Best mystery movie plot holes of all time

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Without a Paddle picture

Plot hole: The Hillbillies take a "short cut" to catch up with the guys after they are taken in by Burt Reynolds. However, the guys get a chance to sleep comfortably until morning before being confronted by them. (01:12:10)

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Conspiracy Theory picture

Plot hole: The scene takes place in Julia Roberts' father's stable. Mel Gibson explains to Julia Roberts that he was supposed to kill her father, a judge, because he was going to reopen a certain case. Gibson says that he couldn't kill him and they became friends. He further explains that he was the one to talk her father into reopening the case in the first place. The problem is, they didn't meet until after he decided to reopen it, since that was why Gibson was supposed to kill him in the first place.

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Warbirds picture

Plot hole: One of the flying dragons impacts the right outer engine of the B-29, and the fire spreads to the right inner engine. The crew lands the plane on the island, and the girls rebuild both engines, despite the fact there are no parts available on the island.

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Theatre of Blood picture

Plot hole: Edward Lionheart severs the head of theater critic Horace Sprout while Sprout and his wife are asleep. (Lionheart gave them both a knockout injection). Sprout's wife (and his maid)discover the severed head in the morning, and both scream and faint. But in the next scene, critic Perry Devlin retrieves his morning newspaper and then reaches for his bottle of milk, only to find Sprout's head perched on the milk bottle. How did the head get from Sprout's house to Devlin's place?

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The Curse of the Jade Scorpion picture

Plot hole: At the end of the film the boss says that he and Miss Fitzgerald are going to go on holiday together to Paris (talking about the actual city, not the secret code they have invented). However, the film is set in 1940 and Paris would have been an unusual place to take a holiday at this time, considering France was in the middle of a war... Pretty dangerous for civilians even though America was still neutral at the time.

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Halloween II picture

Plot hole: In the first scene Alice hears on the radio that three teenagers had been murdered in Haddonfield just down the street from where they live. Yet a few scenes later, the sheriff finds out from his deputy that 3 bodies have been found. Wouldn't the police department know that before it made its way onto the radio news?

Jeanne Elizabeth Perrotta

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Suggested correction: When Alice is on the phone, she tells her friend she can hear the sirens so the police knew about the bodies. As for the sheriff, he'd been busy with Loomis all night. He might have heard about the bodies in the house but figured the other policemen could handle it and that way he could continue helping Loomis. The main reason the deputy came to talk to him, however, was to tell him that his daughter was one of the victims found.

dewinela

Halloween II was a troubled production, and the scene with Alice was added during re-shoots. Note that the previous scene with Mrs. Elrod also includes a news report about the discovery of the bodies. I've seen no concrete evidence of this, but I've wondered if the scene with Mrs. Elrod was shifted closer to the start of the film, and was originally meant to take place after the scene with the sheriff.

Good theory, but the deputy runs up to the sheriff and informs him for the first time of all three bodies.

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The Order picture

Plot hole: How did a woman who had just escaped from a mental institution get out of the country so fast? Even if she had a passport already, she wouldn't have it - the hospital or her family would. How could she get it back from them without SOMEONE turning her back in to the institution? It takes a lot to get involuntarily committed in the US, and I doubt she could get un-committed that fast, even with the guy she tried to kill vouching for her.

Kaite13

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I Still Know What You Did Last Summer picture

Plot hole: When Julie is trapped inside the tanning bed, Will and Tyrell are panicking trying to figure out how to get her out. All they had to do was unplug it! Then worry about getting her out.

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A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors picture

Plot hole: The TV-watching girl is killed when Freddy shoves her face first into a TV set. (one of the more creative movie deaths.) But the thing is, all the other deaths have been set up to look like suicides if not accidents - this one was obviously foul play, since there's no way she could have launched herself into the glass of a TV screen hard enough to break it. We see that her body is found this way, but they make no inquiry.

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Suggested correction: Not all of the deaths were meant to be suicidal; Phillip and Kirsten were the only exceptions. When Will and Taryn were killed, it was in the dream when they wanted to help Kirsten but nobody was there to witness it and it was much later in the film. Also when Joey was caught by Freddy, he was only passed out but still alive. The one kid that cut his eyelids off was not only never shown but his death happened by his own doings out of fear for Freddy.

It doesn't matter if Jennifer's death wasn't intended to look like a suicide - she is in a locked ward and was the victim of a homicide. Yet there's no investigation.

Why would there be an investigation? Especially when she was the only one in the room - apart from Freddy - or maybe there were cameras there?

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I, Robot picture

Plot hole: Sonny hides among the 1000 robots in the big store room. They are all placed in very straight rows. Sonny would not be able to take over another robot's place in the grid (when he starts running we see a large robot-sized gap) without getting another robot to move. And while Will Smith is running around the rows, he would have noticed if the others moved to make room.

Jacob La Cour

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Suggested correction: Sonny was already at the factory before Spooner and Calvin showed up. It's possible he moved in a robot's space, and either the robots to his sides or the ones behind him moved back a space (we never see the rows in their entirety), hence no need for any of them to move while Spooner and Calvin are in the storage room.

Suggested correction: Will Smith shot one of them, it's possible this hole in the front of the row caused that line of robots to move forward one spot, to complete the row again. As they did Sonny could have slipped in. When he spotted Sonny the first time Sonny was simply standing between 2, as Will Smith only saw them from the front at that point, when he started running it's impossible to notice a simple step forward of 1 row of robots and Sonny slipping in.

lionhead

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Battle Royale picture

Plot hole: After Nanahara and Noriko run away from Akamatsu at the school, Niida shows up from behind some bushes opposite the school and inadvertently kills Akamatsu with his crossbow. But Niida is Boy 16, which means he should still be in the school building (he's supposed to come out after Noriko, who's Girl 15). There's no way he has any time to get into those bushes.

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Copycat picture

Plot hole: When SWAT enters Peters wife's room, the officer reaches for her neck and almost as soon as he touches her, he states "no pulse". This guy's EMT skills are phenomenal! Carotid pulse with a glove on in less than 2 seconds. This guy is good.

jACKAROOBEAR

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Hellraiser: Hellseeker picture

Plot hole: After Bret shoots himself, Trevor goes to look for Sage; considering she sort of tried to stab him to death when last they 'met', it doesn't seem likely he'd go to her for help, when she has become another person he can't trust.

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Enigma picture

Plot hole: When the police search the white car and the barn they fail to find the compartment in the car behind the boot in which the decoding equipment was hidden. This is completely improbable. It was a standard car, the compartment was not a secret add on, and the police were supposed to undertake a thorough search of everything.

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The Fog picture

Plot hole: When the fog finally hits the lighthouse and is seeping in, the generator is hardly audible vs. how loud it was when it was first started.

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Four Brothers picture

Plot hole: At the start of the gun fight at the house, a snowball is thrown at Jack who then follows the person into the street. When they turn around the person is wearing a hockey mask and Jack realises he's in trouble. Jack would've seen the person wearing the hockey mask when the snowball was thrown, as the person had to be facing him to throw it. There was no reason after that for Jack to follow him.

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Domestic Disturbance picture

Plot hole: In the middle of the film, after the custody hearing, Frank shows up at an event. Danny pretends that Frank dropped his wallet in order to have a brief conversation with his dad. Later, Rick confronts him about what they talked about. What does Rick expect? It's not like Danny will never be allowed to visit his father again. They are going to talk at some point. For Vince to expect that he will never talk to his father again is unrealistic.

RareJewel

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Wicker Park picture

Plot hole: It's hard to believe that no one except Alex has a cell. These are fairly successful people, especially a traveling Matthew. No one having cell phones is highly unlikely.

RareJewel

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The House of the Dead picture

Plot hole: When the main bad guy is being hung as a normal human character, he speaks as he is being hung. However people cannot speak when they are being strangled. (01:15:20)

dizzle

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Angel Heart picture

Plot hole: When Angel comes back to the doctor's home with food, he opens the bedroom door and turns on the light in that room. The lights are already on outside this room when we see him turn the doorknob. When Angel leaves, he leaves the light on in the bedroom and heads downstairs. Just before leaving out the front door, he turns off the light switch nearby. The shots changes to show the doc's body and the room going dark- as if Angel is still in the bedroom and turned off that light. (00:23:10)

johnrosa

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