks to begin with.

The ending in general as far as the reapers are concerned. ''The ends justify the means'' villains are great but its a trope completely out of character for the Reapers. They had been shown as far to evil and far to condescending to their victims for any noble motive to be even remotely believable. Throughout the series the Reapers have shown only contempt to the races and they went out of their way to deliver the post painful, dehumanizing death's they could think of. This makes starkid's claiming about the Reapers doing it for their own good incredibly hard to swallow.

 

[Varrdy]

Top Gun

They spend all the movie learning how not to depend on missiles so much and in the final battle neither Maverick nor Iceman fire off a single round from the Vulcan cannons in the F-14 Tomcats they fly - they engage and win with missiles alone.

The baddies do fire off some cannon rounds and even score a damaging hit...you'd think that would be enough of a bloody reminder!