Best history movie plot holes of all time

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King Arthur picture

Plot hole: When the two Legionnaires open the gate of the Hadrian's Wall, they lean forward with their shoulders against the doors as if to push, but they are really pulling. (00:33:10)

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The Alamo picture

Plot hole: The morning of the final battle, the sun rises behind the mission, silhouetting a sentry. When the ending credits roll, the sun sets behind the mission.

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The Wind That Shakes the Barley picture

Plot hole: When the Black & Tans are shown driving through the village, a blue house is visible behind them. The house has modern PVC windows.

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The White Countess picture

Plot hole: The movie takes place before and around 1938 and, supposedly ends in that year, following the entrance in Shanghai of the Japanese, with the exodus by many Chinese and foreign residents. Ralph Fiennes' character, as an American ex-diplomat and businessman, would have resided, have bank accounts, his car, etcetera, in the foreign concessions. The Japanese did not occupy the concessions until after Pearl Harbor, so there was no need for him to flee the city, as a refugee without a passport and with little or no money, sailing towards Macao in a fragile Chinese junk. He could just have driven or walked a few blocks to any of the "Western" concessions, from where he could have married Natasha Richardson's character, obtained U.S. passports (White Russians had none, as the rest of her family in the movie until assisted by an official in the French Consulate) for her and her daughter, purchased a ticket in a safer vessel, sold his assets (regardless of the damage to his club, he still had a house, furniture, a car, presumably bank accounts, etc.).

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The Great Escape picture

Plot hole: Roger's initial briefing at the beginning of the film states that 'Tom' goes out from 104 and 'Harry' from 105. Despite this the goons are said to be in 105 when they find the entrance to Tom.

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Start the Revolution Without Me picture

Plot hole: The impetus of the plot is that the doctor mismatches the two sets of twins. But watch carefully the placement as they are born: first the DiCici baby, then the Coupe on the left, then the other DiCici, then the other Coupe on the right of the other three, making it, from the viewer's perspective, DiCici-Coupe-DiCici-Coupe. The doctor then switches the two middle ones, which supposedly mix the twins, but in fact it makes them DiCici-DiCici-Coupe-Coupe, and the two left and two right are given to the fathers. So the twins are not mismatched.

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Three Kings picture

Plot hole: When Archie and the others take the castle acting as Saddam and his guard two Iraqi soldiers come running out, passing by Archie and Chief, for some reason not looking at them and thus not noticing their American uniforms. (01:18:55)

NancyFelix

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Hero picture

Plot hole: When Nameless and Flying Snow are fending off the arrows, the arrows blocked by the two seem to be the only arrows coming toward the school, as there are no arrows flying beyond their reach (omitting the ones missing the school entirely).

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The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc picture

Plot hole: Joan of Arc is called to save Orléans from the siege of the English. But if you look In the scene where we see a bird's eye view of the city, you will notice that there are no guards on its walls. A siege is the means enemy soldiers try to cut a city from its supplies and contacts. Those soldiers should be guarding it day and night, and sometimes even shooting arrows or rocks in it, until the city resigns. The siege we see at Orléans is nothing but a lonely catapult which shoots once a week.

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Spartacus picture

Plot hole: How did Glabrus know about Silesian pirates aiding the slave army's escape? He informed the senate of this and yet was not made aware of it at the time of his capture.

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K-19: The Widowmaker picture

Plot hole: How can they have gotten confirmation to launch the missile from Moscow if the insulation on their transmitter was damaged? If it was a separate transmitter, why not use it in some way to contact Moscow during their crisis?

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Seabiscuit picture

Plot hole: Immediately after Seabiscuit injures his leg, the track vet tells owner Charles Howard that the horse will never race again. He offers to euthanize Seabiscuit, even though it was not a life-threatening injury. Even if Seabiscuit was unable to race again, a champion racehorse has more value as a stud horse. It is nearly inconceivable that a random vet would suggest this so early on. If anything, it would be "wait and see."

raywest

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The Heroes of Telemark picture

Plot hole: When Knut and Rolf are setting the bombs in the engine room of the Hydro ferry, they are interrupted by a German soldier who they quickly overpower and kill. Why don't the Germans then notice that this soldier is missing? The clocks attached to the bombs show the time around 01:35am when the soldier is killed yet the alarm still hasn't been raised when Rolf catches the ferry several hours later at 9am. This is far too long for any soldier to be on sentry duty without reporting in to the Guardroom. The Germans would have known that the soldier was on duty on the ferry and when he didn't report in then they would have searched the boat thoroughly and found the bombs. (01:51:30)

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