Big flaws in film plots

Handsome_Chris

Star Wars- Episode 4: Why does Han Solo have to sort out the route himself.  If he has got a starship that will do the Kessel run in under 12 Parsecs, then surely it has navigation system on it.

The Empire Strikes Back: AT-ATs are probably the most ill designed piece of military hardware... ever.

1. Why are there not more turrets on it. It is asking to be attacked. There could have easily been left, right, top, rear and underneath turret by droids. 
2. What is the turning circle of one of those things.  
   
3. Why does the "Head" unit have to move.  It doesn't - it could have been attached by a more robust fitting.

If Boba Fett shares the same DNA as the stormtroopers, I think that Hans Solo had nothing to fear, that Imperial Stormtroopers could not hit a cow's arse with a spade.  Now I don't know if that is a training deficiency, equipment failure or they are just useless, but I'd rather put my money on NATO if it came to it.

peteri

Every film with a gun ever - they're either insanely accurate/long ranged/have limitless ammunition without re-loading

Or more specifically - Tom Cruise playing Jack Reacher, a mountain of a man who dominates a room

er...

Emp_Fab

Oh, and the ‘12 Parsecs’ thing...  a Parsec is a unit of distance, not time.  So what he’s saying is that the Falcon completed the Kessel Run in a distance of less than the distance required.  Like saying “My Car drove from Edinburgh to London in 88 miles”.

PolarityMan

Emp_Fab said:

Oh, and the ‘12 Parsecs’ thing...  a Parsec is a unit of distance, not time.  So what he’s saying is that the Falcon completed the Kessel Run in a distance of less than the distance required.  Like saying “My Car drove from Edinburgh to London in 88 miles”.

Han Solo is actually illiterate, his need to compensate is why he became an outlaw.

Handsome_Chris

peteri said:

Every film with a gun ever - they're either insanely accurate/long ranged/have limitless ammunition without re-loading

Not true.  Heat (1995) the actors were trained and drilled in fire and manoeuvre by Andy McNab.  This resulted in realistic firefight scenes with magazine changes, short controlled bursts or single shots.  I will concede that at that tempo battle they were not employing the four marksmanship principles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL9fnVtz_lc

jonnyburgo

Dead Snow, Zombie Nazis running around killing people. Now I’m no scientist but as far as I’m concerned the dead can’t come back to life and if they did the world would be too full and a good percentage of us ( again I’m no scientist so don’t have the numbers to hand) would have to live in the sea.

Handsome_Chris

Emp_Fab said:

Oh, and the ‘12 Parsecs’ thing...  a Parsec is a unit of distance, not time.  So what he’s saying is that the Falcon completed the Kessel Run in a distance of less than the distance required.  Like saying “My Car drove from Edinburgh to London in 88 miles”.

No it's not, because there is no route from Edinburgh to London which takes 88 miles; however:

According to Star Wars: The Essential Atlas and the Solo novels, the road to Kessel involved navigating a cluster of black holes known as 'the Maw'. This would typically take 18 parsecs -- to avoid falling into the Maw's gravity wells -- but with a sturdy ship like the Millennium Falcon and a daring captain like Han, a smuggler could skirt close to the edges of the Maw and cut the distance down to 12 parsecs. - https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2018/05/30/solo-star-wars-story-kessel-run-12-parsecs/#2c1d550e3785 

Dave_Vader

HAL9000 said:

 The Martian - Given Matt Damon’s history of having to be rescued from far and difficult places and how much it must have cost the US taxpayer...

“Courage Under Fire (Gulf War 1 helicopter rescue)
Saving Private Ryan (WW2 Europe search party)
Titan A.E. (Earth evacuation spaceship)
Syriana (Middle East private security return flight)
Green Zone (US Army transport from Middle East)
Elysium (Space station security deployment and damages)
Interstellar (Interstellar spaceship)

...why on Earth would anybody think that sending him to Mars was a good idea (or likely to end well)?

Also, given that at the start of the film it is established you need a watchman to check the return ship doesn't fall over in a bit of a strong wind, why on Mars would you send up the return shop for a mission years in advance - risking it being blown over in a bit of a strong wind and costing the US taxpayer even more?

digitalscream

Handsome_Chris said:

Emp_Fab said:

Oh, and the ‘12 Parsecs’ thing...  a Parsec is a unit of distance, not time.  So what he’s saying is that the Falcon completed the Kessel Run in a distance of less than the distance required.  Like saying “My Car drove from Edinburgh to London in 88 miles”.

No it's not, because there is no route from Edinburgh to London which takes 88 miles; however:

According to Star Wars: The Essential Atlas and the Solo novels, the road to Kessel involved navigating a cluster of black holes known as 'the Maw'. This would typically take 18 parsecs -- to avoid falling into the Maw's gravity wells -- but with a sturdy ship like the Millennium Falcon and a daring captain like Han, a smuggler could skirt close to the edges of the Maw and cut the distance down to 12 parsecs. - https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2018/05/30/solo-star-wars-story-kessel-run-12-parsecs/#2c1d550e3785 

Unfortunately, it's pretty well-known that this is a retcon to cover up the scientific illiteracy involved in writing the script.

It's a good one, however, so most folk let it slide.

octatonic

Back on LOTR- does the ring automatically resize for human or hobbit sized fingers?

Handsome_Chris

octatonic said:

Back on LOTR- does the ring automatically resize for human or hobbit sized fingers?

Yes, because

it's magic,duh!

PolarityMan

octatonic said:

Back on LOTR- does the ring automatically resize for human or hobbit sized fingers?

yes like all sphincters

octatonic

Handsome_Chris said:

octatonic said:

Back on LOTR- does the ring automatically resize for human or hobbit sized fingers?

Yes, because

it's magic,duh!

But it is assumed that it does without explicitly saying that it does.
If 'it's magic, duh' is a catch all for anything/everything then why does it even need a human/hobbit to travel about?
Why can't it just grow some legs and run about causing mayhem, because it's magic, duh?

Handsome_Chris

octatonic said:

Handsome_Chris said:

octatonic said:

Back on LOTR- does the ring automatically resize for human or hobbit sized fingers?

Yes, because

it's magic,duh!

But it is assumed that it does without explicitly saying that it does.
If 'it's magic, duh' is a catch all for anything/everything then why does it even need a human/hobbit to travel about?
Why can't it just grow some legs and run about causing mayhem, because it's magic, duh?

That would be a different story about a magic ring, with legs, duh!

ICBM

Handsome_Chris said:

Star Wars- Episode 4: Why does Han Solo have to sort out the route himself.  If he has got a starship that will do the Kessel run in under 12 Parsecs, then surely it has navigation system on it.

Emp_Fab said:

Oh, and the ‘12 Parsecs’ thing...  a Parsec is a unit of distance, not time.  So what he’s saying is that the Falcon completed the Kessel Run in a distance of less than the distance required.  Like saying “My Car drove from Edinburgh to London in 88 miles”.

No, it's correct - distances are measured in the same way as they are in our universe. The 12 parsecs is because he plots a *shorter* route through hyperspace in order to get there quicker. This is also why it has to be done by a human/Wookie navigator and not by a computer, because it's intuitive not calculable.

Into this matter more research must you do, young Emperor .

Haych

One of the Fast and Furious films, I don't recall which one - I only happened to be watching because it was on and I was bored.  The end scene involved chasing an aeroplane down the runway with a bunch of cars......... I'm already struggling to stay awake.  The scene in question took about ten times the amount of time needed for the plane to take off, but the good guys in fast cars still managed to thwart the bad guys in a plane.

Another film I watched eons ago was a prison break comedy where the protagonist breaks out of prison days before he's due to be released to watch a sports game of some sort.  He then had to break back into prison, posing as his mother, so he could be released as himself, but nobody thought to ask where his mother went as he was let out.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  One of my all time favourite movies..... but when they're in Bolivia and are "going straight" why did they revert back to robbing banks after the short-fat-tobacco-spitting beardy guy was killed?  The premise was that so long as they went straight the guy chasing them couldn't arrest them.  Why not just get another job and remain straight instead of going back to being villains?  I suppose the movie would be over, but still.........

octatonic

Handsome_Chris said:

octatonic said:

Handsome_Chris said:

octatonic said:

Back on LOTR- does the ring automatically resize for human or hobbit sized fingers?

Yes, because

it's magic,duh!

But it is assumed that it does without explicitly saying that it does.
If 'it's magic, duh' is a catch all for anything/everything then why does it even need a human/hobbit to travel about?
Why can't it just grow some legs and run about causing mayhem, because it's magic, duh?

That would be a different story about a magic ring, with legs, duh!

I think it might have been even better if it had.

EricTheWeary

Haych said:

Another film I watched eons ago was a prison break comedy where the protagonist breaks out of prison days before he's due to be released to watch a sports game of some sort.  He then had to break back into prison, posing as his mother, so he could be released as himself, but nobody thought to ask where his mother went as he was let out.

Easy, the prison was run by G4S .

ICBM

I'm not sure if it counts as a plot hole, but the ending of Harry Potter is shit.

It would have been much better to skip the whole bit in the woods before the final battle, then for Nagini to have been killed while Voldemort and Harry are fighting, and then Voldemort kills Harry, thinking he's won - but by doing so destroys his own last Horcrux and himself, and saves Harry's life in the process.

Sleepyscholar

darthed1981 said:

fretmeister said:

The Da Vinci Code.

The secret box thing with the password. Contains vinegar to ruin the paper.

Vinegar will freeze in a home freezer. Freeze it solid and smash it open. 

The Da Vinci Code

Why didn't the guy just write in his blood at the beginning "Jesus had kids..." if he wanted people to know...

Because there wouldn't be a movie

My problem with the Da Vinci Code (apart from the fact that it was a shit steal from the hilarious Holy Blood & The Holy Grail) was the 'So fucking what?' problem. Christ had kids? So? Where's the proof that someone or other is his descendant? Oh, you can test their DNA against some skeleton that someone claims is Mary Magdalene, who someone claims shagged Jesus.

Yeah, like that's going to stand up in the Family Court!

(I'm descended from the Emperor Charlemagne, by the way)