Films with ludicrous holes in the plot

stickyfiddle

Bygone_Tones said:

I watched the Matrix last week. How does Neo manage to fire hundreds of rounds from a mini gun into a small room, killing all the bad guys in there, leaving morpheus sitting on a chair in the center of the room without a scratch on him?  Bit silly in places, but interesting fillum.

Cos he's "the one" and none of it is real?

Bygone_Tones

Also the walls are left with no holes in them. In the next scene all it takes is one guy with a pistol to shoot right through them from the adjacent room.

underdog

Bygone_Tones said:

Also the walls are left with no holes in them. In the next scene all it takes is one guy with a pistol to shoot right through them from the adjacent room.

I think maybe you missed the point of the matrix dude 

chillidoggy

Car chase scenes where they're in the middle of a city, and there's never any other bastard around. How does that work?

Danny1969

Independence day

Our hero with his trusty Powerbook 5300 somehow manages to join the aliens network and upload a virus to their operating system thus disabling their force shields. We can only assume the RJ45 connector has universal acceptance and the aliens OS is as badly written as ours then 

stickyfiddle

I have to say the bit in Mission Impossible 3(?) where Tom Cruise is in Dubai irks a smidge. After running for 2 minutes and travelling about 3 miles there's a car chase which is interrupted by a sandstorm that blocks everyone's vision, then 2 minutes later it's all clear again. That just ain't how sandstorms work - they usually last DAYS... 

But, like most things above, not really a plot hole. 

Jalapeno

Any film mainly 60s-80s with a computer in - with those tape drives going backwards and forwards - they are re-reading errors in an attempt to correct them - why were baddies' tape drives so badly maintained ?

Jalapeno

Not a film - latest Walking Dead  - Just shoot the f**ker already !!!!!!!!!! 

EricTheWeary

For me it's just about internal consistency, a film / TV show/ book creates a world and it should be consistent within itself .

The one that used to drive me around the bend was Big Bang Theory ( again not a film, I know) - I expect inconsistencies across a long running comedy but to have the character who is supposed to have an identical memory not remember stuff I knew as a casual viewer was deeply irritating. 

The Star Wars films are so full of ridiculousness I wouldn't know where to begin, the Family Guy versions do a decent job of pointing a lot of it out. You should watch the originals with childish wonder or not bother really. 

One of my favourite films is Groundhog Day. Partly that's because it offers no explanation so you can't get hung up on wether it works or not. It just is. 

p90fool

All Science-Fiction.  

Roland

The Big Sleep. The censors demanded so many cuts that the plot fell apart. As if sex and drugs weren’t enough they also didn’t like the murder being committed by a girl. One critic wrote “I’ve seen the Big Sleep a dozen times and still don’t know who did it”

HAL9000

chillidoggy said:

Car chase scenes where they're in the middle of a city, and there's never any other bastard around. How does that work?

Because they use the same cities as they use for filming car advertisements - never any traffic in them either.

HAL9000

stickyfiddle said:

I have to say the bit in Mission Impossible 3(?) where Tom Cruise is in Dubai irks a smidge. After running for 2 minutes and travelling about 3 miles there's a car chase which is interrupted by a sandstorm that blocks everyone's vision, then 2 minutes later it's all clear again. That just ain't how sandstorms work - they usually last DAYS... 

But, like most things above, not really a plot hole. 

Also, you'd expect to be covered in sand. Sandstorm finishes and Mr Cruise's hair and wardrobe are both immaculate.

crunchman

Woodandwires said:

Gun scenes/fire fights in films, hundreds of rounds fired never once changing a magazine. Later films have got better. Characters being shot with high velocity weapons and not losing an arm etc. You just have to suspend reality.

This.  Watched Die Hard the other day, and the magazines seemed to last forever (at least until the end when he only had 2 bullets left).

munckee said:

Lord of the rings, why didn't gandalf just fly on the eagle to the volcano in the first film and chuck the ring in, job done.

To be fair to the film, that was one bit where they were actually faithful to the book.

I think the bigger problem is why they RIng Wraiths were trying to get the ring for Sauron.  If one of them gets it and keeps it for himself he has control over the nine rings anyway.  Why would he give it back to Sauron?

darthed1981

Danny1969 said:

Independence day

Our hero with his trusty Powerbook 5300 somehow manages to join the aliens network and upload a virus to their operating system thus disabling their force shields. We can only assume the RJ45 connector has universal acceptance and the aliens OS is as badly written as ours then 

See, this one, I actually always thought they explained this... not terribly well but they did.

Goldblum had already deciphered the communications protocol the alien systems used, as they had used it to create their own network on our satellites.  I think he actually says he broke the encryption, but he obviously did either way.

The scientists had been trying to interface with the alien technology for years, and had repaired the ship, so presumably had figured out which wires go where, so a physical network interface isn't a problem.

A firewall isn't the issue as all Goldblum is doing is using a pre-existing connection from the alien ship, which we know is communicating as the scientists said it all switched on when the aliens came into orbit.

So the only unexplained bit is how Goldblum deciphered the command for lowering the shields to place inside the network.  Perhaps, he typed "help" and looked for "lower shields" at the alien command prompt...?

Strangefan

Danny1969 said:

Independence day

Our hero with his trusty Powerbook 5300 somehow manages to join the aliens network and upload a virus to their operating system thus disabling their force shields. We can only assume the RJ45 connector has universal acceptance and the aliens OS is as badly written as ours then 

There is a reason for this.... We took the technology from the aliens, hence why they can do it.



Edit : @darthed1981 beat me to it! 

Strangefan

Don't forget the best of all... Indiana Jones and the lot arc, he could have sat back and drank tea for the entire film and the outcome would have been the same, his actions were totally meaningless in his own film! 

57Deluxe

Pretty big hole in this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5VGhWJlG5M

chillidoggy

darthed1981 said:

Danny1969 said:

Independence day

Our hero with his trusty Powerbook 5300 somehow manages to join the aliens network and upload a virus to their operating system thus disabling their force shields. We can only assume the RJ45 connector has universal acceptance and the aliens OS is as badly written as ours then 

See, this one, I actually always thought they explained this... not terribly well but they did.

Goldblum had already deciphered the communications protocol the alien systems used, as they had used it to create their own network on our satellites.  I think he actually says he broke the encryption, but he obviously did either way.

The scientists had been trying to interface with the alien technology for years, and had repaired the ship, so presumably had figured out which wires go where, so a physical network interface isn't a problem.

A firewall isn't the issue as all Goldblum is doing is using a pre-existing connection from the alien ship, which we know is communicating as the scientists said it all switched on when the aliens came into orbit.

So the only unexplained bit is how Goldblum deciphered the command for lowering the shields to place inside the network.  Perhaps, he typed "help" and looked for "lower shields" at the alien command prompt...?

The aliens should have used iTunes: Goldblum would have been completely fucked.

EricTheWeary

Strangefan said:

Don't forget the best of all... Indiana Jones and the lot arc, he could have sat back and drank tea for the entire film and the outcome would have been the same, his actions were totally meaningless in his own film! 

The other well known one is that in Casino Royale ( the Daniel Craig one) the entire casino sequence is meaningless in terms of the plot and outcomes. Although I haven't sat down with either film and a pen and pencil to check.