Best war movie plot holes of all time

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Guns of Navarone picture

Plot hole: The huge guns are set high up on a cliff face facing out to sea and it is obvious that they cannot be depressed to fire at a downward angle - the massive gun carriages set on rails would prevent that happening. They cannot be elevated to fire at an upward angle, too, because they fit pretty snugly in the hole cut into the cliff face to accommodate them. This means that their maximum and minimum ranges would be quite close together, covering a strip of maybe a few hundred metres either side. Given that the sea is completely open on the side of the island they are protecting, why don't the ships targeted by the guns while passing the island simply sail inside or outside of the narrow stretch of sea the guns can hit?

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The guns are firing across a strait. A strait is a "narrow passage." Since the targets must appear at a limited range, the guns only need a limited elevation angle.

Noman

Watch the film again. The guns are facing the open sea. There is no land visible anywhere behind the ships. If that's a strait, it's a very, very wide one.

The mission given says the guns are guarding a strait. The last shot of the six destroyers shows land behind them on the opposite side of the strait.

Noman

Other summaries explain that the strait is only deep enough for the ships at the place which matches the guns' range. So ships could not take advantage of further away or closer in.

Then what are the dark shapes rising out of the sea on the far side of the ships. If they are not islands, what are they?

Noman

Suggested correction: That the gun carriages are supposedly set on rails is not correct. In the novel template, as well as in the film, it is shown that the guns were installed on turntables. And as for their variable angles of fire - it could be due to (fictional) modifications.

Daniel4646

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Where Eagles Dare picture

Plot hole: Why do all the Germans abandon the cable car control room after the alarm has been sounded? If the cable car is critical for access to the castle then you would expect a hard core of SS troops to remain behind to control access and protect the machinery in the event of an attack. (01:42:55)

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633 Squadron picture

Plot hole: The factory in Norway has to be destroyed - at huge cost - as it is producing fuel for the V2 rocket. That fuel was ethanol - ordinary industrial alcohol. There is no reason at all to have a specialised factory hundreds of kilometers away producing such a simple chemical. The Germans could have manufactured it in virtually unlimited quantity in an ordinary brewery - and there were plenty of those in Germany.

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Behind Enemy Lines picture

Plot hole: As Burnett runs through the minefield, he clearly runs right into much of the exploding debris. Why does not even one bit of shrapnel hit him? (00:55:15)

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1917 picture

Plot hole: The letter that had to be delivered to the Colonel should have been completely ruined when the Corporal was in the river.

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The Eagle Has Landed picture

Plot hole: Radl and Steiner discuss the entire scheme to kidnap Churchill on the Alderney docks - in full view and hearing of a number of civilians (who shouldn't be there, pace another posting), including local fishermen. Though the Germans banned all fishing activities in the Channel islands including Alderney in 1941, they were well aware that there was a flow of information from the island to military authorities in the mainland. Why would they be so stupid as to discuss a top secret military mission in public? In reality, they wouldn't even discuss it in front of their own men.

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Courage Under Fire picture

Plot hole: Sgt Monfriez would have never been on a medevac helicopter with an automatic weapon. I served several years in U.S Army Medical units and they are allowed defensive weaponry only, medical units are not ever issued automatic weapons period. The plot says the Monfriez is from another unit and is asked to accompany the medevac but that would never happen; it is against the law of land warfare to put an automatic weapon on any type of ambulance vehicle.

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Bedknobs And Broomsticks picture

Plot hole: When Miss Price, Professor Browne and the children return from their magical journey to the island of Naboombu and realize they no longer have the Star of Astroroth pendant, Miss Price says, "I should have known it would be quite impossible to take an object from one world into another." Yet, they had no problem taking themselves, the bed, blankets and pillows from one world into another.

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Stop-Loss picture

Plot hole: The whole concept of how Brandon was stop-lossed was obviously done to further the plot and is in no way accurate on how a soldier was stop-lossed in reality during the Iraq War. Apparently, he returned from Iraq, was scheduled to leave the Army a few days later, and was told he was stop-lossed on his ETS (discharge) date and was going back in a matter of weeks. First of all, no soldier returned from Iraq and got discharged a few days later, there are mandatory procedures required that usually take up to 90 days after return to complete. As for the stop-loss itself, it was implemented a minimum of 90 days prior to a planned deployment. If you can forget those oversights by the writer, then when at the end of the movie Brandon returned to deploy after all he wouldn't have just been let back in with open arms by his chain of command. Considering the charges he could have received (Disrespect to a Commissioned Officer, Disobeying a Lawful Order, Assault, and Absent without Leave), he would have at a minimum been demoted one rank. More than likely, instead of deploying, he would have faced a court-martial or been discharged. A Lieutenant Colonel wouldn't have been able to save him from the charges at that point like he claimed in the deal he would give Brandon for returning to base. Facts about the actual process of stop-loss were either not researched or were blatantly ignored to further an anti-war agenda from the writer of the movie.

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The End of the Affair picture

Plot hole: When Henry rings Maurice's doorbell to give the bad news about Sarah's fatal illness, Maurice and Sarah are upstairs in the bedroom. Maurice approaches the window and looks down while we see Henry looking up in his direction. That he walks away without trying to make contact makes no sense. (01:13:45)

NancyFelix

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The War picture

Plot hole: Stephen dies after he was "taken off machines", at least so his wife tells the kids. But when he was shown in the hospital he was attached to no life-supporting machines except an oxygen tube in his nose. (01:33:25)

NancyFelix

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Legionnaire picture

Plot hole: Alain joins the Legion, goes through extensive training and eventually gets his photograph taken. That's how Galgani recognises him and sends two men to kill him. They arrive with a platoon at the fort just after Alain, Mackintosh and Luther. The photograph would have taken a while to get back to France and then the two men would have to go through the same training. So how do they both end up in the same fortress after they joined the legion long after Alain?

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King Arthur picture

Plot hole: When the two Legionnaires open the gate of the Hadrian's Wall, they lean forward with their shoulders against the doors as if to push, but they are really pulling. (00:33:10)

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Rambo: First Blood picture

Plot hole: When Rambo hijacks the Army truck, he throws out the driver, Robert A. and continues driving down the one-lane dirt road in the same direction. When Robert A. hits the ground, he immediately pops up and runs the opposite direction, away from where the truck is driving. A couple of shots later, we see a behind view of Robert A. running. It turns out that it is the driver's view from a Sheriff's vehicle. How could a car, especially a Sheriff's squad car, possibly come from that direction since it was a one-way road? And how could that same officer not see that the man driving the truck was Rambo?

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Iron Eagle picture

Plot hole: Doug begins to land on the air strip after his father has been moved. But note, the Hades bomb had not yet been dropped. If his dad had not been shot at that moment, one can assume that he would have finished his landing and been a complete sitting duck when he has to get out of the plane. What was he saving the Hades for at that point? It is only later when he actually drops the Hades that he barely has enough time to rescue his wounded dad.

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The Alamo picture

Plot hole: The morning of the final battle, the sun rises behind the mission, silhouetting a sentry. When the ending credits roll, the sun sets behind the mission.

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Das Boot picture

Plot hole: After the first attack on the U96 the captain decides to resurface after sunset. However when they do resurface it's broad daylight.

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The Wind That Shakes the Barley picture

Plot hole: When the Black & Tans are shown driving through the village, a blue house is visible behind them. The house has modern PVC windows.

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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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The White Countess picture

Plot hole: The movie takes place before and around 1938 and, supposedly ends in that year, following the entrance in Shanghai of the Japanese, with the exodus by many Chinese and foreign residents. Ralph Fiennes' character, as an American ex-diplomat and businessman, would have resided, have bank accounts, his car, etcetera, in the foreign concessions. The Japanese did not occupy the concessions until after Pearl Harbor, so there was no need for him to flee the city, as a refugee without a passport and with little or no money, sailing towards Macao in a fragile Chinese junk. He could just have driven or walked a few blocks to any of the "Western" concessions, from where he could have married Natasha Richardson's character, obtained U.S. passports (White Russians had none, as the rest of her family in the movie until assisted by an official in the French Consulate) for her and her daughter, purchased a ticket in a safer vessel, sold his assets (regardless of the damage to his club, he still had a house, furniture, a car, presumably bank accounts, etc.).

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