Best sci-fi movie plot holes of all time

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

Men in Black 3 picture

Plot hole: When (future) Agent J and (future) Boris are fighting on top of the large red docking station for the spaceship, Agent J gets shot deliberately by Boris and jumps off the edge of the dock. Then he uses his time travel device to go back in time a few seconds earlier to be able to dodge the shots. There are a few mistakes in this part. 1) There should be another Agent J and Boris there too, as they have gone back in time to that moment again. However in the movie there are only two of them. 2) The injuries sustained by Agent J (the bone spikes in his abdomen) should have remained there when he went back in time. If it were true that you healed once you went back in time into the condition you were in at that moment, then Boris should have grown an arm back when he went back in time. 3) Due to the time loop, Agent J remembers how to dodge the shots, while Boris doesn't remember anything and is surprised by the outcome. (01:29:00 - 01:30:10)

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

Suggested correction: #3 Boris doesn't remember that they just went back in time, as he wasn't doing/holding the Time Jump Device.

unkajes

More Men in Black 3 plot holes
Resident Evil: Extinction picture

Plot hole: When the survivors break into the Umbrella compound, Alice helps load survivors onto the helicopter. The helicopter portrayed has a max occupancy of 6, and somehow Alice manages to squeeze 20+ survivors onto the helicopter, with no problems whatsoever. (01:11:05)

Razvaluha

More Resident Evil: Extinction plot holes
Jason X picture

Plot hole: When the Grundel explodes near the end, Rowan looks out the window to see Uber Jason floating towards the rescue shuttle, only to be grabbed by Brodski who happens to fly sideways at a high rate of speed. Now provided it's feasible that Uber Jason can survive an immense explosion, how Brodski not only survived the explosion but managed to wind up away from the spaceship and far enough off to the right so as to catch Jason in mid-space is beyond me. (01:22:15)

More Jason X plot holes
X-Men 3 picture

Plot hole: When Magneto lands the bridge between San Francisco and Alcatraz, only the ends of the bridge are on land, with the rest still suspended in the air despite having nothing to keep it there. Magneto could arguably be using his powers to keep it supported, but at the moment he loses his powers it still does not collapse at the center.

More X-Men 3 plot holes
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker picture

Plot hole: While the pair are duelling on Kajimi, Kylo Ren only realises Rey is onboard his ship when the mask of Darth Vader is force-teleported between them. However in this same fight Rey is wielding the dagger, which Kylo must have known was also inside Ren's chambers before the fight. So he should've been able to determine Rey's location earlier.

Jack Tobe

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

Suggested correction: While he should have had some idea, it doesn't prove she is in his quarters, only that she has been there. It's also a small item that he may not have noticed in her hand, focusing more on her lightsaber.

Hogwash. He could have easily noticed it, even if he was focused on her lightsaber. Maybe it is small but rather easily noticeable.

I think the biggest point is the mask proves her location whilst the dagger in her hand doesn't.

lionhead

It's also a weapon. In a combat situation a trained fighter like Kylo would have checked her other hand for a weapon as it is a common tactic to check a swipe with the main blade and stab with an off hand short weapon.

More Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker plot holes
Cube picture

Plot hole: Kazam is supposed to be a math genius, something that the plot hinges on, but he makes several mistakes when calculating the number of prime factors to find out whether a room is trapped or not. He says that 462 has three prime factors, when it has four, that 206 has four when it only has two and that 563 has two and 911 has three when both are actually prime numbers.

More Cube plot holes
Kate & Leopold picture

Plot hole: Stuart establishes that there is only one of you and that when you travel through time you can repeat things, but it will be you and not your double that does it. But, at the end, when the Duke is going up the stairs and the uncle says "Where have you been...", the Duke is wearing the same clothes as the first time. Yet we see that he goes directly from the time portal to his house in the ballroom raiment of the later scene. Where did the old clothes come from?

More Kate & Leopold plot holes
The Day After Tomorrow picture

Plot hole: When you see the shot of New York, just before the scene where the apartment lights go out, there are no lights on in the buildings, or car lights in the street, although it is dark. The lights should still be on as there has not been a power outage. (01:28:00)

More The Day After Tomorrow plot holes
Reign of Fire picture

Plot hole: The Americans allegedly landed at Manchester on their way to kill the male Dragon in London. London is due south of Manchester. Why then did they head in the complete opposite direction to Northumberland?

More Reign of Fire plot holes
Darkman picture

Plot hole: Peyton had his face burned in the explosion. In fact, he basically lost his lips, so he should not be able to talk very easily. While he could probably learn to speak normally again through other movements with his mouth and tongue, he does so too quickly to make logical sense. And his uncanny ability to almost perfectly mimic his enemies could probably be learned over time, but again is too quick to make sense.

More Darkman plot holes
Evolution picture

Plot hole: On the doors inside the white dome, and on the elevator door, it is marked "Vapor Lock." This is impossible due to the mine shaft opening. It can't be vapor locked when there's an opening. (00:35:00)

More Evolution plot holes
G.I. Joe: Retaliation picture

Plot hole: Even if someone would make all nuclear powers launch their nuclear missiles and then destroy them you still wouldn't have a nuclear weapons free world as most of those nations have plenty of nuclear weapons in reserve. A lot would be even be armed and ready to go for a possible second strike. (01:24:10)

lionhead

More G.I. Joe: Retaliation plot holes
The Krone Experiment picture

Plot hole: In the course of the story it's said that at the time the black hole went out of control, it had a mass of "half a mountaintop of granite." But in a flashback scene Dr. Krone is shown growing the mass of the hole by feeding it large numbers of lead bricks in the laboratory. It's a little hard to believe his lab could store, or even afford, enough lead bricks to equal that much mass.

More The Krone Experiment plot holes
Forbidden Planet picture

Plot hole: Krell doorways and equipment suggest they are short, wide and 2-3 times larger than a human. Yet the shuttle pod the Commander, Doctor and Morbius ride in is designed for human size beings.

Grumpy Scot

More Forbidden Planet plot holes
Back to the Future Part III picture

Plot hole: Although Marty rips the fuel line, not all the fuel would have drained out of the tank. Only the fuel that was already in the fuel line would have leaked out, meaning it could simply be patched, bled and the engine would run without a problem.

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

Suggested correction: A cut fuel line could absolutely drain the tank. Even if not a direct route with respect to gravity, it could still create a siphon effect and drain the tank.

More Back to the Future Part III plot holes
The Day the Earth Stood Still picture

Plot hole: Klaatu is shot and his body is lying in a prison cell. Gort leaves the flying saucer and walks all the way to the heavily guarded police station in downtown Washington DC. Gort is 8 feet tall and is a robot plus he uses his noisy death ray to create a hole in the police station to retrieve Klaatu's body and nobody noticed him? On top of that, he walks all the way back to the saucer unseen with a dead body. (01:22:36)

Larry Koehn

More The Day the Earth Stood Still plot holes
Tangents picture

Plot hole: The whole plot of this movie stems from a scientist selling his time machine to a corporation for further funding for development. He has a TIME MACHINE. Lotteries, stock market, 100 years of interest on a savings account. Why does he need more funding?

Grumpy Scot

More Tangents plot holes
The Matrix Resurrections picture

Plot hole: Considering how important it is to the Analyst that Neo stay connected to the Matrix at all times, it is unfathomable that his body in the real world is unguarded. While keeping an eye on him inside the Matrix at all times is difficult, there is no reason whatsoever that he should be left alone inside his pod with no security for even a second. This is an entirely different scenario than the original 3 films where resistance fighters finding Neo was integral to the machine's plans.

BaconIsMyBFF

More The Matrix Resurrections plot holes
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen picture

Plot hole: What on earth are those sailors doing with Hyde when he is chained up on The Nautilus? He is solidly chained to the floor and walls and they keep stepping up to him to allow him to swat them out of the way, risking injury or even death. They stand around like idiots as if waiting their turn to walk up to Hyde and be belted across the room. Why? Why are they even there? Hyde doesn't need subduing, and if he needed guarding they could do it without getting into range.

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

Suggested correction: They are there to subdue him because he is strong enough to tear the chains from the walls, which he does seconds after they stop trying.

More The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen plot holes
Philadelphia Experiment II picture

Plot hole: A nuclear armed stealth fighter is accidentally sent back in time to 1940's Nazi Germany. After the Nazis capture it, two days later they drop a nuclear bomb on the United States. There are several basic problems here. Firstly, if the Nazis captured advanced technology, wouldn't they spend more time taking the plane apart and interrogating the captured pilot? How on earth did they manage to train a pilot to fly the stealth in such a short length of time? And how did the stealth fighter manage to reach the U.S. from Germany when in-flight refuelling was unknown then?

More Philadelphia Experiment II 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.