Best thriller movie plot holes of all time

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

Byzantium picture

Plot hole: Ruthven is apparently bitter that he has been denied his chance of becoming an immortal vampire after Clara steals the map from him, which is why he attacks Eleanor. But why doesn't he just go to the island anyway? You don't need to be invited - Clara, Eleanor and Frank aren't. Having been there once, it seems highly unlikely he can't find it again - he's a naval captain, so navigation and observation are major professional skills for him. And it isn't hidden or magically protected - the local boatmen know where it is and are prepared to take people there, although they won't set foot on it themselves. He could quite easily have gone there without the map, entered the shrine and been turned into a vampire if that's what he wanted.

Necrothesp

More Byzantium plot holes
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

More Dressed to Kill plot holes
The Spy Who Loved Me picture

Plot hole: If they assembled the wet bike on the submarine, they wouldn't be able to get it off as it would be too big to fit through the hatch.

More The Spy Who Loved Me plot holes
The Peacemaker picture

Plot hole: When the diesel train stops in the tunnel, one of the soldiers tells another one how far they are from the spot where the nuclear detonation will take place. Do the math: the distances don't work out. At least one of the trains would have to do over 100mph AVERAGE to put enough distance between them. Military precision, indeed.

More The Peacemaker plot holes
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End picture

Plot hole: If Nina was hiding where she couldn't see the truck, how did she know that Mara was tied to the hood of it?

sunfox35

More Wrong Turn 2: Dead End plot holes
Dr. No picture

Plot hole: When Bond is escaping through the metal ducts, presumably of Dr No's air-conditioning, he is deluged with torrents of water. He then leaves the pipe work through a metal grille into a passageway - why didn't the water leave the same way? (01:33:05)

More Dr. No plot holes

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

More War plot holes
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.

More The Wicker Man plot holes
Scream 3 picture

Plot hole: It has already been mentioned that a certain shot reveals that Sidney isn't wearing the bullet-proof vest when she should be. Further to this, most of the shots in the climax sequence make it impossible for her to be wearing one, as you can see the contours of her chest throughout. A bullet-proof vest would flatten the appearance of this.

More Scream 3 plot holes
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.

More Strangers on a Train 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
A Quiet Place picture

Plot hole: The aliens seems to be very strong, but not using technology at all. How come they defeated for example tank units? Doesn't look like they can penetrate steel with their arms.

Goekhan

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

Suggested correction: The aliens also demonstrate the ability to run extremely fast, easily able to outmaneuver a slow-moving tank. They would most likely jump on the top of the tank or rip the treads off, considering they still are extremely strong. They would also quickly jump onto a helicopter and take it down. As for other vehicles such as jets or aircraft carriers, the aliens either would have attacked military bases or taken the fight out to sea in ships. Whatever the answer, that particular element of the aliens is a large amount of possibilities, not a mistake.

If a waterfall can disorientate them, so would a jet engine or gunfire.

Something they teach in the military is the "ghost walk" - how to move silently. As the newspaper cuttings suggest, the noise angle was known about while there were still working printing presses, so it must have been a slow event. And a helicopter gunship can engage from up to 1km away, that's a long jump.

Yeah, how does the military never tried to use loud and/or high sound to defeat them once they found that they hunt using the sound? But to be fair they seem to be everywhere, so maybe they attacked in very large numbers.

That's actually clever (assuming the aliens didn't rip everything apart before coordinated strikes). Have some jets fly at low speed and A10s behind light up the space.

More A Quiet Place plot holes
Witness picture

Plot hole: When John tries to start his car with the flat battery the least he should have done is switch the windshield wipers off. (01:33:50)

NancyFelix

More Witness 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
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
Hide and Seek picture

Plot hole: In the end, when Charlie is advancing on Emily while turning his light on and off, the final time he turns it on, Kathrine is in front of Emily. How could she get there so fast without being heard? There's at least 4-5 inches of water that would make sneaking very hard.

James King III

More Hide and Seek 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
Ghost Ship picture

Plot hole: At the end, there is an explosion large enough to destroy and sink an entire ocean liner, but Julianna Margulies, who was sitting right next to where the explosion went off, not only lives, but is virtually unscathed? Yeah, right. (01:19:00 - 01:20:35)

More Ghost Ship plot holes
Mission: Impossible 2 picture

Plot hole: In the first night that Nyah is in Ambrose's house she meets with Ethan outside the house and they talk for about 1 1/2 min. Then we find out "Ethan" was really Ambrose with one of those "high-tech" masks. My question...After being in bed with both, how come Nyah didn't recognise Ambrose is about 5 inches taller than Ethan?

More Mission: Impossible 2 plot holes
Under Siege 2 picture

Plot hole: Now why the heck is one of the stealth fighters anywhere near the train? Stealth fighters use advanced targeting and do not need to be anywhere near their target, yet in the movie the one fighter is so close to the train when it gets blown up that it looks like it's on a collision course.

More Under Siege 2 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.