Best thriller movie plot holes of 2014

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

Before I Go to Sleep picture

Plot hole: The whole movie plot relies on a very unlikely assumption: that the ex-husband would not visit Kidman at her mental institution where he put her in, nor call for any news at all, for four whole years... Even though divorced, they still share a common child! And what about the parents / siblings / extended family/ friends of Kidman? Would they also never visit for four whole years? If any one of them had, then they would have known the (fake) ex-husband had taken her out and would have called the real husband to get news. Then Kidman would have been reported as kidnapped.

AnthonyA

More Before I Go to Sleep plot holes
Gone Girl picture

Plot hole: SPOILER: When Amy comes back, doctors would have checked her non-existent head wound from the "abduction", from where she supposedly lost that much blood. That would and should have revealed all of Amy's lies.

More Gone Girl plot holes
The Imitation Game picture

Plot hole: There is no logical reason to switch off the Bombe at midnight when the codes change. Firstly, Turing's proving the concept of automated code breaking, so even if it only finds the right settings days or weeks later, the experiment is worth doing, then you can work out how to speed it up to be operationally useful. Secondly, even in steady state operation, cracking "yesterday's" settings (and thus intercepted signals) is still going to be pretty useful in most cases. Threatening to smash the Bombe up at midnight is good stuff to add some movie tension but, in reality, it's nonsense.

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

Suggested correction: It's not a plot hole, it's how they operated it in reality.

I have a copy of British Intelligence in the Second World War, by F H Hensley (the official historian and ex-GCCS). I quote page 309 as an example - 'the knowledge of the Tracking Rooms was far from perfect on account of delays in breaking the settings...During the first half of 1943, however, while the traffic was read with delays that were sometimes less than 24 hours, days when the settings proven to be unusual stubborn were not uncommon...Between 10 March Andy the end of June the setting standards for an a further 22 days were either not broken at all or broken only after a long delay.'...'A delay of as much a said three days in learning that U-boats had been ordered to move to new position so could thus mean than intelligence was received too late to be of use in diverting convoys'. So pretty clear that they carried on attempting to crack the settings well after the end of a day so they can process intercepts which might still be relevant.

More The Imitation Game 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
The Purge: Anarchy picture

Plot hole: Towards the end the Rich Purgers call for reinforcements, and Shane, Leo, Eva and Cali are hiding behind a wall. A guy somehow opens a door in front of them (without being seen by the three facing him), exposes himself and shoots only Shane, numerous times, to cause his death. He should have been spotted by the people looking in his direction. Also, if he was that well hidden he could have simply sprayed the entire group. He unloaded 5 or 6 shots to Shane's chest...when he could have taken them all out.

More The Purge: Anarchy plot holes
The Expendables 3 picture

Plot hole: Near the start we see Doc jump onto the back of a van and then on to some scaffolding. When he does this he is in plain sight of several armed men who are walking in the direction of Doc. These men would have seen Doc and raised the alarm, but they didn't. (00:16:00)

Ssiscool

More The Expendables 3 plot holes
The Gambler picture

Plot hole: Lamar was a star basketball player who didn't pay attention in Jim's English Literature class (and wasn't "good in English") but needed to pass to continue playing. Lamar told Jim, "I've had four courses with you" and "I'm a Junior." Whether this was Lamar's 4th or 5th English course, neither make sense. A fourth course would equal 12 credits - enough to be Lamar's' declared major (unlikely) - and most students don't enroll in the same professor's courses when they don't do well ("easy A"). (00:43:56 - 00:46:40)

KeyZOid

More The Gambler plot holes
Joy Ride 3 picture

Plot hole: All through the movie you can hear how noisy the car is... yet near the end of the movie when the girl runs over the killer he doesn't hear her coming till she hits him. (01:20:46)

gazza2009

More Joy Ride 3 plot holes
Good People picture

Plot hole: Tom told I.D. Halden, "My grandmother passed a few years ago and we inherited the family house." If there was a mortgage, who was paying it for a couple years? And if the house was inherited, there would not be a landlord, they would not be paying "rent", and owners do not get served with an eviction notice. (There was no mention of a legitimate reason, such as unpaid taxes.) There's a failure to discern home ownership (with a mortgage) from renting a house (which is not "inherited").

KeyZOid

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

Suggested correction: It seems to be that it is about two different houses, the rented one they already live in, and the inherited one which is renovated.

More Good People 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.