Best adventure movie plot holes of all time

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

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb picture

Plot hole: In Night at the Museum 2, the parts of the tablet that are missing were attached to the gate to the underworld, which implies it was originally attached to that, and those parts were left behind when it was removed. But in this film we see the tablet getting found on the wall in Ahkmenrah's tomb, and the missing parts are left behind on the wall of the tomb.

Aled Wesker

More Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb plot holes
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan picture

Plot hole: Why doesn't Reliant know that Khan is exiled here? The Federation is so terrified and opposed to genetic engineering that it's still illegal 300 years after Khan. So why is there no warning along with the data on the Ceti Alpha system? Kirk logged what happened with Khan and his solution of marooning him. Starships use nav data to navigate star systems. Ceti Alpha 6 exploded, yet the helmsman or computer never noticed that there is one less planet than there was when Kirk was there? There is no debris from the explosion? Ceti Alpha 5 is the exact same size and was conveniently blown into the exact same orbit as Ceti Alpha 6 used to have? So there is nothing whatsoever to make the crew even suspect that it's not 6? Enterprise would have to have scanned the planets in the system to know that one was habitable for Khan. Did Ceti Alpha 6's destruction somehow magically turn Ceti Alpha 5 into its exact duplicate? If Starfleet ships have been there to map after Ceti Alpha 6 exploded, none of them bothered to check on the exiles? Pretty callous for Starfleet, don't you think? With the technology and amounts of information available to Starfleet vessels, there is NO logical reason for the Reliant to think that this planet is Ceti Alpha 6. Finally, would the Federation be willing to test a device whose exact effects will be unknown on a planet so close to another inhabited one? (00:21:00)

Grumpy Scot

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

Suggested correction: The answer is yes: against all known laws of science, the inexplicable explosion of Ceti Alpha VI led to Ceti Alpha V conveniently taking its orbit and making it easy to mistake for its former sister planet. A mistake would've been to give an explanation that can be debunked. By leaving it to "somehow" the movie leaves it open to a million possible rationalizations. You can even make a whole other story about the crazy circumstances that led to this incredible result.

TonyPH

More Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan plot holes
Terminator: Dark Fate picture

Plot hole: Sarah turns up on the bridge to fight the Rev-9, we later learn that she is texted the location of where to be as when the terminators travel though time it causes a gravitational anomaly, and this is where she needs to be. The Rev-9 had been there ages killing Dani's dad etc, Sarah would have no idea to be on the bridge after the terminator has chased them though the town - she can't possibly know that location.

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

Suggested correction: Sarah is very skilled at fighting Terminators. She receives the coordinates but knows that many other real-world factors may impede her progress to those coordinates, so she makes efforts to prepare for that. Also, the coordinates that she received for the Rev-9 may very well have told her to fight it on the bridge because the T800 who sent those coordinates knew that Sarah would also then be able to rescue Dani and Grace, and eventually meet up with him as a result.

I'd say the real reason Sarah is on the highway to fight Rev-9 is that she followed it. She misses the moment it arrived (from the future), she follows it to the car factory, but she misses it again, then she finally catches it up on the highway.

It is explicitly stated by the T800 Carl that he was sending Sarah the coordinates of where the terminators would appear, because the arrival would create a space-time wrinkle he is able to measure ahead of time. There is no indication he can predict the future events and send Sarah coordinates of places to be other than that.

Epigenis

Suggested correction: Sarah's truck can be seen in the background when Grace arrives. Grace doesn't look like any Skynet Terminator, and the time bubble she arrives in is different to the ones in T1 and T2. We can infer that Sarah followed Grace from her arrival to the bridge in an attempt to understand what was going on with the new time travellers before intervening.

More Terminator: Dark Fate plot holes
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.

More The Eagle Has Landed plot holes
Poseidon picture

Plot hole: When the ship has turned on its side for the brief moment, it cuts to inside the ship where a hallway explodes, causing the ship to submerge. The only problem is the people are standing on the ceiling, but if the ship's on its side, they'd be on the wall, not ceiling.

More Poseidon plot holes
Star Wars: The Last Jedi picture

Plot hole: Luke deliberately says he does not want to be found and came to Ach-To to die in The Last Jedi, but The Force Awakens is all about finding a map to Luke Skywalker. Why would Luke leave a map when he never wanted to be found?

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

Suggested correction: This is a question, not a plot hole. Luke went to find the first Jedi temple. The location of the temple is what they were ultimately needing to try and locate Luke. The map that has the temple was already created before Luke went to the temple, he did not create a map where to find him and then secretly hide it away.

Bishop73

It is a plot hole statement in the form of a question. It ultimately is a continuity error between Episodes 7 and 8. TFA never mentioned it as a map to a Jedi temple Luke might be at. The audience is told in that movie that it is a map to Luke Skywalker. It is believed by the end of TFA that Luke wants to be found if they needed him. It is only after Rian Johnson goes against what JJ Abrams planned for Luke that this error becomes prominent. If this is simply a map to the first Jedi Temple, then the Resistance is betting a lot on the chance Luke went there and still there after all these years.

In The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren refers to the map as a navigational chart recovered from the archives of the Empire. According to the spin-off books, the Empire were using it to find the first Jedi Temple and destroy it. So the map was not in fact left by Luke. Since Luke is believed to have gone looking for the first Jedi Temple, my guess is that whoever discovered the map realised where it led to, and knew that was where Luke was believed to have gone, and thus referred to it as a map to Luke.

What other choice do they have? The know where he wanted to go. If the do not find him there then the have someplace to look abound for clues as to where he went to afterwards. Also it is not like if he is not there they are stuck and cannot return to the resistance fleet.

A map to the first Jedi Temple is a perfectly fine explanation for what the map actually is and if the Resistance thought Luke was there, it was worth the risk to go there and look for him. However, the very identity of the map seems to change between movies and it is introduce in TFA as a map to Luke, not to a Jedi Temple. So in TFA it is a map to Luke and in TLJ it is now a map to a Jedi Temple Luke might be at. That is the problem, a discontinuity of the map's identity between the two films in the trilogy. This stems from the two directors' view of Luke in this trilogy also being completely different.

They think it's a map to Luke, or believe it, or someone else thought it was. It's not a discontinuity, just a semantic difference or miscommunication.

Jon Sandys

This movie or TFA should have explained this miscommunication as it comes across as a miscommunication to the audience and not to the Resistance. There is nothing in either film to show it is a map to a Jedi Temple Luke might be at. A miscommunication to the audience is poor writing, but since this occurs between two movies, it is a continuity mistake. This mistake is obviously due to the character of Luke changing when it moved on from JJ to Rian. This change makes the plot of TFA more confusing, but ultimately a continuity mistake is a much more just denotation for this than plot hole.

Since the Jedi Temple and Luke are in the same place the map is both a map to Luke and to the Jedi Temple. Someone looking for Luke will see it as a map to Luke, someone that is force sensitive may see it a a map to the temple.

This statement does not answer anything. The map was either designed to be a map to where Luke said he was or as map to a Jedi Temple where Luke may be. Not both. Both places can be the same, but the identity of what the map is remains as one or the other. Otherwise we are again back to a bad miscommunication in the Resistance and bad miscommunication to the audience that is just bad writing. Since it is stated in TFA that is is a map to Luke, the audience should believe it as such. It is never described as a map to a Jedi Temple Luke might be at. The continuity error and plot confusion comes from the fact that in TFA it is a map to Luke for when he was needed and in TLJ it is a map to a Jedi Temple that the Resistance hoped Luke would be at. Since TFA came first, it takes precedent and all of Luke's lines of not wanting to be found do not make sense.

While initially the audience is told it's a map to Luke, we find out later that the map leads to the first Jedi temple. This is nothing more than building suspense, which doesn't constitute a plot hole. While one could argue it was only after changes to the script or a director's choice that changed what the map was designed to be, the original mistake is still not valid because Luke never created a map to where he was going and then hide it as suggested.

Bishop73

More Star Wars: The Last Jedi plot holes
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over picture

Plot hole: The Toymaker throws that toy bird at the hippie version of himself. The toy goes through him because he is a hologram. Later, he pushes the soldier version of himself at the screen making it crack. How could he if the three others are holograms?

More Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over plot holes
Superman II picture

Plot hole: When Superman becomes human for Lois, the molecule chamber nearly rips him apart, he suffers. At the end of the movie, when he tricks out of the evil 3 and turn them into humans with the same radiation, they are just looking around, wondering about the strange lights, but don't suffer at all.

Goekhan

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

Suggested correction: Well it's established that Superman has altered the machine. Maybe he also reprogrammed it to not leave signs of their powers being removed.

TheIrishMovieBuff

More Superman II plot holes
Freddy Vs. Jason picture

Plot hole: In the institute, Will's friend gets out of his room to get the guard's keys. He couldn't have gotten out of his room because there isn't a handle or door lock inside the room.

More Freddy Vs. Jason plot holes
Cutthroat Island picture

Plot hole: When Morgan and her Slave/New Boyfriend are escaping from the burning ship, which is going to explode any second, they emerge onto the deck, run up a flight of stairs, cross the deck to the stern rail, look about themselves, then dive overboard. They know the ship is about to explode and are desperate to get overboard. The railings are about a metre away from the hatch they emerge from in the first place - why not just jump overboard there?

More Cutthroat Island plot holes
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets picture

Plot hole: At the beginning of the movie, Hedwig rattles her cage, and Harry says apologetically, "I can't let you out, Hedwig; I'm not allowed to use magic outside of school." But he wouldn't have to use magic to let her out - the key is visible sticking out of the lock on the cage, so all he would have to do is turn the key. (00:01:10)

Aerinah

More Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets plot holes
Moana picture

Plot hole: When Moana first meets Muai, she opens her necklace to tell him he will restore the heart. Muai sees the heart but doesn't get scared until he sees it again on the boat. He should have been scared the first time.

Jeremy Buerkle

More Moana plot holes
Captain Marvel picture

Plot hole: When Vers arrives at the bar, Nick Fury is already there. She went straight to the bar after stealing the bike, while Fury needed still to learn about the theft, link it to the case, with investigations taking place to maybe (only possibility that would not depend on the vehicle being reported) figure out that Pancho's was the destination from examining the search history of the browser. Fury went there by car. His boss also explicitly says to work on the case alone. Amazing he could be there with such timing.

Sammo

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

Suggested correction: Vers probably got lost and had to wander around to find the place.

I can't realistically say it's impossible (it is not shown, after all), but nothing in the movie implies it, and it's the exact opposite. She is shown, driving, fast, on the Sierra Highway, which is where the bar is. Not stopping to ask for directions or at crossroads (something it takes 1 second of movie to show). In perfect Star Trek tradition she can speak the language, she reads the maps just fine, in fact she already looked the place up on the map, that was next to her and she already knew how to use without help, before taking off on her fast bike not hindered by traffic. And again, the head start she has is huge since Fury can begin investigating only once he hears about the stolen bike. Fury is at his HQ and a long time seems to have passed, since he is patched up and a whole autopsy has been done. Vers started searching right away.

Sammo

More Captain Marvel plot holes
Mission: Impossible picture

Plot hole: In the air vent, we see a rat. Wouldn't rats in the vents set off the alarms on a regular basis, because the lasers were on the upper side of the vent?

More Mission: Impossible plot holes
X-Men 2 picture

Plot hole: When the Drakes (Bobby's family) arrive home they are acting quite naturally, until they find Wolverine there and get a start. Later on we see that they had parked their van in the driveway right behind Cyclops' car, which Logan and company had borrowed and parked there. Wouldn't they, seeing a strange car in their driveway, be suspicious or at least enter their house asking "Bobby, are you home?" (00:52:45 - 00:59:15)

More X-Men 2 plot holes
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace picture

Plot hole: Superman traps the supervillain (whose power depends on sunlight) inside of an elevator to incapacitate him. Superman then ripped the elevator out of the building. He then plants it on the far side of the moon. Later on, sunlight starts to shine into the elevator through a slit at where the doors meet. The villain of course recharges and comes after Superman again. Now, if light could get through that crack there, then why couldn't it get through when the elevator was ripped out of the building in BROAD DAYLIGHT?

More Superman IV: The Quest for Peace plot holes
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom picture

Plot hole: Mola Ram has his men knock over a vat of water in a last ditch effort to kill our heroes. First of all the vat can't be that big if it can be knocked down with a few sledgehammers. Secondly, for the amount of water that chases Indy and co. down the vat would have to be big enough to fill the room it's in, which obviously it's not. Third, Indy and co. travel through several large caverns during the mine cart chase, caverns that could easily swallow up any of the water flowing through the tunnels so there shouldn't be any water left to catch up to Indy by the time they stop.

More Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom plot holes
The Emperor's New Groove picture

Plot hole: When Kuzco and Yzma make a dive for the potion bottle, Yzma is turned into a cat simply by landing on the potion bottle. This suggests that a person only needs to touch the potion in order to be affected. However, when Kronk and Yzma are serving Kuzco dinner and are trying to avoid poisoning themselves, Kronk pours his potion drink on himself and is not affected.

Sussudio

More The Emperor's New Groove plot holes
National Treasure: Book of Secrets picture

Plot hole: The idea that Ben Gates had to run away despite the President's being okay with the kidnapping does not make sense. The President could simply pardon him if necessary. However, when he ran away, he would likely be committing other crimes (fleeing and eluding police, reckless driving, etc.) that would not be federal crimes and so would not be pardonable.

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

Suggested correction: That's basically what he did at the end. Even though the President was OK with Ben "kidnapping" him, if Ben didn't find the lost city of gold he would have been arrested and charged for kidnapping the President (amongst other charges). However, because Ben was able to find the city the President gave him and his crew a full pardon and explained that it was a misunderstanding.

More National Treasure: Book of Secrets plot holes
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island picture

Plot hole: As the island is sinking you can see parts break off, like the island is falling apart, but if it does this every 70 years then there wouldn't be an island. It should have completely fallen apart hundreds of years ago.

brianjr0412

More Journey 2: The Mysterious Island plot holes