Best movie plot holes of 2008

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

Bolt picture

Plot hole: At the start of the movie, a great deal is made of the boom mic that enters the shot. This is ridiculous, because Bolt's view would not be restricted to what was onscreen, he'd have a perfect view of the person holding the boom mic (as evidenced by it not being stable). There's no possibility of him not seeing the person holding the mic either. As Bolt completely and utterly believes the world he lives in, and thinks the situations he finds himself in (saving Penny) are real, someone holding a boom mic would break the illusion for him. In all instances in the movie where an outside force (i.e. a dog handler) interacts with him, Bolt never gets to see the person handling him (handler approaches from behind), the boom mic operator however is literally right in front of him.

GalahadFairlight

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

Suggested correction: He wasn't paying attention and considering that his focus was only on the "action", how the hell would he notice a boom mic when he's trying to protect Penny? His "reality" is never broken even AFTER he's in his trailer.

More Bolt plot holes
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull picture

Plot hole: Hiding in a fridge (or anything else) in order to be conveniently blown out of the way by an exploding nuclear device is absurd beyond belief. The fridge is just so much extra reaction mass and would be vaporised by the expanding nuclear explosion - it wouldn't be daintily picked up and thrown a few kilometers to safety. If it was, why doesn't it land in a shower of similar artifacts which have also been dislodged and thrown around? Incidentally, even if it was thrown out of the way as shown, anyone inside it would be turned into a smear of strawberry jam by the acceleration required to beat the shock and heat wave of a nuclear blast, and then liquefied by the deceleration involved in hitting the ground at that speed.

More Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull plot holes
The Family That Preys picture

Plot hole: When Chris goes to the bank and finds Andrea has a second account, if she didn't want him to "steal" her money as she states later in the scene, why did she authorize it as a joint account if it was supposed to be a secret account or hers only?

More The Family That Preys plot holes
Untraceable picture

Plot hole: The FBI in the movie has the ability to "blackhole" an IP address, which makes that computer unavailable to the internet. If they can blackhole the computer acting as the web server, they could also blackhole the computer acting as the name server (DNS), thereby taking down the web site and preventing additional users from connecting.

More Untraceable plot holes
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa picture

Plot hole: The newspaper headline showing young Alex being rescued from a crate is dated April 8, 1972. In the next scene, we see young Alex dancing in the Central Park Zoo, and watching him are Marty, Melman and Gloria as baby animals. This makes no sense at all. In the first film, Marty celebrates his tenth birthday. Key word: tenth. It is also known that the scenes of the main characters as adults take place in the present i.e. Alex confessing to breaking Marty's iPod. Seeing how the animals age quicker than humans, Marty, let alone his three friends, would have to have been born in the mid-1990s and the flashback scenes could not have taken place in 1972.

More Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa plot holes
Vantage Point picture

Plot hole: During Howard's flashback the viewer sees from his point of view the two SS agents who had been following Enrique fire multiple shots at the now revealed Spanish police officer as he was talking to another police officer (Javier) who had just approached him. The scene ends leading the viewer to believe Enrique was killed by the SS agents. However, in the final scene when it's revealed that he was in fact killed by Javier the SS agents significant fire (9 shots I counted) and presence is completely forgotten. (00:40:00 - 01:12:00)

More Vantage Point plot holes
Lakeview Terrace picture

Plot hole: At the end, when Chris finds the informant's phone, he sees that there are 2 voicemail messages. Instead of listening to them, he calls the last number, which reveals Abel is responsible for the break-in when he answers and in turn reveals to Abel that Chris knows about the break-in. It would make more sense to just listen to the voicemails, as Chris became immediately suspicious when he saw them. Considering Chris called the last number, he must have known that the last number was also the person who left the voicemails. Very deliberately done to bring realizations between Chris and Abel for a climax.

More Lakeview Terrace plot holes
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.

More Stop-Loss plot holes
Sex and the City: The Movie picture

Plot hole: While the wedding party is getting ready to leave Charlotte's apartment, Big calls Carrie's cell phone. Lily (Charlotte's young daughter) answers, immediately closes it without speaking, then drops the phone into her purse that she takes with her to the wedding. Big continually calls back, but even though Lily is always with one of her parents, no can hear Carrie's phone is ringing inside Lily's purse. Lily only closed the phone, it was not turned off, the ringer was turned up, and the battery was charged. Lily and Harry rode to the library separately and during the time Big had been trying to call Carrie. Harry should have heard the phone.

raywest

More Sex and the City: The Movie plot holes
Prom Night picture

Plot hole: When the cop is in the room and he realises how the teacher escaped from the hotel, he pictures him walking out in the bellboy uniform while the cop is downstairs. However at this time he should be upstairs with the girl in her room, because he is still in the room when she runs out of the room into the cop. For this to work out, the teacher would have to have left the room before the girl even got there.

Simpsonholic

More Prom Night plot holes
Saw V picture

Plot hole: Hoffman is able to implicate Agent Strahm as the mastermind behind the main series of traps in this film by planting Strahm's cell phone at the scene. However, Hoffman is repeatedly shown to be touching things at the scene without wearing gloves, so a forensics sweep of the crime scene afterwards would show Hoffman's fingerprints all over the place and reveal him to be the actual mastermind. Agent Erickson arrives at the crime scene before the two survivors of the traps complete their tests, so the forensics team would have been called in before Hoffman had a chance to remove any evidence that would incriminate himself. As a forensics officer himself, Hoffman should know better.

Phaneron

More Saw V plot holes
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.

More Warbirds plot holes
Tinker Bell picture

Plot hole: When Tinkerbell tries to find Gruff in winter, she's seen flying with her wings out of her coat; in a later scene, Fawn flies too. After Tink finds Gruff, her wings disappear from underneath her coat. This is a plothole because of how the whole storyline of Secret of the Wings was that warm fairies can't fly in winter weather or their wings will tear.

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

Suggested correction: Yeah but at the end of Secret of the Wings, they find a way to let any fairy fly in winter.

More Tinker Bell plot holes
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor picture

Plot hole: Zi Juan tells the rest of the group when they are in Shangri La that she will take the first watch at the entrance and guard against the emperor getting in. A few shots later, she then decides to have a conversation with her daughter nowhere near the entrance, and now with no-one guarding, means he gets in unchallenged.

GalahadFairlight

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

Suggested correction: A character briefly leaving their watch to deliver important information as Zi Juan was doing isn't a mistake, and it's definitely not a plot hole, since it in no way contradicts the movie's logic or creates a hole in the narrative. At best, Zi Juan was being a little foolish leaving her watch, but a character being a little foolish isn't a "movie mistake." After all, people make foolish choices all the time in real life. Plus, as demonstrated by the movie, it doesn't really matter anyways - the Emperor's powers are back, so she wouldn't have been able to stop him even if she had kept watch.

TedStixon

More The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor plot holes
Fool's Gold picture

Plot hole: When Finnegan is in the water and the explosive charges go off, Finnegan should be dead from concussion, and the explosives are big enough to have caused his death by them flinging him quite high out of the water. What happened to Finnegan was pure fantasy.

More Fool's Gold plot holes
Stargate: Continuum picture

Plot hole: In the scene where Ba'al goes through the stargate and arrives in 1939, the event horizon from the stargate puts a hole in the haul of the ship. Later when SG1 goes through the stargate the hole is covered with ice. The event horizon created from SG1 would have been the same as the previous one and removed the ice from the hole.

More Stargate: Continuum plot holes
Journey to the Center of the Earth picture

Plot hole: We don't see any herbivores in the underground world - just fish and little birds. A T-Rex would need lots of big game to survive.

Jacob La Cour

More Journey to the Center of the Earth plot holes
Bedtime Stories picture

Plot hole: Why isn't Kendall in jail at the end of the movie? He shoved two construction workers aside and tried to blow up a building that he knew might have two kids inside. It would still fit the "bad guy has a bad ending" necessary for a Disney film.

Grumpy Scot

More Bedtime Stories plot holes
Zack & Miri Make a Porno picture

Plot hole: There is a problem with the warehouse being destroyed to the total surprise of the crew. A building of that size that is bound to be destroyed has to be fenced off days before the destruction, so that no homeless people or kids can easily get on the properties. In this case, however, there was not even a warning sign.

BlueCell

More Zack & Miri Make a Porno plot holes
The Dark Knight picture

Plot hole: The Nomex survival suit that Bruce gets from Lucius Fox in Batman Begins is bulletproof, knife proof, and can stop anything but a straight-shot, per Fox. All Bruce did was spray paint over it to make the batsuit. But in the beginning of The Dark Knight, Batman gets mauled by a dog which chews through the suit and cuts Bruce's arm, causing him to need stitches.

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

Suggested correction: The suit still has seams, through which the dogs can bite.

The suit he was wearing is knife proof, meaning there's aren't suppose to be any "seams" for a dog to bite through. It was the later suit he requested that would be vulnerable to knife attacks.

Bishop73

Lucius told Bruce in Batman Begins that it would stop a knife, he didn't say it was knife proof. This was likely in reference to protecting vital organs from stab attacks, etc, not the weakest areas in his armor from dog bites. There was always going to be flexibility, protection, and weight consideration trade-offs for optimization purposes with any armor he wore, not just his 2nd.

More The Dark Knight plot holes

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.