The Book of Eli: Really cool but with more plot holes then you can shake a stick at.

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conflictofinterests

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I would have thoroughly enjoyed it were it not for the part about the bible, perhaps because I'm new to the genre and it isn't all played out for me. I enjoyed the actors (It was especially gratifying to see Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg make an appearance after that tragic accident in the Fifth Element). The action was fun, the story engaging, but the COME TO JESUS parts were a bit much for my agnostic self, including the part where Eli shrugs of getting shot to hell and gone.

All in all, see it. Maybe buy the DVD. Maybe borrow it from a friend. I think it's worth having a copy between a bunch of you.
 

Jellly

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helplesskitten said:
I would just like to say in response to the 30 years it took him to travel from the east to west that you are indeed, retarded

He MEMORIZED the bible word for word, you think he walked while memorizing? He stopped to read it repeatedly, it took him 30 years memorize the bible NOT to walk across the US.

Check your math again by counting in how long it takes to memorize the bible and get back to me.
Some Jewish/Muslim children have been known to memorize their book of faith by the age of 14. Just thought i'd put that out there. :)
 

conflictofinterests

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Jellly said:
helplesskitten said:
I would just like to say in response to the 30 years it took him to travel from the east to west that you are indeed, retarded

He MEMORIZED the bible word for word, you think he walked while memorizing? He stopped to read it repeatedly, it took him 30 years memorize the bible NOT to walk across the US.

Check your math again by counting in how long it takes to memorize the bible and get back to me.
Some Jewish/Muslim children have been known to memorize their book of faith by the age of 14. Just thought i'd put that out there. :)
Yeah, but come on. Children learn information like sponges soak up water. You could probably teach a kid 4 languages in that time too, but how long do you think it'd take the average adult to learn even ONE?
 

Jellly

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conflictofinterests said:
Jellly said:
helplesskitten said:
I would just like to say in response to the 30 years it took him to travel from the east to west that you are indeed, retarded

He MEMORIZED the bible word for word, you think he walked while memorizing? He stopped to read it repeatedly, it took him 30 years memorize the bible NOT to walk across the US.

Check your math again by counting in how long it takes to memorize the bible and get back to me.
Some Jewish/Muslim children have been known to memorize their book of faith by the age of 14. Just thought i'd put that out there. :)
Yeah, but come on. Children learn information like sponges soak up water. You could probably teach a kid 4 languages in that time too, but how long do you think it'd take the average adult to learn even ONE?
Fair enough. Although we don't know if he was christian before the bombs, (do we? haven't seen it in ages) so he may already have known/memorized large amounts. I agree though that memorizing a book the size of the bible would be a very lengthy challenge for an older person such as Eli.
 

PaulWolfe

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Regarding the 30 year journey across the country, I am sure they intended to draw a parallel with Biblical Moses's 40 years wandering in the desert. Here, crossing the country was a bit of an odyssey, and he was guided by and provided for by the god, even though he surely wandered quite a bit in circles. If he had gotten there in say, one year, they would not have been ready for the book on the other end. His character had to maintain faith for 30 wandering-filled years that he would get to the destination in a way and a time designed by the god -- a testament to the faith and perseverance of his character.

As you would probably guess, not a theist here. Nonetheless, thoroughly enjoyed the movie start to finish. Sometimes plot "holes" movies just need some imagination by viewers to fill.
 

PaulWolfe

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And BTW, the bigger plot hole for me was why didn't everyone have scurvy? Didn't see fruit anywhere.
 

SL33TBL1ND

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xperimental12 said:
Oh, and, looking at it from a scientific view, THE WORLD WOULD BY F**KED UP BY S**T LOADS OF RADIATION!!! Seriously, if there was a nuclear war, the radiation would still be around 30 years afterwards.
Yeah, that's like the whole point of Fallout. I enjoyed this movie, but this movie is fucked up.
 

bpm195

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Maybe it's because I think of Christianity and the Force as equally valid, but I see every one these complaints and disagree entirely, excluding the MP3 player.

It does take some suspension of disbelief to accept that every other bible in the world was destroyed, but it's reasonable, and quite spiffy the way one slipped by.

The other things are pretty much explained by accepting that the movie takes place in an alternate universe where god is real.
 

Obsideo

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What I don't get is why he would wander around for 30 years memorizing the Bible when he could have just zipped to his destination and read it to them without having to waste all of that time memorizing it.
 

Bamboonga

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The OP suffers from more plotholes than this movie, aka the rule of loser. For example;

"Why is he carrying the bible? Because it's the last one and he wants to bring it...somewhere. Yeah, that's big plot hole number one. That's the last bible? Really? There are like 4 billion bibles in the world and this is the last one? They even say that people went out of their way to burn bibles (because they started the whole end of the world war) but still, I really doubt they could get each and every last bible in the whole world."

Did you consider that perhaps he believes that without the necessity of it actually being true? Or, perhaps it is true. Is it really that much less believable than a guy named Luke carrying around a sword made out of a laser beam rampaging across the cosmos moving things with his mind?

"Let's do the math. So I know where Eli eventually ends up (it's on the very west cost) but we have no idea where he started. We can assume, though, that he started somewhere in the us, because of his accent and language. Now, let's give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he started WAY on the other end of the US, like around Rhode Island. Thats about a 3300 mile journey from one side to the other. Now, lets do the math to see how many miles a day he had to walk, in 30 years, to reach his destination. Ok, so it comes out to about less then a mile, to only about 1500 feet. Was he just really fucking slow? Did he spend 28 of those years just goofing off? Even if he didn't go in a straight line it's pretty fucking unrealistic."

Right. Let me guess; the longest walk you've ever taken was down to the local nambi-pambi organic food mart for some high-quality vegan food on level ground carrying nothing but a pocket of change, wallet, ID card, and a couple single-use KY Jelly applicators. Use MapQuest to your advantage; I'm looking at your 'straight line' from Providence, Rhode Island to Alcatraz Island, California. Now, let's just assume ol' Denzel didn't have the post-apocalyptic Mapquest app on his 1st-gen iPod. I know that's probably a glaring plot hole to you, but jut try to force yourself. I see the Rocky Moutains, the Mojave Desert, and the state of Colorado that probably tried to lynch him every 20 feet. These are hard to cross when you come to cities every other day; not to mention 30 years after the bombs fell.

Referring to your last so-called plothole; the destruction of every single Bible in the Continental United States. You seem to be under the impression this would take a day.

Let's do the math; according to you, there are "like" 4 billion bibles in the world. You seem under the impression they were all destroyed the day after the bombs fell. So, 24 hours in a day, 4 billion bibles...that only comes out to 166,666,667 bibles that need to be destroyed per hour. Wow. I submit that the amount of smoke produced by burning that many bibles might just exceed the amount of dust created by one of the nukes. Did you ever consider the destruction of every single bible (minus one) in the U.S. might take more than a year? More than 5? It'd be mighty easy to start with, then you'd have to start hunting down the ones that were hidden. By the way, did you notice you seem to have set the world's Bible population almost as high as the world's human population? Subtract all citizens of China from that number. Feel stupid yet? Maybe he found the Bible 15 years after the bombs fell. Maybe 20. Maybe he had JUST found it? He never says he found it the day after the war.

"There are lots of little weirdnesses too, like how eating human flesh apperently makes your hands shake for some reason"

Cannibalism causing hand-shaking...hm...I remember reading that before...ah! Yes! Apparently one would have to consume the brain of one person with any of the following; Mad Cow Disease, Kuru, or any of 5 human variants of Creutzfeldt?Jakob disease in order for hand tremors to be a symptom. Ah, yes, I forgot, you could also eat somebody who ate somebody who ate somebody who had one of these. Since cannibalism in this world seems common enough to deny services to customers with shaking hands, this seems somewhat likely. Also, if you had to choose somebody to eat would you pick the healthy looking guy who could break you in half and looks like he opens doors from the HINGED side, or the shaky, elderly, sickly guy who's a much easier target?

"and how Eli still has a functioning mp3 player more then 3 years after the destruction of the world."

Okay...you got me on that one. A functioning MP3 player more than 1 year after being purchased IS a huge plot hole. Especially one made by Crapple. As the hijacker at the beginning said, 'I AM IMPRESSED!!!' I'm assuming, however, you meant 30 years?

"Or how about his completely unexplained ninja skills?"

Let me replace this with another phrase; "Or how about his completely unexplained lightsaber and acrobatic skills?" It's a fucking movie. God, 'The Force', it's all the same to Hollywood. Besides, 30 years is enough time to become a ninja; maybe he spent 29 of them at a dojo? Maybe he learned from Keanu Reeves. You heard him when the guy asked if he had toys..."nah, nah I don't play..." Thaaaaaaaaaat's RIGHT. Denzel don't play. He's too busy kung-fu fightin'...

And here's the one that I can't EVER seem to get a straight answer out people on; how the HELL do you know he's blind? Because Gary Oldman shouted "HE CAN'T BE!!!" at the end? I agree, he can't. Is there some reason a seeing dude can't be carrying around a braille bible? If it's the last one on Earth, how choosy can you afford to be? I don't speak Spanish but if I'm lookin' for a Bible and I see that the last one on Earth is in Spanish, well I guess I got me 30 years to learn me some Spanish.

One thing I din't understand about the plot; the bikers below the Fallout-ripoff freeway seemed awfully intent on raping the blonde chick...then...put her pants back on? Plot hole? Maybe...odd? Yeah, I thought so.
 

dmart009

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I know it's late...

I just have a little thing to add. As a producer and writer I tend to be more critical than most on a film or its plot. I enjoyed Eli overall and didn?t give as much critique as I could have when I first viewed it because I loved the sound track and Denzel?s performance as well at the editing and post production value. However I was driving down the road to work one day looking a snack wrapper I just purchased at the gas station. It had a notice on it declaring ?No Trans Fats.? Now I don?t know if others do what I am about to do when I read this but for those who do, you?ll understand.

This is the conversation I had in my head:

?No trans fats... how? It was fried in oil... well... could be vegetable oil I guess. How could KFC have zero trans fat? It?s fried chicken for Christ sake! They must use 100% vegetable oil? Is that what it even means? What kind of oil would they use?... Cat oil! Got any carmex? No I got fresh cat oil... works the same way... cat oil? How do you get cat oil anyway?! Very carefully right? Imagine something fried in cat oil! God that would be nasty!... (quiet contemplative pause as I drive) Wait a minute... there?s a damn cat on the bar of the movie theater? What the hell is a cat still doing alive in this town? 30 years after an apocalypse, most of the people here have never seen a cow! They haven?t seen TV! Hide your kids, hide your wife, hide your husband cause we eatin? everybody up in here! We have to check peoples hand to see if they are cannibals and there?s a LIVING CAT WITH A SHIT ATTITUDE WALKING AROUND!! People are starving! And where in the hell did the fat guy with the chain saw come from?! What the hell is he eating?! Here is a 20 to 30 year old man, born after the flash, 50 lbs overweight, welding a chain saw in a time where every factory is wiped out, no sugar, no salt, no refined white flour... what is he eating? Everybody would be as tight as Bruce Lee people. They are all on a no carb, high protein ?people? diet! The ***** with tits and shopping cart said they were gonna eat him. You can?t grow beans or potatoes but this guys has a beer gut! Jesus, don?t get me started...?

This is what I do to myself. I know what happened. The writer needs an excuse to have an incident at the bar to have that awesome fight sequence. ?Yeah... he shews a cat.?

No... think of something else.

The costume designer submits his sketches of the characters in town. There is a really cool illustration of a fat guy with gas mask and chain saw. The director loves it. He cast a fat guy.

No... think it through.
 

Drummodino

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Yea it had big plot holes, but analyse any movie thoroughly and you can probably find a few. What really matters is if you enjoy it - I did and that's why I think it's a really, really good movie.
 

Dimensional Vortex

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xperimental12 said:
Oh, and, looking at it from a scientific view, THE WORLD WOULD BY F**KED UP BY S**T LOADS OF RADIATION!!! Seriously, if there was a nuclear war, the radiation would still be around 30 years afterwards.
The nuclear radiation didn't necessarily reach everywhere, and the nuclear bombs didn't hit everything. All it probably did was wipe out the bulk of the military and government so there was no leader, the radiation leaked to most of the main water sources so water couldn't be wasted on trees and land so the land died, and people probably did have radiation poisoning but how the hell would you know you have a fatal sickness or affliction without medical equipment?

For when he was walking there is a good probability he had to walk the long way around places instead of a linear path, and he also probably had to rest on occasion, I know it doesn't accumulate to 30 years but it makes it a bit more probable. We also don't know that maybe every so often the bible got stolen and he had to go on a journey to get it back that took years.

But I do agree that the whole religious message is not needed, it's not frivolous, i'm sure that whoever wrote it was thinking of a dramatic and emotional ending, which it was a bit.

Overall: The movie was good, the action scenes were great the story...ehh, not so much.
Grades:
-Action: A
-Story: C-
-Visual Attractiveness: B
Total = B

So it was a slightly above average movie that was only brought down by it's constant plot holes, errors and lack of a good story, which were made up for by the great violence and fast action.
 

Snowalker

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xperimental12 said:
Oh, and, looking at it from a scientific view, THE WORLD WOULD BY F**KED UP BY S**T LOADS OF RADIATION!!! Seriously, if there was a nuclear war, the radiation would still be around 300 years afterwards.
Fix'd it for you. But still, its not like you can't walk around, because once the fallout 'settles' a.k.a. isn't in the air, people can walk around and shit, you just have to mind what you eat and drink.
 

nephilim3

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Dimensional Vortex said:
The nuclear radiation didn't necessarily reach everywhere, and the nuclear bombs didn't hit everything. All it probably did was wipe out the bulk of the military and government so there was no leader, the radiation leaked to most of the main water sources so water couldn't be wasted on trees and land so the land died, and people probably did have radiation poisoning but how the hell would you know you have a fatal sickness or affliction without medical equipment?

For when he was walking there is a good probability he had to walk the long way around places instead of a linear path, and he also probably had to rest on occasion, I know it doesn't accumulate to 30 years but it makes it a bit more probable. We also don't know that maybe every so often the bible got stolen and he had to go on a journey to get it back that took years.

Even if all nuclear targets were military in nature, radiation knows no borders and would, after 30 years, be all over the place and there would be plenty of people in the movie with visible radiation sores, sickness, etc. Chernobyl was a relatively small nuclear accident, and there was radiation fallout measured in the subsequent months as far away as the west coast of the United States. There was no "desertification" of the land in the Ukraine, in fact, it's quite the opposite. Plant and animal life flourished, albeit in genetically modified form and generally inedible. Most post apocalyptic movie directors get this wrong. Sure, you could say that nuclear war disrupted weather and now there's no rain, but the latter would be the most likely scenario. Even in a "scorched earth" scenario, where fires resulting from burning cities, etc. burned off most vegetation, a lot would have grown back after 30 years, and with relatively few humans left to mess things up, there would be plenty of plant and animal life around. Look at "Life after people", the History channel show that illustrates just how quickly nature reclaims the land when there's no human intervention. I guess post apocalyptic movies just "look cooler" set in a barren desert like wasteland so that's why directors film them that way. (Mad Max, on the other hand, was intentionally set in the barren Australian outback - that place essentially looked this way even before nuclear war so they got away with that one in by book.) But having said that, dmart009 makes a good point about people starving in general in that environment. Cormac Mccarthy's "the road" is the best post apocalyptic movie I've seen, no one is killing people like a ninja, that takes too much energy; everyone is TIRED, WEAK, and HUNGRY. No time for crazy antics, just the never ending quest for food. What's more, there are no "pretty people" in that movie, most people in Book of Eli look amazingly clean, well fed, and done up by makeup artists. As for IPODs and the like, 3 letters come to mind- "E M P". Scientists have calculated that a 1 kiloton airburst (much smaller than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima) detonated 1 mile above the continental U.S. would essentially wipe out 99% of all electronics, permanently. So the chances of someone walking around with a working IPOD in a nuclear wasteland are extremely slim.
Oh one last thing:
BANDIT #2
He's got a gun.

BANDIT LEADER
Shit, it ain't loaded. They never
are. Ain't that right, old man?

I find it odd and hypocritical that they set up this premise when later in the movie there are plenty of gunfights.
 

nephilim3

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Sep 29, 2011
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Sorry, meant to say "Sure, you could say that nuclear war disrupted weather and now there's no rain, but the FORMER would be the most likely scenario."