Best thriller movie plot holes of 2008

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Untraceable picture

Plot hole: The FBI in the movie has the ability to "blackhole" an IP address, which makes that computer unavailable to the internet. If they can blackhole the computer acting as the web server, they could also blackhole the computer acting as the name server (DNS), thereby taking down the web site and preventing additional users from connecting.

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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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Lakeview Terrace picture

Plot hole: At the end, when Chris finds the informant's phone, he sees that there are 2 voicemail messages. Instead of listening to them, he calls the last number, which reveals Abel is responsible for the break-in when he answers and in turn reveals to Abel that Chris knows about the break-in. It would make more sense to just listen to the voicemails, as Chris became immediately suspicious when he saw them. Considering Chris called the last number, he must have known that the last number was also the person who left the voicemails. Very deliberately done to bring realizations between Chris and Abel for a climax.

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Prom Night picture

Plot hole: When the cop is in the room and he realises how the teacher escaped from the hotel, he pictures him walking out in the bellboy uniform while the cop is downstairs. However at this time he should be upstairs with the girl in her room, because he is still in the room when she runs out of the room into the cop. For this to work out, the teacher would have to have left the room before the girl even got there.

Simpsonholic

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Saw V picture

Plot hole: Hoffman is able to implicate Agent Strahm as the mastermind behind the main series of traps in this film by planting Strahm's cell phone at the scene. However, Hoffman is repeatedly shown to be touching things at the scene without wearing gloves, so a forensics sweep of the crime scene afterwards would show Hoffman's fingerprints all over the place and reveal him to be the actual mastermind. Agent Erickson arrives at the crime scene before the two survivors of the traps complete their tests, so the forensics team would have been called in before Hoffman had a chance to remove any evidence that would incriminate himself. As a forensics officer himself, Hoffman should know better.

Phaneron

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Warbirds picture

Plot hole: One of the flying dragons impacts the right outer engine of the B-29, and the fire spreads to the right inner engine. The crew lands the plane on the island, and the girls rebuild both engines, despite the fact there are no parts available on the island.

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The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor picture

Plot hole: Zi Juan tells the rest of the group when they are in Shangri La that she will take the first watch at the entrance and guard against the emperor getting in. A few shots later, she then decides to have a conversation with her daughter nowhere near the entrance, and now with no-one guarding, means he gets in unchallenged.

GalahadFairlight

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Suggested correction: A character briefly leaving their watch to deliver important information as Zi Juan was doing isn't a mistake, and it's definitely not a plot hole, since it in no way contradicts the movie's logic or creates a hole in the narrative. At best, Zi Juan was being a little foolish leaving her watch, but a character being a little foolish isn't a "movie mistake." After all, people make foolish choices all the time in real life. Plus, as demonstrated by the movie, it doesn't really matter anyways - the Emperor's powers are back, so she wouldn't have been able to stop him even if she had kept watch.

TedStixon

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Fool's Gold picture

Plot hole: When Finnegan is in the water and the explosive charges go off, Finnegan should be dead from concussion, and the explosives are big enough to have caused his death by them flinging him quite high out of the water. What happened to Finnegan was pure fantasy.

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Journey to the Center of the Earth picture

Plot hole: We don't see any herbivores in the underground world - just fish and little birds. A T-Rex would need lots of big game to survive.

Jacob La Cour

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Wanted picture

Plot hole: Just after the shootout in the grocery store, Wesley's dad nearly runs him over in the pet truck. Before this, it seemed as though he may have wanted to kill him, but he just hadn't gotten a clear shot. It's highly doubtful that he would have trusted Fox, his enemy, to swipe Wesley into the car literally one second before he would have been plowed by the truck. Being the best assassin in the entire Brotherhood, there's no reason to think that he could act careless at a time like this, especially when doing so could easily cost the life of his son.

Knever

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Doomsday picture

Plot hole: Rhona Mitra is told she can't fly into Scotland because it's a "no fly zone." But it's all part of the UK, and she's being sent in as part of a UK government operation. The only group enforcing the no fly zone would be the UK government, so they could send her in via whatever means they like.

Jon Sandys

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Transporter 3 picture

Plot hole: In the large chase scene, Frank hits the shoulder at 140kph (~85mph) but the car doesn't shake, slide, or act in any way like it should. Later, when he's moving around 220kph (~135mph), he somehow manages to end up on two wheels. To top it all of when he ends up between the semis he appears to be moving just barely faster than them which would mean he had to slow down somewhere. When his wheels make contact with the one semi the car doesn't jump or skip as expected because it's not moving very fast compared to the semi. I know this scene is for effect, but they could at least attempt to make it somewhat based on real physics.

zephalis

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Passengers picture

Plot hole: At the end of the movie we discover that the main character (Claire) was in the plane crash and was sitting next to Eric as the plane started to go down. However at the beginning of the movie( before we are supposed to know Claire was in the crash) Eric can be seen but Claire is not next to him. (00:01:10 - 01:19:20)

loekashe

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Killshot picture

Plot hole: Blackbird and Ritchie fake their deaths in order to lure Wayne and Carmen out of hiding. What was the point of pursuing Wayne and Carmen? The only reason they wanted the couple dead was to prevent them from testifying. The problem is .if Blackbird and Ritchie were "dead", the case would be CLOSED. Carmen and Wayne wouldn't be testifying anyway. So why go to the trouble of killing them? It makes no sense.

RareJewel

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Punisher: War Zone picture

Plot hole: Even though he knows the FBI is looking for him, the Punisher shows up at Agent Donatelli's funeral (which is being attended by many FBI agents) in broad daylight. This is completely out of character for someone who will go as far as living in the sewer to avoid capture.

Phaneron

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Let the Right One In picture

Plot hole: After Eli's guardian is hospitalised for acid-burning his face, Eli hears on the radio that they can't ID him because of his facial wounds. When we see him in the hospital however, only half his face is injured, the other half is fine which would make a mirror composite easy for lab techs.

Purple_Girl

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Wargames: The Dead Code picture

Plot hole: When Will is on the airplane talking to his mom, there's a knock at her front door and she says, "There are men in suits here". However, when we see her open the front door, it's covered in thick frosted glass which would make it impossible for her to determine what the people were wearing.

jerimiah

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Eagle Eye picture

Plot hole: This observation regards a computer whose memory architecture is on a physical scale (e.g., size) that allows multiple humans to enter and maneuver within it. With electronic components, scale imposes a design limitation such that the greater the distance between components, the more time is required for a signal to traverse between components. This computer's massive size would assure substantial performance limitations which are inconsistent with the plot line of the computer's overall power.

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Taken picture

Plot hole: When Brian is on the boat, we see 3 girls from the auction being ushered into the sheikh's stateroom. He eliminates all the bodyguards, the last of who is the leader with the knife, and who is the only person who knows which of the girls is Kimmi. When Brian enters the stateroom, the sheikh is holding her at gunpoint. How did he know she was Brian's daughter?

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Suggested correction: This is a question, not a plot hole. It is possible the man who bought Kim at the auction had to explain to his boss, the sheikh, why he bought her. He probably told him about the troubles he has had and the possibility that this man is still searching for his daughter, the girl in front of him. Hearing the fighting going on the sheikh correctly assumes this is the same man and tries to use her as a shield against him when he enters and threatens her with a knife.

lionhead

Don't think so - lot of probable's. The Sheik's right-hand man would have assumed Brian was dead as St Clair's men had captured him, but he spotted him on the boat and only told his boss he would 'kill the dog', not which girl he had come for. Agree correction - she was held by knife-point.

He bought a girl he was not instructed to buy, for a lot of money. Of course he had to explain that to the Sheikh.

lionhead

Not a plot hole, not even a contrivance. The sheik just grabbed whichever girl that was with him. It didn't matter who she was, it was just a case of "let me go or 'll kill this random, innocent girl." The fact that it was Kim was a simple coincidence (1 in 3 chance).

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The Machine Girl picture

Plot hole: Ami's arm was sliced off, and the wound went untreated (you can tell it was not cauterized in later scenes) for a number of hours before it was stitched up. All this time, we see her loosing ludicrous amounts of blood. Yet, Miki looses her foot, and dies of blood loss only a few minutes later, despite her wound and blood loss being much less severe than Ami's. An inconsistency in the style done solely for dramatic purposes.

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