That moment you notice a huge plot hole in the story

[Asclepion]

Snip

Even if every point of confusion has explanations, barely any of them are established in the movie. Keeping Shinji under lockdown after he spent 14 years in Entry Plug stasis would be acceptable had Evangelion 3.0 got this across. But the characters refuse to tell him any of it and generally act like douchecanoes, and the audience is left in the dark.

A series doesn't have to explain everything, and Evangelion especially so. But 3.0 is such a massive, jarring turn from literally everything before it that it feels like there was whole movie between this and Eva 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance that we missed.

And I fucking love Eva 2.0

2. Mari is allied with WILLE now, she apparently worked for the EPA, a north American counterpart to NERV, previously. Also, she never hijacked an EVA, the EPA ordered NERV to release Eva 2 to her, because its their EVA, and falls under their jurisdiction since it was locked up in their base.

Which raises the question of why Mari was airdropped into Japan and told Shinji not to mention it, if she had jurisdiction to be there.

And apparently Nerv personnel weren't informed either, since they express shock when Unit-02 launches without their orders.

 

[PsiMatrix]

The T-1000 traveling back in time in Terminator 2. Kyle Reese specifically said in T1 that only living tissue can pass through, and that the only reason the first terminator could go was because it was surrounded by living tissue. The T-1000 is head-to-toe metal. Oops!

In Terminator: only living tissue can pass through so why were they not smooth and hairless and still had finger and toenails?

I suppose that Skynet could've built an improved version for the later assassination. We don't know how far in the future the T-1000 came from relative to the ten years since JC was concieved.

 

[Veylon]

It's not really a plot hole, but Death Note -

Spoiler

Light's big plan around the second act where he forgets he ever had the death note on purpose...that plan required the planning of exact people performing exact actions and saying exactly what he intended on them doing in order for his plan to actually work out the way he intended later. I know he's supposed to be a mastermind and there's a whole lot of "I know that you know that I know" going on, but that plan seemed a bit nonsensical to me that it actually worked out perfectly for him at the time.

Which exact things? He had the Shimigami drop off the Death Note with someone sure to abuse it and hoped that once the killing started again that he'd be pulled into helping solve it which - if he succeeded - would put it back in his hands and he could pick up from there. The exact who, why, where, and how didn't matter so long as flesh touched Note. Remember, too, that Rem was taking up a good deal of the slack in the plotting department; she was working to make this happen.

Aside from the overweening self-confidence, the only things that could go wrong outside of his ability to affect were L keeping him imprisoned or him not touching the Note from some reason, perhaps if L solved the case without needing Light and locked it away or if the new Note owner had destroyed it. Eliminating L and getting back into his groove without being caught were things beyond this particular plan that he had to finesse later.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Also from the Harry Potter series...

Spoiler: just in case anyone hasn't read it yet...

Veritaserum.

The very existence of that stuff made so many things in the series make no sense...

Harry knows about it from the middle of book 4, doesn't offer to take a dose and tell his story of how Cedric died while under it's influence.

Heck, Dumbledore-possibly the most brilliant wizard of all time is standing right there when the Minister of Magic dismisses Harry's story and never suggests the use of veritaserum to confirm it.

Sirius in all the time he was in prison never tells anyone "I didn't betray James and Lily, give me some veritaserum and I'll tell you the truth about what happened!"

A lot of Death Eaters got off the hook by claiming they had only done the things they did because they were under the influence of the imperius curse... ministry never uses veritaserum to confirm any of their stories....

Even if the stuff was really hard to produce, given it's applications the ministry should have had a dozen expert potion makers brewing the stuff night and day!

Like polygraphs it's not admissible in court, and it only makes people say what they believe is true, so wont work on people with a warped sense of reality or heck even with fake memories that they made themselves forget they implanted.

Also Occlumency can be used to counter it, and even 16 year old Draco managed to learn how to do that. So if a 16 year old can beat your truth serum with basically will power alone, it's not exactly reliable.

Is that ever stated in the books?
And it was used to extract a full confession from a very skilled and powerful wizard... so obviously not beaten by a hand-wave.
Even if it's not fully reliable it would have helped massively in the investigation of the Death Eaters (in the same ways that we use polygraphs to aid investigations), and brougt more credibility to Harry's story- probably enough that the ministry would have been forced to at least seriously investigate the possibility of Voldemort's return.

It's another one of those plot-holes that the death of a highly admired student was never really investigated.

 

[cojo965]

I noticed a couple in the new godzilla movie

The earth was ten times more radioactive back in godzillas time, and the dinosaurs used to eat radiation.

Im sorry, but WHAT?! Even the actor quickly changes topic like they are embarrassed

Also, the muto meets godzilla for the first time......and then literally tries to jump down his throat. WTF that is not a valid tactic....that's suicide.

Sorry but you're wrong on point 1 and point 2 may have an explanation.

1. Godzilla's species goes back to 250 million years ago, the first dinosaur didn't appear until 231.4 million years ago, making his species older geologically than any dinosaur. In this movie he is either a synapsid (mammal-like reptile), which explains why he looks like a shaved bear with scales, or an archosaur (ancestor of dinosaurs, crocodiles, and birds), an angle supported by his scale pattern.

2. The Mutos are in breeding mode. Animals getting ready to breed are generally more irate than any other time. The male's testosterone may have made it not think clearly. Of course you aren't exactly clear what you mean, Honolulu or San Francisco?

 

[Ieyke]

DofP:
How does Quicksilver have over the ear headphones in the 1970s? Considering the speed he is moving at, how is it the tape is a) not jogging and skipping and b) playing at normal speed. He did everything in less than a second of realtime yet plays much more than a second of audio.
There's a "temporary" cure that heals Charles' legs at the cost of his powers. As mentioned above, how the hell do they unheal themselves after the damage is healed?

Not plot holes, but completely unexplained phenomena that really deserve explaining:
- The post credits scene of The Wolverine with Magneto (fully powered) and Charles (alive)...when did it happen? They knew about the sentinel trouble, yet clearly the apocalypse hadn't arrived yet. Were they meeting him and warning him of danger 10 years before it happened?
- Speaking of, Xavier and Magneto, alive, powered, together on the same side. No explanation, nothing!
- DoFP: Wolverine has adamantium claws again in the future. How did he get them, considering they were cut off in The Wolverine.
- Kitty somehow developed a pretty useful ability to send people's minds back in time without explanation.

DoFP is just a REALLY bad movie.
You've barely BARELY scratched the surface on all the rampant bullshit and stuff that makes no goddamn sense in that movie.

Though, to be fair to the movie, Magneto being repowered, Xavier being alive, and Wolverine having his adamantium claws ARE all explained in the movies.
- At the end of X3 we see Magneto magnetical nudge a chess piece as his powers begin to return in spite of the "cure".
- Post-credits in X3 Xavier awakens and greets Moira McTaggert (the real one, not the nonsense First Class one), having hijacked his twin brother's brain-dead body.
- Post-credits in The Wolverine Magneto meets Wolverine to recruit him for something and implies that Wolverine will be needing his adamantium back.

 

[Ieyke]

Iron Man 3.

Spoiler

No one in Alaska recognizes Tony Stark, one of the wealthiest, most famous and succesful businessmen in the world and also a superhero who freaking flew a nuke into space in The Avengers, and in the very same movie has called the Mandarin out on live TV whilst surrounded by cameras? But hey, if he's wearing a baseball cap and a hoodie, then apparently that makes you just Joe Blow by default.

Apparently the alleged Mandarin's hiding place can be easily broken into by one guy with a bunch of homemade gadgets, despite being possibly the greatest secret in the world right now, and certainly the most vital in the real villain's plan. Gah, stupid stupid movie!!!!

Okay a few things here -
1st - not Alaska, its Tennessee, just because there's snow doesn't mean he's that far up north
2nd - yes, not many people are going to recognize somebody who's in the dark - you do realize that most of the shots when he's in Tennessee are at night so unless the people are up close and actually know the man and care, they aren't going to recognize somebody when they can't clearly see their face
3rd - the actual Mandarin's hideout was a secret, the fake Mandarin was a bit easier to find because it wasn't exactly being hid and the guards weren't exactly competent in their jobs

4th - The REAL Mandarin isn't in the movie at all, so his base is very very much a secret and well hidden.

 

[Bocaj2000]

I don't think anyone here knows what a plot hole is. Simply having internal inconsistencies does NOT make a plot hole.

Example 1: When Shepard in Mass Effect 1

Spoiler

had the Rachni Queen trapped... he still had his phone and could call up the council to see what they thought. There was no pressure and no rush. The situation was calm and the Queen wasn't going anywhere. He could have gone to the ship, asked what to do with it, and come back. Instead he makes an galaxy altering decision based on an impulsive whim.

This is inconsistent, but is it a plot hole?
No. The plot wasn't broken.

Example 2: In Hotline Miami

Spoiler

As Jacket, I kill Helmet. Later, as Helmet, I kill Jacket. This is obviously impossible.

Is this a plot hole?
Yes. Holy shit, yes.

Internal inconsistencies are very little things that annoy you. It makes you feel superior for catching something that the writer missed. This is why we love to obsess over them. They are accidents that we caught, usually retrospectively, but aren't obvious enough for most people to grasp immediately. They're used for dick waving, nothing more.

Plot holes on the other hand are huge things that cannot go unnoticed. When done on purpose, this raises questions over what is real and what isn't. These are my favorite kinds of stories that require multiple viewings to catch everything. When done by accident, this is due to piss poor writing and leaves a broken story. I'm sorry to burst your bubbles, but it's actually kinda hard to find movies this bad. We like to think that things we don't like are full of these... but they're not.

 

[Samael Barghest]

The anime/manga Fairy Tail. I read up to the magic tournament and the only story line in all of that that didn't have huge plot holes or contradicted itself was the story line about the other dimension that mirrored their own. It was pure annoying and my brother is in my ear constantly saying it gets better.

 

[SajuukKhar]

A series doesn't have to explain everything, and Evangelion especially so. But 3.0 is such a massive, jarring turn from literally everything before it that it feels like there was whole movie between this and Eva 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance that we missed.

That's the whole point?

Evangelion has always been a series about Shinji, and in Eva 3.0, Shinji has been gone for 14 years so he has no idea what happened, he can only see what the world has become, and how poepel react to it.

He has no reason to be told anything that happened, thus the viewer doesn't either, they can only watch as the world keeps moving in a seemingly unfair way around you.

But that also falls into the one of the key point of the series, you cant run away from the world, as Shinji tired to do when he pulled the spear/lance, just because its shitty and isn't being fair to you.

Which raises the question of why Mari was airdropped into Japan and told Shinji not to mention it, if she had jurisdiction to be there.

And apparently Nerv personnel weren't informed either, since they express shock when Unit-02 launches without their orders.

Because none of the Eva organizations like working with each other?

Nor does IEPA have to tell NERV anything.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Also it's heavily implied that the Ministy did believe Harry that Voldemort had returned, but didn't investigate out of fear and denial. Hence the reason why they never just expressed doubt in his story, they instead went in the total opposite direction and started calling him a liar. That's not a plot hole, that's just politics.

That wouldn't be politics. That would be *insanity*. Literally.

If the otherwise reasonable and reasonably competent Minister of Magic makes a decision to pursue an insane course of action, and only seeks to rectify it when he has no other choice... that's a plot hole.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Also it's heavily implied that the Ministy did believe Harry that Voldemort had returned, but didn't investigate out of fear and denial. Hence the reason why they never just expressed doubt in his story, they instead went in the total opposite direction and started calling him a liar. That's not a plot hole, that's just politics.

That wouldn't be politics. That would be *insanity*. Literally.

If the otherwise reasonable and reasonably competent Minister of Magic makes a decision to pursue an insane course of action, and only seeks to rectify it when he has no other choice... that's a plot hole.

Not really. Look at the invasion of Afghanistan because of 9/11. In hindsight that was a pretty overblown response for 3000 deaths. Or the invasion of Iraq because of make believe WMD's, that was a pretty overblown response for something that didn't exist.

Fear, coupled with denial and paranoia, makes people do crazy things. Fudge had Dementors placed around Hogwarts simply because of Sirius. That's a crazy response to something like that, not at all "reasonable or resonably competent". He (like everyone else) didn't want to believe Voldemort had returned (especially as it would destabilise everything he'd built up), along with his paranoia that Dumbledore was just trying to take his job, so he launched a smear campaign against Dumbledore and Harry and planted Umbridge in Hogwarts.

That's not a plot hole. If it is then those real life examples above are also plot holes

Those are not valid comparisons and I am *NOT* letting this turn in to a political debate.

Fudge *had* to know and understand that if Voldemort was back it was a *real* danger, and that *he* would be close to the top of Voldemort's list of targets/priorities. If he actually gave *any* credence to Harry's story, ignoring Voldemort's return -or even the fact that he could potentially return- for "politics" would have been insane.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Not really. Look at the invasion of Afghanistan because of 9/11. In hindsight that was a pretty overblown response for 3000 deaths. Or the invasion of Iraq because of make believe WMD's, that was a pretty overblown response for something that didn't exist.

Fear, coupled with denial and paranoia, makes people do crazy things. Fudge had Dementors placed around Hogwarts simply because of Sirius. That's a crazy response to something like that, not at all "reasonable or resonably competent". He (like everyone else) didn't want to believe Voldemort had returned (especially as it would destabilise everything he'd built up), along with his paranoia that Dumbledore was just trying to take his job, so he launched a smear campaign against Dumbledore and Harry and planted Umbridge in Hogwarts.

That's not a plot hole. If it is then those real life examples above are also plot holes

Those are not valid comparisons and I am *NOT* letting this turn in to a political debate.

Fudge *had* to know and understand that if Voldemort was back it was a *real* danger, and that *he* would be close to the top of Voldemort's list of targets/priorities. If he actually gave *any* credence to Harry's story, ignoring Voldemort's return -or even the fact that he could potentially return- for "politics" would have been insane.

You can't just dismiss denial, paranioa and fear like that, especially when there's more extreme versions in real life AND in-universe from that same character 2 years beforehand.

It's not a plot hole, it's actually quite consistent with both Fudge's character and reality.

As stated before the "real life" comparisons you make are not valid.

*However*, I will concede that Fudge was crazier than I had thought of him being. I hadn't thought of it before, but at one point he took a dementor as a bodyguard, which is nothing short of insane. Having a creature that could and would suck his soul out if provoked, and actually probably gave less real protection than a couple of skilled aurors near him all the time-- that is not the act of a sane man.
Although it seems to me that this simply shifts the plot hole over to "Why didn't Dumbledore appeal more things to the Wizengamot?".

 

[Kyrian007]

Take, say, Harry Potter. Now, I can't think of any plot holes off the top of my head, since I haven't seen/read them in a long time, but I'll make up an example: in Prisoner of Azkaban, the Whomping Willow plays a fairly large part in the plot, especially in the climax. Specifically, the second and third books emphasize the fact that the Whomping Willow, well, whomps everything that it encounters. So we have the fact that the Whomping Willow smashes things. It is an established, in-universe, fact. Then, in the climax, when Ron is being dragged through the passage below the Whomping Willow and Harry and Hermione give chase, the Whomping Willow does nothing to stop them.

Oh, I want to show Superman's capacity for self-sacrifice: have him jump in front of a gun to take a bullet meant for his love interest or something. Then show a very tearful hospital scene and we will have all this sweet drama and stuff. Feels all around. Except, wait a minute, Superman is invincible against bullets. Why the hell is he not now? Bonus plot-hole points if, like the above poster's example, Superman was actually shown deflecting bullets with his abs just before getting wounded by one.

Maybe I'm the only one (I don't think so, I think most people don't even care enough to argue it) but neither of those examples would anger me. With the Potter example, at the time I would have thought "maybe it's a dangling thread she'll bring back later." Then after Hallows that would change to "never did explain that... huh? Oh well." At that point it has been years since I even thought about it, and I couldn't care less. Would it change how I felt about Azkban... Nope. Still would be one of the better of the series (to me anyway.)

And the Superman example? I don't know. Is the rest of the story good? It we don't get much from the example, but the premise sounds boring and cliche and if that's the case I won't like it for real reasons rather than argue "plausibility" in a narrative about a superpowered alien. If it were freaking award winning stuff surrounding that situation... that wouldn't bother me enough to make me not appreciate the work as a whole. After all, it's award winning stuff.

I'm not saying some people aren't nitpicky enough to care about stuff like that. And there's not anything wrong with it, I would just rather TRY to enjoy stuff than pick on the little things. I just don't see the point of it. Being that critical (to me) seems like it would be impossible to enjoy ANYTHING.