Frequently quoted plot holes that...

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

... aren't actually plot holes.

I'm sure we've all been there, there's a movie you really like, and you keep hearing people bring up "gaping plot holes" that supposedly ruin the entire plot, but all you can think when they're being mentionned is "have these people even seen the movie / read the book / played the game ?"

So what are some plot holes that really aren't that you're tired of hearing?


One my pet peeves is hearing that in The Lord of the Rings, the fellowhsip should have just used the giant eagles and dropped the ring in the volcano:

Mordor is constantly being patrolled by hordes of Orcs, Uruk-Hais and various other creatures who would probably notice a bunch of giant eagles like the ones their enemies possess flying over their lands, and then there's the Nazguls, whose goal is to get the ring and who can sense it from miles away and ride freaking dragons who could very quickly catch up to and kill the lot of them, and then of course there's Saruman on his tower who would probably notice them as well, not to mention THE GIANT FLOATING EYE OF SAURON THAT IS MADE OF FIRE AND CONSTANTLY WATCHING THE AREA.

My point being, if they flew the eagles, they wouldn't even make it to Mordor before meeting a wave of arrows, fireballs and angry demons who would supermurder them before they can finish saying "oh s***". So even though it may take longer, getting there by foot would be far more discreet and safer. And that's disregarding the very real possibility of Frodo dropping the ring while hanging on for dear life to the eagle, literally sending it right into the hands of Sauron's army.

That .gif of Boromir suggesting catapulting the ring straight into the volcano is seriously a better plan than using the eagles.

[Hit Girl]

It begs the question of why Sauron even bothered to try and stop the Hobbits or steal the ring from them en route. They were heading to Mordor, effectively delivering themselves to a place where he could have captured them anyway. If anything he should have sent his forces to make sure the Hobbits reached Mordor's gates safely. At that point, they could be killed and the ring retrieved.

[Feyrhausen]

Not to mention according to the books Gandalf does not control the eagles. They help him when it suits them. And like you say, they would not put themselves into mortal danger when sneaking in would be more effective.

[Confused Mark Wahlberg]

I dunno, Sauron's army was depicted as so incompetent I don't know they couldn't have just flown in.

[Push R Truth]

Jan 4, 2013 9:54:24 GMT -5 Hit Girl said:

It begs the question of why Sauron even bothered to try and stop the Hobbits or steal the ring from them en route. They were heading to Mordor, effectively delivering themselves to a place where he could have captured them anyway. If anything he should have sent his forces to make sure the Hobbits reached Mordor's gates safely. At that point, they could be killed and the ring retrieved.

Sauron (and like everybody else) figured that whomever got the ring was going to keep/use it themselves.

I'm guessing Sauron thought Aragorn (or somebody in his company) had the ring all the way from Rivendell to the Black Gate.

I don't think it ever occurred to him until the very end that they would/could destroy it.

[Mike Strike]

Villains not attacking the power rangers in their sleep. 1 episode basically confirmed Zordon watched the rangers in their sleep. Creepy yes, but it pretty much means no one could ambush them without him knowing & teleporting them to safety.

For post-zordon era seasons the rangers typically were living within their base of operations which the villains either wouldn't know the locations of or were incapable of attacking for whatever reason.

[OGBoardPoster2005]

Jan 4, 2013 19:25:20 GMT -5 Mike Strike said:

Villains not attacking the power rangers in their sleep. 1 episode basically confirmed Zordon watched the rangers in their sleep. Creepy yes, but it pretty much means no one could ambush them without him knowing & teleporting them to safety.

For post-zordon era seasons the rangers typically were living within their base of operations which the villains either wouldn't know the locations of or were incapable of attacking for whatever reason.

That actually makes perfect sense. Zordon actually applied some logic when it came to the Rangers, this was an example of one. Not creepy, they needed the protection.

[Johnny B. Decent]

Jan 4, 2013 10:39:01 GMT -5 Push R Truth said:

I don't think it ever occurred to him until the very end that they would/could destroy it.

That's exactly what it was. And as seen by Frodo falling into temptation at the end, was correct, to a degree.

[AFN: Judge Shred]

Mordor is constantly being patrolled by hordes of Orcs, Uruk-Hais and various other creatures who would probably notice a bunch of giant eagles like the ones their enemies possess flying over their lands, and then there's the Nazguls, whose goal is to get the ring and who can sense it from miles away and ride freaking dragons who could very quickly catch up to and kill the lot of them, and then of course there's Saruman on his tower who would probably notice them as well, not to mention THE GIANT FLOATING EYE OF SAURON THAT IS MADE OF FIRE AND CONSTANTLY WATCHING THE AREA.

Maybe they can't fly to Mordor but i bet they could have to Gondor. It was a 13 month Journey full of peril. They still could have cut that out a bit.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Jan 4, 2013 20:16:48 GMT -5 AFN: Judge Shred said:

Mordor is constantly being patrolled by hordes of Orcs, Uruk-Hais and various other creatures who would probably notice a bunch of giant eagles like the ones their enemies possess flying over their lands, and then there's the Nazguls, whose goal is to get the ring and who can sense it from miles away and ride freaking dragons who could very quickly catch up to and kill the lot of them, and then of course there's Saruman on his tower who would probably notice them as well, not to mention THE GIANT FLOATING EYE OF SAURON THAT IS MADE OF FIRE AND CONSTANTLY WATCHING THE AREA.

Maybe they can't fly to Mordor but i bet they could have to Gondor. It was a 13 month Journey full of peril. They still could have cut that out a bit.

Eagle Prime Directive.

[ERON]

"How could an entire Galactic Empire be taken down by a few hundred teddy bears with rocks and spears?"

I'm so sick of this argument. For one, the Ewoks didn't take down the entire Empire; they simply dealt them a crushing defeat in a battle that turned the tide of the war and enabled the Rebels to deliver the death blow. And if you think that's impossible, crack open a military history book sometime and see just how many times over the centuries a small, rag-tag, guerrilla force defending their home turf has dealt a surprise defeat to a mighty, regimented, invading or occupying army.

[AFN: Judge Shred]

Jan 4, 2013 21:13:32 GMT -5 Mighty Attack Tribble said:

Jan 4, 2013 20:16:48 GMT -5 AFN: Judge Shred said:

Maybe they can't fly to Mordor but i bet they could have to Gondor. It was a 13 month Journey full of peril. They still could have cut that out a bit.

Eagle Prime Directive.

As far as the movies goes it seems any time Gandalf sees a butterfly an eagle will be by shortly. I bet there are butterflies in the Shire.

[Deleted]

The most famous one I know of honestly

Final Destination 3: How can the roller coaster crash if Frankie never dropped his camera?

Answer: The hydrolics were already broken

[BlackoutCreature]

Everybody always likes to deride Independence Day about Jeff Goldblum's and his MAC being able to interface and deliver a virus into an alien computer. I don't understand why this is a big deal. Area 51 had the scout ship for 40+ years, you really believe in all that time they've never tried to access its computers or create some kind of interface with their tech? And the movie heavily implied the aliens had plateaud technologically, so there's no reason to believe that the scout ships computers would be drastically different or more advanced from the motherships. The aliens already used our own satellites earlier in the movie, so there's obviously some level of compatibility there anyways. I will grant that it was somewhat silly that it seemed like cable technician Jeff Goldblum figured all this out on his own, but it's easy to imagine the Area 51 technicians helping him out drastically off screen.

Could the movie have spelled all this out better? Yes. But it's hardly the movie killer plot hole I've seen critics make it out to be.

[Michael Coello]

Jan 4, 2013 23:00:26 GMT -5 BlackoutCreature said:

Everybody always likes to deride Independence Day about Jeff Goldblum's and his MAC being able to interface and deliver a virus into an alien computer. I don't understand why this is a big deal. Area 51 had the scout ship for 40+ years, you really believe in all that time they've never tried to access its computers or create some kind of interface with their tech? And the movie heavily implied the aliens had plateaud technologically, so there's no reason to believe that the scout ships computers would be drastically different or more advanced from the motherships. The aliens already used our own satellites earlier in the movie, so there's obviously some level of compatibility there anyways. I will grant that it was somewhat silly that it seemed like cable technician Jeff Goldblum figured all this out on his own, but it's easy to imagine the Area 51 technicians helping him out drastically off screen.

Could the movie have spelled all this out better? Yes. But it's hardly the movie killer plot hole I've seen critics make it out to be.

There is a deleted scene that shows how he came up with the virus, and working out how to use the tech.

[BlackoutCreature]

Jan 4, 2013 23:07:36 GMT -5 Michael Coello said:

Jan 4, 2013 23:00:26 GMT -5 BlackoutCreature said:

Everybody always likes to deride Independence Day about Jeff Goldblum's and his MAC being able to interface and deliver a virus into an alien computer. I don't understand why this is a big deal. Area 51 had the scout ship for 40+ years, you really believe in all that time they've never tried to access its computers or create some kind of interface with their tech? And the movie heavily implied the aliens had plateaud technologically, so there's no reason to believe that the scout ships computers would be drastically different or more advanced from the motherships. The aliens already used our own satellites earlier in the movie, so there's obviously some level of compatibility there anyways. I will grant that it was somewhat silly that it seemed like cable technician Jeff Goldblum figured all this out on his own, but it's easy to imagine the Area 51 technicians helping him out drastically off screen.

Could the movie have spelled all this out better? Yes. But it's hardly the movie killer plot hole I've seen critics make it out to be.

There is a deleted scene that shows how he came up with the virus, and working out how to use the tech.

Deleted scenes don't count.

[Hit Girl]

Jan 4, 2013 21:18:49 GMT -5 ERON said:

"How could an entire Galactic Empire be taken down by a few hundred teddy bears with rocks and spears?"

I'm so sick of this argument. For one, the Ewoks didn't take down the entire Empire; they simply dealt them a crushing defeat in a battle that turned the tide of the war and enabled the Rebels to deliver the death blow. And if you think that's impossible, crack open a military history book sometime and see just how many times over the centuries a small, rag-tag, guerrilla force defending their home turf has dealt a surprise defeat to a mighty, regimented, invading or occupying army.

People also need to remember that the Ewoks only really served as a distraction to the Stormtroopers, while the real damage was done by the Rebel soldiers by blowing up the shield generator.

[G✇JI☈A]

Jan 5, 2013 1:21:25 GMT -5 Hit Girl said:

Jan 4, 2013 21:18:49 GMT -5 ERON said:

"How could an entire Galactic Empire be taken down by a few hundred teddy bears with rocks and spears?"

I'm so sick of this argument. For one, the Ewoks didn't take down the entire Empire; they simply dealt them a crushing defeat in a battle that turned the tide of the war and enabled the Rebels to deliver the death blow. And if you think that's impossible, crack open a military history book sometime and see just how many times over the centuries a small, rag-tag, guerrilla force defending their home turf has dealt a surprise defeat to a mighty, regimented, invading or occupying army.

People also need to remember that the Ewoks only really served as a distraction to the Stormtroopers, while the real damage was done by the Rebel soldiers by blowing up the shield generator.

And who said the Empire was totally defeated during the battle of Endor (don't bring up the Expanded Universe).

Sure the leader, his second in command, the second Death Star, and a Super Star Destroyer were lost in the battle.

But the Empire in theory in order to rule an entire Galaxy must have had thousands of ships and troops, and a chain of command to take over.

[Hawk Hart]

Jan 5, 2013 1:33:51 GMT -5 G✇JI☈A said:

Jan 5, 2013 1:21:25 GMT -5 Hit Girl said:

People also need to remember that the Ewoks only really served as a distraction to the Stormtroopers, while the real damage was done by the Rebel soldiers by blowing up the shield generator.

And who said the Empire was totally defeated during the battle of Endor (don't bring up the Expanded Universe).

Sure the leader, his second in command, the second Death Star, and a Super Star Destroyer were lost in the battle.

But the Empire in theory in order to rule an entire Galaxy must have had thousands of ships and troops, and a chain of command to take over.

We'll soon find out when episode VII comes out.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}People still won't be happy.

[Hit Girl]

Yes, that's where the focus of the next trilogy should be. The Empire was not defeated, but simply suffered a major blow. If anything, I think the Empire would be better off without the Emperor and his dumb ideas (putting so many resources into a space station which was twice destroyed) and Vader with his family baggage.