| Image by Andreas Glöckner from Pixabay |
Just to put this out there: Making movies is hard.
WARNING: Spoilers for all your favorite films incoming!
Reddit user, u/sugar-soad, wanted to hear what irritates you the most when they asked:
What is a massive plothole in a movies storyline that really irritates you?
The Headscratchers
Starting off, there's those simple story beats that are missed. The obvious ones, the ones you would have thought multiple writers with multiple passes at a script would have caught.
...Oh Yeah, That's True!
When parents in Christmas movies don't believe in Santa but don't seem to realise the gifts that he left their children
Part of his magic makes them remember buying stuff they didn't is my guess.
Counting Numbers Is Hard
How Rocky's son ages like 7 years between Rocky IV and Rocky V. Rocky V is set a week after Rocky IV. I've said Rocky too much.
Laughs in Friday the 13th movies
Part 1 explicitly takes place in either 1980 or 1979. Part 2 takes place 5 years later, and 2-4 take place over a few days. Fine. But then 5 takes place far enough later that Tommy Jarvis ages up to a teenager, 6 has him as an adult, and 7 takes place far enough after 6 that a little girl grows up with Jason still sealed in the lake after part 6... and now in part 8, we're still somehow in the 80s. What the sh-t.
Oh Yeah! Why Not?
...In Cinderella, after midnight everything magic the fairy godmother makes for her changes back to what it was before. So why didn't the glass slipper the prince have change/ disappear?
Wibbly Wobbly...
In Back to the Future 2, Marty and Jennifer travel from 1985 to 2015. In 2015, old versions of Marty and Jennifer are there. This isn't possible. Since they jumped forward 30 years, and weren't there to live it out, they would be missing in 2015.
Now, before you say "but they returned to 1985, as if they never left!", in 2015, old Biff creates the Hell Valley timeline which Marty and Jennifer go back to. So they never lived out the 30 years leading up to 2015 in that timeline.
The Weird Ones To Leave Out
Then there's those oddities in your stories, the ones that are playing alongside the rules of the world you've created...until they're not. These are the story bits that go against the world order you've established for your audience.
Stronger Than He Looks
Ant Man has many. Most memorably, "You retain your mass when you shrink." To explain why you can kick a-- as a tiny dude.
[Proceeds to pull miniaturised tank out of pocket]
...Timey-Wimey Nonsense
Not so much a plot hole but in Tenet there are times where it doesn't follow its own internal logic and it's super frustrating the movie just treats you like you won't notice or won't care or you're just not smart enough to notice and it's really disappointing as a movie
Like why doesn't vision and hearing work in reverse too?
Tell Me About It, Stud
If Frenchy was so awful at beauty school how the hell did she make Sandy look like that at the end of the movie!
The "Come On It's So Obvious!" Ones
Finally, there's the plot holes so obvious people watching the film for the first time in movie theaters probably cried out in frustration that that's where they were going.
Maybe She Didn't Know How Pens Work? Wait...She Signed Her Name...
Why didn't Ariel just write Prince Eric a note?
I have often wondered this. It's not like she didn't know how to write. We see her sign her name on Ursula's contract.
Never Let That Man Near Superheroes Ever Again
Batman, the World's Greatest Detective, being stupid in Dawn of Justice and not investigating Superman.
Plot hole or just terrible writing?
Terrible writing
This One Could Have Been Solved If You Think For More Than Seven Seconds
Looper.
In 2044, the mob uses time traveling hitmen because future tracking systems have made it impossible to dispose of bodies.
The hitmen are paid in silver bars which are strapped to the backs of their victims until one day they're sent their "future self" who has gold bars strapped to his body, thus closing "the loop."
There are so many plot holes here I don't know where to begin.
Why use a hitman at all? Beam them back to a time when the area was covered with water. Strap a cinder block to their body instead of silver bars.
Hell, just beam them back to when the dinosaurs ruled the earth and cover them in barbecue sauce.
Okay, you don't want to risk someone finding a human fossil.
Beam them into a volcano.
Okay… the platform won't work in temperatures over 60 degrees centigrade.
Why are you hiring more than one Looper?
Give him a chain gun or a flame thrower and send your victims back in 10 second intervals.
Wait a second. You've mastered time travel? Why don't you just beam yourself back 30 or so years and kick your victim's mother in the stomach.
Wait another second… (or use that last second I mentioned, because you've mastered time travel and so time is irrelevant). You've mastered time travel?
Congratulations, overlord. Not only are you the richest, most powerful person on the planet, you ARE the government!
Who cares if tracking systems can track a body?
After you amassed a fortune of a Quintilian dollars by rigging/predicting every lottery/stock market trend/horse race, and after you've bought the mineral rights to every piece of land anywhere that had anything of value on or under it, you bought yourself an army/election and then you defeated every other army with your advanced super weapons.
Seriously, "looping" is the worst use of technology since The Segway.
Again, let it never be stated the making multi-million dollar films is an easy undertaking. Sometimes, things are going to fall through the cracks.
But if the entire plot of the film can be undone by just writing a note, then maybe read your script again.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.