Best crime movie plot holes of all time

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Bad Boys picture

Plot hole: Why was $100,000,000 worth of heroin sitting in the police vault all this time before the bad guys stole it? Wouldn't the DEA have taken possession of the drugs long before that?

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Charley Varrick picture

Plot hole: Swapping his dental X-ray records with his deceased partner won't convince anyone that Varrick is dead - then (as now) the patient's name appears on the X-ray.

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The Town picture

Plot hole: When Claire is getting interviewed at the FBI building, there's pics of inside the bank during the robbery, even though the security tapes were destroyed in the microwave.

Mike Mueller

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The Silence of the Lambs picture

Plot hole: It makes absolutely no sense that there would be over a dozen cops and soldiers in the lobby of the courthouse and leave only two cops to guard Lecter regardless that he was locked in the makeshift cell. Yes the plot needs a reason for him to easily escape but this still goes against every conceivable protocol for such a dangerous prisoner especially when there were dozens of armed personnel just in the scene alone when he was being transferred from the plane.

jbrbbt

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Batman Returns picture

Plot hole: When The Penguin is controlling the Batmobile, Batman punches through the floor to take off the transmitter. We still see a video feed of The Penguin. Why? Batman pulled off the transmitter, so there is no reason for there to still be a video feed.

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Suggested correction: We see the Red Triangle gang spends a while fiddling with the Batmobile's workings before installing the transmitter. It's likely they made multiple 'modifications', thus the transmitter was for controlling the car's engine and steering, and the video feed was made possible by another, separate means.

Suggested correction: I concur with the other correction. There are multiple shots showing the gang working on the car and doing other things to it beyond just putting on the transmitter. (You see them playing with wires, moving parts around, etc.) Hacking into the computer/video-feed so Oswald could taunt Batman is likely among the other things they are doing. There's nothing into the movie that suggests taking off the transmitter should (or even could) interrupt the video-feed. The fact that Batman has to punch the screen to get rid of the Penguin's image is another point to the fact that the transmitter itself had nothing to do with the video feed.

TedStixon

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The Italian Job picture

Plot hole: Why on earth do they drive the Minis up the ramps into the bus while it is moving? They are on a long, straight, relatively quiet stretch of road, but there are cars and buildings about. That ramp is going to make a noise like the sky coming down (we see sparks as it scrapes on the road) and they put on a display anyone would be, frankly, amazed to see. Don't they think one single person would call the police? Don't they think that reports of three brightly coloured Minis will be connected with the recent robbery? They cannot possibly think they have to load the Minis on the run in order to elude the police; they have lost the police cars and are no longer being pursued. Why not just park the bus on the hard shoulder and drive the Minis sedately up that ramp? An unusual sight, maybe, but nowhere near as clumsy, obvious and attention-getting as the way they do it. They are asking to be pulled over and arrested.

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The Interpreter picture

Plot hole: Toward the end of the movie, it is revealed that Silvia spent the night in the secure room where the Matabo President was taken after the assassination attempt so that she could be alone with him and threaten to kill him. With the U.N. and Secret Service on alert for an assassination attempt, wouldn't they have swept the secure room right before the Matabo President arrived that day? In addition, Silvia would have had to use her access card to get in that area of the building, so there would be a record of her being in the building but not at her station. Wouldn't that raise some suspicion long before Tobin figures it out?

Allyson

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The Sting picture

Plot hole: Doyle attends Gondorff's betting shop three times, and he listens to the announcer calling three races from three different race tracks - Narragansett in Rhode Island, Belmont in New York, and Riverside Park in Missouri. He cannot possibly miss the fact that the same announcer calls all three races! J.J. Singleton, the race caller, has an instantly recognisable voice, and Doyle wouldn't be fooled for a second. Each race track would have had its own announcer.

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Suggested correction: There are a lot of things Doyle is processing when he's in the shop. There's a lot happening, and he has a lot on his mind, and increasing pressure and stress each time. It's quite possible that he wouldn't notice the accent of the announcer, something he has no reason to doubt.

Rubbish. During his first two visits, he sits quietly listening to the race announcements. On his second visit, he would recognize J.J. Singleton's distinctive voice and would realize something was very wrong.

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Den of Thieves picture

Plot hole: One of the bank robbers, a former soldier, Ray Merrimen just got paroled 8 months ago for a previous felony. This film takes place in California. Convicted felons are prohibited by law from touching or owning firearms. Merrimen is at a public shooting-range with CCTV shooting his firearm. The police officer tracking him since he's a suspect in a new string of former and recent holdups walks into the shooting-range and they just stare at each other. He could've been busted and sent back. (01:03:45 - 01:06:00)

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In Time picture

Plot hole: In the last car-chasing scene, the timekeeper had switched his car to chase them, then how could Justin Timberlake get the timekeeper's salary (a day's time) from a car that the timekeeper picked up from the streets?

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Suggested correction: I think it is the car of another time keeper. Hence, it may have a time transfer system.

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Bugsy Malone picture

Plot hole: Captain Smolsky only gets hit in the back with the plaster. So why, later on, is his entire body covered in hardened plaster, like a mummy?

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Snake Eyes picture

Plot hole: The original ending planned was a massive tropical storm/water based chase scene. However, this was decided to be too expensive, and was switched for a cheaper, and some say weaker ending. Nonetheless, in Nicholas Cage's final speech, he says "I keep thinking about that tunnel, and what would have happened if I'd drowned." This makes no sense, given that in the new ending he came nowhere near a tunnel or drowning.

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Beavis and Butthead Do America picture

Plot hole: When Butthead pushes Beavis out of Muddy's car, Beavis causes a huge car crash. Then, a few seconds later Butthead falls out and causes cars behind him to crash, but the crash that Beavis started made a barrier along the highway, so how could those cars get behind Butthead so fast? (00:51:50)

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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)

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Furious 7 picture

Plot hole: In Tokyo Drift Twinkie tells Sean that Dom has been racing and beating drivers around Asia, but in this film Dom only goes to Tokyo for day or two as he tells Mia to tell Brian that he will see him in Los Angeles in two days.

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Sherlock Holmes picture

Plot hole: After the scene at the Houses of Parliament where Irene Adler escapes through the sewer from the clutches of Lord Blackwood, she suddenly appears at Tower Bridge, about 3 miles away. Even assuming she ran there and the journey was skipped, going there makes zero sense. It slows her down, leaves her exposed and limits her exit points - she's got all of London to escape into! (01:48:00)

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Dressed to Kill picture

Plot hole: After his mother's death, Peter sets a camera up outside her therapist's office, so he can see who goes in and who comes out; he thinks his mother's killer might be one of the doctor's patients - a tall woman with long blonde hair. All he sees is people going in and people coming out, and then he sees her - the tall blonde. Problem: He never saw her going in, only going out, which is critical, because the killer is the therapist - a tall man - wearing a long blonde wig and make-up. Of course no-one says anything about "We never saw her going in, only out, so it must be the therapist!"

kh1616

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War (2007)

War picture

Plot hole: Spoiler! We find out that "Rogue" is actually Tom Lone, who killed the real Rogue and destroyed his face to prevent identification, then had plastic surgery and went underground to get revenge. But how is the body never identified? Lone was a cop, they'd have blood type, DNA etc. on file, which would have proved the body wasn't his.

Jon Sandys

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The Wicker Man picture

Plot hole: Sergeant Howie is expected to report back to the mainland on the same day he left, and since he took a valuable aircraft with him on his trip it is inconceivable that his superior officers would not come looking for him if he didn't show up. First they would try contacting him on his radio and not receiving a reply they'd send out a search party, and they would do so within twenty four hours. Missing police officers are taken very, very seriously indeed.

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Strangers on a Train picture

Plot hole: Farley Granger meets a math professor on a train bound from New York to Washington, and is able to prove as much to the police. The professor got on in New York and got off in Wilmington, DE, while Granger boarded the train in the fictitious town of Metcalf, NJ, and rode on to Washington. Thus, they met between Metcalf and Wilmington. But the police say Granger could have boarded the train in Baltimore, by which time the professor would have gotten off and they never would have met.

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