Best movie plot holes of 2019

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Knives Out picture

Plot hole: The killer shows up at the scheduled appointment at 8 AM. They kill the idiot blackmailer with an overdose of morphine. Remember, that morphine that supposedly killed Thrombey in 10 minutes. Marta finds the blackmailer at 10 AM...alive, and does CPR on them, keeping them alive long enough for the ambulance to come and bring them to the hospital, even if in critical condition. So we went from "kills in 10 minutes, you can't even try to save him" to "after 2 hours, you are still hanging on"? (01:56:10)

Sammo

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Suggested correction: Marta injected an absurdly large dose. A smaller overdose would not kill in 10 minutes.

I read that objection before. From 10 minutes to 2 hours there's quite a leap that the movie does not explain or address at all, if it were part of the plot they should have said why this difference, on something so time sensitive (of which they got the factual details wrong anyway). Even visually when you look at the dose injected to Harlan and the dose in the syringe for the murder, they do not look different. He even stabs her with the syringe. Which makes sense since he has no reason to leave her there with a small. Controlled overdose in her veins risking that she would be saved as it -almost - happens - it's amazing he got away with it to begin with because she is so dumb to show up for no reason in a derelict place without talking to her accomplice that passed her the toxi report, or anyone.Without a throwaway line from an investigator or anything of the sort ("but you injected her the wrong way, so she was still alive two hours after"), we are just left with an inconsistency.

Sammo

Suggested correction: You've assumed a hell of a lot! Marta said Thrombey was given a dose of 100 mg (instead 3) of Morphine and would die in 10 minutes unless given the antidote. You just asserted that "Thrombey would die in 10 minutes" as if it was fait accompli, while Thrombey didn't die of morphine overdoes at all! (He cut his own throat.) For all we know, Marta's 10-minute assessment was a worst-case-scenario assessment. Fran's age and physique, as well as Marta's CPR, helped negate the effect until the ambulance arrives. If the medics administered the antidote, it could have prolonged Fran's life. Finally, 2 hours is the time after which the viewer is informed of Fran's death, not her actual death time. Most importantly, this happens in the medical world all the time: A person who is supposed to die after 3 days lives for 16 years. There are case-by-case explanations for each one, but they baffle the medical examiners at first.

FleetCommand

Two hours is not my assumption or when the viewer is informed of her death; the killer gives the appointment to the victim at 8 AM and to Marta at 10 AM, so as I said, after 2 hours with 0 medical care on her she is still hanging on and with barely a little tap she is ready to dispense important clues. I go by what the movie says also about the 10 minutes overdose time. Of course if you tell me that baffling freak occurrences can happen all the time in medicine and that very precise statements from the movie don't matter because the character can just have gotten it wrong by over 10x and the movie does not acknowledge it at all, well, that's a very respectable opinion; mine is that fiction (a whodunnit, not a slasher flick with a killer surviving multiple gunshots and the like) is not reality and it should respond to higher standards than "I guess she was still alive somehow."

Sammo

I re-watched the movie to verify that Fran was given an appointment at 8 AM. I discovered something new: The bottle that was injected to Fran contained only 5 mg of Morphine. That's 1/20th of what was "supposedly" given to Thrombey Sr. So, yeah, 10x is OK. In fact, 20x is OK.

FleetCommand

No, no; it contains 5 mg of morphine PER ml, it's the concentration, not the total. Go back to the scene when Marta "messes up", the vials are the exact same as the one that Ransom injects (obviously, since they come from Marta's bag after all). It's new for you but I covered that already in the Factual Error about it. It's something that piles upon a previous mistake. She did not give him 100 mg of morphine because it would have emptied the vial (which is more than half full) and because a full vial of ketorlac would have killed Trombe regardless, at that concentration! The movie gets both the props and the medical facts wrong (100 mg of morphine does not even kill most patients, Harlan would have not died in 10 minutes especially since he takes safely big doses of toradol and morphine), but nothing - in the script - says that Marta or Ransom got basic medical facts wrong.

Sammo

Okay! It seems mistake after mistake is piling up. Now, it appears Fran lived 4 hours, during 2 of which she was unattended. Plus, 100 mg of Morphine from a 5 mg/ml vial amounts to 20 ml of liquid. Well, now, everything you say makes sense... or at least most of the things. On the whole, I think it was a complicated situation.

FleetCommand

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The Lion King picture

Plot hole: Scar tells the pack he didn't make it to the gorge in time to help Mufasa. However Zazu was with them at at the gorge. He could have easily told Sarabi or any of the other lions on the numerous times he spoke with them, exposing Scar.

Ssiscool

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Suggested correction: Actually, Zazu wouldn't honestly say that Scar was lying; he left Scar at the gorge, but for all he knows, when Scar talks about not getting to the gorge in time, Scar could just mean that he couldn't find a safe path into the gorge to help Mufasa and Simba escape.

Joey221995

So Scar would say he couldn't get to Mufasa in time. Not the gorge.

Ssiscool

Suggested correction: Zazu wasn't with them when Scar said so. He was with Rafiki. He couldn't have heard what Scar was saying.

Suggested correction: But it wouldn't have confirmed that he killed Mufasa.

It would prove that Scar (who had the most to gain from Mufasa and Simba's deaths) was lying about the circumstances surrounding their deaths. But no-one brings it up.

It would prove Scar is lying about the events of Mufasa's (and Simba's presumed) death, and given Scar gained the most from it, the other animals should be extremely suspicious of him.

Anson Gordon-Creed

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Terminator: Dark Fate picture

Plot hole: Sarah turns up on the bridge to fight the Rev-9, we later learn that she is texted the location of where to be as when the terminators travel though time it causes a gravitational anomaly, and this is where she needs to be. The Rev-9 had been there ages killing Dani's dad etc, Sarah would have no idea to be on the bridge after the terminator has chased them though the town - she can't possibly know that location.

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Suggested correction: Sarah is very skilled at fighting Terminators. She receives the coordinates but knows that many other real-world factors may impede her progress to those coordinates, so she makes efforts to prepare for that. Also, the coordinates that she received for the Rev-9 may very well have told her to fight it on the bridge because the T800 who sent those coordinates knew that Sarah would also then be able to rescue Dani and Grace, and eventually meet up with him as a result.

I'd say the real reason Sarah is on the highway to fight Rev-9 is that she followed it. She misses the moment it arrived (from the future), she follows it to the car factory, but she misses it again, then she finally catches it up on the highway.

It is explicitly stated by the T800 Carl that he was sending Sarah the coordinates of where the terminators would appear, because the arrival would create a space-time wrinkle he is able to measure ahead of time. There is no indication he can predict the future events and send Sarah coordinates of places to be other than that.

Epigenis

Suggested correction: Sarah's truck can be seen in the background when Grace arrives. Grace doesn't look like any Skynet Terminator, and the time bubble she arrives in is different to the ones in T1 and T2. We can infer that Sarah followed Grace from her arrival to the bridge in an attempt to understand what was going on with the new time travellers before intervening.

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1917 picture

Plot hole: The letter that had to be delivered to the Colonel should have been completely ruined when the Corporal was in the river.

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Captain Marvel picture

Plot hole: When Vers arrives at the bar, Nick Fury is already there. She went straight to the bar after stealing the bike, while Fury needed still to learn about the theft, link it to the case, with investigations taking place to maybe (only possibility that would not depend on the vehicle being reported) figure out that Pancho's was the destination from examining the search history of the browser. Fury went there by car. His boss also explicitly says to work on the case alone. Amazing he could be there with such timing.

Sammo

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Suggested correction: Vers probably got lost and had to wander around to find the place.

I can't realistically say it's impossible (it is not shown, after all), but nothing in the movie implies it, and it's the exact opposite. She is shown, driving, fast, on the Sierra Highway, which is where the bar is. Not stopping to ask for directions or at crossroads (something it takes 1 second of movie to show). In perfect Star Trek tradition she can speak the language, she reads the maps just fine, in fact she already looked the place up on the map, that was next to her and she already knew how to use without help, before taking off on her fast bike not hindered by traffic. And again, the head start she has is huge since Fury can begin investigating only once he hears about the stolen bike. Fury is at his HQ and a long time seems to have passed, since he is patched up and a whole autopsy has been done. Vers started searching right away.

Sammo

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Men in Black: International picture

Plot hole: Spoiler. Agent M points out as highly suspicious that the twin assassins knew the location of Vungus, and High T backs her up on this, saying that only a handful of MIB officers could have leaked that information. High T also established that those aliens were part of the Hive collective. It turned out that they were not part of the Hive, and the Hive connection was made-up entirely by the villain himself...which is the Hive! What he did was absurdly counterproductive to his cause: nothing except the report he himself made up connected the Hive at all with the case.

Sammo

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Suggested correction: Maybe a wrong move by High T but more like a character mistake rather than a movie mistake. High T was trying to scare the agents into overreacting to what was perceived as a high risk threat. Then it backfired on him but definitively non a plot hole.

mauslyon

I don't mind the proposed changes of category, or even a 'demotion' to Stupidity. But I say it's more of a Plot Hole by the definition used in the website; " Events or character decisions which only exist to benefit the plot, rather than making sense." The whole plot moves along thanks to a deliberate decision by the villain who literally fabricates evidence to implicate himself.

Sammo

Sorry but it COULD make sense. We have 2 aliens from planet X (which is presumed to be a "hive" territory) that - at that point in the movie - are perceived as killers. It makes a lot of sense for HighT to reinforce in Agent H and Agent M the fear of an incoming invasion by waving the Hive scare flag in front of them. HighT could not have predicted at that point in time that the twins would say "we need that weapon for the hive" before being obliterated, Thus starting a doubt in H and M.

mauslyon

I fail to see why it makes sense for him to tip them off about the much larger intergalactic invasion when he just needs to send them on a wild goose chase to buy himself time for the last part of the plan. He amply demonstrates that he can fake anything about their background. Or simply not fake anything at all;they have no Hive contamination, and so they are just refugees from a dead planet. Instead, he fakes evidence that implicates his faction and is caught hiding that forgery.

Sammo

Maybe Stupidity is more appropriate.

mauslyon

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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

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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.

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Dark Phoenix picture

Plot hole: There are two timelines in the X-Men franchise - the original films and the prequels, up until Days of Future past, which alters the future, and at the end reveals that Jean Grey, Professor X and Cyclops are all alive, rather than dying as they did in X-Men 3. The "new" timeline is then followed in Apocalypse and this movie, giving them a bit of leeway to make changes, much like the new Star Trek movies. Only problem is...Jean Grey dies in this movie! So no way her older self can be around in DoFP.

Jon Sandys

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Suggested correction: I think you might have missed the final shot in the movie, when the camera pans up from Charles and Erik playing chess and the Phoenix firebird is shown flying across the sky/stratosphere, implying that, much like the Phoenix's legendary namesake, Jean had risen from the ashes so to speak. There is precedent for this in the comics, plus there were supposed to be more X-Men movies after this one until the Disney/Fox merger happened.

Phaneron

Yes, but she even said she evolved beyond earth, so that is basically saying that she died. Or she isn't on earth anymore.

This film takes place 30 years before the final scene in Days of Future Past. Anything could have happened during that time in which Jean Grey regained her humanity and returned to Earth. The force is called the Phoenix for a reason.

Phaneron

Suggested correction: Bryan Singer confirmed that the end of Days of Future Past with Jean Grey being alive is one of many timelines, there are more than 2 timelines in this universe, meaning that despite all the X-Men being alive in the future at the of Days of Future Past, they can still all die in other movies like in Logan and Dark Phoenix.

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Pokémon Detective Pikachu picture

Plot hole: After Pikachu and Mewtwo begin falling down, Tim is suddenly on the ground in a matter of seconds, with little to no time to arrive there. There are multiple stairs, and he does not have any Pokémon to help him get down. He couldn't have gotten to the ground that fast.

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Joker picture

Plot hole: Arthur's appearance on the talk show makes hardly any sense. The show is a close port of Johnny Carson's Tonight show, for a huge audience, and yet he receives no screening at all, they put him (someone NOBODY in the staff knows the first thing about) on the air literally without a clue of what he is gonna do or say, and wearing a highly controversial costume. And, when he murders Murray, it is implied that everyone was able to see him doing that right away and he is cut 'off the air' at some point, as if the show were really live, which is preposterous for this sort of program outside of specific events (similar to how in contemporary TV "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", is not live). Even earlier when Arthur opened the letter his mom addressed to Wayne, you could hear the end credits of "Live with Murray Franklin" with the announcer saying the show is "Taped live in front of a studio audience." (00:48:00)

Sammo

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Suggested correction: I don't see this is a problem due to the fact that we can't be sure what really happens as apposed to what only happens in Arthur's mind. So if the whole TV show appearance is just another fantasy, he would have skipped the who screening process.

You are free to treat the whole movie as something where things don't make sense because in the fan theory of your liking it's all meant to have subtle hints that the movie is all a fantasy, but the movie does not present that particular talk show scene as a dream sequence. It'd be silly to nitpick the logic in the scene when he is picked from the audience by Murray at the beginning because it's obviously presented as nothing more than his fantasy, but his appearance on the show is what the movie built up to up to that point and is not treated as a parenthesis where logic should be suspended, nor disproven like the scenes with his girlfriend standing in.

Sammo

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The Silence picture

Plot hole: Within only a few days, cults have formed looking for fertile women? Not remotely likely.

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Suggested correction: Exactly how is this not remotely likely in a fictitious horror film involving an outbreak situation (and state of emergency) that has never happened before. It's not a plot hole when irrational, terrified, or crazy people do irrational, terrifying, crazy things.

Bishop73

The plot hole is spot on, no way does society break down in total anarchy in just a few days, you're basically saying all law enforcement and military agencies will somehow cease to exist.

Not cease to exist, but certainly have other things to do than investigate a few random cults. Who'd to say they'd even know these cults have formed?

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Child's Play picture

Plot hole: Karen forbids her son from playing with Chucky, because he's spending too much time with it on top of it scaring the cat, and locks it up in a cabinet. The cabinet ends up broken (Chucky broke it but she does not know), the cat conveniently disappears (Chucky killed it but she does not know), but the mother is totally cool about it, the plot point is forgotten and Andy faces no punishment or questioning for it. Any mother would be alarmed and would make a big deal of it possibly even throwing the doll away (she does not care, she did not pay for it), but that sort of drama is delayed until much later in the movie, for no internal reason.

Sammo

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Gemini Man picture

Plot hole: While a tracker can certainly make it so that Junior knows where Brogan is at a given moment, it is impossible for Junior to know where exactly the plane is going to land and be lying in wait, with Brogan walking right past him. Junior would have to be well ahead of the plane in order to do that, and know exactly what direction Brogan would walk to cut him off and ambush him.

BaconIsMyBFF

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The Addams Family picture

Plot hole: Throughout the movie, the behaviour of the gate does not seem quite consistent; Gomez has to feed meat to it to distract it to let the camera crew out...but they came in just fine and on their own. Same for the angry mob at the end.

Sammo

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Stuber picture

Plot hole: The 'real' villain needs Vic to investigate the drop and be there, so he'd be killed in an incriminating spot. Problem is, the boss also throws in a deadly ambush by a whole gang early in the day; if they killed Vic, Vic would have not been where the boss needed him to be. Even more absurd is the fact that the boss is also aware in advance that Vic is having Lasik that day, making it the worst day ever to pick for such a scheme. There was basically no chance Vic could pull off the investigation in that state, and even in the unlikely (it does happen in the movie!) case that he'd manage to show up blind as a bat at the drug deal and get killed as intended, nobody investigating would ever believe that someone with a major drug deal on his hands would have gone through eye surgery the same day.

Sammo

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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood picture

Plot hole: Manson is able to walk right up to the Polanski residence door, but Sharon's girlfriend and Rick Dalton are prevented because there is a security gate.

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Synchronic picture

Plot hole: So when he travels through time whatever he has on him or with him or whatever he's holding goes back in time with him just like his dog or the wood. Now he's sitting on the rock drinking a beer and his friend is talking to him and all that's heard and seen is his beer bottle breaking on the rock when he disappears through time. Makes no sense for it to fall from his hand and break if he's in possession of it. The beer should've gone with him. (01:26:30 - 01:27:30)

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Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles picture

Plot hole: Joker douses everyone in Arkham with the Ooze mixed with the water sprinklers. One of the first ones to mutate is Mr. Freeze, despite wearing a suit and helmet that keep him hermetically sealed from the external environment at the 0 temperature he needs.

Sammo

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Alita: Battle Angel picture

Plot hole: Grewishka sneak-attacks Alita using his weapon from outside the window. How in the world was the hulking behemoth just standing outside the window without Alita noticing? He surely couldn't have tiptoed into that spot after she arrived, he makes a ruckus for every step he takes. (01:47:10)

Sammo

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Rim of the World picture

Plot hole: The girl in the basement of the JPL building comes across a locked door with a combination lock. She hits a few buttons and the door opens. There was no way she could know the combination. She is at JPL for the first time in her life and everybody - except her three friends she came with - is dead. (01:23:20)

toroscan

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