Best movie plot holes of 1989

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UHF (1989)

UHF picture

Plot hole: R.J. Fletcher is shown as a ruthless businessman who knows everything there is to know about Channel 62 - who owns it, how much it's worth, who is running it, the financial troubles it is having and so on and so on. He is also fully aware of the telethon and the fact that George is selling the station as a going concern for a total of $75,000.00. It is simply asking too much of audience credulity or 'suspension of belief' to think that such a hard-headed businessman would not work out that he could, using stooges, buy a controlling interest in the station for $37,501.00, saving himself a small fortune and closing the station down over the objections of his minority shareholders. Something this blatant could not possibly be a character mistake - he is already planning on buying the station for the full price (from Big Louis) so don't tell me he wouldn't just switch plans and buy it from George instead!

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Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade picture Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade mistake picture

Plot hole: When Indy is stepping on the letters at the end, trying to spell out God's name, he steps on J, incorrectly, causing it to collapse. When he falls through, however, he grabs onto another letter so as not to fall down. The letters he grabs onto and pulls himself up are an L and a Y, which are not in the word Iehova, so should have collapsed too. (01:46:20)

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Halloween 5 picture

Plot hole: In the beginning, Rachel and Loomis are referring to Rachel's mother as being Jamie's step mother and Rachel refers Jamie as being her step sister. Rachel's mother is Jamie's foster mother and Jamie is Rachel's foster sister as said in Halloween 4.

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Back to the Future Part II picture

Plot hole: If Old Biff changed his past and went back to 2015, he goes back to HIS future, not the bad future, but Doc later tells Marty that if he were to go to the future to stop Biff from taking the almanac, he'd go to the bad future, so Old Biff technically shouldn't have been able to return to "his" future at all.

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Suggested correction: The effects of the past being altered may not have happened immediately. It is possible that it took time for the timelines to adjust to the changes of events, meaning enough time would have passed to change 1985 when they return, but not enough time could have passed to change 2015. By the time Doc says if they went back to 2015 they would be going to an alternate future, some time has passed, so the effects of the past being altered and taking ahold in 2015 and altering it are more likely to have occurred by then.

Casual Person

Here is what you say: "perhaps it took time for the time lines to adjust." What kind of time would timelines take? Time is time, it doesn't take time to change the timeline. That doesn't make any sense. Some people claim it was the DeLorean itself that came back to its own original timeline and only then reset itself in the new one, but then the new timelines being erased later on wouldn't have happened either. So its a genuine plot hole.

lionhead

It's established in the first film that it takes time for the changes to take effect. Marty and his siblings slowly disappear from the photo, rather than instantly. Although the scene in BTTF2 was deleted, it was filmed showing Biff dying and slowly fading away after his return to his present.

Yet they were restored instantly without any outside influence at the end of the movie. There are a lot of things wrong with this movie and the first one. Old Biff disappearing should mean that Marty and Doc should slowely disappear as well, even the DeLorean. But they didn't, that doesn't make any sense. The point is there is a plot hole, somewhere. To know where all you can do is look at it logically and then you automatically come up with Old Biff going back to the future but not the alternate future. If he did there wouldn't have been a movie, but that's the plot hole.

lionhead

The timeline didn't change until he made his first bet which was some years I think after receiving it. He immediately travelled forward after giving the act, meaning he will still jump forward to the original future.

The timelines would instantly change, and Old Biff couldn't possibly have returned to "normal" 2015. It's just a poorly-thought-out time travel plot hole (or a deliberate error to expedite the storyline).

Charles Austin Miller

Suggested correction: In context, Doc was saying that they couldn't return to 2015 to stop Biff from stealing the time machine, because Biff didn't steal the time machine in the alternate 2015, he only stole it in the original 2015. Marty and Doc didn't stay long enough in 2015 after Biff returned, and that's why they didn't see any differences. Also, though they were unaware of it, Biff was dead in the alternate 2015, so the disasters he caused might have reverted back after his death.

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Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan picture

Plot hole: Where exactly did all the other people go on the ship? In the beginning of the movie there were people everywhere then all of a sudden it's down to the main characters.

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The Karate Kid III picture

Plot hole: The tournament that Daniel is in is the All Valley under 18 tournament, but we already know that he has graduated from high school and was about to attend college. His birthday is in December, so he must already be 18.

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All Dogs Go to Heaven picture

Plot hole: They go and buy Anne Marie a whole new wardrobe. So, how come in the remainder of the movie she continues to wear her old rags?

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Lethal Weapon 2 picture

Plot hole: During Riggs' last fight with Adolph, Adolph holds the knife in his own hand as Riggs forces him to stab himself very slowly. At any point, Adolph could simply have let the knife fall or just tilt down before that happened. Nothing Riggs is doing is making such impossible. "Locking" his wrist does not prevent him from letting go of the knife. It only prevents him flexing his wrist. And this guy is a trained killer, fighting for his life. Better to battle for control of the knife than just let it kill you.

johnrosa

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Batman picture

Plot hole: Right after the Joker goes into the cathedral with Vicky, Batman follows him with no one else entering in between the two parties. How then did Joker's goons get to the top of the cathedral before Batman or the chopper? They couldn't have planned it since Joker had to tell them where to pick him up, and they didn't know he would chase after Vicky to that particular location.

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Licence to Kill picture

Plot hole: Bond goes after Lupe after she leaves the casino table, and they have quite a lengthy, hush-hush conversation. It's a casino, and there are cameras everywhere. Certainly, this would have been brought to Sanchez's attention since he was already leery of Bond and possibly Lupe.

Lynette Carrington

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Turner & Hooch picture

Plot hole: David Sutton claims he's never read an autopsy report before yet earlier he said he moved to his new town to get away from all the murders he investigated, a job that would have required him to read autopsy reports.

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Puppet Master picture

Plot hole: We discover that Teresa the maid has been turned into some kind of living zombie at the end of the movie. She confronts Alex and Megan near the end, and they run away from her and then fight with the Puppet Master. The issue of Teresa is then never addressed in the rest of the film, she just simply disappears from the plot and the scene. (01:13:35)

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The Abyss picture

Plot hole: Granted, Coffee is suffering from "high-pressure nervous syndrome," but if you're a Navy SEAL, wouldn't you notice whether or not your pistol has a magazine in it? Monk pulls the clip out of his jacket and starts knocking rounds out of it for the rig crew's benefit; the same dramatic effect could have been achieved with a handful of cartridges he could let slip through his fingers. You could argue that Monk didn't have enough time to unload the gun and replace the magazine, but in that case, I think the scene where Monk briefly had the gun should have been a bit longer. (Even had the empty magazine been IN the gun, Coffee still might notice the difference in weight, but that would be easier to suspend your disbelief for.) (01:43:53)

rbryant73

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The Toxic Avenger Part III picture

Plot hole: If the Devil made Claire blind again, how did she read the fine print of the devils contract with Toxie saying that there was an escape pod?

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Blue Steel picture

Plot hole: Megan is suspended because the police were not able to find the gun the robber had (stolen from Eugene at the scene) and believed that she had killed an unarmed man. This is very unrealistic because surely they would have interviewed all of the hostages/witnesses at the robbery and each would have easily confirmed that the robber had a gun, and possibly that Eugene might have been missing right after the incident.

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The Burbs picture

Plot hole: According to the detective at the end Walter believes Ray kidnapped his dog, assuming he saw the note that Ray put in Walter's mail slot. But if that note was grabbed along with Walter's mail and the wig it would have burned up along with everything else when the house exploded. So how did Walter know that Ray had his dog?

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The Wizard picture

Plot hole: This is supposedly the first ever gameplay of Super Mario Bros. 3. Yet somehow Haley seems to know things she shouldn't, like the location and purpose of the warp whistle, a brand new item.

LorgSkyegon

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Who's Harry Crumb? picture

Plot hole: No way either bad guy could get through airport security with a suitcase filled with $10 million and not be detained.

Rob245

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Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure picture

Plot hole: It seems that after committing 6-odd counts of aiding and abetting, literally right in front of the strict Police Captain father of one of them, Ted and for that matter Bill, would be lucky to only go to military school, regardless of passing or failing one particular class.

dizzyd

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

Suggested correction: The threat of Ted having to go to the military academy in Alaska was because he was going to fail. Since they passed and graduated, there's no need to attend the military academy. Some time passes before Rufus brings the babes to Bill and Ted, so we don't know what punishment they were given.

Bishop73

This isn't ordinary misbehavior, it is a felony, what do you think the punishment would be? No TV for a week?

dizzyd

I don't have to speculate what their punishment would be. Certainly neither would be sent to military school (which is a TV and movie trope that wayward children get sent there anyways). Your mistake entry is not a plot hole plain and simple.

Bishop73

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