Plot hole: Gene's plot has far too many holes for it to have had any chance of working in real life. He somehow must get himself assigned to that particular flight (OK, maybe as a flight marshal he could persuade his superiors to assign him to it) - but also hope that the air stewardess Stephanie is also assigned to that flight - something he has no control over. He then needs to push Jodie Foster's husband off a building, hope the corpse is taken to the only morgue in the city with a crooked morgue director, hope the coffin is assigned to the flight he is on. On top of that, he needs to get explosives into a coffin, the combination of which he actually says he doesn't know. He also needs to hope no-one notices the child, the child doesn't make a noise while boarding, there are lots of spare seats on this inaugural flight, and that mother and daughter move to them.
Flightplan (2005)
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Directed by: Robert Schwentke
Starring: Sean Bean, Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Kate Beahan
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Flightplan stars Jodie Foster as a grieving widow and airplane engineer who boards a massive plane in Berlin along with her young daughter to take her deceased husband back to the U.S.A. What follows is a parental nightmare as, not only does her daughter disappear, but strangely no-one seems to have noticed the child and evidence suggests that she either doesn't exist or died. The mother's desperate search and infuriation at the mounting accusations that she might be insane lead to her being detained by an Air Marshall while alienating her from the flight crew and passengers. The plot gets even more convoluted and improbable, involving conspiracy, a ransom, hijacking and things best left for a Die Hard film. While Jodi Foster plays a thoroughly distressed but determined mother well, the rest of the characters seem half-realised and mostly just serve as plot devices. As the film nears the conclusion and the pieces of the dramatic puzzle fall into place, plot holes and utterly silly factual errors glare brighter than the runway lights on the Tarmac. OK for a Thriller/Mystery but a better written story with some attention to detail could have elevated this story to greater heights instead of leaving it circling on the runway.
Question: So no-one saw Jodie Foster bring her kid on the plane, I understand that. The plane was empty when the 2 of them boarded as they were the first to board. There wasn't anyone else on the plane and as soon as they got to their seats her little girl bent down on the floor to play with a toy, so I fully understand that no-one saw the girl. What I want to know, is how did the hijackers know she was going to be boarding first? Had she boarded much later with other passengers then SOMEONE would have seen the kid, and that would have totally foiled the plan. How could they have banked on her boarding first?
Chosen answer: He didn't know for sure, but he had a hunch. As far as he could tell she would arrive early to register the body for the U.S. and they would let her board the plane first (as a common courtesy, since her husband died) Plus, he knew that she had knowledge of planes and that it was her interest to see a new model of an aircraft that she helped build before it was to take off.
Jason Riley