Best movie plot holes of 1981

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Body Heat picture

Plot hole: Considering the incredibly elaborate plans Maddy makes to have her husband murdered after forging a will she knows is invalid so he dies intestate and she - as his widow - gets his entire fortune, you'd think she would have worked out one little fact - Edmund Walker does not die intestate. It is established in the film that the dud will supposedly written by Ned Racine replaces a previous, valid will which bequeaths half his fortune to his niece Heather. When the new will is declared invalid under Florida law the previous will takes precedence and Heather and Maddy split the fortune. In no way will Maddy get the lot.

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For Your Eyes Only picture

Plot hole: Bond makes a huge tactical error after diving to the St. Georges. He knows the Russians and their operatives are after the ATAC. The ATAC itself is expendable to Britain, since it has a self-destruct mechanism that, under proper procedure, would have been set off when the ship sank. So why is Bond trying to retrieve it? Because he disarms the self-destruct, he actually allows Kristatos to get his hands on it, forcing Bond to track it down again and, to stop the Russians from getting it, HE DESTROYS IT! So why doesn't Bond, instead of disarming the self-destruct, set a timed charge or toss a grenade in the room to destroy the ATAC while it's at the bottom of the sea? The answer is, of course, that if Bond destroys the ATAC before the bad guys can get at it, the movie's over. Even so, at the end, when Bond finally does destroy the ATAC, he tells Gogol it's "detente. You don't have it. I don't have it." Clever line, but it reinforces the fact that the British don't need it. They can build another one.

Vader47000

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Raiders of the Lost Ark picture

Plot hole: When Indy and Sallah visit the gentleman who translates the staff headpiece for them we hear the staff should be "six cadams high." Indy replies, "About 72 inches." Then, turning the headpiece over, "Wait - take back one cadam to honor the Hebrew God whose ark this is." It's definitely referring to the staff length - Indy says afterwards "Their staff is too long." So, about five feet now, right? But, when Indy goes to the map room the staff is much taller than him. If the staff is about five feet high, Indy would be around three feet tall. (00:48:25 - 00:53:05)

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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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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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An American Werewolf in London picture

Plot hole: The first time David werewolfizes, he's reading a book in the brightly lit apartment. Exterior shots of the full moon show it's nighttime out, so the lights inside the apartment must be on. But when Dr. Hirsch calls to check on him, the shot is of the phone ringing, unanswered, in the completely darkened apartment. That's considerate, David. Even as a werewolf, he must have run around turning lights off before going on his rampage.

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The Cannonball Run picture

Plot hole: Mr. Foyt spies on J.J. and Victor to find out more about the Cannonball, yet fails to recognize them when they stop to pick him up.

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Escape to Victory picture

Plot hole: In the scene where Colby is discussing tactics with the team, Pele interrupts and takes the chalk from Colby and says "Hatch gives me the ball here, I do this, this, this, this, goal" while drawing a line on the blackboard to indicate dribbling from one end of the pitch to the other. At that point in the film, Hatch was only the trainer, not the goalkeeper.

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Friday the 13th Part 2 picture

Plot hole: When Jason is in Ginny's cabin, she's under the bed seeing where he's at. So how did Jason manage to get up on a chair and wait for her to come out without her seeing him do this? She had to see him do that, but when she pokes her head out, she's surprised to see him there.

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Suggested correction: She was a bit preoccupied with the rat that got up close and personal to her. She heard the creaking, but when she looked back, she didn't see him, assuming that the sound was made by him exiting through the cabin's door. The creaking was actually him getting up on that chair, but she wasn't looking at the door because the rat was in her face.

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Göta Kanal picture

Plot hole: The man in the canoe starts out at the same time as Uniship and the Carina yet he is often seen being ahead of them as they pass him on numerous occasions. He even beats them to the finish line. How is a man in a canoe able to constantly beat two ships breaking the speed limits of the canal?

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The Evil Dead picture

Plot hole: Ash makes an effort to keep both the back and front doors closed so Cheryl can't get in, but nothing is stopping her from using the two broken windows.

jbrbbt

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Eye of the Needle picture

Plot hole: David couldn't have seen Sutherland's photos because Sutherland hadn't had time to develop them yet. Even if he did, it would have been difficult to find a lab that wouldn't turn him in as a spy. Overall, it would have been much safer to have the film processed in Germany.

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Student Bodies picture

Plot hole: The killer kills two victims in the school's woodshop. How did he/she know the woodshop teacher was hiding quietly in the wood closet?

Rob245

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...All the Marbles picture

Plot hole: No ref would allow both members of a tag team to pin both members of the other team, not even in a championship match.

Rob245

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Escape From New York picture

Plot hole: When Snake, Brain, Maggie, and the President get to the car at the WTC, Snake opens the hood when the car is dead, and somehow he is out in the open when the Duke is about to shoot. First, how would he get there with a crossbow trained on him, and second, how did Maggie pass the revolver to him, when he hands it to her to open the hood of the car? (01:21:05 - 01:21:50)

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Suggested correction: When the hood is opened Maggie can be seen immediately putting the revolver behind her back. Being stood very close to Snake it's assumed it was passed to him offscreen. With the crossbow trained on Snake the Duke monologues directly to Snake allowing him to step a foot or so away from the car to look like he's listening and going to accept his capture but ultimately it was to have a shot at the steam engine and create a distraction. Maggie took out the crossbow guy by slamming the hood on him.

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Zombie Lake picture

Plot hole: The movie is allegedly set about ten years after the death of the German soldiers, since the daughter of one soldier is in her early teens. But none of the items in the scenery look like they're out of the fifties.

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The Prowler picture

Plot hole: After the first murder in Pam's dorm room there should be blood everywhere but when Pam returns to change her dress there is only a single stripe of it on the bedsheets.

Jack Vaughan

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Mad Max 2 picture

Plot hole: Max drives from the hillside to the crashed car to save the occupants but the guy with the crossbow doing up his boots somehow doesn't hear Max's V8 engine approaching, or hear Max get out and sneak up on him, this area would be quiet and Max must have parked nearby to get the injured man to his car.

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