Best crime movie plot holes of all time

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

Suspect Zero picture

Plot hole: During the end of the film chase scene, Agent Mackelway calls Agent Kulok and gives her a vague location of where they are and asks for back up. Considering Mackelway had been kidnapped and driven out into the country, it should have taken Kulok much longer to arrive at the scene instead of the few minutes that are indicated.

Aaron Lassman

More Suspect Zero plot holes
The Jackal picture

Plot hole: Part of the reason that the Jackal killed Lemont, asides from him being very annoying and money grubbing, was the fact that he wasn't going to give up the blueprints and plans for the device he made for him. Made a big deal about how he had to turn it over, and he tricked Lemont into going out into the testing ground with him so he could kill him. Then in the next couple scenes, the FBI is investigating Lemont's warehouse after they find Lemont's body, and Delcan finds the plans for the device Lemont bluilt for Jackal. This makes no sense. The Jackal was so adamant about getting those plans back, and even killed Lemont over it, it's just baffling to think that he would not have returned to the warehouse to get them after disposing of Lemont. Not doing so lets the FBI find it exactly as shown in the film. The Jackal is show to be very intelligent and has been doing this line of work for 20 years. And as Declan says, he's not inclined to make mistakes... Especially a mistake like that. (01:02:35)

Quantom X

More The Jackal plot holes
The Next Three Days picture

Plot hole: Modern diabetes management will tell a patient immediately if their glucose levels are out of the ordinary. Results are not monitored and delivered to a county jail by an outside lab. If a diabetic is sick enough, they would have obvious physical indications. The entire escape plan hinges upon these fallacies.

More The Next Three Days plot holes
Domestic Disturbance picture

Plot hole: In the middle of the film, after the custody hearing, Frank shows up at an event. Danny pretends that Frank dropped his wallet in order to have a brief conversation with his dad. Later, Rick confronts him about what they talked about. What does Rick expect? It's not like Danny will never be allowed to visit his father again. They are going to talk at some point. For Vince to expect that he will never talk to his father again is unrealistic.

RareJewel

More Domestic Disturbance plot holes
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For picture

Plot hole: Towards the end of the "The Hard Goodbye" segment from the first film after Marv has killed Cardinal Roark, a newspaper clipping shows that the Cardinal's brother Senator Roark was decrying the atrocity. However, at the very end of this movie, Nancy kills Senator Roark with Marv's assistance. Since Marv was captured and imprisoned immediately after he killed Cardinal Roark, that means that the killing of Senator Roark had to have occurred before "The Hard Goodbye", which means Senator Roark should not have been alive to decry his own brother's murder.

Phaneron

More Sin City: A Dame to Kill For plot holes
Getaway picture

Plot hole: They discover a "not so well hidden" microphone in the car that tells them the "man" is listening to them, but it is ignored throughout the rest of the movie, especially when setting up a video loop to cover their extracurricular activities. (00:30:00)

More Getaway plot holes
Four Brothers picture

Plot hole: At the start of the gun fight at the house, a snowball is thrown at Jack who then follows the person into the street. When they turn around the person is wearing a hockey mask and Jack realises he's in trouble. Jack would've seen the person wearing the hockey mask when the snowball was thrown, as the person had to be facing him to throw it. There was no reason after that for Jack to follow him.

More Four Brothers plot holes
Jawbreaker picture

Plot hole: The whole point of the deception is that Fern Mayo, the geek, turns overnight into Vylett. No one at school has a clue about her real identity till Marcia and Courtney put up posters. So this deception carries on for several weeks before the two girls expose it. There is no way this would work. A school will not simply accept a new student without bothering to register her, yet when Fern Mayo just doesn't turn up to school one day, and Vylett does indeed, none of the teachers find this strange, or bother enrolling "Vylett" officially in school.

swordfish

More Jawbreaker plot holes
Out For Justice picture

Plot hole: When Frank gets the phone call that Bobby has been shot, all that is said is that Bobby has been shot on the street in Italian. They never said Richie shot him.

More Out For Justice plot holes
Carlito's Way picture

Plot hole: Carlito's cousin was killed in the beginning at the sleazy bar, but you can see him walking down the stairs before Carlito goes to the train platform. The background is blurred but you can tell it's him.

More Carlito's Way plot holes
Out of Sight picture

Plot hole: When Karen is at Moselle's apartment looking for Snoopy, we overhear Kenneth on the phone talking about some boxers who are going to fight. The first thing we hear is him clarifying that the fights were at the State Theater. The fights are always at the State Theater and they always go there to watch them, so it makes no sense for him to have said that, other than to subtly benefit the plot.

More Out of Sight plot holes
Into the Blue picture

Plot hole: When the group first finds the plane, they are all able to hold their breath long enough to descend, search the plane and resurface. Yet later in the movie, even though Amanda can get a full breath of air from the air pocket in the plane, she can't hold her breath long enough to swim to the surface and has to be rescued by Jared.

More Into the Blue plot holes
After the Sunset picture

Plot hole: Max apparently hacked into the Suburban's 'ON STAR' system to take remote control of the vehicle. Not possible: There is no way to shift into drive, steer, apply brakes, or apply the gas pedal by remote control unless there are previously installed mechanical devices that can operate those controls. The electronic controls in a modern vehicle can only operate mechanical devices, and the ones needed to do this type of thing are NOT installed on any car from the factory. It is also clear that Max did NOT somehow previously install these devices on the vehicle unbeknown to Stan, for Lola( dressed as the street bum) had to retrieve the VIN number in order to access the 'ON STAR' programming, which they would have already had if they had previous access to the vehicle.

More After the Sunset plot holes
The Crow picture

Plot hole: Eric and Shelly were killed because they were trying to fight tenant eviction. Yet, a year later the building is seemingly abandoned. Eric and Shelly's stuff is even still there. So what were they killed for if nothing was ever done with the building?

More The Crow plot holes
Another Day in Paradise picture

Plot hole: In the scene in the woods right after Mel has gotten mad at Bobby he asks "Have I ever steered you wrong?" and Bobby shakes his head. Yet, it was Mel's idea to sell the drugs to Hitler's Henchmen, getting himself shot, getting Bobby beaten up and causing Rosie to lose the baby in the process. Maybe Bobby just didn't want Mel to hit him again. (01:01:05)

More Another Day in Paradise plot holes
Elephant picture

Plot hole: Aside from the fact that you can't have a semi-automatic rifle delivered to your doorstep (except to an authorized dealer), there's also the fact that the weapon apparently was shipped with a full magazine. This is ridiculous. All the boy did was take the mag from the box to the gun and it started firing right away. One can assume they already had the ammo and filled the mag inside the house. This is countered by the fact that when he takes the mag out of the box, it is empty. Freeze-frame confirms there is not a single cartridge in the magazine before it is inserted into the weapon. (01:21:40)

More Elephant plot holes
Vera Drake picture

Plot hole: The time line in this movie doesn't make sense. The abortion took place on November 17th and Vera was arrested within the week - and the arresting detective mentions it took place on "Friday" - so we are to assume the Friday just passed. Pamela Barnes apparently took ill very quickly from massive infection after the abortion and was hospitalized on Saturday. The family is getting together on a Sunday to celebrate Ethel's engagement. Vera goes to court on Monday to face her charges - November 20th. Yet the magistrate sets her trial date for 3 weeks to the day - December 18th, which would be 4 weeks from then. There seems to be a week missing somewhere. If there was a week before Pamela took ill, the events seems to imply otherwise.

More Vera Drake plot holes
Ronin picture

Plot hole: What happened to the second car? Larry sideswiped it and forced it off the road. Vincent and Sam seem to arrive in Nice first but somehow that second car is ahead of them when they force it to crash at the market.

More Ronin plot holes
Analyze That picture

Plot hole: In the armored car robbery scene, we see the guys hoist the car over a barricade with a crane, then nonchalantly open the driver's door of the truck to get the driver and co-driver out. Armored cars' driver's doors can only be released from inside the cab, by the driver with an electric lock, unless the person has a key for the door. If the driver was halfway doing his job, they would have had a much tougher time getting in, not to mention the fact that the driver is also armed, and the majority of armored cars also have shotguns in the cab. Since none of the gang had a key for the driver's door, the easiest thing for the driver to do would be to just sit there and either wait for help or drive away. The cargo area of the truck is also bulletproof and not accessible from the cab. The drivers could have simply let them take the gold if they didn't want to get involved, and not risk injury or death by opening the cab doors.

More Analyze That plot holes
The Crimson Rivers picture

Plot hole: In the cafe scene after the fingerprints have been identified as belonging to someone who was thought to have been killed, Jean Reno tells Vincent Cassel that the person who shot at him had all ten fingers. How did he know that? The audience only sees one hand which is holding the pistol and the other hand is out of sight.

More The Crimson Rivers 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.